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

[moslym3]

There is a camera mounted high on the SWFA building that would have been able to pick up headlights turning into the church. You can see the lights of the church at one point from that camera angle. And SWFA has separate daytime footage on their YT channel where you can see the church in the distance.

I know that police requested SWFA provide 8 hours of footage from exterior cameras from that night. It was so much footage that police had to purchase an external hard drive to hold it all.

I am confident that if a vehicle turned into the church or exited the church, police know about it and have the time stamp.

So is that how we understand LE saying that SP spent time in the kitchen? That they see SPs arrival via the SWFA video but the SP does not appear on the security camera in the church until later? Or is there another trigger that starts the clock for them?

I'm not convinced that the earlier church cam activation was much more than the thunder/lightning from the storm - but we never know.

 

[Gumshoe Stories]

So is that how we understand LE saying that SP spent time in the kitchen? That they see SPs arrival via the SWFA video but the SP does not appear on the security camera in the church until later? Or is there another trigger that starts the clock for them?

I'm not convinced that the earlier church cam activation was much more than the thunder/lightning from the storm - but we never know.

Maybe. But I always thought the notion of the suspect spending time in the kitchen was assumed by police based on what they found in the kitchen. The killer seems dry in the video so it’s possible they found towels the killer used to dry off. And it is a kitchen, so maybe the killer had a late night snack of pizza rolls.

 

[Gumshoe Stories]

Following the murder, SWFA placed a mega device, perhaps a camera, in their parking lot although I don't recall how long it stayed.
Photo taken July 23, 2016.
View attachment 291738

That is a deer feeder. SWFA sells them.
American Hunter 350lb TX Edition Tripod Feeder

 

[Itsapuzzle]

I tired to get the plate, but this was all I could come up with

Could that blob be a large chile, like in some of the New Mexico plates?

 

[SteveS]

This is the view of the church from SWFA's default camera position. You can see the church in the upper left hand corner. On a dark and rainy night, I'm not sure a car could be seen turning into the church. It's a four lane highway frequented by semis.

These videos have been previously posted and discussed on Websleuths.

Seeing these actual camera angles is informative. Hopefully LE got some helpful video from those feeds, but maybe not. We just don't know. Some notes:

1 Interestingly, we do NOT see the entry point or driveway into the CCOC property, as you note. So if a vehicle came from the Midlothian direction (which would be from the left end of the highway in the picture), they could enter and go to the far side of the property from SWFA (which is where the break-in did occur) without being seen or captured on camera.

2 As you note, the dark and the rain would have added another issue.

3a One other item - on the feed you used, we see a continuous video. But if the cams are motion activated, they may or may not have set up "blackout" areas in the motion detector (to limit the motion activation to what might be relevant to SWFA).
3b During the day, there would be constant traffic on that highway. But in the middle of the night? Not so much.
3c How the cams are set is something the public doesn't know, and would be a significant factor in what they had the potential to capture at CCOC in the far distance. We have to remember that they weren't set up to necessarily capture anything at CCOC.

4 There are also trees between SWFA and CCOC obscuring the view of the cams. If perp turned off headlights when entering the SWFA property, that might have made him "invisible" to those cams.

5 I saw a mention that LE used "an external hard drive" to get a copy of some SWFA video, but the use of an an external hard drive is fairly mundane (and such use doesn't even tell us how much video there was). Those are also called USB flash drives or thumb drives.

6 How much video was there? Those thumb drives come in a variety of capacities from well under 1GB (ie, hundreds of millions of bytes) to multiple TB's (multiple trillions). Videos captures do use a lot of bytes, but we have no way of knowing whether they had hours of actual footage to view and examine, or 15 seconds here and there, in the hours preceding the murder.

 

[SteveS]

[wondering how to delete a post]

 

[SteveS]

So is that how we understand LE saying that SP spent time in the kitchen? That they see SPs arrival via the SWFA video but the SP does not appear on the security camera in the church until later? Or is there another trigger that starts the clock for them?

I'm not convinced that the earlier church cam activation was much more than the thunder/lightning from the storm - but we never know.

