Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 11 yr-old girl kidnapped, murdered at slumber party; killer to walk free? Plus, exercise mom killer still at large

Episode Date: April 20, 2018

Joseph Smith was sentenced to death for raping and murdering Carlie Brucia after kidnapping the 11-year-old girl from a Florida car wash in 2004. Florida's high court has overturned the death sentence and ordered a new sentencing trial for Smith. Nancy Grace is outraged and discusses the case with Marc Klaas, criminal lawyer Brian Claypool, lawyer and psychologist Dr. Brian Russell, and WFLA-TV reporter Meredyth Censullo. Two years have passed since Texas mom Missy Bevers was beaten to death inside a church by a killer dressed in makeshift SWAT gear. Midlothian, Texas, police have no suspect despite security camera video of the killer at the crime scene. Grace updates the probe with radio host David Mack and Crime Stories co-host Alan Duke. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph, Channel 132. A little girl just 11 years old goes to a spend the night party with her little best friend girl just about a block and a half from home. She's walking home the next morning to her family home to her corner and turning right, she cuts across the lot of a local car wash, and she is never seen alive again. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. very upsetting turn of events. The murderer, the man that approached 11-year-old Carly in that car wash parking lot and takes her away, brutally rapes, beats, and kills her. Her body is found half naked, naked from the waist down.

She's wearing one sock and her body has been thrown into a wooded area behind a local church. He may very well walk free. Why? Because appellate courts have ruled that when a jury in Florida sentenced him to the death penalty in a 10-2 vote, that wasn't good enough. They had found unanimously that he was guilty in Carly's murder. But two people held out on the death penalty, 10 voted for it, and he was sentenced to death. He's been languishing on death row all this time,

writing dozens of appeals that have all been turned down until finally he strikes pay dirt. With me, an all-star panel. First and foremost, founder of Class Kids Foundation, Mark Klass, tireless advocate for crime victims after his daughter Polly was kidnapped and murdered many years ago. Meredith Censulo joining us on the scene, WFLA. Brian Russell, host of Investigation Discovery's hit show Fatal Vows, and high-profile defense attorney out of California, Brian Claypool, who has practiced often in the Florida justice system. Out to Meredith Censulo, WFLA.

The day that Carly goes missing, the day that she is assaulted, beaten, and murdered, I don't have to do a lot of digging because it's caught on camera. It is caught on video as we see her killer, a guy with a long criminal history, Joseph Smith, then 37 years old. He had been arrested many times, convicted many times, an unemployed car mechanic, drug user. Currently, had just had a violation of his probation and was released just in time to abduct carly he's seen on camera taking her taking her by the arm and taking her out of the parking lot

so what happened how was her body found well her body was found behind a church area as you've mentioned she was mostly nude as she had been strangled with some type of cord. There was obvious signs that she had tried to defend herself, but was not able to. There was signs of a sexual assault. At first, Joseph Smith just didn't want to confess to this, but they were able to find her little body about five days after she went missing. And as you've mentioned, that now famous surveillance tape really, it's just so sad to look back at it. I, in fact, revisited it today just to take another look. And you see this last moment where that man, Joseph Smith, approached Carly and appeared to have a conversation with her and then grabbed her hand and led her away. And that's the last time that she was seen. Past a chain link fence in a wooded area behind a local church, investigators find 11-year-old Carly. It was early on Friday,

but hours later, cops charge Joe P. Smith, a 37-year-old auto mechanic with a long criminal record with first-degree murder and kidnapping, and vowed that day that they will seek the death penalty. Tips were phoned in to investigators by people who recognized him from the surveillance video. That video had caught Carly's actual abduction behind a car wash on Sunday. As Meredith and Shot just told you at first he refuses to talk, but he confided in somebody and that somebody led police to the body just three miles from the car wash. How she was tortured, how she was actually killed remained a mystery for quite some time. She lived a short distance away from the sleepover. With me, Mark Klass of Klass Kids Foundation. Mark, Polly, your daughter was having a sleepover the night that she went missing, but in her mom's home, right? Yes, Nancy. This whole conversation is making me numb.

