TX TX - Terri 'Missy' Bevers, 45, killed in church/suspect in SWAT gear, Midlothian, 18 Apr 2016 #49

[JnRyan]

It seems to be quiet in here recently. After doing a search on the internet, the media and LE have been quieter for a lot longer.

 

[lonewanderer]

It seems to be quiet in here recently. After doing a search on the internet, the media and LE have been quieter for a lot longer.

Honestly, at this point, there is not much more to go on.

Most of us agree with most of the information.

The biggest topic of discussion is if the attack was targeted or not. This point of discussions gets very heated and ultimately leads to extreme amounts of counter-productivity. I have my opinions on this subject, but after opening my mind to other posters, and stopped being so stubborn, I learned information I didn't know before.

 

[red carpet fiber]

Arrin Stoner's analysis and theory of this crime makes the most sense to me, personally.

Stoner's theory in a nutshell: The killer was a burglar that had a prosthetic or was otherwise disabled in a way that prevented him from running away (this also explains the strange gait). Missy stumbled upon him and he physically couldn't run, so he killed her. The behavior of the vehicle at the nearby shopping center is consistent with a burglar casing locations to break into.
Stoner has a few videos analyzing the Bevers case. I embedded just one video into my post, but I'll link the whole YouTube playlist HERE

If this was a planned homicide there were so many better places to kill Missy. It doesn't make sense to do it the way they did, if she were targeted (IMO).

 

[al66pine]

Arrin Stoner's analysis and theory of this crime makes the most sense to me, personally.

Stoner's theory in a nutshell:....

snipped for focus @red carpet fiber
Thank you sooo very much for your post summarizing podcaster's theory & linking it. This ^ sounds plausible, so I'll give it a try.

Once I got pulled into a 90 min podcast (not this case) which presented a little green man in a flying saucer (well, the equivalent) as the theorized prime suspect. Grrr. Total waste of time.

 

[FromGermany1]

Arrin Stoner's analysis and theory of this crime makes the most sense to me, personally.

Stoner's theory in a nutshell: The killer was a burglar that had a prosthetic or was otherwise disabled in a way that prevented him from running away (this also explains the strange gait). Missy stumbled upon him and he physically couldn't run, so he killed her. The behavior of the vehicle at the nearby shopping center is consistent with a burglar casing locations to break into.
Stoner has a few videos analyzing the Bevers case. I embedded just one video into my post, but I'll link the whole YouTube playlist HERE

If this was a planned homicide there were so many better places to kill Missy. It doesn't make sense to do it the way they did, if she were targeted (IMO).

"The perp was disabled in a way, that prevented him from running away, so he killed Missy, when she stumbled upon him."

WHY was he able (despite being "disabled") to disappear so very fast and unseen after the murder?? For me these two things aren't quite compatible.

 

[SteveS]

"The perp was disabled in a way, that prevented him from running away, so he killed Missy, when she stumbled upon him."

WHY was he able (despite being "disabled") to disappear so very fast and unseen after the murder?? For me these two things aren't quite compatible.

I'm not sure I buy that he was physically impaired and unable to run. But we already know he could walk, even if his gait was weird. And even if he had to limit it to a walk, that "getaway" would have been suitably easy with lots of time to spare.

Consider the setting. The murder apparently happened within the northwest portion of the building. Walking to the door he had entered would have only taken seconds as he was right there already.

I'll assume he's fleeing to get away from the consequences of an unplanned murder, and doesn't have it mapped out in advance. I assume he doesn't know why MB is there, doesn't have any sense that others may come in the hour ahead, all he knows is was in the church illegally and ----

MB is in front of him. 'Yikes, she saw me in here.' He panics and shoots her. 'I shot someone, oh no! Grab my stuff, I gotta get out of here. Get to the door, get to my nearby vehicle as fast as I can move, and drive away.'

I would expect that he would have been moving in a hurry out of fear of getting seen at a murder scene. I'd bet he would have been running not walking, and gotten to the car even faster. But if he's slow, it's still a relatively short amount of time.

How far did he have to walk or run? The dimensions of the church are about 75x75 feet. The most logical place for him to have parked would have been behind the church, at the NE corner of the church (which is basically impossible to see from a car driving down the highway at 60+ mph). So he's having to walk maybe 25 feet north, then 75 feet east to his car. That's only 33 yards to travel, all on concrete. Not far at all.

