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Texas Mom Murdered in Twisted Plot By Mysterious Suspect · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine planning a murder so meticulously that you go out
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and purchase a GPS tracker, you research forensic countermeasures on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the Internet, and even put on this theatrical disguise, like
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: literally altering your skin color to intentionally trick the eyewitnesses. Right.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: It really sounds like a masterclass in criminal premeditation. Exactly.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It sounds like this cold, calculated operation drawn up by
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a total mastermind, but then... You abandon your getaway car
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: less than a mile from your own house, and you
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: leave the very makeup you used for your disguise just
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: sitting casually on the front seat of your personal vehicle.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: It's just staggering. I mean, the contrast between the theatrical
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: planning of this crime and the complete sloppiness of its
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: execution is what makes this investigation so compelling.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: It really is. Today, we're taking a deep dive into
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a case that is equal parts Evil genius and sheer
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: operational incompetence. It's a bizarre contradiction that unraveled one of
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the most chilling conspiracies you will probably ever hear about.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because when investigators find a crime scene that, you know,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: looks like a professional hit, but then they follow a
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: trail of evidence that looks like it was left by
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: someone who's never even watched a procedural drama on TV,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: it tells a very specific psychological story.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, for sure. So we're taking you to Carrollton, Texas,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: which is a suburb about 20 miles north of Dallas.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: And we are focusing on the October 2020 murder of
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: a 24-year-old mother named Alyssa Burkett.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: And to really dissect how this tragedy unfolded, we are
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: analyzing a highly detailed transcript from the Law and Crime Network.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: The primary source material here features an interview with Anthony Osso.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: And he brings such a fascinating dual perspective to this case, right?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: He really does. He is currently a criminal defense attorney,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: but he spent years as a domestic violence prosecutor.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Which means he understands the exact mechanics of how the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: state builds an airtight case. But simultaneously, he knows exactly
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: where a defense attorney is going to look to find
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the weak points in that foundation. Right.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: And having that dual lens is absolutely crucial for our
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: mission today. Because, I mean, we are not just recounting
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: a timeline of terrible events here. We're unpacking the actual
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: anatomy of an orchestrated murder.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: We really need to explore how this seemingly mundane, all-too-common
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: custody dispute over a one-year-old child named Willow just mutated
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: into this deadly labyrinthine conspiracy.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: It's all about looking closely at the psychological manipulation that
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: drove this crime. You know, the insidious nature of control.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and how domestic violence can take these forms that
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: totally bypassed our traditional understanding of abuse.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And perhaps most importantly... We are going to examine
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the stark legal disparities and how the justice system ultimately
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: punishes the mastermind who pulls the strings versus the person
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: who actually pulls the trigger.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: That part is wild to me.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: So the psychological through line you should really keep in
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: mind as we navigate this whole thing is that concept
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: of control.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Because control is the primary engine of domestic violence.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Right. The question this case forces us to ask is,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: What happens when the person seeking total control realizes that
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the legal system is refusing to give them what they want?
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when the standard avenues of manipulation fail, how does
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: that need for control escalate into lethal violence?
