Missy Bevers
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This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series Back in Crime. If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. He turned the gun straight at us and shot. Oh my God, the window went out. And the kid standing there with me, I think he got hit. Okay. Oh God. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.

In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.

Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

Today, I am discussing the case of Missy Beavers, whose murder rocked the small town of Midlothian, Texas in 2016 and caused an entire nation to be on the lookout for her killer after police released video clips of the person they believe may be responsible for her death. There are a few reasons I chose Missy's case. It was actually one of the first that I was ever just totally engulfed by.

When police released the videos of the suspect, I found myself going down a deep rabbit hole watching analysis after analysis of these videos. It seemed like everything was up for debate. What this person was wearing, their gender, how they were walking, were they injured? This is one of those cases that just consumed me. Then I got an email from a listener, shout out to Lauren, who asked me to cover Missy's case.

And when I went back to check to see if there had been any updates, I came across an article from 2018 about Missy's daughter Allison raising money for her mom's investigation. And that was it for me. I knew I wanted to cover her case and help raise awareness. Missy's case has had a lot of coverage, but the fact remains that her killer is still out there, and her family is still waiting for justice.

So this is the case of the murder of Missy Beavers. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Ibotta. Are you planning your dream vacation but dreading the cost? With Ibotta, you get cash back on all your purchases, so you can spend more time making memories and less time dreaming about them. Ibotta is a free app that lets you earn cash back every time you shop. You

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Just go to the App Store or Google Play Store and download the free Ibotta app to start earning cash back and use code CRIME. That's I-B-O-T-T-A in the Google Play Store or App Store, and use code CRIME. Missy was actually born Terry Leanne Strickland, but everyone called her Missy.

She was born on August 9, 1970, in the small town of Graham, Texas, to her parents James and Norma, and she grew up with her two brothers just 30 minutes away in Jacksboro, Texas, which was even smaller, with a population of about 3,500 people. According to those who knew her, Missy had always been a social butterfly and just genuinely enjoyed helping others.

She graduated from high school in 1988 and from college in 1995 with her bachelor's degree in science. After graduating from college, Missy worked retail. In 1998, she married Brandon Beavers and actually went back to school to get her teaching certificate and became a special education teacher at a local school.

But after the birth of their first daughter, Missy and Brandon decided that Missy would stop teaching and stay home with the baby. By 2007, they had three beautiful daughters. So Missy's focus during this time was just family and friends and taking care of her children and creating a solid foundation for them in their home in Midlothian, Texas. Midlothian is about 30 minutes south of Dallas and had a population of around 21,000 people in 2016.

From the mass amounts of pictures of Missy and her friends and family doing a million things in this community, and from diving deep into the Midlothian Police Department Facebook page, like you guys, I literally spent 30 minutes scrolling to the post from 2016 to find stuff about Missy. And I can tell you, Midlothian looks adorable. And the police seem to get more positive comments on their posts than a lot of other police departments I have seen on social media.

Except, of course, for the occasional comment demanding justice for Missy. But as the years go by, Missy's kids get older, they start going to school, and they just don't need as much of Missy's attention anymore. So understandably, Missy found herself wanting to do something outside of their home now that she had all this time on her hands without three small children running around.

So Missy became really interested in fitness. You can see it in her pictures and in her videos. She is sculpted. I mean, she just looks amazing.

So Missy combined her love of teaching, helping people, being a social butterfly, and fitness. She basically took everything that she was super passionate about and turned it into a new career, working for Camp Gladiator as one of their instructors. According to their website, Camp Gladiator is basically a workout camp that partners you with a personal trainer to create individualized workout programs through a series of classes.

And from what I could gather, a lot of the trainer's income depends on signing people up for these classes. So in an effort to market her services, Missy began posting pictures and videos centered around her working out and developed a pretty good following.

I was actually able to find a video of Missy that is still up on a public Instagram account that looks like it was designed just for her work with Camp Gladiator. Guys, these are called in and out burpees. So I'm going to demonstrate just a few. Tomorrow we do seven for the challenge. All right, here we go.

By all accounts, she was super passionate about making this new job work. She was posting a ton on social media. She went to one of those big training events. I saw a picture where it looked like she had a vendor booth at some type of expo to promote herself. She went all out.

And it seems like it worked. She had a lot of people that were fans of her classes, but she was more than just good at signing people up. She kept people coming back, and it seems like that is because she was actually helping them. And from what I've seen online, she really just cared for her students and was a genuinely kind person. So of course, people raved about her classes.

And I'm not just saying that, the show of support from what would happen to Missy from her students and fellow instructors was genuinely touching and you can tell that they really loved her. So at this point, her career with Camp Gladiator was pretty much in full swing and she was teaching classes multiple times a week.

On the night of April 17, 2016, Missy noticed that it was set to rain during the time of her usual 5 a.m. Sunday class at the Creekside Church of Christ. And this was an issue because her class was normally held outside, but that wasn't going to stop Missy. She made arrangements to move the class inside and posted a picture on Facebook that said it's raining, we're still training.

and she informs her students that there is shelter from the rain under the awning near the front of the church. At this time, Missy's husband Brandon was actually out of town on his much-anticipated annual fishing trip to Mississippi. So she texts him at about 7pm to tell him that she loves him and was thinking of him, and a few hours later, around 9pm, Brandon calls her. But according to Brandon, she was already kind of half-asleep, so it wasn't a very long conversation.

