Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Exclusive: Husband is 'done talking' about Missy Bevers' murder

Episode Date: December 13, 2017

Although Brandon Bevers has been subjected on social media to accusations that he was somehow connected to his wife Missy Bevers' death, investigators said they accept his alibi. His wife was beaten to death with a hammer inside a Texas church as she was preparing for a sunrise fitness class. Security video shows the killer walking the church hallways carrying the murder weapon, but a makeshift police SWAT uniform and helmet hide the person's identity. The husband has been declining media interviews, but Bevers corresponded with Crime Stories through several emails. We shared the latest with lawyer and psychiatrist Dr. Brian Russell and cold case investigators Sheryl McCollum, who discuss what the husband is now saying. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. hours of tech support. Circle with Disney found a better way. This awesome little device designed for families manages content and time online for all the devices in your home. Easy to set up. You can filter content, set time limits, even set a bedtime. Each person can have their own setting. This way your children don't end up in scary internet territory, but mom and dad can still use the internet to get their work done. Use code Nancy at circlewithnancy.com. Get $10 off your Circle and free shipping. Circlewithnancy.com. Offer code Nancy. Thank you, Circle, for protecting our children. She got ready to teach a workout class inside. Missy suffered puncture wounds to the head and chest. Surveillance video shows the suspect dressed in police SWAT gear.

Carrying a hammer. The killer reported on surveillance video roaming the halls of the church with a distinctive gait. The family of murder victim Missy Beavers speaking out. We need clothes. Missy's husband, Brandon Beavers. I've pretty much exhausted every scenario and every avenue that I can think of of who could have done this. Police say the couple's marriage was in trouble. Reports of infidelity.

Brandon Beavers is cooperating and has not been named a suspect. A beautiful young mom, totally dedicated to her little girls and her family, decides to start an exercise class, a so-called gladiator class. That's for hardcore exercising. And she wanted to make it for other moms that have to get their children to school early in the morning like I do. So in order to do that, I mean, I have to get up at 5 o'clock every morning to get everything done. She did too, except by 5 o'clock in the morning, she was already at her exercise class setting up for an early, early morning workout for all those busy moms. I'm talking about Missy Beavers, who was found bludgeoned and stabbed dead inside a Midlothian church as she was setting up for her gladiator-style aerobics class early one morning.

As where I grew up, as people say in the middle of nowhere, who would commit a murder in this very extremely rural part of Texas? The case unsolved. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. To top it all off, so much of it was caught on tape. Cheryl McCollum, there's a new bombshell right now,

but first tell me about this video surveillance that we have seen so many times of the killer strolling around the church just before Missy was bludgeoned and stabbed dead. Nancy, this killer is walking around the church, taking his time, opening doors, going in and out of Sunday school rooms, other places, literally just taking a tour of the church. I think a better way to put it, Cheryl, was killing time. Killing time. He's not taking anything. He's just sauntering around waiting for Missy Beavers to show up. This was no robbery gone bad.

This was a calculated premeditated murder, Cheryl. Nothing was taken, Nancy, nothing at all. He doesn't have a backpack with him. He doesn't have any type of satchel to put belongings in. He's not there to burglarize that church. He is laying in wait for that victim to show up. And now a brand new revelation out to Alan Duke joining me from L.A. What's the latest, Alan?

I've been corresponding with Brandon Beavers, the husband, for some time now. We've shared that before. But I just got a new email from him. He won't go on audio, on tape, but he sent this message, and it has some really interesting things in it, and our experts have been looking at. Would you like for me to read the first few sentences? Tell me the interesting points. He says that his, quoting now,

the children are not terribly fond of apprehending this person. They don't want to revisit those emotions. They've told me this. They see, hear the daily anxiety I have in finding this person. And I think they're tired of the mentality this puts on our day-to-day life. They want normalcy and happiness. And at the end of that, he says that he's going to stop thinking about his wife's murder or who killed her only he's going to think about how she

lived her life and what she gave, you know, Cheryl McCollum, I hear what he's saying. But in my case, you know, I tried so hard to put Keith's murder, my fiance's murder, shortly before our wedding out of my mind because it was destroying me every day. I lost down to 89 pounds. I dropped out of school. I wouldn't do anything. And I really, it must have been the grace of God that brought me back. And it kills you from the inside.