If anybody on the face of the earth deserves a death penalty, it would be a recidivist violent offender that abducts and tortures and murders a tiny little girl. And I think the lesson here that we all have to understand is that it doesn't matter how well prepared children are, they've got no chance against a determined predator. And that's exactly what we see in this situation. She didn't want to go with him. There's no question about that. But he had his way. He was determined. And the idea that he may be getting off of death row, or that he has gotten off of death row and needs to have another hearing is a travesty of justice. It was about 6.15 p.m. that Sunday evening, still daylight hours, very, I mean, if you see the video,

it looks like it's high noon. It was that Sunday afternoon. She's leaving her little friend's house after a sleepover, headed for home, less than a mile away. Officials, police say a security camera behind the car wash spots a yellow Buick station wagon driven into the parking lot just three minutes before Carly is kidnapped. Obviously, Smith saw Carly walking home through the parking lot and pulled his vehicle to the back to conceal what he was doing to approach Carly. But then at 621, that camera catches him approaching Carly, grabbing her by the wrist and leading her away. That video was played over and over and over. And the nation's eyes turned toward the search for Carly Brucha. I remember so well her dad, Joe, thanking investigators and calling on the governor

to investigate whether judges went too easy on dealing with Smith in all of his previous arrests, I agree with her father. To Brian Claypool, you're the expert defense attorney. Why was this guy let out over and over and over again only to murder Carly and now he's got a new hearing. Well, Nancy, to me, I think the bigger question is, how is it that he gets sentenced to death and then the court reverses that and now gives him a resentencing hearing? Why is that a bigger question to you? Why is it a bigger question to you than a repeat offender killing a little girl? Well, let's talk about that. Florida, Florida prison systems are saturated, much like California prison systems. So you get these

prisoners in there and they and they let them out early. We've heard this and seen this time after time. So you're right. This case, this tragic case. And by the way, I have an 11 year old daughter as well. So this gets home to me but again this is also about a systemic failure within our prison systems and that's all i can tell you about that i mean i don't know what more we can do a jury finds him guilty there are no trial errors he's had dozens of appeals and finally he hits pay dirt when an appellate court sitting in their ivory tower says, oh, you know the law that after you've been found guilty of murder with aggravating circumstances, which are you kill more than one person, you kill a child, it's a murder for hire,

it's torture, it's in the commission of another felony such as rape. I know he's found guilty of that, but you know what? That was unanimous, but when they voted 10-2 for the death penalty, I don't like that. So I'm going to order a whole new hearing on the death penalty. This guy is loving it. Isn't it true, Meredith Censulo, he's filed dozens of appeals on all kinds of wacky grounds. Finally, he gets some judge to go along with him. Yeah, absolutely. He has tried multiple times to appeal this, but it was actually because of a Florida Supreme Court ruling that Smith is going to be resentenced. And that's because

in his case, it was a 10 to 2 as far as the jury goes. And because the judge was the one that actually made that decision that he would get the death penalty, that sentencing phase is now going to be retried because it's been determined that that actually is a violation of the Sixth Amendment. So that's why we're going to see this new penalty phase. Nancy, can I make one point on that? Sure. This is really interesting, and this is where I think there was a major flaw. Even though this Supreme Court case, the Hearst case, came down and said you need a unanimous vote for death sentence under the Sixth Amendment. I read the opinion, and here's an interesting point. The Florida Supreme Court was analyzing this from a standpoint

of that they still were going to enforce this death penalty if the prosecutor could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the two jurors who held out on the death penalty, that that was harmless error. So, in other words, have the trial judge developed a more copious record of what those two jurors didn't agree on? For example, were they just hung up on a mitigating factor and one aggravating factor? If it was something that was truly harmless, the Florida Supreme Court was still going to allow Smith to be sentenced to death. But since there was no written record of what these two holdout jurors were hung up on, the Florida Supreme Court was handcuffed. You know what? To you, Mark Klass, this hits home more to you more than to anyone. What do you have to say to Claypool and all that legal mumbo jumbo he just spouted out? Well, legal mumbo jumbo always seems to serve these killers.

You know, it always seems to play in their favor. Carly isn't even a player in this thing anymore. She's nothing more than the currency that drove us to this place. Here's the thing. We just had this in a case here in California, and it was a death penalty case. Once it came to the penalty phase, one juror held out. One juror told the other jurors that there was no way on earth that they would ever sentence anybody to death. So it was a ringer. It was somebody who lied to get into that position to spare this piece of garbage. And it's difficult. It's so difficult to get these guys on death row where they absolutely deserve to be in the beginning. But then there always seems to be a way out. It's preposterous. Again, this whole death penalty thing, this whole death sentence thing in this country has become kind of a joke because of the abolitionists.

