Latest / Devil Town / Introducing ... The Unforgotten: Who Killed Missy Bevers?

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Introducing ... The Unforgotten: Who Killed Missy Bevers? · Devil Town

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, it's Wes.
0:01
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to Deviltown. You might already know
0:04
Speaker 2: this about me, but I also produce another true crime
0:07
Speaker 2: podcast called The Unforgotten. Every season of The Unforgotten is
0:12
Speaker 2: a deep dive into a different unsolved murder or a
0:15
Speaker 2: serial killer or a family that finally gets answers decades
0:20
Speaker 2: after their mom disappeared. We even worked on a season
0:23
Speaker 2: of the show about a guy who's on death row
0:25
Speaker 2: in Texas because police hypnotized the key witness.
0:29
Speaker 3: It's crazy.
0:31
Speaker 2: The reason why I'm telling you all this is because
0:33
Speaker 2: we just wrapped up season six. It's the unforgettable true
0:37
Speaker 2: story of Missy Beavers, a mom and fitness instructor who
0:41
Speaker 2: was murdered inside a church near Dallas. Missy's death was terrifying,
0:48
Speaker 2: and it's all captured on security camera. But the footage
0:51
Speaker 2: hasn't really seemed to help, and ten years later, Missy's
0:54
Speaker 2: killer has still never been found. So right here, I'm
0:58
Speaker 2: going to share the first episode of The Unforgotten, Who
1:01
Speaker 2: Killed Missy Beavers, so you can listen for yourself. I
1:05
Speaker 2: hope it leaves you wanting to know more about Missy's story.
1:08
Speaker 2: We've already finished our season about her case, so it's
1:11
Speaker 2: ready for you to binge everything, all six episodes, right now.
1:15
Speaker 2: To find the show, just look up The Unforgotten on
1:18
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts or Spotify or YouTube, wherever you listen. We
1:23
Speaker 2: also have a free newsletter at unforgottenpod.com. where we've shared
1:27
Speaker 2: all the links to all the episodes. By the way,
1:30
Speaker 2: we also just recorded a new episode of Deviltown, so
1:34
Speaker 2: keep an eye out for that one because it's probably
1:36
Speaker 2: coming out in the next week or two. Thank you
1:38
Speaker 2: so much for all your support. And now, here is
1:42
Speaker 2: the first episode of the Unforgotten, Who Killed Missy Beavers?
1:48
Speaker 1: In the wee hours of the morning on Monday, April 18th, 2016...
1:52
Speaker 1: A person dressed in full police tactical gear broke into
1:56
Speaker 1: Creekside Church in Midlothian, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Creekside
2:01
Speaker 1: Church has security cameras, and you can watch footage of
2:03
Speaker 1: the break-in online. Whoever this person is, they're wearing a helmet,
2:08
Speaker 1: a mask, what looks like a bulletproof vest, fully concealing
2:12
Speaker 1: their identity. They wander the halls, fiddle with the doors,
2:16
Speaker 1: and swing around a hammer they found on site. It's
2:20
Speaker 1: not clear what the person's objective is. They don't seem
2:22
Speaker 1: to be looking for anything specific, and they aren't taking anything.
2:26
Speaker 1: Just lurking from room to room in no hurry at all,
2:31
Speaker 1: opening up as many doors as they can, getting a
2:33
Speaker 1: sense of the space. At one point, they use the
2:36
Speaker 1: hammer to seemingly break through the glass on one of
2:39
Speaker 1: the doors. It's roughly four o'clock in the morning. There's
2:43
Speaker 1: no one else at the church but this masked person
2:46
Speaker 1: with almost no identifying features. It's not even clear whether
2:50
Speaker 1: they're a man or a woman, although they do walk
2:52
Speaker 1: with a kind of limp. That's the only thing remotely
2:56
Speaker 1: identifiable about them. Maybe they have an injury, or maybe
3:00
Speaker 1: the boots they're wearing are too big for their feet,
3:03
Speaker 1: causing that funny walk. Maybe they borrowed or stole the boots,
3:08
Speaker 1: along with the rest of the gear marked with the
3:10
Speaker 1: word police. But aside from the busted lock and broken glass,
3:15
Speaker 1: the person doesn't seem to be causing a whole lot
3:17
Speaker 1: of damage. Until Missy Beavers arrives.
3:22
Speaker 4: Her class started at 5 a.m.
3:25
Speaker 1: This is Renee Rodden, a friend of Missy's.
3:28
Speaker 4: But she had early birds that was going to come
3:31
Speaker 4: in at 4.30 because they wanted to be able to
3:34
Speaker 4: get their class done and be able to get to work.