And so I understand what this must be doing to those children. But I was lucky enough that the prosecutor found the killer and brought him to justice. I don't know that I could let it go if it was unsolved. Cheryl? Here's my concern as a parent it's harder for you to go to trial or it's harder for you to know there's a killer walking around that could be at your child's ball field or church or restaurant are you kidding me there's no way it would be debilitating for me to think that a murderer is out there among my children more than going to court. Alan, what else have you learned?

He says, and I'm quoting this email, I want justice, but I, too, fear the reality of bringing this case person to trial and the emotional uncertainty that may go with it. So you have to ask yourself, do you bang your head on the wall every day with this? Do you allow the unsolved aspect of this to infiltrate your thoughts, put yourself in a foul state of mind every day when you have three kids to focus on? Starting 2018, I'm done allowing this uncertainty to control me this way. I will leave the headbanging and brain rot to the investigators. To Dr. Brian Russell joining me, lawyer and psychologist, host of Investigation Discovery's Fatal Vows series. Dr. Brian, explain to me what's going through the mind of Missy Beaver's husband when he says

he's just not going to care about this anymore. He's going to force himself not to try to figure it out. Well, Nancy, I think some people will listen to this and say, oh, you know, this must be a fatal vows case because, you know, he seems like he's not that interested in pursuing the killer. It's an O.J. Simpson kind of a thing. But, you know, it calls to mind something else about the O.J. Simpson case, which is that the was guilty. But this guy may be totally innocent. And the kids are seeing that he is being absolutely pilloried by many people on social media. probably from watching shows like mine and listening to shows like this, that statistically, when these things happen, the spouse is the most likely person to be the perpetrator. And so of course, they want justice for their mother, I would think these children do.

But they also probably have some fatigue from seeing their father, who they want desperately to believe is innocent and may very well be innocent, be beaten up day after day after day on social media. And so it doesn't really surprise me that much. In other words, I think what he's saying may be true, that the kids are at a point where, you know, if this is going to drag on and on and on and law enforcement is going to go on indefinitely without a firm suspect, you know, getting it past them and moving on with their dad as a family may have taken priority over getting the thing solved and tried and somebody convicted. Right now we are learning that just in the last weeks, the husband, Brandon Beavers, is stating that he is convinced the killer that murdered his wife one early morning at

a Midlothian church does not know, did not know his wife. Now, Cheryl McCollum, Cold Case Investigator, you're the expert. You're the director of the Cold Case Institute. I feel for Brandon Beaver's children so much. But I just do not believe the killer did not know Missy Beavers. The killer is waiting in this church out in the middle of a rural area at what, 3.30 in the morning? No. Doesn't steal anything.

Manages to approach and leave the Midlothian church without a vehicle being spotted by any surveillance video. Clearly having to park some distance away and walk sneak up to the church no bag no suitcase nothing to steal anything she was targeted and i don't understand why brandon is saying she was not targeted maybe that's what he wants to believe that no friend or relative would have done this thing to her i'm not saying, that no friend or relative would have done this thing to her. I'm not saying it was a friend or relative, but it was somebody that knew Missy Beavers. I can tell you that much, Cheryl McCollum. A lot of planning went into this, Nancy, from the

outfit, traveling to and from wherever he lived, to the church, staying in the church 30 minutes before she arrived. Absolutely. There's no evidence of burglary. There's no evidence of sexual assault. That leaves us with revenge. She was targeted. That person was laying in wait for her. And, you know, again, a lot of what Alan was saying earlier concerns me. The way he phrases things is a little unusual to me. Like when he says, starting 2018, I'm not going to allow the uncertainty to control me. I will leave the head banging and brain rot to the investigators. Well, we're not at 2018 yet, so I don't know what he's doing between now and then. And the other thing that worries me is when he says, trust me,

when I say they are qualified, meaning the police, they're qualified what? To bang their head and rock their brain? I feel very much for Missy's family, very much. I'm a crime victim myself. However, I don't consider finding the killer to be brain rot or headbanging. However, to his defense, Cheryl, to allow it to totally consume you like I did after Keith's murder, you can't do that when you have children because they deserve a happy mom.