My takeaway was that they saw the access point (kitchen door to the outside) and the first view on camera (coming into the hall), and then that implies there is _____ time (amount unknown) between one and the other, which of necessity happened in the kitchen. Whether they dawdled or whether they simply traversed, we don't have enough info to know.

As to your point about the earlier cam activation, I think that's a good assumption. One piece of info we don't know, and which might further our understanding, is whether the cams activated like that at other times, both that night and other nights. From what I have seen of motion-activated cams, I suspect that's more likely than not. But without knowing that, it's hard to know what (if any) value to give to a picture taken of nothing.

 

[Gumshoe Stories]

My source who spoke of the need for the external hard drive for all the footage MPD requested is someone with detailed knowledge of SWFA’s security system. He said it was a lot of video, and so it was.

Regarding the cameras and motion activation - while some of the cameras are motion-activated, the rain and wind that night basically had the effect of continuous recording. And you can see that with the shot when the car is parked. There is no movement of the vehicle and yet the camera continues recording. So this is potentially a blessing in that the footage provided to MPD was more continuous than it would have been normally.

While the left edge of the view cuts off the end of the church driveway, I think it’s still very possible to have picked up headlights and/or taillights while the car was entering and then leaving the property.

 

[Piccolo 0x]

Could that blob be a large chile, like in some of the New Mexico plates?

I noticed Texas are like these. One was introduced in 2009 and 1 in 2012. BUT now that you say New Mexico..... the first 2 letters on that do resemble NM more than Texas.

 

[Deleted member 718]

Seeing these actual camera angles is informative. Hopefully LE got some helpful video from those feeds, but maybe not. We just don't know. Some notes:

1 Interestingly, we do NOT see the entry point or driveway into the CCOC property, as you note. So if a vehicle came from the Midlothian direction (which would be from the left end of the highway in the picture), they could enter and go to the far side of the property from SWFA (which is where the break-in did occur) without being seen or captured on camera.

2 As you note, the dark and the rain would have added another issue.

3a One other item - on the feed you used, we see a continuous video. But if the cams are motion activated, they may or may not have set up "blackout" areas in the motion detector (to limit the motion activation to what might be relevant to SWFA).
3b During the day, there would be constant traffic on that highway. But in the middle of the night? Not so much.
3c How the cams are set is something the public doesn't know, and would be a significant factor in what they had the potential to capture at CCOC in the far distance. We have to remember that they weren't set up to necessarily capture anything at CCOC.

4 There are also trees between SWFA and CCOC obscuring the view of the cams. If perp turned off headlights when entering the SWFA property, that might have made him "invisible" to those cams.

5 I saw a mention that LE used "an external hard drive" to get a copy of some SWFA video, but the use of an an external hard drive is fairly mundane (and such use doesn't even tell us how much video there was). Those are also called USB flash drives or thumb drives.

6 How much video was there? Those thumb drives come in a variety of capacities from well under 1GB (ie, hundreds of millions of bytes) to multiple TB's (multiple trillions). Videos captures do use a lot of bytes, but we have no way of knowing whether they had hours of actual footage to view and examine, or 15 seconds here and there, in the hours preceding the murder.

Thanks for your reply. As to LE requesting video footage, it's possible they asked for days previous and following April 18. Perhaps to see if a similar car visited the store and hopefully get a better ID. Obviously that didn't happen.

It's similar to tuna fishing where a huge net is thrown out hoping to catch the most product. But in doing so, they also catch innocent dolphins.

 

[Gumshoe Stories]

Thanks for your reply. As to LE requesting video footage, it's possible they asked for days previous and following April 18. Perhaps to see if a similar car visited the store and hopefully get a better ID. Obviously that didn't happen.

It's similar to tuna fishing where a huge net is thrown out hoping to catch the most product. But in doing so, they also catch innocent dolphins.

No dolphins were harmed. In my information that you two are referencing, it was specifically 8 hours of video from the night/morning of the 18th. It was collected by a female detective from Mansfield.

 

[SteveS]

It's similar to tuna fishing where a huge net is thrown out hoping to catch the most product. But in doing so, they also catch innocent dolphins.