So Missy gets off the phone pretty quick and goes to bed to get some sleep for her 5 a.m. class the next day. Of course, Missy wakes up extremely early on the morning of Monday, April 18, 2016, to get herself ready, out the door, and in the church by 4.18 a.m. to set up for her class. By 4.35 a.m., her first student arrives.

To explain what happens next, I'm going to read directly from a statement I found in one of the many search warrants filed by police in this case. Quote, On April 18, 2016, at approximately 5.06 a.m., Midlothian police received a call of an unresponsive person at the Creekside Church of Christ.

The caller advised a female subject, later identified as the victim Terry Beavers, was at the location and was not breathing and was deceased. As first responders arrived on scene, they observed several exterior and internal doors with extensive damage to them, as well as broken glass throughout the inside of the church.

Investigators arrived on scene and were able to access the video surveillance recordings from within the church. Investigators reviewed the video of the incident, which shows a subject wearing a black helmet, black balaclava, dark pants, dark long-sleeve shirt, black gloves, and a black vest with police in white lettering on the front and back. The subject is seen walking through the building, holding a hammer, breaking windows, and going through offices.

At approximately 4.18 a.m., the victim Terry Beavers is observed entering the building through the main door under the awning area. The video shows Terry Beavers walking toward the suspect's location. Neither the suspect nor victim were seen again on video. The victim was later found deceased at the southwest corner of the interior of the building.

Terry Beavers had multiple puncture wounds found on her head and chest, and they are consistent with the tools the suspect was carrying throughout the building. End quote. The Midlothian police are on the scene in minutes and get right to work interviewing witnesses and pulling surveillance video. But despite Missy's students being on site possibly during or right after her murder, no one was able to identify the person inside of the church with her.

And by 4:30pm, the Midlothian Police Department issues a statement asking the public for their help. They describe the situation and add that they believe it might have been a burglary-gone-wrong type of situation. They also state that they are releasing photos and a video of the suspect. Unfortunately, none of the videos released have sound, and they are pretty grainy, so it's hard to make out details.

But this first video is 8 seconds long, and it shows the suspect doing something with their hands up near their right shoulder, and walking diagonally from one side of a large hallway to the other.

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Of course, Missy's husband Brandon gets the call and comes home as quickly as possible to speak with the police in person. And the next day, on April 19th, Missy's husband spoke to the media for over 20 minutes answering their questions. At first, I didn't really plan on playing all of this audio for you.

But after re-listening, I thought I would be doing Missy and her family a disservice to not play it in full. Obviously, the statement from the spouse of any murder victim is pretty important. But I also think Brandon, Missy's husband of about 20 years at this point, probably knows her pretty well, and I do think you learn a lot about Missy and the case from this interview.

I also think an interesting aspect in this case in general is the way it was reported on by members of the media. I encourage you to really listen to the questions they ask, and how in my opinion, they kind of coach Brandon along to keep giving statements.

He clearly asks for privacy and says he doesn't want to sensationalize the story, and he also seems clearly uncomfortable giving away too much case information, but you can hear him just kind of give in to that pressure, which is completely understandable and easy to do. Journalists are trained to get this information out of people, oftentimes thinking of their feelings after thinking of the story.

At least that's my opinion, but you can listen to the audio and judge for yourself. Well, I don't want to do interviews, okay? I just want to make a statement. Is that all right? Tell us what you want to say. Okay. Yeah, I don't... I said hang on, I'm having a problem with Kenneth. Yeah, let him get ready.

And y'all can funnel this up to the other media outlets, okay? Yes, sir. And I can be done with this, right? Yes, sir. Okay. We appreciate you coming out. We know it's got to be terribly difficult. And we're really just hoping you'll speak from your heart about your wife. And may we all just say we are sorry. We are sorry for your family's loss. I appreciate it. I haven't had a whole lot of time to, you know, talk.

I haven't had a lot of time to get emotional about this yet. I've been dealing with the immediate needs of my children. I mean, this morning I've had some... This morning I finally started thinking about the events that occurred yesterday morning. So, you know, I'm starting with that process today. You got it? Yes, sir. Thank you. Sorry about that, sir. The main purpose here today is...

is solely to communicate to the people in the community and to everybody watching and listening. My wife was a, she was a godly woman and she was a very, she was very passionate about changing people's lives with fitness and changing their mental attitude towards their body and themselves and their abilities in life. And, uh,

You know, personally, I haven't involved myself in a lot of what she does, but now that I'm seeing some of her campers, I've noticed a substantial impact that she's had on so many people's lives, and I'm very proud of her. And I just want it to be publicly known that we are very proud of all of the passion and effort that she's put into so many people's lives.

As far as the perpetrator, we don't, I don't know, we still don't know who he is. But I ask everybody out there to review the video. I think you can get the video on the Midlothian Police Department's Facebook website. Look at the video. The person has a very distinct walk. There's just a very distinct mannerism about this person that should be very apparent to somebody, okay?