3:38
Speaker 1: Missy was a fitness instructor and taught all over the
3:41
Speaker 1: Dallas metro area. And this morning's class happened to be
3:44
Speaker 1: at the church. It was beating down rain, and Missy
3:48
Speaker 1: didn't want her students to be discouraged. So she made
3:52
Speaker 1: a Facebook post before setting up. The post read, if
3:55
Speaker 1: it's raining, we're still training.
3:58
Speaker 4: So she arrived at like 4.16. She parked under the awning.
4:04
Speaker 4: She opened her car door. She went to the tailgate
4:07
Speaker 4: of her truck, and I guess she had keys that
4:10
Speaker 4: unlocked it. And so she put the key in the tailgate,
4:14
Speaker 4: she opened it up, she got some of her stuff out,
4:16
Speaker 4: she went in.
4:18
Speaker 1: Renee lives just five minutes from the church and has
4:20
Speaker 1: lived in the area pretty much her whole life. She's
4:23
Speaker 1: thought of this particular morning so often, she knows the
4:26
Speaker 1: story by heart.
4:28
Speaker 4: The door that everybody goes into is the awning door.
4:31
Speaker 4: And she went into that door, and you go all
4:33
Speaker 4: the way down that hall, that was approximately 420. So
4:36
Speaker 4: we're talking just minutes after arriving in the church.
4:40
Speaker 1: Renee can explain this so vividly because she's seen the
4:43
Speaker 1: security footage of this moment thousands of times.
4:47
Speaker 4: She walks down that hall and she sees something and
4:50
Speaker 4: she kind of jerks her head like she heard something.
4:52
Speaker 4: And she continues down that hall.
4:55
Speaker 1: None of her students were set to arrive for at
4:57
Speaker 1: least another 10 minutes. And none of them would have
5:00
Speaker 1: had a key to get in anyway. What could she
5:02
Speaker 1: have heard?
5:04
Speaker 4: It's something out of a horror movie because you see
5:06
Speaker 4: her go in and you want to tell her don't go.
5:09
Speaker 4: because you know what's going to happen.
5:11
Speaker 1: Missy continues further down the hallway. Maybe she thought she
5:15
Speaker 1: was being paranoid. I know when I'm by myself in
5:17
Speaker 1: the dark, I always think I'm hearing something. But Missy
5:21
Speaker 1: wasn't being paranoid.
5:23
Speaker 4: When she got to the end of that hall, that's
5:25
Speaker 4: where she was attacked and that's where she was killed.
5:28
Speaker 1: Waiting for her around the corner was the masked person.
5:32
Speaker 1: The one with all the tactical gear and the hammer.
5:36
Speaker 4: It was just mind-boggling.
5:38
Speaker 1: At 4.35 a.m., Missy's first students arrived, and what they
5:42
Speaker 1: found would scar them and the entire community forever.
5:48
Speaker 5: Police are trying to figure out why somebody dressed as
5:50
Speaker 5: a police officer ambushed and murdered a fitness instructor at
5:54
Speaker 5: a church. Mother and fitness trainer Terry Missy Beavers was
5:58
Speaker 5: murdered inside a Midlothian church. The woman murdered was a
6:02
Speaker 5: mother of three who taught fitness classes.
6:05
Speaker 1: Apparently, the police do have footage of the actual murder,
6:09
Speaker 1: but because of the violent nature of the crime.
6:11
Speaker 4: It's never been shown.
6:14
Speaker 1: Despite the fact that the murder was captured on the
6:16
Speaker 1: church's surveillance system, and the fact that we just hit
6:19
Speaker 1: the 10-year anniversary of that fateful morning at Creekside Church,
6:23
Speaker 1: this case still has more questions than answers. And I
6:28
Speaker 1: am determined to find out why that is. Missy's murder
6:32
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the last decade,
6:35
Speaker 1: definitely in the Dallas area, maybe even all of Texas.
6:39
Speaker 1: What is being hidden from the public, and who is
6:42
Speaker 1: hiding it?
6:43
Speaker 4: Some innocent woman was brutally murdered, and that's not, you know,
6:47
Speaker 4: it shouldn't happen, and somebody needs to pay for it.
6:51
Speaker 1: From Free Range Productions, this is The Unforgotten. Who killed
6:55
Speaker 1: Missy Beavers? I'm Zoe Kolkin. This is Episode 1, Murder
7:00
Speaker 1: at the Church. Once word got out about a murdered woman,
7:09
Speaker 1: Midlothian and the surrounding areas were sent into a tailspin.
7:13
Speaker 4: Several law enforcement agencies have joined Midlothian police hunting for
7:17
Speaker 4: the person who murdered a fitness instructor.
7:19
Speaker 5: They've had hundreds of leads come in, but only about
7:23
Speaker 5: a dozen have been solid enough for police to.
7:25
Speaker 4: Follow up on.
