TX TX - Terri 'Missy' Bevers, 45, killed in church/suspect in SWAT gear, Midlothian, 18 Apr 2016 #48

[lonewanderer]

I still, for the life of me, can not grasp why anyone would go through such exaggerate measures, dressed that way, with those tools, at that hour, just to snatch a collection plate.

 

[lonewanderer]

As for the outfit, I have a couple of theories.

1. As I've mentioned numerous times, a clever outfit to conceal identity, protect against attacks, and keep forensics minimal. I think this was a woman's idea, or was carried out by a man acting on a woman's instructions.

2. If this attack was random, or if it was targeted, I might could get on board with the dorky gamer theory (but very hesitant to get on board with cosplay). Many gamers make "tank" builds where they compromise speed and other areas in order to keep their charachter highly armored, granting the ability to "tank" their way through attacks.

3. Dark horse, but. I think there is a possibility that a plan was made to murder, intimidate, or attack Missy. I think the person wearing the getup may have thought of this themselves and did not add it into part of the plan. I picture them meeting up and asking "why the F are you wearing THAT?" and they go into detail about why. That, or once the murder was on the news, they asked the shook their heads super hard seeing the murderer wearing all of that.

 

[Ozoner]

I still, for the life of me, can not grasp why anyone would go through such exaggerate measures, dressed that way, with those tools, at that hour, just to snatch a collection plate.

No one is talking about a "collection plate." That is a mischaracterization of the opposing view.

Joel Osteen's church in Houston was robbed of $600,000 in 2014. Would you call that a "collection plate?"

That theft was highly publicized throughout Texas and likely raised would-be burglars' expectations about the size of a potential score from a church.

 

[Laughing]

Just to add -- that <modsnip - NO NAMECALLING>/SWAT Perp did not hear Missy coming in my lived experience. I've probably posted this previously in our acquaintance.

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday wearing a motorcycle helmet. The components that protect you dampen & distort sound. Shell, foam padding, fabric lining.

You cannot carry on a conversation (without a comm system.)

Rain on the roof & that helmet -- nope, <modsnip - NO NAMECALLING> did not hear MB's truck, did not hear MB unlock the doors, did not hear MB walking in athletic shoes down the hall.

Your visual field is limited as well, unlikely that <modsnip - NO NAMECALLING> saw the headlights or MB until she was very close.

Trapped animal reaction, perhaps -- flight wasn't much of an option, freeze didn't happen, fight was deadly for MB imho.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[I am not Sherlock H.]

Thank you.

I didn't do an exhaustive search, but here's a quick peek-and-summary from this forum's past.

In Thread 44 (and undoubtedly before), there was discussion about if we saw a hint of a gun being involved. Much debate. See around post 95 and thereafter. That was in 2018. Then later the forum was closed.

It reopened in Thread 45 in 2021. About post 80-90 or so, there's more talking about the idea of a gun. Then in post 104,
LHughesSK mentioned those records in an FBI database made available to researchers, and shared the info in this forum. It says MB was killed by a gun! Whoa! Several (or many) of us followed the details to look and see personally. (Because it's in a database and requires a search, you can't just link to a page, but instead have to get to the database and then the search as needed.) Later in this forum the same were found on the FBI website itself (identical info).

They have been discussed, shared and re-shared, many times in this forum since then. You can find way more discussion about all of that in the 125 pages or so of forum discussion since then.

FWIW I personally looked at BOTH sites, and that's what it says. Neither uses names, but there is no question that the info in that place in each database pertains to MB (place, date, age, sex together are uniquely her) and tells us that the weapon of death in her murder was "Handgun - pistol, revolver, etc" . Over time, FBI keeps redoing their search database and it has gotten harder and harder to navigate. I stopped trying, because I already saw it many times and it was such a beast to deal with. But the many discussions since then should tell you all everything that's there, even if you don't opt to fight FBI website.

If you want to look for yourself, or review the discussion, that is map to all you want and more, I'm sure.

Thank you and others for weighing in on this too. All quite informative and helpful.

And not in response to this or others, but to clarify - I am not asking that any good and investigative non-disclosed information be released to the curious public - just mentioning that if one could view the full sequence of all video or in-building caught images, it would probably help to understand what this might have been.

I firmly believe that certain details, information, or possible left items need to be withheld from disclosure until decided for release, or the perpetrator is caught.

On balance, and from what has been released so far, it just seems to be targeted. But no certain way to know. Yet.
MOO.

 

[Ozoner]

On balance, and from what has been released so far, it just seems to be targeted. But no certain way to know. Yet.
MOO.