They deserve an upbeat, energetic mom. They don't deserve a depressed mom spiraling downward because of evil in this world or cruelty or heinous crime. That's not what I want for them. And when I find myself getting into that place, Cheryl, I mean, you know, you met me when I was a brand new prosecutor and that's, I lived, breathed, ate, drank, putting one guy after the next guy, after the next guy, after the next guy behind bars, because trying to fix what happened to Keith, I think. Absolutely. No question, but listen to me. He says things like, I wish the whack job social media stuff

would go to hell. He doesn't say he wishes the killer would go to hell. He says, I forgive the killer and I want him to know that. What? His anger seems misplaced. You're pissed off at Facebook?

You want Facebook to go to hell? Because they're calling you out that maybe one day your kids may, you know, peer into this window that somebody thought you had something to do with it? He should be the first one seeking revenge on this person. The first one that every day is demanding justice, real justice, which means you go to prison. You don't have the right to want the same. Well, wait a minute.

This is Texas and it's laying in wait. That's a death penalty case. Dr. Brian Russell, I'm a trial lawyer. I'm a crime victim. Cheryl McCollum is the director of the Cold Case Institute. You're the shrink and host of Investigation Discovery's Fatal Vows. Please analyze for us. I don't ever judge a murder victim, which would be her family, Missy's family, and what they're saying, because they're out of their minds with grief. But I hear what Cheryl McCollum is pointing out. Weigh in, Dr. Brian

Russell. I think we may be connecting some dots here that don't necessarily connect. I can understand what Cheryl is saying, but I can also see explanations for these words that we're hearing from the husband that would be benign. And so I personally don't jump to any conclusion based on the words that we're discussing here this morning. And I look at the manner of death, you look at how Missy died, that was a bludgeoning. And, you know, that is usually indicative of one of two things, somebody who wanted to have up close and personal contact with the victim during the crime or somebody who was surprised by the victim and grabbed whatever was handy to to kill the victim. And so, you know, I think that you're probably right. It's more probable that it was somebody who had it in for this woman and wanted to be up close and personal. But I also think there's some percentage, maybe single digits, maybe a little bit higher percent chance that it was somebody who maybe was in that church with something else or someone else in mind,

and she came in there to teach that class, and the person grabbed what was handy, killed her, and took off without having accomplished whatever else it was they were in the church to do. Well, could it be that all the loving memories he had, and I know they had marital discord. I know in the search warrant police said that one of them or somebody in the marriage was having an affair. I know there were issues. There are issues in every marriage. But they're also loving memories. There's love at some point.

And there are children. In his mind, I wonder if in Brandon's mind, that all the love is being drowned out by all the vitriol on social media. You know, Cheryl McCollum, I never would, as you know, talk about case murder. I kept it a secret the whole time I prosecuted. Hardly anybody knew because I did not want defense attorneys trying to use it against me in any way at a trial. Okay. So I had to keep it a very closely guarded secret.

Very few people knew that I was a tangential victim of murder when I was a prosecutor. I remember the first time I ever spoke about it publicly, Cheryl, it was on Larry King. And I, as you know, from us being friends way, way, way back when in court, there are chunks of time before and after Keith's murder that I just cannot remember. Much less much of the funeral and the trial. I remember very little of it when Larry asked me when it happened I actually I had the day right August 6th and got the year wrong because I totally could not remember at that moment then of course online went wild claiming all sorts of wild, crazy stories that Keith wasn't murdered, that Keith didn't exist, that this and that.