You know, take a listen to this guy, the 37 then 37 year old white male car mechanic, unemployed. Listen, his arrest record includes a violent attack and numerous drug charges. In fact, he once beat a woman in the face with a motorcycle helmet. Just beat her mercilessly in the face. What did he do for that aggravated assault? He did about 60 days behind bars. Then he violates probation. What happens then? He gets straight out of jail.

It happens over and over and over with this guy. And the judge blames probation department. The probation department blames the judge. The judge starts whining that it's not his fault that he just followed the law and blames the probation department. It was Judge Harry Rapkin. So long story short, he violated probation twice in one year. But probation officers never recommended jail time. He was never arrested.

So he's out walking free. It happens upon Carly Brucha. You know, to Brian Russell, the host of the hit show on investigation discovery, Fatal Vows, please weigh in. Okay, so Nancy, we hear a lot of talk lately. And I think we heard just a little bit of it today, about mass incarceration. Our jails are too crowded. We've got too many people locked up. Well, you know what? When we have a lot of people doing a lot of destructive stuff, then I actually like a lot of jails with a lot of people in them for a lot of years. We have to understand that the number one duty of government is to protect the citizens from physical attack, from enemies, other places in the world, and from people right here at

home. The justice system and the correction system, although I don't think we correct anybody very often, it's more the public safety system, the segregation system for dangerous people from the rest of us. That is really just national defense at the domestic level. And there's nothing more important for the government to do. So whatever it costs, what is the cost of not doing it? It's stuff like this happening to innocent Americans. And so the cuts have to come elsewhere. This is not the place to skimp as a society. If we ran the system the way that we should, this guy never would have had the opportunity to kill Carly Bruscia.

And then the second thing I would say is, if we ran the prison system the way that we should, spending the rest of his life in it should actually be worse than a basically painless little injection and he goes to sleep and never wakes up. But because we supply air conditioning and cable television and workout rooms and all this stuff is why it's not. And that's nuts. We're one of the few societies in the world that hasn't figured out you want prison to be a place that nobody ever wants to be or go back to. You know, to Meredith's in Sulo, WFLA, that evening, that Sunday when she was walking home that afternoon, she had spent the night, as I said, at her friend's house. And the little girl's mother

said Carly wanted to walk home and that she had permission from her mom. So Carly leaves and the little girl's mother said Carly wanted to walk home and that she had permission from her mom. So Carly leaves, and the other mom just for some reason called Carly's mom and found out Carly was wrong. She got it wrong. She didn't have permission to walk home. So Carly's stepdad, Steve Kanzler, immediately goes to get her because they know she's walking home, and it was almost immediate. She was gone.

Right. Yeah, I believe it was within 30 minutes. I mean, it was just a matter of moments. But as Mr. Klosch has said, you know, it only takes that short period of time, you know, just walking a couple of blocks. But, you know, the mother of the little girl that Carly was staying with, just to her something wasn't right. You know, she made that decision to call Carly's parents just to make sure it was okay for Carly to make that walk. And as soon as they realized, no, she shouldn't be doing this, they were out there.

They were looking, but, you know, she was already gone. It was a span of, I think, six minutes from when Joseph Smith's car was spotted pulling up to that car wash and then the time when he was seen leading Carly away. So just in that six-minute span of time, she disappeared. And, you know, it's such a short time frame there, but it only takes moments. And unfortunately, that's what happened here. And that video hit the airwaves and people, you know, recognize the car. Some people even recognize Mr. Smith. But, you know, it was already too late for Carly. In just a matter of moments, Carly was gone. The guy is convicted and sentenced to death row, but now a stunning about turn. An appellate court has ruled the death penalty in his case is thrown out, and there may

very well be not only a new hearing, but him escaping his sentence. Take a listen to Carly's father, Joe Bruscia, after he learns about this appellate decision. It's one of two things. It's favoring the criminals over the innocent, the victims. Or is it just, you know, more way for attorneys to make billable hours? Because it certainly doesn't make any sense. Take a listen to Carly's mom before she passed away. If I could speak to him, I'd like to know why he chose my daughter and why he had to kill her. And I'm sure she let him know that she was only 11 years old. How could he go through with it?