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Well, let's start by establishing the baseline reality of what
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: happened on the morning of October 2nd, 2020. Alyssa Burkett
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: is parked in her car outside the Green Tree Apartments
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: leasing office, which is her place of employment.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Right, just a normal morning.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: A completely normal morning until a suspect approaches her vehicle.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: And according to multiple eyewitnesses at the scene, the suspect
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: is a black man.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: And the introduction of a disguise here tells us something
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: vital about the timeline of Malice. I mean, this wasn't
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: a crime of sudden blind rage that erupted during some
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: heated argument in the living room.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Someone made the conscious decision to put on a costume,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: travel to a specific location where they knew the victim
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: would be, and execute a plan.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: The disguise introduces this whole level of theatrical premeditation designed
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: specifically to corrupt the investigative process right from the very
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: first 911 call.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were trying to poison the well immediately.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: And the violence is just so abrupt. The suspect draws
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: a firearm and shoots Alyssa straight through the driver's side window,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: initially leaving her for dead.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: But Alyssa survives that initial gunshot.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: She does. She actually manages to climb out of her
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: shattered vehicle and actively attempts to seek help, crawling toward
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the leasing office to reach her co-workers.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: And this is where the nature of the crime shifts
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: completely in just this fraction of a second.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: How do you mean?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Well, think about it. A typical economically motivated hitman, or
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: even just a panic amateur criminal whose initial plan failed,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: they would likely just flee the scene upon realizing the
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: victim was still alive, right? Right.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: They'd want to get out of there.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The primary goal is self-preservation. But this suspect chases her.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Chases her directly up the concrete steps of the office building.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: And the suspect does not fire the gun again. Instead,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the attacker produces a knife and stabs Alyssa 44 times.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Terrific.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Her co-workers eventually rush outside to find her in this
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: catastrophic state, and she is sadly later pronounced dead. The suspect, meanwhile,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: sprints from the scene and escapes in a Ford SUV.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Let's really analyze the biomechanics and the psychology of that
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: specific sequence of violence. Because you start with a gun.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Which is a highly detached method of inflicting lethal force. Right.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: You have distance. Yeah.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: You can stand several feet away. You have a physical
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: barrier of glass between you and the victim. You just
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: apply a few pounds of pressure to a trigger and
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the physics of the weapon does the actual work.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: It's clinical.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Very clinical. It allows the perpetrator to maintain this emotional
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: and physical distance from the reality of taking a human life.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: It's sterile, almost like pushing a button. But then, when
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that sterile method fails, the attacker totally discards the distant
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: weapon and transitions to a knife.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Right, which is completely different.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Stabbing someone 44 times isn't just like a backup plan.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: It is an incredibly intimate, physically exhausting, and deeply enraged
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: method of violence.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: It takes a lot of effort.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: The sheer stamina required to inflict 44 stab wounds is
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: just terrifying to even contemplate. It kind of reminds me
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: of a horror movie villain, you know? The Relentless Pursuit.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just about eliminating a target. It was about
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: absolute enraged destruction.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: That analogy is spot on. Homicide detectives are trained to
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: read a crime scene like a psychological text. And a
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: transition from a detached weapon to a highly intimate one,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: accompanied by that massive amount of overkill, acts as a
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: huge neon sign.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Random acts of violence or crimes of opportunity like a
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: robbery gone wrong, they simply do not look like this.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: No, they don't.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: The profile of the suspect instantly narrows from anyone in
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: the general public to someone who harbors a burning, pathological
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: hatred for this specific victim. It stops being an assassination
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: and becomes an act of absolute annihilation.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: And the personal animosity surrounding Alyssa was so palpable that
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: when her mother, Teresa Collard, arrived at the crime scene
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: shortly after the murder, she didn't hesitate at all.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: She knew right away.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: She immediately pointed the police toward one specific person. Alyssa's ex-boyfriend,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: a 33-year-old man named Andrew Beard. They had been embroiled
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: in a really highly contentious custody battle over their one-year-old daughter, Willow.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: The physical evidence at the scene, however, created an immediate
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: contradiction for the investigators. Because Teresa Collard is pointing at
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Andrew Beard, who is a white man.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: But the eyewitnesses who saw the murder occur in broad
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: daylight are describing a black man.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: But the police officers know the statistical realities of domestic
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: violence and bitter custody disputes. They take the mother's tips
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: seriously despite that visual discrepancy, and they execute a search
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: warrant on Andrew Beard's residence and his vehicles.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: And that search is where everything turns.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: The items they uncover during that search just blow the
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: case wide open, while simultaneously highlighting that bizarre contradiction we
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: talked about earlier.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because inside Beard's home, investigators locate a charging station
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: and lithium batteries... that are specifically designed for a covert
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: GPS tracking device.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Which is incredibly suspicious.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Very. And these components perfectly match a GPS tracker that
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: had actually been secretly affixed to the undercarriage of Alyssa's vehicle.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Finding a tracker is chilling enough. But the search of
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Beard's personal vehicle pushes the investigation into the completely surreal.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: They find two bottles of dark liquid makeup. Wow. Investigators
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: quickly piece together that Beard used this liquid foundation to
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: mask his identity. effectively wearing blackface during the commission of
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the murder to manipulate the eyewitness accounts.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: It's so calculated.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: And furthermore, a forensic extraction of his digital devices reveals
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: a Google search asking how to remove gunpowder from hands.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: That's pretty damning.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And the getaway vehicle, that Ford SUV described by the
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: witnesses at the apartment complex, is found abandoned less than
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a mile from Beard's front door.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: So this is where we really have to ask, how
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: do we reconcile this level of meticulous planning with such
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: staggering carelessness.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: That's what I want to know.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, he acquires a GPS tracker to monitor her movements.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: He utilizes dark makeup to create a racial disguise, specifically
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: to poison the eyewitness testimony. He researches forensic countermeasures to
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: defeat gunshot residue testing. He is clearly thinking three steps ahead.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Right, he's putting in the work.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: But then, he drives the gateway car into his own neighborhood,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: walks home, and just leaves the disguised makeup sitting right
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: in his own car. It's like watching a brilliant chess
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: player suddenly forget how the pawns move right in the
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: middle of a tournament.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Exactly. From an investigative standpoint, how does that happen?