And it really hurt me so badly. I quit reading it. I hardly ever to this day read comments. I want to hear healthy criticism. Maybe I can do better. I'm sure I can. But I get what he's saying cheryl mccollum if you but if you don't like it don't read it sure and nancy listen i don't want anybody

to misunderstand where i'm coming from as a crime scene investigator as somebody that's going to analyze statements when you send a statement that says, quote, there is no value in discussing events that led up to her murder or to speculate if she was targeted in wife. I got to raise a flag on that, Nancy, because... Well, I agree with you. The police need to be doing that. If it's destroying him and his family, he needs to just bow out of it and leave the police to do their work.

But to say, I'm done with this, I'm washing my hands, may not be the best way, the best phraseology. I hear you. I want to pause and thank our partners making today's program possible. 1-800-DENTIST. If you're like everybody else, you are really overindulging over the holiday with sugary treats, you need to call an awesome dentist and schedule an appointment with 1-800-DENTIST.

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it had to be 3 o'clock in the morning to get her because I think she got there at like 4. And this person had been there for a while. Not only did they approach the structure, the Midlothian church, completely undetected on surveillance video. No car was seen. No cell phone, to my knowledge, was alerted or pinged at that area at that time. But they were decked out. They were dressed up in grand costume to disguise their identity.

And when you go to that level, that is premeditated. Somebody didn't put on this fake police SWAT gear with a black motorcycle helmet that covered their face and stormtrooper shoes. This is not a real SWAT outfit, but it's somebody dressed up in a SWAT outfit that says police on the back specifically to go into this church at 3 a.m. on the day she was teaching there. Okay. That's a lot of prep work to get decked out in this getup, Cheryl McCollum. No question, Nancy. And I think it was part of how they were going to get over on her. This woman was in shape. This woman was strong.

They couldn't approach her just dressed as a police officer because it would show their identity. But SWAT, obviously, they were shielded somewhat. But they still looked like an authority figure. So that might give them just that second they would need to strike her the first time to disabilitate her. So I think it was, again, part of their overall planning, part of their overall crime.

While investigators continue to receive tips about Missy's murder, they still have not established a motive. They say that they still don't know whether the killer was a male or female. Now they are basing the female possibility on the way the person walks and the probable height of the killer. What about it

Cheryl McCollum, male or female? You know, it is a little difficult to say, Nancy, but I would have to go with male. I think the type of crime, I think the way that they open the barn door, you know, the way they're going after those handles, the way they're breaking the glass, it just looks like a male to me.

I mean, it's so typically male, a male crime. If it were a female, I would think that a gun would have been used. But it clearly is someone that knew she was going to be there at that time and laid in wait. So weigh in, Cheryl McCollum, targeted or no? No question, targeted, revengeful, planned, organized. This killer not only knew her, Nancy, but remember it was raining that day. Normally she had her exercise class outside.

So she posted the night before that, hey, y'all, it's going to be raining. We're still training. It'll be inside. So this was planned, but organized very quickly. But they knew they were waiting on her. No question about it. You know, Dr. Brian Russell, lawyer, psychologist, host of Investigation Discovery's Fatal Vows series. What do you make of this person decked out in fake police SWAT gear? What does that mean as it relates to the murder? Well, the fact that the person went to such great lengths to make themselves very difficult to identify suggests to me that they may have been familiar with this setting and they may have known that there were surveillance cameras around and that they would have these kinds of cases is to see if there's any way that we can extract lessons for the living to help them to reduce the likelihood of their own becoming victims. And it's not ever, at least in my view, it's never a matter of victim blaming. It's just

a matter of pointing certain things out that may actually extract some good from a tragedy. And one of the things I can tell you, take it from me as the co-host of Fatal Vows, which is about spouses who have ended up being murdered for various reasons. When somebody is involved in an extramarital activity, and I don't know for sure that this woman was, if you think about it, you've got your spouse now who is potentially upset enough with you to do something to you. You've got the affair partner, if and when you decide to break it off, who may be upset with you. You've got the affair partner's spouse or other significant other

