Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Missy Bevers Murder: What do you see in the 'Vehicle of Interest"?

Episode Date: January 20, 2017

The public release of video showing a “vehicle of interest” hovering in a parking lot near the church where Missy Bevers was murdered has spurred new speculation about the killer’s identity. But when you zoom in on the car, can you really see the killer? Nancy Grace and Alan Duke discuss the theories and what they've confirmed from a third source close to the unsolved case. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. In the early morning hours of April 18th, Beavers, a fitness instructor, a mom and wife, showed up at this church to teach a class. Police says she was killed by puncture wounds to the head and chest. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. This person intended to do exactly what they did, when they did it, and whom they did it to. The former Murphy police chief says the circle of people who may know what happened is likely very small. There has to be some link between her death and people

in her past. Investigators have poured over Beaver's internet history and executed multiple warrants but say today the ID on this suspect will come from a tip they still haven't received. How did a Texas supermom get bludgeoned dead in a Midlothian church? I mean, the psychological implications of that alone. Well, it's more than I am. Just a trial lawyer can take in. Hello, everybody. Nancy Grace with Crime Stories here, and we are on Missy Beavers today. I don't understand how the perpetrator can be caught on video and still not apprehended.

I don't get it, but let's go with what we do know. Right now, focus on a potential person of interest that is former law enforcement, and we have now triple confirmed that. We have also reconfirmed that there are not only relatives of Missy's that are afraid, as well as certain law enforcement members, that the killer is walking free. I can't change that, but what I can change is an analysis of the vehicle, the vehicle of interest and the route that we believe the killer may have taken that night. Joining me right now, investigative reporter Alan Duke. Alan, I want to talk to you some more about this 2012 Nissan Altima, 2010 to 2012. Again, it's hard for me to understand why this vehicle cannot be narrowed down because it happens every day in every major city in this country. I mean, just go to the APD or the

NYPD theft unit, car theft unit. It's a science. I mean, they can tell by looking at a taillight, a taillight, what year a car is. I can only believe that law enforcement has information they're not telling us. You know, we've reported previously that they have been very silent for the last several months. They've decided not to talk to the media and make any releases. I have to believe that there's something that they know about that car, because how many of these cars that there's something that they know about that car, because how many of these cars could there be in that community? And they've narrowed down some persons of interest.

What do they know about that car? Why can't they look in zooming in? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Let's look at the video ourselves and see what we can see. Now, I believe that you're looking at it right now. Let's tell our listeners, what exactly are you, what website are you using to see the actual video? It's on YouTube, and we have it embedded in crimeonline.com, and we'll re-embed it along with this podcast. It was posted just a few weeks ago by the owners of that gun store that's just catty-cornered across the street from the church in Midlothian where the killing took place. It's on YouTube, originally posted. It's remarkable.

You've got all of these cameras that have captured the car a couple of hours before the murder. If you look at it, you see it pulling off the divided highway. I think that's highway 287. And it pulls in and it turns the lights, it blinks the lights. Then it goes around to the back of the gun store, SWFA, which is a large gun store. You see it going back behind the loading docks, and then it pulls around back to the front, and it pulls into a parking space in the front, and it sits there with lights off for three minutes. I'm looking at the same thing you're looking at. What I don't understand is how I can see dust on the moon. I can see individual rocks and particles on the moon, but I can't get the

tag plate for this car. And like you say, can you, when you zoom in, do you think you can see one person, two people, a face? What do you think you can see? Me personally, I don't know what that is, but law enforcement, they've got to be able to analyze this. You know, I've watched discussions online that started after our podcast last week. It got a lot of discussions going on various forums about this, and people started themselves on their own computers zooming in and looking and sharing and discussing. Some people claim to see a nose. Some people claim to see a box in the back seat. Some people claim to see that there's the drivers wearing a helmet. You have these different theories. But I look at it, and I personally cannot tell much from it. But there are people who just swear that they can tell a lot of things by looking at a zoomed-in screenshot from a frame grab of that video.

What do you make? Well, the people that believe they can see a face is a white person. Do they believe they can see a white male or white female? Well, depending on who they is. Some people say it's a person with a ponytail because of the way their hair is behind their ears. Hey, where were you that night? Exactly. I've got to go and check my alibi. But you know, you get different. It's what is it the Rorschach test, you see what you want to see or what's in your mind. It's almost to that point. But again, I've got to believe as you said, that there is technology and that the technology has been, is being used to really peer inside the frames of that video. Because it's pretty clear

video as security camera video goes. Let's talk about what we've learned by re-combing over the search warrant affidavits. They tell you a lot, Alan. Now remember when you are asking a judge to give you a search warrant, you throw in everything you believe you might be able to find as a result of that search. Why? Because if not, you will say you okay what if I go into your place just pretending and I say, I'm looking for an AK 47 that killed so-and-so gang member, July 19, July, 2015. Okay. If that's all you put in there and you don't put in a catch all phrase, if I come in your