I don't believe there was a vehicle there. This perpetrator, I don't know if he walked into the facility or if he got... We don't know how he arrived at the facility. But I'm just hoping that somebody either saw something or somebody can recognize the mannerisms of this person on the video. It's very important to us to get some closure with that. But at the same time, you know, I want to...

definitely publicized that my wife was a she was a great woman, a great wife, a great mother, a great friend. And she will be missed by many people. But please, please be diligent as you can and review the video and report anything to the Midlothian Police Department. And I appreciate your time.

Thank you. Thank you. I guess this is your last time. You're not going to speak again after this. Is that correct? I really don't. I mean, I don't want to, you know, in terms of obtaining a story to pull at heartstrings and stuff like that, I'm not looking here for the media to sensationalize a tragedy, okay?

We, my family needs, we need our privacy and that's why I wanted to do this in one time only. But we need our privacy. I haven't had a lot of sleep. I haven't had a lot of one on one time with my children. I just have some issues that I need to deal with on a personal level with my children. I want to reach out to the camp gladiator, the campers that she mentored and I want to talk to those folks.

and express my appreciation for their admiration of my wife. Okay? You do understand, sir, that we are here because we want to help the police catch whoever did this as well. Yes, yes. But as far as any one-on-one interview, tug-at-the-heart strings kind of stories, sensationalized stories,

I just know I'm not here for that. I don't think any of us are trying to sensationalize. I mean, your wife was a mother and a woman who touched so many lives through her work. Correct. You are correct. And that's why, I mean, we want to share her story. And you know that better than anyone. Correct. Correct. I mean, you knew her better than anyone, the kind of woman she was, the kind of mother she was. Well, I mean, she was a very good mother. She spent—I'll go a little further here—

When Missy, before we had children, Missy was a teacher, public school teacher. She worked with special needs children and she did that for about two years. And I could see the amount of outpouring in her soul to help needy people, okay? And especially at that time, it was special needs children. And then we had children. She stayed at home, raised our children.

And when she got back into the workforce or when time allowed her to do things for herself, she found Camp Gladiator. And through raising our three children, you know, she transformed into a different physically person, a mother. But she decided to become physically fit. And for a 40-some-odd-year-old mother of three, she was...

very fit and transformed on an unimaginable level. She was a, her body pretty well sold her abilities in transforming and helping other people. And, but she was very passionate about helping these people. And I would, I would catch some of her campers remarks on her Facebook page about how excited they were of the results that they've seen through her efforts. And, and,

and I'm proud of her. We're very proud of her. She meant a lot of things to a lot of people. What did she mean though to you as her husband? Well, she was a companion. We enjoyed fishing. We enjoyed going to the beach. We spent a lot of time at the ocean. We've been together for 20 years and

Over the 20 years, you know, our relationship evolved from this to that to this to that and and we've managed to keep it You know held together all this time But at this particular venture in our lives it opened up an opportunity for her to do something that was gratifying to herself rather than raising a family constantly driving kids around and

And she's just, like I said, the camp lady at her opportunity came up and... She was so well loved. Are you racking your brain to say who would want to hurt such a beautiful person? Yes. I mean, it's, you know, this world is full of evil people. I don't know, without going into any details that I've spoke with with law enforcement, I mean, yeah, we're talking about a senseless act here, okay?

Did you look at the video to see if you saw anybody, recognized anything about it? The same video that I watched, I watched on a continuous loop. It's the same video that you guys have already had access to. Click anything for you? Nothing clicks. I can't tell if the person is a man or a woman. The police estimate that he's about six foot tall. This person's six foot tall.

But if you look at the mannerisms of the person, how they walk, I mean, there's something very distinctive there that somebody has to be able to point this out. It seems to baffle the police department, like it baffles us as reporters, and it baffles the investigation why someone would break into the church wearing that, wearing a tactical police paraphernalia. Does that baffle you too, if someone wants justice? I don't think...

I don't know. There are some things that the police are looking into with respect to the timing of it and the arrival of my wife. The person wasn't in tactical gear. That wasn't tactical gear. That was a shoddy amount of clothing to look like some type of an enforcement officer. It wasn't tactical, real tactical clothing.

What did it look like to you? Well, I mean, from the video, as best I could tell, it looked like maybe motorcycle boots or some type of military-style boot. I couldn't tell the pants. It looked like some kind of flimsy, like, sweatpants or something. I couldn't really tell. But the jacket was just a...

police jacket, kind of a velour-looking police jacket, and I couldn't even identify the helmet. The person was wearing a helmet, and I couldn't identify whether it was a motorcycle helmet. I don't know if there is a motorcycle helmet

Avenue on that outfit or if it was a tactical Avenue because the helmet I couldn't tell what it was. Do you think someone wanted to hurt Missy in particular or this was? I do not know the answer to that. She posted on her Facebook that she was going to be there. Is that something that we have also looked into? Well, her the date, time and location of her camps are publicized. They're known.

Those times and schedules are already predetermined. It definitely sets up an opportunity for the unknown to happen, particularly since he arrives there early before anybody else does. But if you look at the video, and I don't know how much of the video the police has released, but if you look at the video, and from what I understand, the perpetrator came through the back door, okay?

and spent several minutes rummaging from room to room. If I'm not mistaken, he might have broke some glass in this room looking for something, broke some glass in this room looking for something, spent some time in the kitchen area. But by the time my wife arrived, I don't know of any video at that point, but according to the police, shortly after the altercation,

Needless to say, it's the opinion of the police department that the perpetrator didn't know the presence of my wife or that she was going to be there. I think my wife walked in on a robbery. And that's just an opinion. That's not fact. So you don't think she was targeted? And it's strictly my opinion. I don't think she was targeted.