How long does it take to walk 33 yards? Or even 3 times as far, 100 yards, which is the length of a football field? Not that long. You can find all sorts of calculations via google on how fast a person walks, and the various calculated estimates for 100 yards generally run from 2-3 minutes. If this is only 33 yards rather than 100, divide that total time by 3.

(For an athlete, they can run that 100 yards in about 10-20 seconds!)

Then he's in his vehicle and driving away. From what we know it would have been another 5-10 minutes approx before the early campers happened to arrive. Since the church is on US Highway 287 with 65 mph speed limits, he would have been 5 to 10 miles away from the scene before the earliest campers happened to arrive.

 

[cenazoic]

We know MB was killed by handgun,

Has LE ever said whether the two camp participants who found her (one of whom was there early (430ish?)) heard anything that morning?

 

[lonewanderer]

I'm not sure I buy that he was physically impaired and unable to run. But we already know he could walk, even if his gait was weird. And even if he had to limit it to a walk, that "getaway" would have been suitably easy with lots of time to spare.

Consider the setting. The murder apparently happened within the northwest portion of the building. Walking to the door he had entered would have only taken seconds as he was right there already.

I'll assume he's fleeing to get away from the consequences of an unplanned murder, and doesn't have it mapped out in advance. I assume he doesn't know why MB is there, doesn't have any sense that others may come in the hour ahead, all he knows is was in the church illegally and ----

MB is in front of him. 'Yikes, she saw me in here.' He panics and shoots her. 'I shot someone, oh no! Grab my stuff, I gotta get out of here. Get to the door, get to my nearby vehicle as fast as I can move, and drive away.'

I would expect that he would have been moving in a hurry out of fear of getting seen at a murder scene. I'd bet he would have been running not walking, and gotten to the car even faster. But if he's slow, it's still a relatively short amount of time.

How far did he have to walk or run? The dimensions of the church are about 75x75 feet. The most logical place for him to have parked would have been behind the church, at the NE corner of the church (which is basically impossible to see from a car driving down the highway at 60+ mph). So he's having to walk maybe 25 feet north, then 75 feet east to his car. That's only 33 yards to travel, all on concrete. Not far at all.

How long does it take to walk 33 yards? Or even 3 times as far, 100 yards, which is the length of a football field? Not that long. You can find all sorts of calculations via google on how fast a person walks, and the various calculated estimates for 100 yards generally run from 2-3 minutes. If this is only 33 yards rather than 100, divide that total time by 3.

(For an athlete, they can run that 100 yards in about 10-20 seconds!)

Then he's in his vehicle and driving away. From what we know it would have been another 5-10 minutes approx before the early campers happened to arrive. Since the church is on US Highway 287 with 65 mph speed limits, he would have been 5 to 10 miles away from the scene before the earliest campers happened to arrive.

That's a good explanation for how the perp got out of there so fast, having an escape vehicle of some kind at the same place they entered.

I have always thought that was why there were not overly wet on the security footage, the had a very short distance to walk to enter the building.

 

[SweetDreamsAreMadeOfCheez]

I'm not sure I buy that he was physically impaired and unable to run. But we already know he could walk, even if his gait was weird. And even if he had to limit it to a walk, that "getaway" would have been suitably easy with lots of time to spare.

Consider the setting. The murder apparently happened within the northwest portion of the building. Walking to the door he had entered would have only taken seconds as he was right there already.

I'll assume he's fleeing to get away from the consequences of an unplanned murder, and doesn't have it mapped out in advance. I assume he doesn't know why MB is there, doesn't have any sense that others may come in the hour ahead, all he knows is was in the church illegally and ----

MB is in front of him. 'Yikes, she saw me in here.' He panics and shoots her. 'I shot someone, oh no! Grab my stuff, I gotta get out of here. Get to the door, get to my nearby vehicle as fast as I can move, and drive away.'

I would expect that he would have been moving in a hurry out of fear of getting seen at a murder scene. I'd bet he would have been running not walking, and gotten to the car even faster. But if he's slow, it's still a relatively short amount of time.