7:26
Speaker 6: There are so many troubling aspects to this crime of
7:28
Speaker 6: murder committed inside a church, a murder in a town
7:31
Speaker 6: that hasn't seen a murder in years, and a suspect
7:34
Speaker 6: caught on surveillance camera wearing full police tactical gear.
7:42
Speaker 1: Although Midlothian sits just under 30 miles outside of Dallas,
7:46
Speaker 1: this is not a metro area. I drove up from
7:50
Speaker 1: Austin during my reporting of the story to get a
7:52
Speaker 1: feel for the town. It was pouring. not unlike the
7:56
Speaker 1: morning Missy was killed.
7:58
Speaker 7: I am crossing into the city limits of Midlothian.
8:03
Speaker 1: You can also probably hear my windshield wipers. I'm originally
8:07
Speaker 1: from South Carolina and grew up in a suburb of Charlotte,
8:10
Speaker 1: kind of like what Midlothian is to Dallas. Plus, I've
8:14
Speaker 1: worked on the true crime beat for years now. Many
8:17
Speaker 1: of them set in towns that look like Midlothian, so
8:20
Speaker 1: part of it was familiar.
8:22
Speaker 7: Like, it's lots of fields, but then random little, like,
8:27
Speaker 7: planned communities that look a little bit out of place.
8:30
Speaker 1: But Midlothian seemed to be in a pretty transitional period.
8:35
Speaker 1: Maybe 10, 15 years behind my hometown when it comes
8:38
Speaker 1: to development.
8:40
Speaker 7: It's becoming less rural, more suburban, maybe. It's not quite
8:45
Speaker 7: there yet.
8:47
Speaker 1: It was rural, but Then all of a sudden you'd
8:50
Speaker 1: see houses that looked like they belonged in one of
8:52
Speaker 1: those nice neighborhoods in Dallas. It was kind of hard
8:55
Speaker 1: to get a grasp of the socioeconomic makeup of the town,
8:59
Speaker 1: but it definitely did not seem like somewhere a lot
9:02
Speaker 1: of murder took place. Here's Missy's friend Renee Rodden again.
9:06
Speaker 4: Montana is a nice city, town, whatever you want to
9:09
Speaker 4: call it. You know, upper middle class. I mean, it's
9:13
Speaker 4: not a place where you would be afraid to raise
9:15
Speaker 4: your family.
9:16
Speaker 1: Renee was born and raised in Texas and has lived
9:19
Speaker 1: in the Dallas suburbs for decades.
9:21
Speaker 4: I live about five minutes from the church, so it's
9:24
Speaker 4: a neighboring city to Midlothian.
9:28
Speaker 1: When she first heard about a dead body found at
9:30
Speaker 1: the church right up the street from her house, she
9:32
Speaker 1: thought for sure it was some kind of medical emergency,
9:36
Speaker 1: like maybe a janitor had a heart attack.
9:38
Speaker 4: You're not instantly thinking murder, right? I was just shocked
9:41
Speaker 4: that it wasn't something like somebody just died or whatever.
9:44
Speaker 4: Somebody was actually killed, murdered in church, and it just
9:47
Speaker 4: blew my mind.
9:49
Speaker 1: She's been invested in Missy's case from the very beginning.
9:52
Speaker 1: And not just for the obvious reasons of it being
9:55
Speaker 1: so close to home. She remembers the moment she heard
9:58
Speaker 1: about it on TV.
10:00
Speaker 4: You hear, Missy Beavers of Red Oak, Texas was found
10:03
Speaker 4: murdered at a church.
10:04
Speaker 3: And I thought, what?
10:07
Speaker 4: Oh my God, I knew her. Like, I couldn't believe it.
10:10
Speaker 1: She had known Missy for years and had fond memories
10:13
Speaker 1: of the time she spent with her.
10:15
Speaker 4: She was one of those people that you just You
10:18
Speaker 4: never would think anything bad about her. She had that demeanor,
10:21
Speaker 4: like she was just kind, she was caring, and you
10:23
Speaker 4: would trust her. Like you would trust her with your
10:25
Speaker 4: kids or your purse or whatever. It was just mind-boggling.
10:30
Speaker 1: Renee has worked many odd jobs throughout her life. Like
10:33
Speaker 1: a lot of moms, she needed something with flexibility so
10:36
Speaker 1: she could be there for her kids when she needed
10:38
Speaker 1: to be. Missy, a mother of three daughters, the oldest
10:41
Speaker 1: being 16 at the time of the murder, needed the same.
10:45
Speaker 4: I met Missy in 2013. I was working for a
10:48
Speaker 4: company called Vault Denim.
10:51
Speaker 1: Renee had heard of Vault Denim through some other women
10:53
Speaker 1: in town and thought it would be the perfect side hustle. Truthfully,
10:58
Speaker 1: it was an MLM. A jeans MLM. Like, think Mary
11:02
Speaker 1: Kay Beauty.