And to the best of my knowledge, when my wife arrived, there was no other vehicle in the parking lot. And otherwise it would have obviously drawn, you know, my wife would have seen that. So as far as I know, and you have to confirm that with the police, there was no other vehicles on the property. But according to the timeline, the person arrived.

came into the building and left the crime scene before the other campers showed up. So was there another vehicle or did they have cameras outside that could confirm that? I don't know. When was the last time you spoke with her and were you guys in the habit of maybe texting? She'd go to these locations, you know where it would be dark and quiet. Well,

As far as communicating prior to her camps, no. I mean, she got there pretty early. Okay, so you hadn't heard from her that morning? No. Did you guys speak the night before? Yes. And did you say to her? Every day for the last 10 months, she has made it a point to text me at work that she loves me and have a good day, honey. When I finally arrived in Biloxi,

around 7:30, which was later than I was supposed to be there. You know, I spoke to her and she said goodnight and it was still about 8:00 o'clock and I called her anyway, probably around

9:00 or 9:30 to tell her I love her and she was already half asleep and that's the last time I spoke to her. That was on the phone? That was on the phone. Can you talk a little bit about her faith because her friends all say she was a woman of God, she really walked in her purpose. Can you talk a little bit about her? Missy sought out God's direction in every avenue of her life.

Here recently, she was actually reading a book that one of her, that the regional camp gladiators, her regional director gave to her. And it was about essentially a, you know, a purpose driven Christian woman. That's not the name of the book, but she read that thing from front to back. And I could sense her implementing. I didn't read the book. I didn't know what the contents were, but I could sense her implementing that.

you know, some of the things within that book in her life because it was, you know, very meaningful to her. We've been going to the cowboy church for about 15 years. We've raised our children there. We're not, you know, we're not cowboy people, but that church has been a...

the church and the members of that church have been some of the dearest friends that we've ever had and some of the best friends we've ever had in our lives. Now did your daughter sometime go to her go with her to camp? Yes, yes there was another camp that she conducted at 9 a.m on on different days of the week and my daughter would go with her uh

But not to this one at 5:00 in the morning? No. Okay. You mentioned you haven't had much time to talk with your children. Are you going to, I guess, that conference, do you just avoid, do you have to answer their questions? I mean, do you have to try and steer them into positive memories of mom? No. My two oldest children, my two oldest children are, they are completely aware of what has happened. My youngest one is not completely aware.

But, you know, we have talked about Missy's father. Missy's father passed away about a year and a half ago, and he's buried in Jacksboro. And I was talking to the girls about burying her mom possibly next to her father because Missy was a daddy's girl too. And the girls didn't feel comfortable burying

Being as it's that far away, so we opted to have her buried here locally so that they can, so she can be close. But we haven't, my two oldest girls, they're doing really well. You know, like I said, I haven't had a lot of one-on-one with them. I have, they've fortunately had a lot of friends coming by and they're in high spirits. But I know that, I know that, you know,

this one-on-one situation is going to occur. So, uh, and I'm, I'm ready for it. How old are your girls, sir? Um, 15, 13 and eight. Does it mean a lot to you that the last thing you said to your wife, I know you said she was half asleep, but you told her that you loved her. I know you were out of state for this trip and then you were able to communicate with her. I guess, do you think back, is that a blessing to you that you were able to tell her how much she meant to you? Well, fortunately for me, we communicated that every day. And, um,

It was, it was, uh, she, she, she texted me every day and said, I love you, honey. I hope you have a good day. I've been having a lot of health problems here the last six months. And, uh, but she has gone, uh, she has, I know that she has devoted quite a bit of time and energy into her camp gladiator thing. And, uh,

She has made it a point every day when I show up to work, I receive a text about the same time. I love you, honey. I hope you have a good day. She was an exceptional wife. Who do you go from here? I don't know. I really don't know. It's just one day at a time right now. I know that fully relying on God through prayer and connection with my church family

That's the most, that's very important right now. In my immediate family here that's taking care of my kids and but after, I mean, outside of that, it's just, you know, day by day. Is it real yet? No, it's not real yet. No, it's not. Is it real for a camera crew to be sitting in my driveway? No.

I guess perhaps the last thing I know you've spoken, for those who didn't know Missy, never had the opportunity to take a class with her, or didn't know her from church, strangers, what do you want them to remember about her? Especially as this investigation goes on and police are relying on tips and helping the public, what should people keep in mind most about Missy? I would have to say that Missy is unlike most people, is unlike any other spouse, wife, friend, mother, family.

You know, when you lose a loved one, you know, all of those things fall into place. I don't know how to properly answer that question, but all of you people here, you have kids, you're married. I mean, you're, you know, I know you're here for a story, but, you know. It is not lost on us either.

We are sorry. Thank you. Will you say and spell your name for us, please? Brandon Beavers, B-R-A-N-D-O-N. Last name Beavers, B-E-V-E-R-S.