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Well, this contradiction is actually a really well documented phenomenon.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: We are looking at a severe manifestation of cognitive load
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: and adrenaline-induced tunnel vision.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, break that down for us.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: When individuals plan a crime, They have the luxury of
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: time and a resting heart rate. They can focus on
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: the intricacies of the disguise and the tracking device. But
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: during the actual execution of a murder, the human nervous
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: system is just flooded with adrenaline and cortisol.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: The fight or flight response.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The brain enters this primal fight or flight state.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: So the higher brain functions like the logical planning centers.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: They basically just shut down under the stress of the event.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: The cognitive bandwidth narrows down. Completely. The brain can really
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: only hold a few variables at once under that much stress.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: For Beard, all of his psychological energy was hyperfixated on
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: the focal point of the operation, which was maintaining the
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: disguise and executing the victim.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: So once he did that, the brain was just done.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Once the violent act was completed, the adrenaline spiked and
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: operational security just vanished. The brain defaults to the path
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: of least resistance, which in this case was driving to
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: familiar territory, his own neighborhood, and simply walking away from
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: the evidence.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: He successfully navigated the complex task of the disguise, but
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: completely failed the most basic task of a clean getaway.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it is a stark reminder that digital footprints,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: like that Google search about gunpowder, and sheer physical carelessness
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: are just the inevitable downfall of people who think they
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: can orchestrate the perfect crime.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Reality is messy, and human physiology completely betrays the intellect.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: And this overwhelming pile of evidence brings up a crucial
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: legal mechanism that Anthony also details regarding premeditation and sentencing
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: in Texas. Because the sentencing range for a murder conviction
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: in Texas is exceptionally broad.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: How broad are we talking?
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: It stands from five years all the way to life
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: in prison.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Wait, really? Five years for a murder conviction seems shockingly
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: lenient for a system that prides itself on being, you know,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: tough on crime.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: It does seem that way. But it exists to account
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: for the chaotic spectrum of human behavior. The legal system
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: recognizes the concept of sudden passion or the heat of
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: passion defense. If a homicide is a spontaneous reaction to
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: a highly emotional trigger, like an unplanned sudden loss of
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: emotional control with absolutely no prior intent, the law allows
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: the jury to consider a significantly lower sentence. I see.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: The system attempts to differentiate between a tragic snap of judgment...
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: and a calculated assassination.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: But also points out that the evidence recovered from Beard's
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: home and car completely vaporized any chance of utilizing a
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: heat of passion defense, right?