11:03
Speaker 4: But it was jeans. So I was looking for something
11:07
Speaker 4: where I could wear it from home, but like make
11:08
Speaker 4: some legit money. I didn't want it to be, you know,
11:11
Speaker 4: something that wasn't real. And I found out that you
11:13
Speaker 4: actually got the inventory and you would actually have jean parties.
11:16
Speaker 4: And I thought that sounds really cool.
11:19
Speaker 1: Renee had been selling jeans, but she wasn't a jeans dealer.
11:23
Speaker 1: She didn't call them dealers, but it's easier to think
11:26
Speaker 1: of in those terms and kind of more fun. But anyway,
11:29
Speaker 1: there were only a few women that actually held all
11:32
Speaker 1: the jeans inventory from Vault Denim HQ. all the sellers
11:36
Speaker 1: would have to pick up their inventory at the jeans
11:38
Speaker 1: dealer closest to them. And the jeans dealer closest to
11:41
Speaker 1: her was really starting to piss her off.
11:44
Speaker 4: So there was this woman that had them in Waxahachie,
11:47
Speaker 4: so I would go to her house, and she just
11:51
Speaker 4: didn't seem to be very friendly. So I kind of
11:54
Speaker 4: got irritated, and I thought, there's got to be somebody
11:56
Speaker 4: else that doesn't make you feel guilty when you go
11:58
Speaker 4: over there. Even though you set up everything with her,
12:00
Speaker 4: she acted like it was such an inconvenience that she
12:03
Speaker 4: was just like, just huffing and puffing.
12:06
Speaker 1: So she contacted the company and found another woman she
12:08
Speaker 1: could go to. It was 20 minutes out of the way,
12:11
Speaker 1: but to Renee, it was worth it.
12:14
Speaker 4: They said, well, we have this woman in Red Oak,
12:16
Speaker 4: so it's going to be furthered for you, but she's available.
12:19
Speaker 1: Red Oak is about 10, 15 miles tops from Midlothian.
12:24
Speaker 4: Well, I was like, I don't care. At this point,
12:26
Speaker 4: I would rather drive to Red Oak 15 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever,
12:29
Speaker 4: than deal with this woman who's always mad. So they
12:32
Speaker 4: said her name is Missy Beavers, and this is her address.
12:34
Speaker 4: So I contacted her.
12:36
Speaker 1: Missy was Renee's jeans dealer for about a year. She
12:40
Speaker 1: would go to her house every week to pick up inventory,
12:42
Speaker 1: often bringing members of her family with her to help
12:45
Speaker 1: her carry everything. At one time or another, Renee's whole
12:49
Speaker 1: family met Missy. She said her daughter specifically connected with her.
12:53
Speaker 4: They were over there chatting like they'd known each other
12:55
Speaker 4: for 20 years and laughing and having a wonderful time.
12:58
Speaker 4: And I'm over there picking up jeans and I was like,
13:00
Speaker 4: I want to be, you know, hanging out with y'all
13:03
Speaker 4: in this little party we're having. They were just laughing
13:06
Speaker 4: and ha-ha and, you know, and all that. So I
13:08
Speaker 4: just thought it was cool how everybody in my family
13:10
Speaker 4: connected with her in such an easy way.
13:12
Speaker 1: Renee and Missy's friendship never really progressed outside of their
13:15
Speaker 1: business relationship.
13:17
Speaker 4: If we would have saw each other in the store,
13:19
Speaker 4: we would have been like, hey, you know, like that.
13:21
Speaker 4: We would have definitely, you know, because we kind of connected.
13:24
Speaker 4: But I'm one of those people, I never want to
13:26
Speaker 4: seem like that creepy person that's like, I knew on
13:28
Speaker 4: Facebook right away. So I never did that, you know.
13:31
Speaker 4: Looking back, I kind of wished I would have only
13:33
Speaker 4: because she was such.
13:34
Speaker 7: A nice person.
13:35
Speaker 1: But Renee always felt like Missy really cared about her.
13:39
Speaker 1: In fact, Renee told me that Missy tried to get
13:41
Speaker 1: her on the fitness train too. Missy was known around
13:45
Speaker 1: town for her passion for fitness.
13:47
Speaker 4: She was trying to get me involved in some of
13:49
Speaker 4: her other things, fitness related, of course. And I just
13:53
Speaker 4: was kind of intimidated because she was super small and
13:55
Speaker 4: she was very fit and I wasn't. And she was like,
13:59
Speaker 4: I haven't always been this size. And she got out
14:02
Speaker 4: a picture and showed it to me, I guess, to
14:05
Speaker 4: make me feel better.