Even the jury foreperson, Ron Cruzell, who was the jury foreperson on the Joseph Smith murder trial, speaks out. There was no question that Joe Smith was guilty. No question at all. You had to see the pictures. You had to realize the life that was taken and how it was taken. I will use the word heinous, evil. Joe Smith will die. Whether he dies in prison or whether he dies on a table with IVs in his arm, he's going to die. And at that point, he'll be faced with what he's done in his life, just like we are. The disappointment running deep in this case. For those of you just joining us,

11-year-old Curly Bruscia is kidnapped, beaten, brutally raped, and found semi-nude, dumped in woods behind a local church in Florida. A man on death row for the murder of 11-year-old Carly has now finally won an appeal. Now, let me understand something to Brian Claypool, lawyer joining us, high-profile lawyer out of California. Brian, when we say a remand on the sentencing, they're only going to retry the penalty phase. The guilt innocence phase remains intact. They're going to retry the sentencing phase, correct?

Yeah, Nancy, great question. But here's the problem with that. Sentencing phase, correct? on the liability phase to get this death sentence that you want. So talk about all the taxpayer money. I mean, like Mark was saying, sometimes the laws just don't comport with public sentiment and common sense. I mean, they're going to have to spend a lot of money and a lot of time. They're going to have to go into the details of the crime to get the jury aroused enough to get this guy a death sentence, don't you think? Well, you know what? You know what? Mark Klass, bring it on.

I mean, if I was prosecuting the case, fine, I'd bring it all back on and get another death penalty sentence on this guy. You do not take an 11-year-old little girl walking home a few blocks, kidnap her, beat her, rape her, and murder her, and then you escape the death penalty. No. Well, you do. You go after it. You take it, and you do everything you can to make sure the jury understands who this guy is and what he did so that they will, again, vote for him to have the death penalty. This is a situation where justice failed this little girl and most certainly has failed her father. Can you even imagine what that man is going through, realizing who this guy is and what he's done?

And all of a sudden the state of Florida says, well, yeah, but we're going to take him off a death row. Mark, you raise a good point. You raise a good point. You know, one of the other problems with our justice system that Nancy mentioned, like these probation officers that let him 60 days for aggravated assault, the problem we have is immunity. There's civil immunity to all these probation officers, all the law enforcement investigating, all the judges who make these horrible decisions that lead to the death of children,

they all have immunity in the civil system. So maybe it's time to revoke that. Oh, that drives me crazy, Brian Claypool. And, you know, Brian Russell, joining me, host of the hit investigation discovery show Fatal Vows. We've talked about this so many times when DFACs, Department of Family and Children's Services, CPS, fails to follow up on cases and children end up dead. Same thing here. I think they should all be prosecuted like these probation officers that let killers slip through the cracks. Brian? Well, I agree with

that. But I think that before it gets to that point, we as a society have got to take away the discretion that not only these people have, but also our judges to give. I don't understand. I'm a psychologist and I still don't understand the sympathy that people have in this society for people who do wantonly, consciously destructive stuff to other people. But for whatever reason, they do, and they're making it into positions like judgeships and these probation officer roles where they have the ability to act out their sympathy by letting these people back loose on the rest of us. We've got to, we have got to take that discretion away with stiffer mandatory minimums for more stuff. And also another thing we need to do is get rid of concurrent sentencing. It is absolutely

ridiculous that somebody can commit three felonies and end up being sentenced for each one of them concurrently. So basically you get two felonies free, you know, commit one felony, get two felonies free. It's like having a sale at a resale store. It's like three for one. It's like three for one at a store. Guys, what makes it even worse is it all plays out on camera when this monster killer caught on camera snatching a little girl before raping and murdering her and now he may dodge the death penalty long story short he's caught on closed circuit tv it captures the moment that a 37 year old mechanic steals carly brucha her battered little body is found in a wooded area behind a church, Sarasota, Florida.