Really? How so? I would say that the exact opposite is true.

Numerous points of logic have been raised showing that the crime was not targeted but was actually an interrupted burglary.
—The perp's behavior on camera appears to match the behavior of other known church thieves caught on camera.
—The perp appears to have been searching for valuables or for something specific.
—The crime occurred around the time of day when many break ins at businesses occur; thieves expect businesses to be vacant in the early morning hours, and those thieves are usually correct.
—The crime occurred on a Monday morning, the day of the week when a burglar might expect the biggest score at a church.
—The break-in occurred two years after one of the largest Church heists in history, which occurred in the same state and which received massive coverage throughout the state. That highly publicized crime could have inspired a copycat.
—At one point the burglar is seen a carrying an object that was likely an item of value that he intended to steal (and which was likely abandoned when he fled the murder scene).

There has be no evidence whatsoever that it was targeted.

—There is no indication that the perp knew that Missy would be there.
—The loser perp was wearing a helmet that would have prevented him from hearing Missy when she did come in.
—Anyone who knew that Missy would be arriving would have also known that others would be arriving around the same time.
—The perp was not lying in wait for Missy near the entrance.
—Missy had no compelling need to enter the building when she did; she have simply been unlocking the bathrooms. If she had set up everything for the class first, others would have been there by the time she entered the church.
—It would have been easier to target Missy outside the church since there was no guarantee that she would enter, but that wasn't done.
—This crime required an action on Missy's part that the perp could not have predicted: The video appears to show Missy hearing a noise and approaching the source of that noise. Most people who have simply fled, and if Missy had done that, the perp would not have had the opportunity to harm her.
—Anyone with a known motive to harm Missy or a close connection to Missy has been thoroughly investigated, and that investigation has not developed a suspect.

This isn't even a difficult one, folks. Missy stumbled into a burglary in progress and was killed when the surprised burglar panicked.

I suppose that a targeted attack would make for a more interesting narrative; there's really no other reason why anyone would be pushing that theory. I cannot refute the evidence for a targeted attack because there is none; there's nothing to refute. On balance, it isn't even close. One side of the scale is bottomed out and resting on the ground.


<modsnip>

 

[somequestions]

SQ, to answer some of your questions with facts we know, or possibilities that could be the answer --
1 Where she was found -- per VI, it was not in the center foyer, but rather in that "hallway" but over more to the north, in the vicinity of where the westside hall meets the northside hall.
2 We don't know what loser perp heard or didn't hear, of course. As you wonder, maybe LP did hear MB coming. Or maybe not. But we don't know how loud (or not loud) MB's vehicle was. Also, it was HEAVY rain that night, and the sound of the storm could have drowned out all other sounds. Also, loser perp may have been in the inner auditorium when MB drove up - and if so, he would have heard nothing even without rain. I suspect the same likely would be true if perp was on the back (E) side of the building when MB was driving up.
3 I think the diagram mentioned by MB's SIL would be informative, and might answer a lot of our questions. I think LP probably spent way more time in rooms, looking for loot, than we perceive since we think the 2 minutes of video is all-showing. But if that diagram has been shared with public, I've never seen it here.
4 You ask why LP didn't go straight to church offices, but maybe he did. Timestamps of where he was, and when, would help. If LP is indeed a burglar, he had HOURS to work with, so if he decided to stop to check rooms on the way to see what might be desirable, why not?
5 Reportedly church was all on electronic locks, which are easy to set (and typically set AUTOMATICALLY by a programmed schedule which eliminates someone forgetting to lock doors), which answers whether a single door (or all) were unlocked.
6 Other than the kitchen door, I think all the doors were DOUBLE layers to get past, and that LP tried a different door first without success (at the NE corner) before the kitchen door. I suspect rain might have been an issue in that sequence (kitchen door was fully exposed to elements, double doors not so much).
7 You surmise that LP had no plan, but VI thought exactly the opposite, with the perp entering with tons of excess time, and a plan to check all the rooms systematically for items of value. As for whether perp intended a complete search of the office itself, that's impossible for us to know without knowing how much time he spent there (and, to be accurate, how much MORE time he was PLANNING to spend there over the next hour or three).
8 As for what loser perp would have wanted to find and steal, Sunday collection money would be the obvious answer. It's not about how big they were, but about how much money did loser perp THINK would be there awaiting the bank to open on Monday?

Does anyone know what room number was the church offices? Did the burglar get into the church offices? If not, then does this mean the burglar could not figure out how to get into the church offices with their tools? I can only guess the burglar got into the church offices and spent lots of time in their trying to find the money. Would shooting the office door break the lock?