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: The GPS tracker, the bottles of makeup, the Google searches,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: all of it mathematically proves to a jury that this
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: was a methodical, long-term operation. There was no sudden loss
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: of control. He planned the work, and he worked the plan. Right.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: And faced with this insurmountable mountain of evidence, Beard is arrested.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: And two years later, he pleads guilty to the murder
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: of Alyssa Burkett.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So on the surface, the narrative seems totally complete. The
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: bitter ex-boyfriend, enraged by a custody dispute, snaps and kills
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: the mother of his child.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: But that's not the end of the story.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Far from it. Because during the course of securing an
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: FBI plea deal, Beard introduces a bombshell that completely fractures
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: that straightforward narrative. He confesses to federal investigators that he
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: was actually not the mastermind of this operation.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he claims he was a pawn. And the person
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: pulling the strings, dictating the harassment, and even supplying the
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: idea for the blackface disguise was his new fiancée, Holly Elkins.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Which completely shifts our focus to the dynamic of control
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: within Beard's new relationship. And if we look at the
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: timeline of his relationship with Holly Elkins, the speed of
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: it is deeply unsettling.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: It's crazy fast.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: According to the source material, they began dating in April
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: of 2020. Later that exact same month, Elkins is spending
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: a weekend with Beard and his one-year-old daughter, Willow.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: That's already quick.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: And by May, so roughly four weeks after their initial meeting,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: they are actively shopping for engagement rings.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: That kind of accelerated intimacy is just a massive red
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: flag for psychological manipulation, isn't it?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: It is a huge red flag. When a relationship moves
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: at warp speed like that, it is rarely about overwhelming love.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: It is almost always a tactic to establish dominance.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Like love bombing.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. One partner rushes to lock down the other, bypassing
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: the normal stages of getting to know someone, specifically in
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: order to isolate them before they can objectively evaluate the
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: health of the relationship.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: And the text messages recovered by authorities provide this terrifying
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: window into what that dominance actually looked like. Elkins had
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: this severe pathological issue with how involved Beard still was
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: with Alyssa, you know, his ex-girlfriend and the mother of
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: his child.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: She couldn't handle it.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: She sent text messages to Beard explicitly stating that his
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: baby mama owns you. She accused him of being submissive
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: to Alyssa and blatantly stated she didn't want any BS
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: from anyone.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Let's really analyze the specific vocabulary she's utilizing there. Owns you. Submissive.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: She's not expressing the normal frustrations of a difficult co-parenting situation. No,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: not at all. She is framing the entire dynamic as
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: a zero-sum power struggle. She's actively emasculating him, challenging his autonomy,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: and demanding total, unquestioning allegiance to her.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: The analogy that just keeps coming to my mind is
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: a hostile corporate takeover. She wasn't just entering a new
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: relationship and accepting that, hey, he had a past. She
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: was coming in as this ruthless new CEO auditing the
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: company of Andrew Beard.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: She looked at the organizational chart. decided that the ex-girlfriend
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: department was an unacceptable liability, and just demanded the total
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: liquidation of his past assets. She required a completely clean slate,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and Alyssa was the sole obstacle preventing her from achieving
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: that sanitized corporate vision.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: The psychology driving Elkins is just deeply disturbing. Anthony also
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: notes that Elkins was fixated on the illusion of a
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: perfect life. She wanted the fiancé, she wanted the house,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: and she wanted his daughter Willow to raise as her own.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: In her psychological framework, Alyssa literally ceased to be a
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: human being with a right to exist.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: She was just an object in the way.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Alyssa was merely a logistical roadblock obstructing Elkin's path to
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: her perfect life.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: But we have to maintain a crucial distinction here, one
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: that also is very careful to emphasize. We cannot paint
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Andrew Beard as this helpless victim trapped under some mind-control beam.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely not. The concept of agency is central to
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: the legal and moral understanding of this case. While Elkins
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: was the manipulator, the one orchestrating the ideas, building the
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: framework of the conspiracy, and applying relentless emotional pressure, Andrew
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Beard was a fully autonomous, willing participant.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: He still made the choices.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: He made the conscious adult choice to physically purchase the disguise,
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: load the firearm, drive to the apartment complex, pull the trigger,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: and wield the knife. The psychological manipulation provided by Elkins
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: explains the toxic environment that birthed the crime, but it
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: does not absolve Beard. of the physical action.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Which brings up the completely baffling reality of how they
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: communicated this conspiracy. They are plotting an incredibly complex, multi-tiered
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: campaign of terror and murder, and they are doing it
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: all over text messages.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: It's unbelievable.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: They are leaving a permanent, indelible digital trail of their malice.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Why do individuals engage in such wildly incriminating behavior on
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: devices that log every single keystroke?