This guy has filed so many appeals, they've all fallen on deaf ears until now, and he has been handed a lifeline thanks to an appellate court. Meredith Censulo, WFLA. Another issue is this. This decision by this appellate court is years after Carly's killer was sentenced, but they're applying the decision retroactively. Does that mean everybody on the death row is going to get a new sentencing hearing, a new trial? Well, so what we know is that in 2016 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that our death sentence system here in Florida violated that Sixth Amendment, of course, which requires that a jury, not a judge, impose a death sentence. So in looking at this case, it did determine that this particular case didn't hold up. And so that's why his sentence of death was

remanded for a new penalty phase. Now, I don't know how many cases at this point have been put under the same microscope, but it is very possible that we are going to see some of these other high-profile cases have to go through this all over again because, you know, we're looking at what, I think, 12 years now. He was sentenced in 2006. So, you know, 2018, 12 years, he's been sitting on death row, and now we're going to be going through this again. So I definitely think that this is something that we will see more cases coming to this, unfortunately. Well, the mother, Carly's mother, passed away just a month after hearing about the possibility of the killer's release, her daughter's killer's release, Carly's mother has passed away, leaving behind just her father to continue the fight for justice on behalf of his daughter,

his 11-year-old girl that was murdered. I can still remember when Carly was just missing before we had the awful news. Listen. We have found Carly and the person responsible for her murder. This follows as to count one of the charges. The defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree as charged. Nancy, the jury that convicted Joseph Smith heard recordings of phone calls the killer made from jail to his family, including this one with his mother. The case of Carly's killer is heading back to court in a matter of weeks.

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800-245-4904. Call now. This is an advertisement paid non-attorney spokesperson. www.injuryhelpdesk.com is responsible for this advertisement. Principal office, Las Vegas, Nevada. Now we head to Texas in the case of a beautiful young mom of two little girls who lives with the girls and her husband. She's a super mom.

She gets up at like three o'clock every morning and goes to teach a gladiator aerobics class in the local church before she gets back home and makes the breakfast and the lunches and gets everybody to school and does all of that. She gets to church and somehow ends up bludgeoned and stabbed dead. And in the wake of her murder, surveillance footage emerges, surveillance footage capturing, catching an unknown person breaking into that Creekside Church of Christ and creeping around wearing decked out in full police SWAT gear. Now, I believe the SWAT gear is cobbled together because it looks like a motorcycle helmet and motorcycle boots and other items bought here and there to resemble a SWAT outfit. Wandering around the church never steals anything but waiting for Missy Beavers to arrive. And when Missy does arrive, she is bludgeoned and stabbed dead. No theft, no sex attack, nothing taken from Missy, nothing taken from the church, and the killer vanishes.

With me, Dave Mack on the story. Dave Mack, the murder of Missy Beavers, still unsolved. You know, you'd think with surveillance video, you could identify the person, but their face was covered, Dave. You know, you pointed out that it looked like it was a cobbled together outfit, that it wasn't something, generally speaking, that we're used to seeing in terms of tactical gear. But the other part about this is that the person in the gear was, well, first of all, he had a hammer. You know, that's not the most common tactical gear. On top of that, he had a very distinctive gait. He had a very distinctive walk.

And I'm wondering, as they went live with that video almost immediately after this happened, and nobody's identifying who the person is that walks like that. It's a distinctive strut. You know, of course, since she's married with children, you've got this killer unidentified in the video. Clearly, that's who murdered Missy. All eyes turn on the husband, as they always do when a wife is killed you always look at the husband first joining me brian russell the host of investigation discoveries hit show fatal vows

brian when the search warrants were later revealed they let the cat out of the bag that one at least one of the married people involved husband and wife had been having an affair okay that cat was out of the bag and that made the scrutiny on the husband even more intense but the reality is he was on a fishing trip several states away with eyewitness alibis at the time missy was murdered a couple things uh statistically speaking uh you're absolutely right it's much more like you're much more likely if you're going to be murdered to be murdered by somebody, you know, someone close to you than you are by a stranger. The second thing is I can tell you from six years of Fatal Vows that the number one reason people end up on our show is because

of infidelity in the marriage. Really? That over money? Yes. Money being number two. And the third thing is probably number three is probably strife around, you know, trying to merge families and have step kids and all of that kind of stuff. Joining me right now, high profile lawyer out of the California jurisdiction, Brian Claypool. Brian, the reality is one of my best friends is a female defense lawyer, criminal defense. She specializes in dope. Okay. She'll handle the occasional divorce case. She's told me a million times, Nancy, I would rather defend a killer at trial than represent somebody in a divorce. Because the other side is liable to drive by my house and shoot me through the living room window for Pete's sake.