14:05
Speaker 7: So yeah.
14:07
Speaker 4: You could just tell she really cared about people and
14:09
Speaker 4: she wasn't just trying to make a dollar or whatever.
14:12
Speaker 4: She was just really trying to be friendly. Like I
14:14
Speaker 4: said back then, I was just so intimidated and I
14:16
Speaker 4: was just like, I couldn't even consider it. I was like,
14:19
Speaker 4: no thank you.
14:21
Speaker 1: Because of Missy's kindness in that year of working together,
14:24
Speaker 1: her death hit Renee hard. But she was far from
14:28
Speaker 1: the only one. Missy's case made news nationwide and thousands
14:33
Speaker 1: of people, most of whom had never met her, would
14:36
Speaker 1: start demanding justice. As more information began to come out
14:45
Speaker 1: about Missy's murder in the spring of 2016, the internet
14:49
Speaker 1: went wild because of the unbelievability of this case. People
14:53
Speaker 1: really clung to it. First of all, this was the
14:55
Speaker 1: first homicide in Midlothian in seven years, so obviously the
15:00
Speaker 1: locals were rocked. But it was also just so absurd.
15:04
Speaker 1: a mom of three, brutally murdered at a church of
15:08
Speaker 1: all places. And the culprit was caught on video. And yet,
15:13
Speaker 1: police didn't seem to have a promising suspect. I mean,
15:16
Speaker 1: they didn't even know if the person in the video
15:19
Speaker 1: was a man or a woman. All they had was
15:22
Speaker 1: this video of a person in full tactical gear, completely
15:27
Speaker 1: masked and covered. They couldn't even accurately gauge their height.
15:31
Speaker 1: At first, they said the murderer was 5'2 to 5'8,
15:35
Speaker 1: but then later went back on that, saying they were
15:37
Speaker 1: most likely 5'8 or taller. Between the lack of answers,
15:41
Speaker 1: the unlikeliness that something like this would happen to a
15:44
Speaker 1: suburban mom like Missy, and the true crime boom that
15:48
Speaker 1: was happening around the time of the murder, this case
15:50
Speaker 1: was a recipe for obsession. And that's exactly what people were. Obsessed.
15:57
Speaker 8: I've always been interested in true crime, but this was
15:59
Speaker 8: next level because this was somebody I could really relate to.
16:03
Speaker 1: That's Crystal Lawson. She's a real estate agent in Frisco,
16:07
Speaker 1: a town not too far from Midlothian.
16:09
Speaker 8: I know a lot of people that go to that church,
16:11
Speaker 8: and I just know a lot of people who live
16:13
Speaker 8: in Midlothian, so I was really obsessed with it. And
16:15
Speaker 8: then I found out that Missy's three children are the
16:19
Speaker 8: same age as my three kids. So I just kind
16:22
Speaker 8: of became really enveloped in this case, and then I
16:25
Speaker 8: joined the Facebook groups about it, and I immediately started
16:29
Speaker 8: meeting people in there that were also interested in it.
16:32
Speaker 1: The Facebook groups? The first thing I came across when
16:35
Speaker 1: researching this case were the Facebook groups. Now remember, Missy
16:39
Speaker 1: was murdered 10 years ago. And today, there are multiple
16:43
Speaker 1: active Facebook groups of people trying to solve her murder.
16:47
Speaker 1: Who Killed Missy Beavers? The Unsolved Murder of Missy Beavers.
16:50
Speaker 1: Badge and Blood. The Missy Beavers Investigation. Just to name
16:54
Speaker 1: a few. Some of these groups have almost 10,000 members.
16:59
Speaker 1: And they're made up of people not just from Texas,
17:01
Speaker 1: but from all over the country. even all over the world.
17:06
Speaker 1: Crystal and Renee actually met in one of these groups.
17:09
Speaker 8: We didn't really start talking until about January of 2018.
17:11
Speaker 8: We started talking on the phone, and we realized that
17:15
Speaker 8: we had about the same level of obsession.
17:17
Speaker 4: We both apparently messaged this guy at the same time.
17:20
Speaker 1: Neither Crystal or Renee can remember the fine details, but
17:24
Speaker 1: they both remember commenting on the same post some guy
17:28
Speaker 1: in one of their Facebook groups made.
17:30
Speaker 4: And so I guess I saw her commenting and she
17:32
Speaker 4: saw me commenting and I thought, she seems normal.
17:34
Speaker 8: We both commented on a post at the same time
17:37
Speaker 8: and we were asking the same questions. So we jumped
17:39
Speaker 8: each other's DMs and said, hey, I was wondering the
17:41
Speaker 8: same thing, that kind of thing.
17:42
Speaker 4: So I asked her if I could talk to her
17:44
Speaker 4: on the phone because I just want to make sure
17:45
Speaker 4: I was talking to a normal person, not so wacko.