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: It is the eternal frustration of defense attorneys everywhere. And
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: the answer really lies in the psychology of digital intimacy.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Human beings have developed a deeply ingrained, completely false sense
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: of security regarding their personal devices.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: We trust our phones too much.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: We do. The physical screen acts as a psychological barrier,
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: kind of mimicking the feeling of a private confession booth.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Because texting feels instantaneous and intimate, the brain misinterprets it
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: as ephemeral.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: They just felt like they were whispering in the dark
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: to each other, not broadcasting their intentions to a server
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: farm in California somewhere.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Exactly. When individuals believe they are speaking in a closed,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: secure loop, they abandon all their filters. They lack the
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: foresight to imagine a future where a federal investigator with
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: a subpoena is scrolling through those exact messages. Right. And
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: the text messages recovered in this case reveal way more
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: than just a sudden decision to commit a homicide. They
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: map out an agonizing step-by-step campaign of terror that ran
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: from June to September of 2020.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Let's trace the mechanics of that escalation because it operates
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: like an engineering stress test. They didn't jump straight to murder.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: They started applying pressure to different load-bearing walls of Alyssa's
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: life to just see where the structure would compromise.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: In June, they initiate the intelligence gathering phase by secretly
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: installing the GPS tracker on Alyssa's car to monitor her movements.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: And this is the boundary testing phase. Once they establish
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: they can track her without consequence, the escalation requires a
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: new vector of attack. So in July, they transition to
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: using the authorities as a weapon.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Which is so messed up.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Elkins places a fabricated 911 call, claiming she witnessed Alyssa
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: driving erratically on the highway. A few weeks later, they
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: escalate the legal attacks by filing a false report accusing
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Alyssa's mother of physical assault.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: They're just throwing everything at the wall.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Following that, they even hire a private investigator to dig
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: up compromising information on Alyssa and her new boyfriend. And
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: the investigator conducts the surveillance and reports back that he
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: has found absolutely nothing incriminating.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Which must have been a massive psychological blow to Elkins.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: The narrative she has constructed in her mind that Alyssa
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: is this unfit mother, a dangerous individual who deserves to
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: be stripped of her parental rights is being directly contradicted
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: by reality. The private investigator essentially tells her she is
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: totally wrong.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: And the failure of the private investigator is a critical
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: pivot point in this story. Because since reality refuses to
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: align with her narrative, Elkins decides to fabricate reality.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: By September... Elkins and Beard escalate the stress test to
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: its most dangerous, non-lethal phase. They acquire narcotics and a firearm,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: plant them in Alyssa's vehicle, and then Beard calls the police,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: accusing Alyssa of being a drug dealer.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: I really want to pause and look at the underlying
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: strategy of this specific timeline. Everything they are doing from
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: June to September is an attempt to legally eliminate Alyssa. Yes.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: They are trying to weaponize the justice system to do
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: their dirty work. I think about it. If the fake
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: 911 calls succeed, she gets a reckless driving charge that
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: impacts custody.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: If the planted drugs and guns succeed, she faces felony
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: possession with intent to distribute. If she goes to state prison,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Elkins wins default custody of Willow. It is this elaborate
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: attempt to use the state apparatus as their own personal hitman,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: achieving the perfect life without ever physically touching the victim.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: It is a chillingly calculated strategy, but it completely falls apart.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: The police do not arrest Alyssa. The system does not
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: swallow the bait. The attempt to legally eliminate her fails.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: And that failure of the legal system to intervene isn't
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: just some tragic footnote. It is the exact catalyst that
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: forced Beard to trade a planted gun for a real one.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: When the system failed to deliver the outcome Elkins demanded,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: her frustration just boiled over into lethal ultimatums.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: The source material indicates that by late September, following the
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: failure of the planted drugs, The texts from Elkins take
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: on a highly threatening urgency.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: They really ramp up.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: They are actively purchasing the black rain suit, the makeup,
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: the shotgun shells, and the knife. Elkins is texting Beard,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: urging him to handle it. She tells him she needs
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: him to be ride or die for her.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: She explicitly conditions the future of their entire relationship on
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: his willingness to follow through with the violence.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: It is such a toxic ultimatum. She is leveraging his
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: accelerated attachment to her basically holding his desired future hostage
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: until he commits murder. The harassment wasn't a sudden explosion.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: It was a methodical tightening of the screws. First a tracker,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: then a lie to the police, then planted felonies, and finally,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: when the legal warfare fails, physical annihilation.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: And looking back at the mechanics of this escalation, the
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: most agonizing aspect of the case is that the victim
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: saw the trajectory with terrifying clarity. Alyssa Burkett was acutely
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: aware of the mortal danger she was in.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: She really was. She recognized the pattern. She even recorded
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: a video documenting the emotional abuse and the stalking, trying
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: to create a record of what was happening to her.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: But the detail that just stops you in your tracks
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: is what she communicated to a friend.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: It's heartbreaking.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: After Beard used the secret GPS tracker to show up
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: unannounced at a location where Alyssa was, she told her
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: friend that she believed his next step would be to
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: hire someone to kill her. She literally predicted her own murder.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: And this creates a profound tension when we look at
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: the interview with Anthony Osso. Because the interviewer asks Osso
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: if the warning signs were glaring enough to predict a homicide.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: And what does he say?