place and then I see a hundred rounds of ammunition and I see cocaine and heroin and stolen gold. That's outside the scope of my search warrant. My point is a lot of times police will put and any other indicia of criminal enterprise, which is obviously a catch-all phrase, but my point is if you don't delineate it in your search warrant, you'll have a constitutional challenge at trial if you see something else that's not listed in the warrant and you seize it. So a lot of the stuff in the Missy Beavers warrants, as I call them, it's what they think they might find as a result of the search, not what they know to be there. So with that in mind, as a cautionary instruction, what do we learn from the search warrants, Alan? Well, the affidavits, there are two really interesting ones. There's the one for social media, for Facebook, wanting the Facebook post and the most spectacular thing

in the affidavit, which I'm going to pull up on my screen right now and look at. It talks about information that investigators have gotten by way of their interviews, specifically including an interview with Brandon Beavers, the husband. And this is what is shocking. The spouse of the decedent, that's Brandon Beavers, tells law enforcement that it is his knowledge that his wife was involved in affairs, relationships. And it names one particular person. I'll read this. Additionally, we have received information from the spouse of the decedent that the decedent was having love affairs with at least one person identified by the spouse as, I'm going to leave the name out,

and our investigators have uncovered communications between decedent and other persons through Facebook private chat service specifically including the name of that person making arrangements to meet the decedent. Now, in each of these affidavits, it has an S on affairs, not love affair, not relationship, but relationships. And it names this one particular person. Is there a paren? Is there a paren like affair, paren, S, affair? No, it says love affairs. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. I'm going to ask this empty room. Is there anybody in here that has never done anything they don't regret? Okay. Nobody's raising their hand. We all regret doing something.

Okay. So I don't want to turn this into attack Missy Beavers because she may have had an affair. Now, an affair can be a fling. An affair can be a man keeping up a second family in another state for 10 or 15 years. I mean, it can be anything. So I'm not in the business of judging morally because I do not want anybody judging me. If it's got to do with a felony, it's fair game. Okay? So that is why this is even part of the conversation here. We all know, Alan, I believe you'll agree with me on this at least anyway,

that when you're looking at a homicide or an unknown perpetrator attack, you start with small circles. First, they're going to look at Brandon Beavers. He's the husband. That's just the deal. That statistically is the perpetrator, is the husband, be it current or ex. Then you go to boyfriend. Then you go to exes.

Then you go to flings. And you keep going out further and further, casting your net further and further. For all I know, this affair could have happened 10 years ago. So let's just put this in perspective before we start trashing Missy Beavers, okay? Because I do not want that. When I go to heaven, I don't want them throwing that up in my face, okay? I got plenty I've done wrong without that being on top of it. This was more recent, and there's another sentence here.

In the course of our investigations, we have had multiple references to the decedent's Facebook account, which listed the decedent's plans and activities for assonations with people alleged to be her lovers. Again, S lovers. So that complicates this whole thing. Well, to me, it doesn't complicate it. It gives me more leads to go on. Well, and I don't know any of these people. They'd be maybe mild mannered librarians for all I know. Don't think they are, but they could be. So, you know, an affair does not a killer make. True. So we've got those irons in the fire. We've got the possibility that cops have been able to enhance that ultima and have ruled in or out the driver. I'm just telling you,

I always say, Alan, there is no coincidence in criminal law. I find it to be no coincidence that someone was acting suspiciously, parking in the front at 2 a.m. of a closed gun store, then driving around back for a period of time, then coming around to the other side. Before I get back on alleged affairs, tell me so our listeners can know where you're seeing the aerial view of the gunshot parking lot versus Midlothian Church. Well, you can simply, anyone can go on their phone or their laptop or whatever and see Google, just Google Maps the church, and you will see SWFA. Hold on. I'm a trial lawyer, not an IT specialist for Pete's sake. So let's just try. I'm going to go to Google. Go to Google and just search

SWFA. Google Earth and then or Google Maps, map.google. You know, you need to make up your mind. Do you want me to put Google Earth, Google Map or map.google? Map.google.com. I'm typing it right now. Map.google.com. I'm typing it right now. Okay, map.google.com.

Done. Let's just do this. S-W-F-A. That's the name of this gun shop. And immediately the autofill in mine comes up U.S. 287 Midlothian, Texas. Immediately I open it up and I have a map of it, of where that is. And then if you look, you will see almost directly across the street, it says Creekside Church. You mean the outdoor sports store? Yes, SWFA Outdoors. You see that. Now just zoom out maybe one click and it'll give

you a broader picture. And on mine, it's showing the Creekside Church directly across the street, almost just to the northwest, across the street and to the northwest, maybe a few hundred yards. How do you make it to an aerial view? Just click that little box. If you're using the same kind of browser I am, it says Earth, and it'll show you the satellite view. Click that, Earth. Somehow, I've got an upside down roadway. Okay, wait, wait, wait. Okay, I think I've got it. Look at this.