There are videos of gas station robberies where the clerk gives the robber the money, does nothing wrong, but the robber still shoots the clerk anyway. Even though this burglar is strange, maybe they did not think when they shot Missy Bevers multiple times?

I would like to know how much time the burglar spent in the church offices? This is why I think the police diagram of time spent in each room is so important to the case. If the burglar spent a lot of time in the church offices versus the other rooms in the building trying to find the money, then it certainly would make more sense as a burglary gone wrong. Maybe this is where all the missing time footage is?

I read somewhere that the reason police know the time Missy Bevers arrived that morning was because when she pulled into the parking lot she then did a wide left u turn to go up the awning ramp to park her truck. She stopped there probably so it would be easiest to get the equipment out of her truck. When her truck went up the awning ramp, the headlights of her truck activated the motion surveillance cameras. This is how police know the exact time she arrived.

I wondered if the burglar at Creekside Church did the same thing as the person in the Nissan Altima at SWFA, go around the entire building in their vehicle looking at the exterior before deciding to park? It would be sort of strange if the person did not do this just to make sure no one was at the church if it was the same person.

Once inside the church, if the burglar had made the it all the way around to all the rooms before entering the auditorium(the last part of surveillance footage), what were they there to steal? If they had taken something and Missy surprised them, then this item would probably be next to Missy Bever's body. If they had made the round of all the rooms and there were no more to be explored, it certainly was bad timing because I would expect that the burglar would have left, not having found what they were looking for.

There is so much information that we just do not know.

 

[justtrish]

<modsnip - quoted post and response removed>

I can see both sides.

I think the issue for me is neither scenario seems to happen how I think it would if that was the true motive. Each one has things that seem off about it.

The random burglar seems to be just wandering and damaging things and it just seems like they have all the time in the world to wander the halls. This is certainly not how I imagine a burglar going about their crimes.

A targeted attack also seems off because of the random wandering also. This makes sense only if the person thinks Missy is arriving closer to 5 and they just want to roam around.. but again what if someone is alerted and they can't carry out their plan? Same for the burglary though too. How did they know that there wasn't some internal alert to an outside alarm company that would send police or a notice to an alarm company?

None of it really makes 100% sense. Differing opinions can help generate questions and thoughts that someone else is not thinking of.

 

[SteveS]

<modsnip - quoted post, response removed> I can see both sides.

I think the issue for me is neither scenario seems to happen how I think it would if that was the true motive. Each one has things that seem off about it.

The random burglar seems to be just wandering and damaging things and it just seems like they have all the time in the world to wander the halls. This is certainly not how I imagine a burglar going about their crimes.

A targeted attack also seems off because of the random wandering also. This makes sense only if the person thinks Missy is arriving closer to 5 and they just want to roam around.. but again what if someone is alerted and they can't carry out their plan? Same for the burglary though too. How did they know that there wasn't some internal alert to an outside alarm company that would send police or a notice to an alarm company?

None of it really makes 100% sense. I Differing opinions can help generate questions and thoughts that someone else is not thinking of.

I agree with Ozoner that everything we know of the crime LOOKS LIKE a burglary interrupted. Some of the most passionate advocacy says it is not a burglary because "it looks like a burglary" (so they decide it has been staged to intentionally look like a burglary).

But I agree with you that it COULD BE either. We just can't say for sure, without knowing what the loser perp had in mind when he pried open the door, other than this was quite a loser no matter what. It was either a very inept burglar (who didn't manage to steal anything because he felt compelled to kill someone who interrupted him), or a very inept killer (who wandered all around the building aimlessly and wasn't ready when MB walked in the door, and had to depend on her wandering in his direction within a very very short time frame to get her in a place to kill her). What a pathetic loser either way.

 

[hexicon]

I'm a long-time lurker and have a lot of ideas about this case that I'd like to share eventually. <modsnip> We all want justice for Missy.

IMO there is a lot of talk about "evidence," but in reality there is very little evidence--we have only the inferences we draw from the video based on our own experiences, biases, and research. (And if we are in the targeted camp, we also draw inferences from the victimology beyond "wrong place, wrong time.")

Some see a burglar doing what burglars do. Some see a dorky, chubby young man strutting around and enjoying the thrill of his SWAT LARP. Some see a middle-aged woman pacing as she half-heartedly stages a burglary and works up the guts to murder a rival.

If we could find an entirely neutral viewer with no preconceived notions and ask them what they see, they would likely say "It looks like a burglary . . . but something isn't right."

