In the weeks since “Dog the Bounty Hunter” star Beth Chapman sadly passed away from cancer, her extended family has been really open with fans about how tough it was to lose her. Many members of the Chapman family, quite a few of whom have been featured on various reality shows alongside Duane (Dog) and Beth, have taken to social media to express various messages of love or admiration for their lost matriarch.
Today Jamie Chapman, Beth’s daughter-in-law by way of Jamie’s marriage to her Leland Chapman, posted a sweet photo of Beth wearing a jacket with a patch of a cartoon version of Dog on the sleeve. “She will always remain his biggest fan,” Jamie captioned the photo.
Fans were quick to comment to agree and share love and well-wishes for the whole Chapman clan.
“Yes I know he [sic] will their love was like nothing else I have ever seen[.] I pray for dog all the time and the family[;] you are such a beautiful family and I’m so sorry y’all lost a beautiful woman,” wrote one user named Kimberly.
“She was! And [their] love was incredible, a fairy tale that only people can dream of. Praying for all of you. She was a strong, beautiful woman,” wrote another named Erika.
Jamie has posted several sweet odes to her mother-in-law over the past few weeks, including a card that she received from Beth for Mother’s Day this year. The card had a heart-warming, hand-written message from Beth inside it, where the reality star expressed her gratitude that Leland had found love in Jamie.
Leland (left) and Jamie Chapman (second left) spent some time with Dog and Beth over Mother’s Day weekend this year.
“This card means the world to me in ways no one will understand…but she does,” Jamie wrote in the caption for the photo of the card. Shortly after Beth’s passing on June 26, Jamie shared another memory she has of Beth where she acknowledged that Beth welcomed her into the Chapman family with some “tough love.”
“As we know, sometimes when Mrs. C shows tough love, she can throw in a few extra punches just for good measure,” Jamie wrote in the caption for that photo. “Through it all, she still told me I had a place in this family and I didn’t need to fight for it. I needed that. And in this moment I realized how much I was going to need her in my life.”
Jamie also posted a photo of her with her sister-in-law Bonnie Chapman to her Instagram story Friday, along with the caption “My sweet sister in law.” Bonnie has also been regularly posting photos of her mom with sweet messages, and was recently quite taken aback when one fan suggested she wasn’t actually Beth’s daughter, but was instead a granddaughter. The rumor upset Bonnie, as she said she doesn’t want any publication reducing the beautiful relationship she had with her mother.
Jamie Chapman posted this photo of she and Bonnie with the caption, “My sweet sister-in-law.”
Beth had been struggling with cancer for a while, and her bravery and candor in the face of the disease was really inspirational to a lot of fans. Beth even continued to film she and Dog’s new reality show, “Dog’s Most Wanted,” as her disease continued to progress earlier in the year. Beth was first diagnosed with throat cancer in September of 2017 — she underwent treatment and was declared cancer-free a few months later. But at the end of 2018, her cancer had come back, and this time it had progressed and spread to her lungs.
Beth was really candid with fans about the ups and downs of facing cancer in the public eye — and she tried to keep a positive attitude throughout the whole ordeal. She also told fans that she considered her diagnoses “the ultimate test of faith,” as Beth was a devoted Christian.
The Chapman family invited the public to witness Beth’s final send-off, a funeral held on Saturday in Aurora, Colorado. During the event, Dog gave a heart-wrenching speech about how even though he lost his beloved partner of nearly three decades, she will never really be gone for him.
"I never felt like this. She will never be dead to me. She is in another place,” Dog said. “I'm gonna get to heaven and make her so proud. She's gonna say like she said here, 'That's my man right there, that's big daddy right there.’"