Divorces, they're just so acrimonious and bitter that they're unfathomable, the anger that comes up during divorces or marital discord. So naturally, you look at the husband. Well, I think that's a good point. I mean, if you look at, I mean, there wasn't a murder in a Dahlia DiPolito case. You know, I conducted two trials for Dahlia. And at the center of that, that that marriage that led to desperation and helplessness. And I think that's what we're talking about here as well. And that probably is the angle that law enforcement has to really focus on in this investigation. We are talking about the brutal murder of a young, beautiful mom of two girls, Missy Beavers.

So question to you, Dave Mack, syndicated talk show host, joining us and investigative reporter on this story. Dave, it's amazing to me that even now, no one has been taken into custody for questioning. Nothing. You know, Nancy, you know, there's no statute of limitations when it comes to murder. So they've got to they've got to cross their T's and dot their I's. But one of the things that I was looking at in all of this, going back to the

made up the put together tactical gear, the hammer as a murder weapon. You've got online flirtation by Missy, by the way, and a husband who has some kind of ironclad alibi. Well, what was the bloody shirt that his father had two days later trying to get clean that he claims was from breaking up a dog fight? It just seems awfully odd that somebody that close to a very bloody murder would have a T-shirt covered in blood trying to get it clean and the police pulling the search warrant to go get it. Well, according to the crime lab analysts to Alan Deak, didn't it turn out to be true that he had broken up a dog fight? Right there. That was a rabbit hole that didn't pan out as a real. Well, I don't know if I refer to as a rabbit hole, because that usually refers to something that doesn't it is irrelevant and doesn't make any sense I mean you got a murder case like Dave Max talking about where there's a ton of blood at the scene and then the father-in-law jumps up with a bloody shirt he tries to get cleaned I would absolutely have investigated that if I were

the police but it turned out it had nothing to do with the case had nothing to do with it they were able to rule that out. I've been corresponding, as you know, with Brandon Beavers, the husband, for some time. And we've reported some of this, of course, some of his emails to us. And let me point out two things that are really interesting about this. He suggested in one email back in December that his daughters don't really want the person arrested and apprehended. Remember that email he sent to us? He says the children are not terribly fond of apprehending this person. They don't want to revisit those emotions. They've told me this. But let me update you on that. The oldest daughter, this is a rural area. One of her hobbies

is to raise hogs, you know, 4-H kind of thing. You did that. I don't know if you ever had a hog. I did not have a hog. I focused on learning to can vegetables and fruits, make jams and jellies and interior design, as well as forestry and landscaping and public speaking. But thank you for suggesting that I raise pigs. Go ahead, please. I didn't. Well, maybe you should have because it was pretty profitable for her. She sold her prize hog at auction just recently for $15,000. The reason that it went so high was the community came out and up the bid because she wanted that money to go to the department, the police department to help investigate. And she had it earmarked. But then the police chief said, you know, we really don't

need this. We're well funded. So she ended up giving it to special needs kids. My point being that that oldest daughter is so anxious to find the killer of her mom that she did that. And I think that speaks a lot. Guys, just recently we spoke with the assistant police chief there in Midlothian, Assistant Chief of Police Kevin Johnson. Take a listen to this. So the most recent activity involves the assignment of a new detective. And that was something that was done as a matter of just a personnel move, not particularly related to this investigation. But nonetheless, what the new investigator is

doing is really spending a lot of time entrenching himself in the investigation and pouring over the information that's been collected, such as interviews, statements, reports from officers, and the follow-up information from some of the tips received. So just trying to become familiar with the case. Is there any new information to share with us as far as suspects, persons of interest, or anything in the case? No, sir. No, sir. Unfortunately, there is not. It's been two years, and this is one of the more remarkable cases I've ever seen with all this video of the crime scene at the time or thereabouts at the time.