who may be upset with you for being a wrecker of that marriage or home relationship. And so, you know, it is a very dangerous thing in many ways, financially, emotionally, and physically to get involved in anything extramarital. And again, I'm not saying this woman was, I'm just trying to extract a lesson for our listeners. Alan D, joining me from LA, there's a lot to analyze regarding a little strip mall very near the Midlothian Church. Here we are early in the morning, rainy day in Texas. There's this surveillance video of a car pulling into a gun store parking lot across the street and down this divided highway just a little bit wasn't it a nissan altima yes it was a light in color yes yes there are 17 security cameras at this this shop that captured the car pulling in

and driving around the parking lot and parking for several minutes and then pulling away. Now, I've made a lot of that. I've made a lot of that because it's very difficult for me to believe, Alan, that the two are not connected, but they could be not connected. It's just hard for me to believe with that small of a population, you've got a car that's, what did we figure out? X hundred feet yards from the church as the crow flies? Very close. If you go to the back, I've studied that aerial view so many times.

If you go to the back of the gun shop and you walk from there through these trees, this densely wooded area, you're in Midlothian church parking lot in less than five minutes. Right. So about an hour and a half after we see this car, that's when we see some other surveillance video. This is from inside the church. How long after we see the car? About an hour and a half. It's really not that long, but it was approximately 4.20 in the morning when Missy goes into the church to set up her camp gladiator fitness class. And the killer is waiting on her. He's, or she, we don't even know what the sex is, appears in the video inside the church, caught by several cameras, wearing the SWAT-like police uniform, sort of a configuration of

different pieces, and a helmet. You can't see the person's face. You can't even tell if it's a male or a female, but you see a distinctive walk. What nut job would wear a helmet? It's like a motorcycle helmet, as Alan is saying, covered in tactical gear, all black. It looks like to me black tennis shoes, solid black tennis shoes. And carrying a hammer. And carrying a hammer, which they could have found within the church. There's controversy over whether that hammer came from inside the church or not. Yeah. The several minutes of video that the police have released from inside the church, it's very chilling video that shows this person wandering around the hallways of the church,

checking, appearing to check doors and that kind of thing. When I say appearing, I'm wondering if this person is kind of putting on an act and pretending like this person. Oh, it's so obvious, Alan. Stop wondering. I can tell you that. I can't tell you a lot, but I can tell you that. I've watched it over and over. I mean, it's like the person's wandering up and down the halls and they get to a door and they go rattle, rattle and keep walking. And they never take anything. I mean, for Pete's sake, if you want money, go into the sanctuary. I hate to even say this, but I was going to say steal this crucifix. I mean, steal something made of gold.

Try to find the electronic equipment. They didn't do any of that. Nothing. And if they wanted money, then use that hammer and bash open the doorknob to the office and look for money for Pete's sake. Well, it was very obvious these people weren't there to rob. Well, you just said you didn't know if they were really. They're not. I can tell you they're not there to steal. My point was we don't know.

It appears to me that they're acting as if they weren't familiar with the area. As soon as she walks into the door, from what we're told by investigators, and they're not telling us a lot, off camera or at least a camera they're not releasing, this killer used that hammer to beat Missy Beavers to death, puncturing her chest and just brutally killing her right there in the hallway. The crazy thing is we've got all this video. And my guess is there's a lot of video that you and I are not seeing because the police have not released it and there's been tons of search warrants there was a search warrant for the dry cleaner when the father-in-law turned out to be sort of a picking in a bloody shirt and he was very open at the time he went at this is from my dogs got into a dog fight in the kitchen

and uh there was linkedin there were cell phone tower searches at&t facebook's i'm just still wondering about back to that car i mean nasa can pick up a picture of a rock on the moon, a rock you hold in your hand. Why can't they get the tag number of that? Or have they? That is another baffling thing. And let me tell you what's been going on. There's someone I've been in communication with. They asked me not to name them, but this is just a civilian. This is just a citizen who is really getting into this. And this person has blown up every single frame of that parking lot video. And about every day, I get another one sent to me. What do you think of this? They're trying to see what's in the interior.