 

[justtrish]

I'm a long-time lurker and have a lot of ideas about this case that I'd like to share eventually. <modsnip> We all want justice for Missy.

IMO there is a lot of talk about "evidence," but in reality there is very little evidence--we have only the inferences we draw from the video based on our own experiences, biases, and research. (And if we are in the targeted camp, we also draw inferences from the victimology beyond "wrong place, wrong time.")

Some see a burglar doing what burglars do. Some see a dorky, chubby young man strutting around and enjoying the thrill of his SWAT LARP. Some see a middle-aged woman pacing as she half-heartedly stages a burglary and works up the guts to murder a rival.

If we could find an entirely neutral viewer with no preconceived notions and ask them what they see, they would likely say "It looks like a burglary . . . but something isn't right."

Welcome! I would love to hear your ideas. There are many of us here just like you <modsnip>

I think anyone looking at that video that has no idea a murder happens later after that would say just like you mentioned it's a burglary, but something isn't right. The behavior is just a bit off.. but in the reverse if we were told there was a murder and then shown that video, we'd think well that person doesn't seem like they are preparing for a murder. It feels like we are missing pieces that would help (which I assume we are, but LE has much more to go on).

 

[Ozoner]

If we could find an entirely neutral viewer with no preconceived notions and ask them what they see, they would likely say "It looks like a burglary . . . but something isn't right."

Let's dig into that a little more. What is it that wouldn't seem right to that neutral viewer?

It may be that the perp isn't acting the way that people expect a burglar to act. But where are those expectations coming from? Are those preconceptions about how burglars behave coming from television and the movies? That may be the issue. I would submit that the burglar is acting very much like a typical real-life burglar.

Real burglars do not go down to city hall and look over the blueprints for a building, calculate the most efficient points of ingress and egress, and use sophisticated equipment to disable security systems. That's what burglars do on TV, not in real life.

Most real-life burglars are losers who can't get their lives together enough to hold down a minimum-wage job. They can't navigate their crime scenes any better than they can navigate the world of their daily lives. They're screw-ups.

Someone posted links to security footage of other church burglaries several pages back in the thread. I strongly encourage people to watch those videos and any other videos of burglaries that they can find on YouTube or elsewhere.

I think that seeing numerous videos of burglaries might be enough for someone to have an epiphany and realize that the way the perp in this crime is acting is exactly the way many real-life burglars act, especially when they think that they have plenty of time. They are not efficient professionals: they are reckless failures who bumble about taking what they can find. In some cases they don't take much because they don't find much.

I think that what seems off to people simply reflects a disconnect between the way they imagine burglars behaving and how burglars actually behave.

(By the way, I was that neutral viewer when I began looking into the case; I had not followed the case at all until I began following it here on Websleuths.)

 

[FromGermany1]

Refreshing:

Docs: Church murder victim received "creepy" LinkedIn message

New search warrants detail communications Terri "Missy" Bevers received over cell phones and LinkedIn before her death

www.cbsnews.com

CNN.com - Transcripts

transcripts.cnn.com

 

[Ozoner]

Refreshing:

Docs: Church murder victim received "creepy" LinkedIn message

New search warrants detail communications Terri "Missy" Bevers received over cell phones and LinkedIn before her death

www.cbsnews.com

CNN.com - Transcripts

transcripts.cnn.com

That was a lead that was necessary to pursue, but I don't think anything came of it. There are quite a few guys out there who use social media sites to hit on random women whose pictures they like.

 

[iamnotagolem]

Let's dig into that a little more. What is it that wouldn't seem right to that neutral viewer?

It may be that the perp isn't acting the way that people expect a burglar to act. But where are those expectations coming from? Are those preconceptions about how burglars behave coming from television and the movies? That may be the issue. I would submit that the burglar is acting very much like a typical real-life burglar.

Real burglars do not go down to city hall and look over the blueprints for a building, calculate the most efficient points of ingress and egress, and use sophisticated equipment to disable security systems. That's what burglars do on TV, not in real life.

Most real-life burglars are losers who can't get their lives together enough to hold down a minimum-wage job. They can't navigate their crime scenes any better than they can navigate the world of their daily lives. They're screw-ups.

Someone posted links to security footage of other church burglaries several pages back in the thread. I strongly encourage people to watch those videos and any other videos of burglaries that they can find on YouTube or elsewhere.

I think that seeing numerous videos of burglaries might be enough for someone to have an epiphany and realize that the way the perp in this crime is acting is exactly the way many real-life burglars act, especially when they think that they have plenty of time. They are not efficient professionals: they are reckless failures who bumble about taking what they can find. In some cases they don't take much because they don't find much.