It's got to be frustrating that you've got so much evidence yet no suspects no persons of interest yeah absolutely it's frustrating you know obviously most frustrating for the family i'm sure frustrating for our community uh and of course frustrating for the the police officers involved in the investigation you know we don't have a lot of evidence we have don't have the right evidence um you know and and i've said before said before, police evidence rooms are full of videos and DVDs of video of unknown people committing crimes, and it's really frustrating. I think the public perception is that when you have a video and you have a person on video, that in short order you can figure out who that person is.

The fact is that this person went to great lengths to conceal their identity. And other than the unusual gait and some observations about the stature, there's not even much skin showing. So what we can say for sure just has more to do with skin tone than other important details that would lead us to an identification. I get these emails and these messages from people who think that they're investigators, these web sleuths, if you will. I know you get them too. Has that been helpful, do you think? Or is it just background noise? I will tell you that a lot of the information that we receive is a combination of rumor, speculation, uninformed inferences and assumptions. Early on in the investigation, there was a particular photo that circulated.

Where it originated and who made it, I couldn't tell you. It certainly didn't come from the police department. But a lot of people saw that, and it appeared to be compelling to them, and they took it, you know, as an official piece of evidence. You know, when you combine, you know, tips of that nature with, you know, five or six, seven other tips of dubious origin, if you will. It's easy to understand why a person would combine those together into a theory that makes sense to them and believe that it has some viability and feel compelled to forward it to the police.

In each instance that we've dug through that information, there have been some small helpful bits of information, but by and large, unfortunately, the bulk of it has not been particularly helpful. Now, I say that not wanting to discourage anybody from forwarding any information or reaching out to us, you know, because it's our job to sift through that and determine its credibility, you know. So I certainly don't want to discourage that. But by and large, you know, a lot of information has just been mixed with other information

from different sites or groups, you know, and, you know, it hasn't been particularly helpful. It's my understanding that you've got a detective working full-time on this case. It's not like you put it up on the shelf, locked it in the evidence room. Well, it certainly isn't on the shelf. It certainly isn't anything that we consider closed or not actively being investigated. But no, actually, he spends one to two days a week on it. Currently there are cases that we look at all the time that take 10 or 15 years and then

something happens, something breaks. This could be one of those that you guys are working one or two days a week for, for a decade on. I mean, do you actually foresee that happening? Well, I hope, I hope not. Uh, but if that's what it's, what's required, that's what we'll do. Nobody here is anywhere near throwing in the towel by any stretch. We want to bring some answers to Missy's family. If there's any work to be done, we'll do that work until it's done. You know, I was touched recently when I read in your local newspaper that Missy's daughter raised some money at an auction of a prized hog and wanted to donate the money to your department to pay for the investigation.

That's how interested and concerned she was with it. But that's not necessary, is it? I mean, you guys have plenty of resources. Yeah, you're correct. And, you know, what a what a cool story that was. And I think it says a lot about the community down here that the Missy was from, you know, and also how well she raised her daughters, of course. But no, as heartfelt as that was, it simply wasn't necessary.

There haven't been any aspects of this case that were limited, you know, based on any kind of financial restrictions. So I think, you know, we're hopeful that she'll find another meaningful way to use that money, and I'm sure she will. The video that you released inside the church, and then there's the video of the gun store nearby, we've seen that. But is there any other evidence or video that maybe at some point you think you might want to make public that you've been keeping secret that might spur some tips and actually help resolve this case? Or have we pretty much seen everything that you're going to show us before there's an arrest? I'm confident that what has been shared is likely to be all that's shared.

Obviously, just like you indicated, you know, we don't show our full hand. You know, it'd be an irresponsible way to investigate any kind of crime if we did that. I can tell you this, that if there was any bit of information we thought would be helpful to release, we would have released it long ago. What has been withheld is either something that has been a strategic investigative type decision or has just been done in good taste. There's a killer out there, possibly still living in your community or passing through your community. That's got to be a major concern for your department. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure it's a major concern for your department. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm, you know, I'm sure it's a major concern for people in our community. I'm, you know, to this day,

when folks from this area or from our town of Midlothian, you know, see somebody with a particular gait, I have no doubt that they were, you know, they immediately see the image of that person on video. You know, we continue to this day to receive those types of tips. I know that there will be some amount of unrest until this case is solved. And, you know, so we'll keep doing the work that it requires to do that. It has been two years since the murder of Missy Beavers and still no justice. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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