It is no more than, what would you say, a quarter mile? As the crow flies between where that car was hiding in the back, turning its lights on and off, behind the gun store, 2 a.m., the night that Missy Beaver shows up about an hour and a half later, it's a half a mile walk between a stand of trees from that gun shop to Midlothian Church. That's at best a five-minute walk through that stand of trees. Any local would know that. Anybody. Now, the thought of at three o'clock in the morning or whenever walking across the four lane road, it wasn't an extremely busy road. But we know from the surveillance tape, we do see about every 30 seconds a car or a truck goes by.

We saw the car pull out and using a blinker, by the way, showing that they're apparently trying to obey the law, the traffic laws, taking a right out. Now, it's just there's a turnaround where they can do a U-turn just right out of there. And then they can turn into it. There's a little dirt road that is directly across the street from this gun store that if you follow and you go down, you can park right there near that tree stand that you're referring to. And you can have a very hidden walk to the back of the church. And remember, there were some surveillance cameras working, not directly outside the church, but somewhere in that vicinity. None of them picked up a vehicle around the church.

That's why I'm saying this was no snatch and grab. This was not a burglary. Someone parked a distance away and walked to the church and got in. And they would have had to thought about this and planned it. Yeah, they had to think about it. I'm just saying it's no coincidence about that Altima. It's not. Nobody is driving around. Let's just pretend. Let's just pretend that it was someone driving around and they got lost and they had to check their map. Why did they have to go behind the gun shop and get in the back parking lot? It would be a cold day in H-E-double-L that at 2 30 in the morning I would go behind a gun shop alone in my car to check a map. That's not

going to happen. Not safe. So what were they doing back there? Were they deciding whether they were going to park their car there and walk to the stand of trees. Maybe they spotted the surveillance camera and went, uh-oh, and hightailed it out of there. But I'm guaranteeing you that that stand of trees has something to do with where the perp hid to get into that church. That gun store is like, yes, the gun store is like a fortress, and there are 17 exterior cameras on it, and it's hard to miss those. So I think what you just said makes a lot of sense. Well, another thing, if you look at this aerial view, there are also, it looks like, five separate buildings in that cluster of structures.

They could have hidden behind any of those or used any of those as cover, I think. Well, I'm zooming in and looking. How can it be a coincidence? And I feel like I'm with my investigator when I was a district attorney. How can it be a coincidence that this happens around 2 to 2.30 in the morning and she shows up over at the church, what, at 3 or 3.30? She walks in at about 4.20. Okay, so I'm off. But the killer was seen there at 358. The killer was seen there at 358 on at least the video that has been released inside the church. And keep in mind, law enforcement has not released all the video. So how can that span not be connected? So the

killer was already in there at 5 till for sure. they had to break in they broke in to get in through one of the i think through a kitchen door yeah there's a kitchen door that they entered through and by the way i'm looking zoomed in on my satellite view you can see tire tracks to where you can drive a vehicle to the rear of that tree stand just to the rear of the church, you can get, there's that creek, the tree stand actually is following North Prong Creek. All you have to do is park because there are obviously trucks and other vehicles that have driven there. I'm looking on the satellite view of Google, and you see tire tracks that go just behind on the opposite side of the creek from the church. Well, you know, now it used to be braking technology, but now it's kind of old hat to take a plaster cast of tire tracks to show tread

and then match it up to somebody's car. It's like a footprint. But did they do that? Doubtful. Highly doubtful. Highly doubtful. Wasn't it raining? I don't know what would really have been left for

them to plaster cast really well you could have seen fresh tracks easily if if this car pulled in my question is now there had not been a murder in this small town which we'll get to in a second how small it was in years oh yeah yeah yeah we got the population wrong. That burns me out when somebody does it to my hometown of Macon. Well, Macon's a big city. It certainly is, and don't forget it. Now, just remember, didn't you come from Carrollton? So don't start with me about Macon. Carrollton, Georgia population, when I was a kid, it was population about 14,000 or 15,000,

which, by the way, is now the current population of Midlothian, Texas. That's the current population. Okay. I want to get that straight, which we sound like we're kidding about that, but actually it's, it bears on this case. The bigger a city or area is, the more likely it could be stranger on stranger. But I still consider this to be a small enough town to think that this was someone that knew her and not stranger on stranger. And keep in mind that the church and the gun store itself are located on 287, about halfway between Midlothian and the other booming city of Waxahachie. So it's the church itself is in a rural area. I wonder how long you practiced that before you could actually say it on this podcast.

I give you total credit. So this is where we're at now. We are reviewing the Ultima video just like you are and actually have feet on the ground checking out that route between the gun store and the Midlothian church where Missy lost her life. You know what? I don't want to talk about her alleged affairs, except to the extent that if they existed, those people are being investigated. I wonder if it's willingly or unwillingly. This is Nancy Grace signing off of Crime Stories. Goodbye, friend.