17:48
Speaker 4: She said, okay. So we talked on the phone and
17:49
Speaker 4: I was like, thank God, somebody normal. It's not cuckoo,
17:53
Speaker 4: you know, or whatever.
17:54
Speaker 1: It's like a true crime meet cute.
17:57
Speaker 8: Over the course of time, we just became good friends,
17:59
Speaker 8: talked on the phone frequently, got to know more about
18:01
Speaker 8: each other and our families.
18:03
Speaker 4: We just started a friendship. And, you know, I think
18:06
Speaker 4: we both enjoyed knowing that neither one of us was
18:08
Speaker 4: going to come after the other one.
18:10
Speaker 1: Crystal and Renee began calling each other every day and
18:13
Speaker 1: meeting up when they could to discuss the case.
18:15
Speaker 8: We had had exhaustive conversations about every little piece of
18:20
Speaker 8: this case and gone over search warrants. And we would
18:23
Speaker 8: take turns doing, you know, public record requests.
18:27
Speaker 1: As someone who has to submit a lot of public
18:29
Speaker 1: records requests, I can say with certainty that it's not fun.
18:34
Speaker 1: It can be a tedious process, and that's not to
18:38
Speaker 1: mention how difficult it can be to read them. I
18:41
Speaker 1: asked Renee why she felt called to take this investigation
18:43
Speaker 1: into her own hands.
18:45
Speaker 4: I've always been investigated by nature. I grew up looking
18:48
Speaker 4: for my family because I didn't grow up with my family.
18:52
Speaker 4: So I've always been researching and looking and investigating. So
18:56
Speaker 4: I kind of from all the years of doing that,
18:58
Speaker 4: it's just made my mind very investigative. And so I
19:02
Speaker 4: was looking for all my family, my mother, my father,
19:04
Speaker 4: my sister, my brother, everybody. And that started when I
19:06
Speaker 4: was 11. So I've been doing this my whole life.
19:10
Speaker 4: And so I think it's just natural for me, you know,
19:13
Speaker 4: to investigate and research and look. And it's almost like
19:16
Speaker 4: I can't stop until I figure it out.
19:19
Speaker 1: And she hasn't stopped trying to figure out who was
19:21
Speaker 1: in that church, seemingly waiting for Missy for a full decade.
19:26
Speaker 1: After many years of her and Crystal's sleuthing sessions, they
19:30
Speaker 1: needed a bigger platform.
19:32
Speaker 8: We had so many notes and so many people we
19:34
Speaker 8: had talked to and kind of informally interviewed, you know,
19:38
Speaker 8: and we just decided one day, in maybe late 2019,
19:42
Speaker 8: early 2020, I'll never forget, we're on the phone, we said,
19:45
Speaker 8: we should just do a podcast.
19:47
Speaker 1: And thus, True Crime Broads, Crystal and her podcast dedicated
19:51
Speaker 1: to finding Missy Beaver's killer, was born.
19:54
Speaker 8: Because we had a lot of people joining the Facebook
19:56
Speaker 8: groups and then we would try to get them up
19:58
Speaker 8: to speed like in Messenger. And that became time consuming
20:02
Speaker 8: and we started cutting and pasting as much as we could.
20:04
Speaker 8: And we finally just decided it would be really cool
20:06
Speaker 8: to take all this information and And just start a
20:09
Speaker 8: podcast where we could get the information out there for
20:11
Speaker 8: whoever wants to listen.
20:13
Speaker 4: And so we did. We just started a podcast. And
20:16
Speaker 4: I don't think there's probably been maybe two days in
20:20
Speaker 4: the last, my God, nine years. There's maybe been two
20:25
Speaker 4: days that we haven't talked.
20:27
Speaker 1: True Crime Broads took off. Welcome to True Crime Broads.
20:30
Speaker 1: This is Crystal.
20:32
Speaker 4: And Renee.
20:32
Speaker 8: And we're so happy to have Renee back in the studio.
20:36
Speaker 1: Yay! They've interviewed members of Missy's family, legal experts, and
20:40
Speaker 1: even persons of interest in the case, many of whom
20:43
Speaker 1: I'll get into in later episodes. Over the past six
20:47
Speaker 1: years of making the podcast, it has garnered a loyal
20:50
Speaker 1: fan base. It also has its own Facebook group now,
20:54
Speaker 1: and from what I found, it's the largest one, with
20:56
Speaker 1: just under 10,000 members. This was fascinating to me. Crystal
21:01
Speaker 1: and Renee are two middle-aged moms with no professional experience
21:05
Speaker 1: in journalism, production or law. And here they were reading
21:09
Speaker 1: through public records, talking to key players in the case
21:12
Speaker 1: and leading a group of thousands of passionate online sleuths
21:16
Speaker 1: in the name of justice for Missy. I figured the
21:18
Speaker 1: creation of this podcast could not have been easy for them.