I want to know. Tell me. I want to know what they're sending you. I want to see it. One of the more interesting things, and you and I have talked about this before, is the license plate you just mentioned, the license plate on this car, this Altima. If you blow it up and look frame by frame on the video, the full video has been posted online by the owner manager of the gun shop, not by police.

And we looked at it closely. But if you blow it up, the suspicion here is that that video has been altered to blur out the license plate. I mean, I look at these frames and everything is clearer except you look and as you follow the car, it does look like maybe somebody has digitally blurred the license plate. Cheryl McCollum, what do you make of the car that was spotted in the parking lot there very, very early in the morning that Missy was murdered? Well, Nancy, we do want to find the driver of that car. Maybe they saw something. Maybe they're aware of something. license plate, a lot of times when a car either has reverse lights come on or the back lights come

on, because the license plate is reflective on camera, the plate just goes white. It becomes very bright. So it's almost impossible to read the letters and numbers because of that. So that may be one reason they can't extract who that license plate belonged to. Alan, what can you tell me about a group of experts convening in Austin? The Midlothian Texas Police Department doesn't handle a lot of these cases, as you can imagine, small town. So they took all of their evidence down to the state capitol in Austin, and they assembled a panel of experts, and Cheryl's probably been involved in these kind of things before, and reviewed for several days all of the evidence, and this was several months ago, trying to get this thing restarted. But as the police chief tells us, it's still an open,

active investigation. They've got a full-time detective on this, have persons of interest, are tracking down tips, are getting new tips, but still they haven't figured a motive out and they don't have a suspect. I've got to thank my partner. I have to. I want to because they are making our search for justice possible. And one of our partners that I just love is Super Beats. When my son first heard I was involved with Super Beats, he went, Mom, those are too costy. They're $400. He thought I was talking about this really expensive set of earphones. He's all about earphones. Super Beats, B-E-A-T-S. I'm like, no, my love. No. Super Beats, B-E-E-T-S. You know, speaking of the twins, wouldn't it be great to have all the energy you wanted all day long so I could, you know, run with them all day?

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Link A-K-C, alpha, kappa, C as in cat. Linkakc.com, code Nancy Nancy for 30% off and free shipping. LinkAKC.com code Nancy. Thank you for being our partner today. It is chilling to realize that Missy Beaver's killer is still on the loose. This person is likely watching, reading, and listening to everything said about the investigation. There is real fear that this cold-blooded killer could strike again. Because of this, Missy's husband, Brandon Beavers, has chosen not to do media interviews. However, he has been corresponding with us,

and you can read his full statement to Crime Stories on Nancy Grace's website, crimeonline.com. Investigators are also keeping quiet about their work. While we know some of what they're doing, we've been asked to keep much of it confidential. Midlothian Assistant Police Chief Kevin Johnson did agree to talk to us on the record a few months ago on the one-year anniversary of Missy Beaver's murder. Well, it continues to be an open and active investigation. Obviously, the tips have slowed, but we continue to work through every bit of information we have. We have a full-time investigator assigned to this, as well as continuing our collaboration with our other

investigative partners, particularly the FBI. Your department and you have been pretty quiet about this over the last several months. Should we interpret that to mean anything? You know, I think what you have to realize is our investigative strategy and our media response are two separate things. We decided early on that the investigation would come first and I think we've stuck to that when there hasn't been anything to say we haven't gone out there before the media

just for the sake of doing so that to some people means that nothing is new or I think some people have mistakenly assumed that we're not working on this case, and that's far from true. Like I said, obviously the tips have slowed down since the early months of the investigation. And when we've had the time, we've gone back over information, conducted follow-up and repeat interviews,

got fresh eyes to look at the case. Nobody here has forgotten about the case. That's certainly not the situation. I think it's safe to say that in a small town, and what do you've got, about 20,000 citizens in Midlothian, it's a lot harder to deal with an investigation and the media as opposed to a big city where not everybody's everybody's neighbor and everybody knows everybody. Is that safe to say? Yeah, that's probably an accurate statement. Because when there's a news report or speculation, let's just say speculation, it can make things uncomfortable and more difficult