Thanks. And yeah, much of what I've seen of this case looks like that to me, where LE is casting a deliberately wide net, with info that may have limited to no confirmation as to its connection or likely validity, and hoping to get lucky.

 

[Jethro4WS]

Do we know if the any of the cameras at the SWFA were positioned in a way that you could observe any headlights/tail-lights or other car figure slowing down on the highway and pulling into the church? I think one of them had a decent view in that direction. Is there other footage from those same SWFA cameras from other nights where we could observe whether that's the case?

Here is a link to a video I created from the SWFA video we have. It is an isolated view with just the visible church portion cropped from the original. The segment of the SWFA video where the church was visible was 24 seconds.

CCoC_Isolated.mp4

There are/were trees that obscure any view other than the south side of the church from just past the awning to the southeast corner.

 

[No it's not]

I had several requests to show, where this frame (No. 88) I posted earlier from of the SWFA Outdoor driver is located:

Click to enlarge

This is the video of the driver of the SWFA Outdoor. Move to marker .54. The vehicle is moving counter clockwise over the NW parking lot of the SWFA Outdoor property:

I posted earlier the frame at marker.58. However, it is in between .57 and .58, just in the end of .57 and beginning of .58. Here are screenshots of when I cut the video and started to extract the frames:

BEGINNING

Click to enlarge

FRAMES No 86,87 and 88 (Frame in question):

Click to enlarge

Hope that helps.

ALL IMO

-Nin

 

[Jethro4WS]

Sorry if this has been discussed already, as I think every tiny bit probably has.... I analyzed the space at 4:48 from the video of the car in the parking lot. It is blurred, changes shape, skips (I do note areas around that remain consistent) , and has some white movement behind it (an elongated distortion from rain and lighting?)

Hmm. Is it just an anomaly? Is there another person beyond that blue blob? Perhaps white pants walking in the upper right of the blue blob...

Mostly it seems like a rain vs light reflection.

I’m on my cell so I turned it sideways and pinched it out to zoom that area.
—
Also, two vehicles parked along the wall at what seems to be the rear. Janitors park like that, late at night. Church vehicles? Curious.

It is rain and light reflection that causes those kinds of effects As for the vehicles, since this video is from the gun store those vehicles are likely connected to owners/employees of the store and were just being stored there.

 

[Jethro4WS]

Here is a link to a video I created from the SWFA video we have. It is an isolated view with just the visible church portion cropped from the original. The segment of the SWFA video where the church was visible was 24 seconds.

CCoC_Isolated.mp4

There are/were trees that obscure any view other than the south side of the church from just past the awning to the southeast corner.

I want to add that because we can see the light standards at the far left (they are in the parking lot on the west side of the church) it is possible, but I can't say with certainty, that a vehicle entering or exiting with lights on could be seen if the SWFA camera were capturing at the time. If MPD has such a sequence I would think MPD would have mentioned it in the same warrant where they mention the witness seeing an SUV as it would have corroborated the witness. So, it could be the case that an SUV leaving was not caught by SWFA cameras and there is only the witness' word or the witness saw that vehicle at a different time or date or both.

 

[DeDee]

Seeing these actual camera angles is informative. Hopefully LE got some helpful video from those feeds, but maybe not. We just don't know. Some notes:

1 Interestingly, we do NOT see the entry point or driveway into the CCOC property, as you note. So if a vehicle came from the Midlothian direction (which would be from the left end of the highway in the picture), they could enter and go to the far side of the property from SWFA (which is where the break-in did occur) without being seen or captured on camera.

2 As you note, the dark and the rain would have added another issue.

3a One other item - on the feed you used, we see a continuous video. But if the cams are motion activated, they may or may not have set up "blackout" areas in the motion detector (to limit the motion activation to what might be relevant to SWFA).
3b During the day, there would be constant traffic on that highway. But in the middle of the night? Not so much.
3c How the cams are set is something the public doesn't know, and would be a significant factor in what they had the potential to capture at CCOC in the far distance. We have to remember that they weren't set up to necessarily capture anything at CCOC.