21:22
Speaker 1: I mean, to be honest, on my call with Crystal,
21:24
Speaker 1: it took us nearly 30 minutes for her to connect
21:27
Speaker 1: her AirPods to her computer.
21:30
Speaker 8: I don't know how to do anything technical. I mean,
21:31
Speaker 8: you saw how hard it was for me to get
21:33
Speaker 8: my AirPods connected to my laptop. So you can imagine
21:36
Speaker 8: how she and I publishing a podcast was very funny.
21:40
Speaker 8: But there were nights where we were almost crying. I
21:42
Speaker 8: was calling her and going, I can't get the freaking
21:44
Speaker 8: MP3 to upload.
21:47
Speaker 1: This part was not shocking. When I went back and
21:49
Speaker 1: listened to early episodes, I could tell the technical aspect
21:53
Speaker 1: of this podcast had come a long way. We don't
21:56
Speaker 1: do a lot of editing. We just kind of let
21:58
Speaker 1: conversations rip. I talked to Crystal about some of those
22:01
Speaker 1: first recordings.
22:03
Speaker 8: We sound really stupid because we sound like we're on
22:05
Speaker 8: a phone call. We started off going, hi, Renee.
22:07
Speaker 1: Hi, Crystal.
22:09
Speaker 8: It was so goofy.
22:11
Speaker 1: I didn't think they sounded stupid at all. These women
22:14
Speaker 1: weren't doing it to make money or even to get famous.
22:18
Speaker 1: They were getting out of their comfort zones and putting
22:20
Speaker 1: themselves out there all for Missy in hopes that they
22:23
Speaker 1: could keep a focus on her story and bring her justice.
22:28
Speaker 1: And we really were.
22:28
Speaker 8: Hoping, too, that the podcast would trigger somebody else to go, oh,
22:33
Speaker 8: I need to add something to that that I know
22:36
Speaker 8: that they don't know.
22:36
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
22:37
Speaker 8: And more importantly, reach out to the police. We always, always,
22:41
Speaker 8: always direct them to the police first.
22:44
Speaker 1: I will get into how the police has handled this
22:46
Speaker 1: investigation over the past decade throughout the season. But let's
22:49
Speaker 1: just say homegrown Internet sleuths like Renee and Crystal have
22:53
Speaker 1: brought a lot of things to light. While reporting this story,
23:04
Speaker 1: I talked to a handful of these so-called internet sleuths,
23:08
Speaker 1: many of whom are active in Crystal and Renee's Facebook
23:10
Speaker 1: group on a daily basis. But I have to be
23:13
Speaker 1: clear here. These people are hard to vet. And they
23:17
Speaker 1: don't all have the pure intentions or ethics of the
23:20
Speaker 1: true crime broads. Many of them told me they knew
23:24
Speaker 1: for certain who killed Missy.
23:26
Speaker 3: I don't believe anyone could argue with that walk. And
23:29
Speaker 3: the perps walk in the video that they are not identical.
23:33
Speaker 7: Like, oh my God, like, people don't think he did it?
23:36
Speaker 3: Like, what the hell?
23:38
Speaker 1: But I had to take all these convictions with a
23:40
Speaker 1: grain of salt as I learned they had never met
23:42
Speaker 1: Missy or her family or the person they were accusing
23:46
Speaker 1: of murder. I mean, many of them didn't even live
23:49
Speaker 1: in the state and certainly had never been to Midlothian.
23:53
Speaker 1: They meant well, but most of their information came from
23:56
Speaker 1: online gossip. However, I did hear them out. You never
24:00
Speaker 1: know who could give you a tidbit of information that
24:02
Speaker 1: could blow the case wide open. A common opinion online,
24:06
Speaker 1: as with most cases like this, is that the spouse
24:10
Speaker 1: must be involved. In this case, the spouse was Missy's
24:14
Speaker 1: husband and father of her three children, Brandon Beavers.
24:18
Speaker 9: My wife was a, she was a godly woman.
24:22
Speaker 1: This is a clip of Brandon from an interview he
24:24
Speaker 1: did with Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth outside of his home
24:27
Speaker 1: the day after Missy was murdered.
24:30
Speaker 9: And she was a very, she was very passionate about
24:34
Speaker 9: changing people's lives with fitness and changing their mental attitude
24:39
Speaker 9: towards their body and themselves and their abilities in life.
24:43
Speaker 1: Now, anyone who follows true crime knows that the first
24:46
Speaker 1: place you look is the husband. But Brandon had an
24:49
Speaker 1: airtight alibi.