How far did he have to walk or run? The dimensions of the church are about 75x75 feet. The most logical place for him to have parked would have been behind the church, at the NE corner of the church (which is basically impossible to see from a car driving down the highway at 60+ mph). So he's having to walk maybe 25 feet north, then 75 feet east to his car. That's only 33 yards to travel, all on concrete. Not far at all.

How long does it take to walk 33 yards? Or even 3 times as far, 100 yards, which is the length of a football field? Not that long. You can find all sorts of calculations via google on how fast a person walks, and the various calculated estimates for 100 yards generally run from 2-3 minutes. If this is only 33 yards rather than 100, divide that total time by 3.

(For an athlete, they can run that 100 yards in about 10-20 seconds!)

Then he's in his vehicle and driving away. From what we know it would have been another 5-10 minutes approx before the early campers happened to arrive. Since the church is on US Highway 287 with 65 mph speed limits, he would have been 5 to 10 miles away from the scene before the earliest campers happened to arrive.

Except he or she is covered head to toe in disguise, why not just leave then? Not like the suspect can be identified. I think the suspect knew there were cameras and wanted the murder to look like an interrupted burglary. JMO

 

[Megnut]

Did the perp ever attempt to enter the main office, presumably where the money would be if there were some?

If the perp was unsuccessful in finding cash, perhaps they pivoted, decided to wait for the first employee to show up in order to take money by force.

I've had several theories, not we'd to any one of them, because they all have holes.

It just doesn't look like a burglarly. If it's vandalism, it's minor. If it's a hit, it was a longshot she'd even be there. A wanna cop? Maybe? Staged event to show inadequacy of the security system? On account of the rain, specifically didn't anticipate encountering anyone. Perhaps it was someone she'd have been able to identify so she was killed because she was a witness.

I always ask myself: was the outcome as intended? What did the perp hope to accomplish? What went according to plan, what veered? If she had canceled class, how would that have impacted the perp? When would the perp have left? Would the perp have remained there until staff arrived in the morning? Was that the actual goal/target? Would MB still be alive?

JMrhetoricalOpinions

 

[Elley Mae]

@Megnut

I don’t think I ever gave that a thought, banks are not open on sunday so most churches make deposits monday. Suspect may not have known Missy would be holding an exercise class.

Jmo

 

[justtrish]

Honestly, at this point, there is not much more to go on.

Most of us agree with most of the information.

The biggest topic of discussion is if the attack was targeted or not. This point of discussions gets very heated and ultimately leads to extreme amounts of counter-productivity. I have my opinions on this subject, but after opening my mind to other posters, and stopped being so stubborn, I learned information I didn't know before.

I agree! I lean one way, but I also can see how it could be the other. I think nothing can be rules as "for sure" because we simply don't know EXACTLY everything LE knows. Could it be 2 people and one is never seen or could one be just a driver, could it be totally random or could it be targeted? What exactly was the motive? Scare her and someone panicked when confronted? If the goal was to scare her, then then I think it makes sense to be wandering around and breaking things first.. then things went wrong from what was actually planned.. now it's a murder that doesn't make sense and seems to look like a burglary or church prowling. It is just a bizarre case that no one scenario really fits perfectly into any motive. I like what you said about opening your mind to other posters. It is easy to get set in our thinking and just want to find reasons why we are "right" instead of seeing the possibility that something else was going on or that we just don't have all the data and it could be many other things going on. I too have found myself set in my thinking on many cases including this one at times and now I can view it a bit broader and see it really could be several things and I just hope that LE is still keeping this one at the top of their priority list.

 

[Elley Mae]

While other cases took me away from this one I found this and didn’t know there was this video of Missy.
…
Other than those occasional reminders, Dr. Nirenberg says the one thing about this case that he can't forget is the video never seen by the public.

He saw Missy Bevers inside the church before her murder.

He says she turned her head, appearing to hear something off-camera. It was very likely the moment she realized she was not alone.

"It sticks with you because you know what's coming," he said. "We've all watched those horror movies where you say 'you gotta get out of the house' and this was the real thing."

Forensic Podiatrist Called By FBI To Study Missy Bevers' Killer's Gait, Explains Investigative Process

Dr. Michael Nirenberg runs a foot clinic in Indiana. When he's not with patients, he's an expert witness in criminal cases across the country.

www.cbsnews.com