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Osso, relying on his extensive experience as a domestic violence prosecutor,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: states that while the emotional abuse and stalking were evident,
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: he views murder as a very exaggerated next step from
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: the baseline of tracking and emotional manipulation.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I have to push back hard on Asa's perspective here.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, Asa is viewing the timeline through the cold,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: evidentiary lens of the courtroom, categorizing murder as an exaggerated step.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Yet Alyssa, living inside the actual pressure cooker of the abuse,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: predicted the escalation flawlessly.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: She knew.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: She felt the structure of her life collapsing and knew
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: exactly what was coming. Doesn't this suggest the justice system
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: chronically underestimates the predictive power of a victim's intuition?
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Your pushback highlights the agonizing chasm between psychological reality and
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: the legal burden of proof. I completely agree with you.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Victims are almost always the foremost experts on their abusers.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: They feel the microscopic shifts in behavior, the tightening of
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: the control, long before it manifests as physical violence.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: So why is the system fundamentally incapable of protecting them
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: when they wave the red flag?
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Because the justice system is designed to punish actions that
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: have already occurred, not to preemptively incarcerate people for actions
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: we fear they might commit tomorrow.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Right. It's reactionary.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: In Texas, as also details, circumstantial evidence, the GPS tracker,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: the false police reports, the bizarre behavior, can be introduced
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: very powerfully after the fact in a murder trial. Prosecutors
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: weave that circumstantial evidence together to prove motive, intent, and
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: the turbulent nature of the relationship to a jury.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: But it's only highly effective evidence once the victim is
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: already on the autopsy table.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: And that is the tragedy of the legal threshold. Prior
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: to a severe physical assault, it is exceptionally difficult for
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: law enforcement to physically separate the abuser from the victim
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: for any meaningful length of time.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Because I haven't done anything severe enough yet.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Depending on the jurisdiction, planting a GPS tracker might only
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: result in a misdemeanor stalking charge. Filing a false police
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: report is a crime, but it rarely triggers immediate long-term
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: incarceration without a lengthy trial process. Alyssa knew she was
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: in danger, but she couldn't provide law enforcement with the
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: required standard of proof to stop a crime that hadn't
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: happened yet.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Well, let's look at how the court reconciled this escalation
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: once the threshold was finally crossed. Because the sentencing phase
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: of this case introduces a fascinating legal philosophy regarding conspiracy
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and control.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: It's very unique.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: In May of 2023, Andrew Beard, the man who physically
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: pulled the trigger and inflicted the 44 stab wounds, was
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: sentenced to 43 years in prison for murder.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: But then, a month after Beard's sentencing, federal authorities arrested
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Holly Elkins.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: She was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, stalking, and
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: using a dangerous weapon resulting in death. She took her
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: case to trial, was convicted by a jury, and received
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: two life terms in federal prison to run concurrently.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: The disparity here is just staggering. Let me frame it
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: like this for you. It's as if the architect of
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: a bank robbery... The person who draws a blueprint, selects
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the target, and stays safe in the getaway car a
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: mile away receives a vastly harsher punishment than the individual
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: who actually walks into the lobby, holds the weapon to
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the teller's head, and steals the money.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: It's a great analogy.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Beard committed the most visceral, intimate violence imaginable and received
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: 43 years. Elkins, who wasn't even in the parking lot,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: receives two life sentences. How does the legal framework justify
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: that outcome?
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Osso himself notes the striking nature of this disparity, finding
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: it legally fascinating that the orchestrator's sentence so drastically exceeded
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: the physical perpetrator's. To understand the court's rationale, we really
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: have to examine the legal mechanics of conspiracy and how
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: the justice system views the origin of malice.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, lay it out for us.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: In Texas and at the federal level, conspiracy involves collaborating, planning,
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: and taking overt steps to execute a crime with another person.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: But the sentencing disparity ultimately comes down to determining who
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: was the actual engine of the crime, right? Who generated
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: the momentum?