4 There are also trees between SWFA and CCOC obscuring the view of the cams. If perp turned off headlights when entering the SWFA property, that might have made him "invisible" to those cams.

5 I saw a mention that LE used "an external hard drive" to get a copy of some SWFA video, but the use of an an external hard drive is fairly mundane (and such use doesn't even tell us how much video there was). Those are also called USB flash drives or thumb drives.

6 How much video was there? Those thumb drives come in a variety of capacities from well under 1GB (ie, hundreds of millions of bytes) to multiple TB's (multiple trillions). Videos captures do use a lot of bytes, but we have no way of knowing whether they had hours of actual footage to view and examine, or 15 seconds here and there, in the hours preceding the murder.

The thumb drive(s) for SWFA video can be easily purchased most anywhere. Labeled and kept as evidence for the trial.

SP certainly may have parked behind the Church in the parking lot out of view of the SWFA shop. However, ...

There is a worn path behind Creekside Church that runs alongside Prong Creek. On google earth, if one follows N Prong Creek to the North, you'll eventually see where there is a possible route across Prong Creek and onto land in order to be able to reach the opposite side of the Creek then continue a short ways before turning W to walk on the grass out to the street in the neighborhood.

In the beginning, many years ago, I discussed this escape route, with another person. That is for N Prong Creek, as a possible get away from the property for SP.

N Prong Creek continues on N and is seen as being in the backyards of a few residents. Lawns are fenced off. The small neighborhood is filled with nice large lots. SP is dressed like a cop. He doesn't care! Who would likely see him at 4:45am making a dash for his vehicle?

Missy mentions this particular neighborhood in a FB post when reporting a vehicle accident at the turn in to the neighborhood by complaining it's not the first accident that has occurred at that location or similar wording.

While I'm not sure how long it'd take to walk from the neighborhood to the church via N Prong Creek, I do believe there is time for SP to park his vehicle at the far RT corner of this street and connect with N Prong Creek by walking through the grass.

When departing Creekside Church, the killer could have exited the way he entered then ran through the parking lot in the rain to the path that runs alongside the creek in order to not be seen. SP could be inside his parked vehicle within 20 minutes. And, could have used the creek water to rinse away any bold or outstanding evidence.

This plan is not suitable for a SP wearing one or more Prosthetics.

NPC as Hwy 287 Chris Kyle Memorial Highway goes over it. Snap taken from the SE corner of the parking lot looking toward SFWA (not pictured).


This 2nd snap is directly across from the NE corner of the Church facing N. Note the two trails in the dirt leading away in the distance.
On the right hand side in the photo is a hand made path that leads to the edge of N Prong Creek; created by a class that's near the creek's edge.

And here's a snap of N Prong Creek flowing in July, 2016

 

[SteveS]

Also, two vehicles parked along the wall at what seems to be the rear. Janitors park like that, late at night. Church vehicles? Curious.

You're look at video at SWFA down the road, not at the church. The vehicles in question would pertain to SWFA somehow.

 

[SteveS]

Here is a link to a video I created from the SWFA video we have....There are/were trees that obscure any view other than the south side of the church from just past the awning to the southeast corner.

This is helpful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[SteveS]

There is a worn path behind Creekside Church that runs alongside Prong Creek. On google earth, if one follows N Prong Creek to the North, you'll eventually see where there is a possible route across Prong Creek and onto land in order to be able to reach the opposite side of the Creek then continue a short ways before turning W to walk on the grass out to the street in the neighborhood.

I remember these discussions from years ago.

What never made sense to me was why a perp would plan such a slow laborious getaway, all the while wearing or carrying very identifiable and bulky clothing, including a very odd and visually striking head covering. Any number of people could have seen him at any point in that long trek (and, to where? a further exit setup would have been needed from there).

In the same amount of time it would take to get through muddy woods and across the creek swelled by rain, they could have been to Ft Worth, or Ennis, or halfway to Waco or Oklahoma, by using a car. Long gone. In addition, walking through muddy areas leaves a trail of tracks and footprints, whereas a car driving down a concrete road does not.