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On the same day as Brandon's statement, the Midlothian Police Department confirms that they cannot determine the gender of the suspect. And they release an extended version of the surveillance video. This time, it's 20 seconds long. In this video, you see the suspect enter the frame from the left bottom corner of the screen, and they are headed down a different hallway than we saw in the first video.

They walk towards a set of double doors, but they are Dutch doors, meaning that they are divided in half horizontally, so the bottom can remain closed while the top stays open. It's the type of door you usually see in daycares or play centers to keep kids from leaving the area.

So the suspect walks up to this door, hammer in hand, and proceeds to open the bottom half of the right door and then the top half before walking in for like half a second and proceeding down the hallway. And then the video ends.

The way the suspect walks and is kind of looking around the area makes me believe that they don't really know where they're going or what's in these rooms. It also looks like they are actively searching for something or someone. But that is just my opinion. So a few days go by and the police are just pouring through the mass amounts of leads and tips that are coming in after posting those videos.

And then, on April 22nd, so four days after Missy was murdered, something happens that sparks a lot of controversy and conversation in this case. For the life of me, I could not bring myself to tell you about this in a sensational way, especially given that we just listened to Brandon's cries to not sensationalize this story.

So after hearing about Missy's murder, Brandon's father and wife, I couldn't find if this is Brandon's mother or stepmother, but they went to go stay with Brandon's sister to be there for Brandon and his daughters. They also brought their beloved chihuahua Kilo with them, and Kilo gets into a fight with Randy's daughter's much larger dog. Everyone tries to break up the fight, but unfortunately, Kilo ended up succumbing to his injuries and passing away.

Obviously, it's very sad, but while breaking up the fight, both Randy and his wife got blood on their shirts. So around 10am on the 22nd, Randy goes to the dry clean supercenter of Midlothian. Now this happens to be the same dry cleaner that Missy has used in the past. And Randy brings them four shirts. Three men's XXL shirts and one women's XXL shirt.

And Randy is very upfront with the dry cleaner, saying that they got animal blood on the shirt, explaining the fight, and asking for their help in cleaning it. But something about this doesn't sit right with the employees at the dry cleaner. They realize that Randy is definitely related to Missy, and obviously Missy's suspected killer is all over the news. So they do the right thing, albeit a little late, and call the police at 1.50 p.m.,

They say, hey, this guy dropped off these shirts saying it was animal blood, but it looks like someone attempted to clean the blood before bringing them in. And the Midlothian police jump on this and get a search warrant, but for whatever reason, they decide to seize just the women's shirt with blood on it, leaving the men's shirt with blood on it with the dry cleaner to presumably be cleaned.

And they obviously want to talk to Randy about it. So Randy and Brandon go down to the police station to discuss the shirts and tell them about the fight with the dogs. But while all of this is happening, the word about the shirts must have gotten out. Because when Brandon and Randy walk outside of the police station, there are reporters waiting for them.

A few different news outlets have published video snippets from this kind of impromptu press conference they held. And even though this clip I'm about to play for you jumps right into a live stream while Brandon is discussing some pretty critical details about verifying that he was in fact out of town when Missy was murdered, it is the most complete clip I could find.

So the audio will just jump in mid-sentence with Brandon, switch to Randy who has a higher pitched voice, and then go back to Brandon again. So let's listen to this clip from CBS Dallas Fort Worth News, and then we will break it down. They had everything. They had my flight tickets, the rental car that we rented in Gulfport, Mississippi. Matter of fact, when I pulled into my driveway...

Monday at 3 p.m., I was in a car with Mississippi plates on. And I mean, all of that's a non-issue. The minor thing, the dry cleaner had your shirt listed as a woman's XXL shirt. Just a mistake. The what? The dry cleaner listed your shirt with the bloodstains on it as a woman's. Well, my wife's white shirt had bloodstains on it, too. So both of us

Had blood stains on her shirt and mine. So I'm going to cause it, you know. So there are two shirts of blood on it? Yeah. The one on this one, where's the other shirt? The dry cleaner's. So the dry cleaner calls and says there's blood on it? I don't know what the dry cleaner, I don't know the conversation between the cleaners and the police station. Okay, I don't know that conversation. So you're saying there's blood on two shirts? There's two shirts that's got blood on it. Okay. I thought I said that, yeah.

And then, Randy, even though it's brought you this attention, would you say that you're glad that they're looking so closely at all of this? You better believe it. You better believe it. You better believe it. If they weren't, they wouldn't be doing their job. Okay, so by them doing this, it tells me that they're being diligent and doing their job on any tiny little whatever comes across that's being looked at. And it should be.

So that's great. Do you have a photo of that Chihuahua? I know I keep a lot of photos of my dogs on the phone. No. My wife would have one. I don't have one. But it's just a little. That dog was her. That dog was a very precious animal to her. Yeah, it was. When's his or her name? Kilo. Kilo. Kilo. Kilo. Can you get your wife to email us a picture of the dog? Well, we'll see. All right.