I think that what seems off to people simply reflects a disconnect between the way they imagine burglars behaving and how burglars actually behave.

(By the way, I was that neutral viewer when I began looking into the case; I had not followed the case at all until I began following it here on Websleuths.)

I guess I expect a burglar to burgle. This burglar didn’t not burgle. But this killer did kill.

Every time it’s brought up I think, I’ll read the argument that it was a burglar and be open to that point of view. But then I always end up right back to, why didn’t the burglar burgle? He/she killed, so he/she is a killer, that is a fact.

Whether or not there was ever any plan to burgle is still unknown, but he/she had time to burgle prior to killing, so why didn’t he/she?

 

[Ozoner]

I guess I expect a burglar to burgle. This burglar didn’t not burgle. But this killer did kill.

Every time it’s brought up I think, I’ll read the argument that it was a burglar and be open to that point of view. But then I always end up right back to, why didn’t the burglar burgle? He/she killed, so he/she is a killer, that is a fact.

Whether or not there was ever any plan to burgle is still unknown, but he/she had time to burgle prior to killing, so why didn’t he/she?

That one isn't difficult to explain. The burglar was likely looking for a large cash haul and never found it. I believe that he may have been inspired by the well-publicized theft of $600,000 from Joel Osteen's Texas church.

It also appears that the burglar is holding a white object at a certain point in the video. That might have been an item that he intended to steal.

It's a given that a burglar who committed murder after being interrupted wouldn't want to be in possession of anything that could connect him to the crime scene, so his abandoning any potential loot at that point was predictable.

 

[Curious_in_NC]

Let's dig into that a little more. What is it that wouldn't seem right to that neutral viewer?
rsbm

Most real-life burglars are losers who can't get their lives together enough to hold down a minimum-wage job. They can't navigate their crime scenes any better than they can navigate the world of their daily lives. They're screw-ups.

I would tend to agree with this characterization, at least for the ones we know about because they get caught. But you have to also take into account that in this case this perp also went to considerable lengths to successfully conceal and/or obfuscate their identity. There's not even a consensus on this thread on whether they're male or female. Maybe this was just random luck for a somewhat deranged burglar, or maybe it was an uncanny bit of self-awareness of someone who knew they'd be captured on security cameras.

I guess I'm not firmly in either the targeted killer or the surprised burglar camp right now. But the effort put into disguise goes beyond a desperate loser burglar profile.

ETA A distant third choice in my mind is a deranged LARPer whose voices in their head told them to kill Missy.

 

[lonewanderer]

I would tend to agree with this characterization, at least for the ones we know about because they get caught. But you have to also take into account that in this case this perp also went to considerable lengths to successfully conceal and/or obfuscate their identity. There's not even a consensus on this thread on whether they're male or female. Maybe this was just random luck for a somewhat deranged burglar, or maybe it was an uncanny bit of self-awareness of someone who knew they'd be captured on security cameras.

I guess I'm not firmly in either the targeted killer or the surprised burglar camp right now. But the effort put into disguise goes beyond a desperate loser burglar profile.

ETA A distant third choice in my mind is a deranged LARPer whose voices in their head told them to kill Missy.

This, right here, is exactly why I cannot be sold on random burglar.

I cannot be convinced that anyone would be dressed like that to burglarize a place, at that hour, at that place, with everything else than transpired.

 

[lonewanderer]

That was a lead that was necessary to pursue, but I don't think anything came of it. There are quite a few guys out there who use social media sites to hit on random women whose pictures they like.

Exactly.

We also have very little information about the messages.

There is no shortage of (usually foreign) total weirdos in women’s DMs.

 

[Ozoner]

I guess I'm not firmly in either the targeted killer or the surprised burglar camp right now. But the effort put into disguise goes beyond a desperate loser burglar profile.

A disguise isn't surprising if the burglar was hoping for a large heist. A large heist would have meant a serious crime.

Someone posted a Ken Mains video earlier. Mains is the cold case detective you founded The American Investigative Society of Cold Cases (AISOCC). Mains expressed the opinion that the burglar was a cop wannbe—possibly someone who had applied to a police department and been rejected. That seems plausible to me.

I cannot be convinced that anyone would be dressed like that to burglarize a place, at that hour, at that place, with everything else than transpired.

"at that hour"

I'm not sure why you are stressing "at that hour." The crime occurred during the wee hours of the morning, which is typical for B&Es committed at businesses.