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Precisely. The court had to analyze the timeline and the
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: text messages, and the evidence demonstrated a clear causality. Without
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: Holly Elkin's relentless instigation, her psychological manipulation, her fabrication of evidence,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: and her toxic ultimatums, Andrew Beard would likely never have
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: escalated his bitter custody dispute into a homicide.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: He would have just stayed a bitter ex.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: He was the weapon, yes, but she was the one
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: who loaded it, aimed it, and threatened him into pulling
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: the trigger.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: She demanded the sanitized corporate vision of her perfect life
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: and just decided Alyssa was a disposable asset.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: And the justice system, through this specific sentencing outcome, is
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: taking a remarkably severe philosophical stance on that exact brand
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: of manipulation. The court is establishing that weaponizing someone else's
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: emotions to orchestrate an assassination from the shadows... is just
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: as abhorrent, and perhaps represents a more calculated, cold-blooded form
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: of malice, than committing the physical act of killing in
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: the heat of a manipulated frenzy.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: It makes a lot of sense when you put it
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: that way.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Beard received a massive 43-year sentence, but Elkins received the
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: maximum societal condemnation because the conspiracy originated entirely within her
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: desire for control.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: It is a profound legal conclusion that forces us to
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: reevaluate how we define culpability. We started out looking at
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: what seemed like a mundane, frustrating custody dispute. But through
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the introduction of a new partner's obsessive need for control,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: it mutated into a systematic, months-long campaign of terror.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a campaign the system couldn't stop.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: The authorities were completely paralyzed by the gap between the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: victim's accurate intuition and the legal thresholds required for intervention.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: And it ultimately resulted in a legal precedent that heavily
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: penalized the unseen mastermind, fully acknowledging the lethal power of
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: psychological manipulation.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: But amidst all of the legal philosophy and the psychological
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: analysis of evidence we've talked about today, we really must
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: anchor this discussion on the ultimate devastating human toll.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Anthony also concluded his interview by highlighting the true epicenter
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: of this tragedy. The most profound loss in this labyrinthine
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: conspiracy was suffered by a person who had absolutely no
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: voice in any of it.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Little Willow.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Willow. That little one-year-old girl lost her mother to a
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: brutal act of violence, and she lost her father to
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: a prison cell, all in one horrific motion. Her entire
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: life was permanently shattered, simply to serve the illusion of
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: someone else's perfect life.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: It is a devastating reality that just anchors all of
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: this abstract theory and very real human suffering. So as
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: the listener, with just a final provocative thought regarding the
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: mechanics of this crime.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: It's an important one.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: We spent a significant amount of time discussing the digital footprint, right?
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: How Elkins and Beard felt secure enough to log their ultimatums,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: their tracking data, their darkest impulses into text messages. They
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: essentially drafted a digital blueprint of their conspiracy and stored
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: it on a server.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: They operated under the psychological illusion that their screens provided
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: this magic cone of silence.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Right. So consider how that illusion alters the very nature
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: of conspiracy in the modern era. I mean, a conspiracy
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: used to be a physical localized event. Whispered conversations in
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: the shadows of a parking garage or notes passed and
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: then burned.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: Very analog.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Now... The blueprints of our darkest intentions are digitized, timestamped,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: and just sitting on cloud servers waiting for a subpoena.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: What does that permanent digital record mean for the concept
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: of privacy?
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: It changes everything.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: And more importantly, as the justice system adapts to this
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: digital reality, how might the existence of these massive data
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: trails change the way crimes are plotted, or ideally, how
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: they might be preemptively detected and stopped in the future?
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: It is a haunting paradigm shift, really. We began this
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: discussion by talking about the disconnect between meticulous planning and
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: operational sloppiness. And perhaps the ultimate operational failure of the
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: modern criminal isn't abandoning the getaway car, but trusting the
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: device in their pocket.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: The evidence of the malice is sitting right there in
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: black and white long after the physical damage is done.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: It's wild to think about. Thank you so much for
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: joining us for this deep dive. We will be back
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: next time as we continue to unpack the complex stories
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: and sources of to help us understand the mechanics of
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the world a little bit better.