Did you guys talk about anything else with the investigators other than the shirt and the dog today? Not really. We've been just sitting there waiting for you guys to show up. And I know, Brandon, you've talked with investigators several times. You continue to do that clearly. How many times would you say you've talked with them? Yeah, of course. I've only had one formal interview that was in an early stage of the game, but I

And they call me periodically and I call them periodically because I think of, uh, I think of certain things that I want to make sure that they're looking into. Uh, I even called them today and I was like, you need to look into this Avenue. You need to look at this. And in, in 90% of the cases they've already done. So, but it's, you know, I'm, I sit and I think about, uh, about catching this person. And I think I just role play in my mind, uh,

any possible leads that I can give. But in 90% of the times that I've reached out to them to provide them this information, they've already gone down the avenue. And I know when we talked with you last, you said that you believe she had walked in on a burglary. I need to clarify that. When I came up here to review, now you got to remember, was that on Tuesday or Monday when I gave that statement? I want to say it was Tuesday. Okay. You got to remember...

No sleep, I'm in poor, I'm in bad health. And no, I do not believe that she was, I believe that she was targeted. Okay, that's my opinion. That's not any information that anybody provided me, but I believe she was targeted. For what reason? Yeah, for why? Evidence, for reasons of evidence, I'm not gonna say that. But there's no reason,

There's no reason if a person, you have to ask yourself, if a person is going to break into a church, what are they going to take? What are they there to steal? AV equipment? I work in a church. Some of the most expensive equipment in a church is AV equipment or money from tithings from the previous day. Okay, those are the two things.

First, let's talk about what Brandon said. So of course, one of the most important things that we hear in this clip is that Brandon is like, hey, I've confirmed my alibi, the police have my plane ticket, my rental car information, and I literally drove up to my house in a car with a Mississippi license plate. He also states that he no longer believes that Missy may have walked in on a burglary in progress, and now believes that she was the victim of a targeted attack.

Unfortunately, the audio does cut off, but Brandon also discusses what the suspect would be at the church to steal in the first place, and it turns out that nothing was taken.

So this tells us that the suspect entered the church before 4am in the morning with the intent to vandalize the property, or for whatever reason got angry and began vandalizing the church and just happened upon Missy and killed her, or that she really was targeted by someone who got into the church super early in the morning to wait specifically for Missy.

Next, let's talk about Randy. In my opinion, he seems pretty forthcoming about what happened. He's even like, "I didn't just bring in one shirt with blood on it, I brought in two. And I'm glad that they called us in, I'm glad they got the warrant, that's exactly what they should be doing." And the reporters are like, "Do you have a picture of the dog? Can you get a picture of the dog? What's the dog's name?" I mean, people just went after Randy.

And in his defense, the police confirmed his story with the vet immediately, and tests would later confirm that the blood was from an animal, just like Randy said. I get that I should be happy that these reporters are trying to get to the bottom of this, just like the police.

It just seemed really aggressive, and the way it was reported on only sparked that same aggression from people watching this story unfold. Especially as people began to compare this video of Randy at the police station and the way he was walking to the video of the suspect walking. It's at this point that many people started to believe that they walk in a similar fashion with a similar gait, and they began pointing fingers at Randy.

This day seems to have really been the tipping point in the media really just going crazy over Missy's case. In addition to this whole bloody shirt situation, the Midlothian Police Department addressed the public again. They also released a timeline of events and released the longest surveillance video to date at 2 minutes and 27 seconds.

There is so much happening at this point, so let's just start with part of that press conference. That being said, I have a few minutes for questions. Have you identified any suspects or persons that have been arrested? We're working through a list right now. We haven't included or excluded anybody necessarily. Are you closer to a motive? Was it verbally? We are not getting closer to.

The suspect in that video is carrying something in his latest clip. Do you know what that is? That's correct, and I think we previously indicated that there were some various tools found around the crime scene that were analyzing it. Do you believe it was the murder weapon?

I'm not going to speculate just yet. We don't know. So I'm not going to release that information as to the specifics of how Ms. B could die. You released that new video. If it's new, what do you want the community looking at in that new video? It's just additional footage of the suspect moving around within the church. Just hoping that somebody will see something that piques their interest and spurs their memory so that they make a connection to somebody that they know and they can realize that feeling. What door are they swinging at?

It's a door with inside the church that went to one of the interior rooms. Did you see that room that you think that person might have been? No, we don't yet understand all of the movement within the church. We haven't explored that. Because it looks like the person was in there about a half an hour. Do you know what they were doing during that time?

We do, and the videos that we've released and the additional video reflect most of the behavior that we know about that took place inside the church. Those search warrants that were executed, were they church personnel or were they family members? Well, I'm aware of one affidavit that's been released to the public, and that was for the search of Missy's truck.

You know, I want to emphasize that we're working through an investigative checklist as we would in any case, as any police agency would in any murder investigation. Any time we're going to conduct a search, particularly if it's a C-1C, we're going to apply for a case search. Can you explain why some of the cameras were not working? Yeah.

We have some technological issues there at the church that cause some of the videos to activate. So you don't think the suspect sabotaged it? We haven't confirmed whether that's a place or not. By the minor reasons that we've got, the spiritual world,

Did you confirm that it's a woman, it's a man? I can't, and I'm glad you asked because there's been a lot of speculation and rumors about that. So let me make sure that that's clear. In our initial press conference, we inadvertently...

floated the assumption that the suspect was a he because the word he in that press release. That is not intended to reflect any kind of a specific belief on our part. It was intended to be a neutral term and it clearly wasn't. We corrected that as quickly as we could. At no time, nor at this time, have we definitively answered the question of whether the suspect was a man or a woman. Do you have any reason to believe there may be more than one suspect?

