Fixed Joint Issue with OnTriggerStay()

Hi all! I'm hoping someone can quickly see the error in my scripting because this is driving me nuts.

I have a vehicle with a tractor beam to pick up and drop rigid body game objects. I'm using the fixed joint component to do the parenting of the rigid bodies. I can turn on my tractor beam and pick things up but when I toggle off the tractor beam off, the lines of script that would destroy the fixed joint and let the attached object go don't ever seem to execute. I can see the variable to toggle the tractor beam on and off is working but the
else if(tractorBeamToggle.tractorBeamOn == false) doesn't get the news.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Here's the entire script.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class FixedJointKepressTwo : MonoBehaviour
{
//variables to check variable in player script
public GameObject player;
private ship_Movement tractorBeamToggle; //there is a bool that is in ship movement script to indicate whether the tractor beam is on/off.

public Rigidbody tractorBeam;
public FixedJoint fixedJoint;


void Start ()
{

fixedJoint = gameObject.AddComponent<FixedJoint> ();//Creating the fixed joint component
tractorBeamToggle = player.GetComponent<ship_Movement>(); //Create the reference to the ship_Movement script which has the tractor beam toggle variable

}

void FixedUpdate()
{
if (fixedJoint == null)
{
CreateNewFixedJoint(); //to recreate the fixed joint that is destroyed theoretically when I turn the tractor beam off.

}

}

void OnTriggerStay(Collider other)
{

if (other.collider.tag == "TractorBeam") //only want object to connect to the tractor beam object
{
Debug.Log ("Touching the tractor beam");

if(tractorBeamToggle.tractorBeamOn == true)
{
fixedJoint.connectedBody = tractorBeam; //connect fixed joint to object stored in tractorBeam.
}

else if(tractorBeamToggle.tractorBeamOn == false)//this is the problem here. This never seems to execute if I've already connected the cargo to the tractor beam. I can't release the cargo ever.
{
Debug.Log ("Not going to attach anything here");
Destroy (fixedJoint);

}

}
}


void CreateNewFixedJoint()
{
fixedJoint = gameObject.AddComponent<FixedJoint> ();//Creating a new fixed joint component
}
}