for investigators. It can. It can. And again, you know, we just didn't want attention for attention sake or media for media's sake. And I know that's been frustrating to some people, but we've been very judicious with the information that has been released. And there's a lot of information that hasn't been discussed and that we haven't responded to because we don't want to – we want to protect the integrity of this investigation. There are some people who think that that makes us less transparent and that because it's been a year, we should just open the books for the whole world to see. And clearly,

that's not a reasonable approach to any kind of police work, more especially an investigation as important as this. Is there something the public can help with? I know that not long after this murder, you put out some video and you put the image, that car of interest, for example, at the gun shop. Is there anything that people can look for or anything specifically you would like the public to be aware of? No, not that we haven't already said. I do want to encourage people, if they have information that for whatever reason they haven't shared,

maybe they didn't think it was important enough, you never know what tip may be helpful in this case. And when we combine that with information we already know, it could be productive. So if there's anybody who hasn't come forward that has something to say, we certainly would encourage them to do that. Are you still wanting people to keep an eye out for the potential car of interest, that Nissan Altima that you tweeted about? Is that still a thing that you would like people to be aware of? Absolutely. That's still a component of this investigation that's an unknown.

And certainly, yeah, we would definitely love to locate that car and that driver. I know there are people who look very closely at those images and try to figure out what they can from that. Sure. So it's an active investigation. are people who look very closely at those images and try to figure out what they can from that. Sure. So it's an active investigation. You have detectives working on it regularly, and Missy is not forgotten. I think that's the message today. Absolutely. Again, you know, you have to be careful drawing conclusions from, you know, a lack of us, you know, being out on the front steps holding conferences when we don't have information that needs to be shared. And I think the layperson believes, hey, the more information the better because you just never know what will happen.

And that may sound good until you realize, you know, someday we're going to be sitting in an interview room with this killer and anybody with a computer is going to know every detail about this crime. And that's not a good position to be in as a police officer or the prosecutor of the case later on. So obviously, we're going to treat this investigation very carefully and, again, be judicious with the release of information. I think it's interesting that you do have to have the perspective that someday this will be in the history books in a way, and people will look back and then they're going to find things to question and criticize. So you have to make sure every step you take is the proper one. Absolutely. And listen, I'll say this, you know, when this

investigation does draw to a close, we will open the books. And I would just ask people to reserve their criticism for that day. And if we find then that there were mistakes we made, then by all means, let's discuss it. Give us an opportunity to explain it. Give us, you know, we'll all learn from it. We have probably made a mistake or mistakes that we don't yet know what those mistakes are. But we certainly are, we think our investigation is defensible. We think our effort is the best that this case could have. And so, again, one day the books will be open and everybody can make their opinion then. I don't think it's fair now, before all the information is known, to draw conclusions about the investigation or what should or shouldn't have been done. Everybody working on this case is dedicated to finding justice for Missy,

and that's our guiding principle when we make a decision about the release of information or an interview or a press conference. Again, the investigation and what we do with the media are two different things. I think the public's interest in this case, in particular in our community, is obviously just a reflection of how concerned they are about this case and how concerned they are about our efforts, and I get that. But the speculation, it goes with the business for us, the criticism and the speculation. But goodness, we're talking about a human being here with a husband, a mother, a father, three beautiful girls.

It's not just the subject of public interest. I mean, it's a person. It's a member of our community. And some of the reason why we and others, I believe, perhaps the family, have been pretty calculated is because, you know, there's such a critical analysis of word choice and order and statement, you know, to the extent that I think some people feel like they can't answer a question correctly because it'll be picked apart in social media and it'll lead to more insinuation or speculation or assumptions.

And certainly we wouldn't let that prevent us from putting information out there that needed to be put out there. But it's an interesting challenge. It's a frustration, I think, as the policing field adapts to, if you want to call it the social media age, you know, we've got to learn how best to capitalize on that. Missy Beavers murdered in the Midlothian church her children, her three girls facing life without mommy. We want justice.

Cheryl McCollum, Dr. Brian Russell from Investigation Discovery, Alan Duke. Thank you. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.