At this point everything is on the table. We simply don't know. I mean all we know is that we won't find the people responsible whether it's one person, two persons, three persons, the family. Chief, can you talk about in terms of the tips that you've been getting, can you characterize whether they've been helpful or can you talk in general about those kinds of leads? Sure, thank you. We've received hundreds of tips from across the state, across the country, within our own community.

The vast majority of those complaints, the vast majority of emails, the vast majority of Facebook commentary and Facebook messages to our department are opinions as to the gender and opinions as to the gait, what that may indicate from a just a common sense observation standpoint. We have received some...

Some tips that we feel like are actionable, we're jumping on those as quickly as we can. Have you been able to confirm that her husband was in fact in Reluxy, Mississippi at the time of the murder? We're taking steps and working closer to an absolute confirmation, but so far the husband has been completely confirmed. Can you talk about being overwhelmed by the attention he gets?

It's a small department, what's the importance? It is overwhelming, you know, and while I don't want to discourage, you know, small tips, I can say at this point any more opinions or speculations as to gender or opinions or uninformed opinions about the gait or the potential injuries or potential maladies that the suspect may suffer from aren't particularly helpful. Having said that, reiterate, I don't want to discourage the tips.

Hoping that somebody has some specific information that cues their memory. But as far as speculation, tips, our opinions, at this point they're not particularly helpful. How riskless is this community since this crime happened? I can tell you that if we had indication that made us feel strongly that the community was at further risk, we would take steps to reduce that to the best that we can.

Obviously the killer is still out there, we're well aware of that. I'm sure that everybody's concerned with the mutants hurting. Everybody just wants Mrs. Diller to be caught. Do you believe the suspect is still in the area or how wide is the net in terms of looking for this person?

I don't know that it would be wise to comment on how wide a net we're casting in the investigation. We still want to get any information out that might jeopardize the investigation subsequently. I can tell you we're casting a wide net. We're casting it everywhere where we think we might possibly recover. What is the ATF's fault? Well, with the attention that the case has gotten, we've had a lot of offers of support from our law enforcement partners. We've taken up every offer that we've received. Who are you?

So we're working with some local municipal agencies. We're working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the ATF, and the U.S. Marshal. Why is the FBI involved? Because they offered to help and we needed to help. They have a large amount of resources to help better manage all the information and investigative efforts. We felt like we needed that to help focus the investigation, and so it's not there.

I have a time for a few more questions. The SWAT looking gear that the suspect is wearing, as far as you guys can tell, is it authentic or does it look like... It's hard to say. There's been some reference to the gear as police garb, SWAT garb, riot gear. I don't know which term best categorize, but describe the equipment that's worn. It's not the best video.

So far, that hasn't led us to any specific leads. You mentioned that you have a list of suspects. What can you tell us about that list of suspects that you have? You know, as we would in any investigation where we don't have a strong suspect from the beginning, we have a list of people, some names have been put before us that we're not discounting. We're working every day. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. Y'all have a good afternoon. So we learn that they are partnering with outside organizations, issuing search warrants, and still asking the public for help.

So they release the last and longest clip from that original surveillance video from the church. The suspect is again in another hallway or possibly the other end of the same very long looking hallway from the 22nd video.

They walk out of frame and it cuts to another camera, where we see the suspect holding what appears to be a hammer. They open a door, linger there for a second, and walk to the next door. But this door is locked, so the suspect uses again what looks like a hammer and possibly another tool to try to open the door. But they aren't able to get it open.

So they turn towards the camera and their hands go to their shoulder. It looks like they might have been adjusting some part of their clothing or putting something away in some type of pocket. Then they walk diagonally towards the camera and again out of frame.

And this is actually the 22nd video that they released prior. They open the Dutch door and look in, but now we see them walking back towards the camera, back out of frame, and into another hallway where they take their hammer and begin smashing what I assume is glass from either a window or a door. They are partially out of frame, so it's hard to see. And then the video just ends.

Despite there not being a lot of action in this video outside of the window smashing or glass smashing, whatever they were smashing, I get why they released this longer version. I feel like in this video you can really see how the person walks. And I am by no means an expert, but there is something about that walk. I feel like this person either walks with their feet slightly turned outwards or they're wearing shoes that are too big for them.

Many people have speculated that it looks like that person might have been injured and is kind of limping, but that's not what it looks like to me. Especially because when they are sitting at that locked door trying to get it open, they shift their weight from one leg to the other leg with ease, like you kind of do naturally when you have your keys in your hand at your front door and you're trying to find the key and get it in there, you just kind of shift your weight. Or at least I do.

To me, it just looked like they were putting weight equally on each leg. But I definitely encourage you to check out the Midlothian Police Department's YouTube channel for yourself and watch these videos, because I could never explain every nuance. And like the police said, the more eyes, the better.

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So it's been about a week since Missy's been killed at this point, and people are all over this, watching and sharing this video and speculating about what could have happened to Missy. Who was waiting for her and why? And then the media frenzy got even worse when a lot of information started coming out through a ton of search warrants and data requests from the Midlothian Police Department.

There are quite a few, so let's break down everything the Midlothian Police Department tried to get access to.

First, of course, they got Missy and Brandon's electronics, including Missy's phone and iPad. They also asked AT&T for a complete tower dump so they can see every single person in a five-mile radius of the church with a cell phone between 3 and 5 a.m. on April 18th. They also write a warrant for the social media platform LinkedIn.

According to the warrants and emergency data request, they wanted to get access to Missy's messages. Missy received a message from a man that she didn't know that her friend described as being creepy. In addition to this one-off message, Missy was also having conversations with a man in the last few months before her death that were considered to be of a flirtatious manner.

None of these messages have been released to the public, and as far as I know, the man that she was speaking with hasn't made any statements either. So we know almost nothing about these messages other than these vague descriptions. In addition to the electronic devices and messages on LinkedIn, they got access to the phone records of nine people they refer to as quote, target numbers.

The document I got had the first name of each person redacted, but we know that at least four of the nine target numbers were people with the last name Beavers.

In this warrant, the police wrote, quote, End quote.

Needless to say, when these documents went public, people went absolutely crazy over this. Brandon even came out and made a statement that what he and his wife went through personally in their marriage happens to 80% of married couples and that they were happy and working through their issues. But of course, people are still racking their brains over this. Could Missy have been murdered in relation to whatever this intimate-slash-personal relationship external to the marriage was?

I think it's a valid theory that a scorned lover on either side could be to blame. But a lot of people kind of just assumed that Missy cheated on Brandon because of the description of these flirty messages.

But the documents don't state that, and again, we have no idea what these messages actually said. So I am hesitant to point any fingers. And Brandon stated that for the last year or so, they were making an effort to better express their love to each other. So no matter what happened there, this is a 20-year marriage. Every couple has issues, and it seems like they were working on it.

On top of that, Brandon's alibi checks out. I mean, he was 600 miles away when Missy was murdered. And I've seen statements from Missy's daughters about how they get terrible messages on social media about how their dad killed their mom, so I just want to squash that right here. And any theory that Brandon might have orchestrated this murder was also squashed a few weeks later when police publicly stated that all family members have been eliminated as possible suspects.

So Randy and Brandon are officially not considered suspects, but they have a new lead that they want to follow up on. A surveillance video from just hours before Missy was murdered surfaces. This video comes from SWFA Outdoors, which is literally right down the street from the church. You can see it from their windows.

This video shows a lightly colored, possibly silver, Nissan Altima from the year 2010 to 2012, and it's kind of just circling the parking lot, and then it stops, the driver turns off the lights, and then continues circling. Unfortunately, they weren't able to make out the license plate from the video, and it looks like the driver has not been identified to this day.

At this point, SWFA Outdoors offers an additional $10,000 to the reward for information leading to the arrest of Missy's killer. And this appears to be the last major lead in the case. As time went on, the media got less intense and Brandon stopped giving as many interviews. But in one of the last I could find, they did ask him who they thought could have killed his wife, and he says that he honestly doesn't know.

So again, with burglary being ruled out and given the fact that the suspect arrived before Missy, it seems that the only possibilities are that either this person broke into the church to walk around and cause chaos and killed Missy randomly, or the popular opinion that someone knew exactly when Missy was supposed to teach her class at the church and waited for her to get there with the intention of murdering her.

But of course, the question remains, who would do something like this? The Midlothian Police Department has been pretty limited on the information released in this case, but they continue to get tips and the community is hopeful that her killer will be found.

The police even received two anonymous donations of $15,000 apiece, putting the new total for the reward for information at $50,000. And of course, there is still so much hope to find a resolution for Missy and her family. In 2018, a new detective was assigned to the case, and that's when Missy's daughter Allison raised and sold a pig at auction to help fund the police department's investigation.

And she actually made $15,000 when a local women's group pulled together to buy the pig. There's a video on YouTube of them all hugging Allison and it will absolutely make you cry. I am about to cry right now just talking about it. And the Midlothian Police also released an official statement about it. Quote, We at the Midlothian Police Department are very proud of Allison Beavers and the efforts that led to her success at the Ellis County Expo.

We know that Allison's efforts are deeply personal, and we will support her in any way possible. We have not discussed how the funds could be used, but we have high hopes that they are used in a way that brings Allison and her family a sense of accomplishment." And even in September of 2020, Ellis County Crime Stoppers and the podcast True Crime Broads raised money for a billboard for Missy that ran through December.

There are so many people that still care about finding an answer for Missy and her family, and I really wanted to be a part of this renewed effort. Because someone knows something. Someone knows who the person in that video is, the walk, the clothing, the 3:50am trip out of the house. And someone has to know who was in the Nissan that early in the morning on a Monday.

People talk. I just hope the right person finally comes forward with information. Until then, we can do our best to help Missy and her family by sharing the video of the suspect in the church. I will have this linked in the description and on social media, but you can also go directly to the Midlothian Police Department's YouTube channel, which is pretty much just dedicated to Missy's case at this point.

My thoughts are with the Beavers family, and I truly hope for a resolution. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

Voices for Justice is hosted, produced, and edited by me, Sarah Turney. For more information about the podcast or to submit a case you'd like me to cover, visit VoicesForJusticePodcast.com. And for even more content, you can join the Patreon family for just $5 a month at Patreon.com slash VoicesForJustice.