24:51
Speaker 9: I was in Biloxi, Mississippi, about to go on a
24:54
Speaker 9: fishing trip down on the Chandelier Islands.
24:57
Speaker 1: Police said they confirmed this alibi, but people online to
25:01
Speaker 1: this day still think Brandon is involved in his wife's death. Somehow, someway.
25:07
Speaker 1: The clips you just heard of him are from local
25:09
Speaker 1: news interviews in the days following Missy's murder. But his
25:12
Speaker 1: relationship with the press has been rocky over the last decade.
25:17
Speaker 1: Even then, he did not want media attention. I guess
25:20
Speaker 1: this is your last time.
25:21
Speaker 3: You're not going to speak again after this, is that correct?
25:24
Speaker 3: I really don't.
25:25
Speaker 1: Brandon had already made it known he would not make
25:28
Speaker 1: a habit out of speaking to the press.
25:31
Speaker 9: In terms of obtaining a story to pull at heartstrings
25:35
Speaker 9: and stuff like that, I don't, I'm not looking here
25:39
Speaker 9: for the media to sensationalize a tragedy, okay? My family needs,
25:44
Speaker 9: we need our privacy, and that's why I wanted to
25:46
Speaker 9: do this in one time only, but we need our privacy.
25:50
Speaker 1: I actually understand Brandon's skepticism when it comes to the press.
25:54
Speaker 1: True crime is a massive industry that a lot of people,
25:58
Speaker 1: including myself, make a living off of. But at the
26:01
Speaker 1: heart of all good reporters is the desire to not
26:04
Speaker 1: let victims be forgotten. It's the job of the media
26:07
Speaker 1: to put pressure on institutions. And in cases like Missy's
26:10
Speaker 1: that go years and years without being solved, it's journalists
26:14
Speaker 1: that make sure their stories never die and the hope
26:17
Speaker 1: that their families can get answers remains alive. a member
26:21
Speaker 1: of the Fox 4 team offered this perspective to Brandon.
26:24
Speaker 8: You understand, sir, that we are here because we want
26:27
Speaker 8: to help the police catch whoever did this.
26:29
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes.
26:31
Speaker 9: But as far as any, you know, one-on-one interview, tug-at-the-heart strings,
26:36
Speaker 9: you know, kind of stories sensationalized, I just, I'm not
26:41
Speaker 9: here for that.
26:42
Speaker 1: I don't think any of us are trying to have Sensational.
26:45
Speaker 9: I mean, your wife was a mother and a woman
26:47
Speaker 9: who touched so many lives through her work.
26:49
Speaker 1: Correct.
26:49
Speaker 3: You are correct.
26:50
Speaker 8: And that's why, I mean, we want to.
26:51
Speaker 3: Share her story.
26:53
Speaker 1: Unfairly or not, Brandon's aversion to talk to the press
26:56
Speaker 1: came off to some people as him having something to hide.
27:00
Speaker 1: He was torn to shreds in the Facebook groups, on Reddit.
27:04
Speaker 1: And some sleuths told me Brandon started to clap back.
27:07
Speaker 3: He will get on Reddit and make scenes, kind of
27:10
Speaker 3: weird statements sometimes.
27:12
Speaker 5: Oh, he gets very defensive.
27:15
Speaker 1: Some people told me about personal interactions they had had
27:17
Speaker 1: with Brandon that felt aggressive, but they didn't feel comfortable
27:21
Speaker 1: sharing for the podcast. Over the past decade, he has
27:25
Speaker 1: gone through phases of being open and sharing about the
27:27
Speaker 1: investigation to writing nasty comments and then quickly deleting them. Once,
27:33
Speaker 1: after Crystal and Renee had a certain guest on their podcast,
27:36
Speaker 1: who I will talk about more in a later episode,
27:39
Speaker 1: Brandon got upset. He wrote a post in their Facebook
27:42
Speaker 1: group demanding they take down the episode, or, quote, we
27:46
Speaker 1: will show up to your tree planting to explain ourselves personally.
27:50
Speaker 1: Brandon tagged two of his daughters and others in the
27:53
Speaker 1: comment and was referencing an event Crystal and Renee were
27:56
Speaker 1: hosting to honor Missy. This was years ago, but he
28:00
Speaker 1: remains active online today. Just recently, he commented on a
28:04
Speaker 1: Facebook post from the Waxahachie Daily Light, a local paper
28:07
Speaker 1: that released an article about Missy. The comment is long
28:11
Speaker 1: and details the relationship he's had with the Midlothian Police Department.
28:16
Speaker 1: Give them a break, Brandon writes. The public doesn't know
28:19
Speaker 1: all the details. We want resolution as well. I just
28:22
Speaker 1: can't blame MPD for no resolution. The people I spoke
28:27
Speaker 1: to all seemed very wary of picking a fight with Brandon,
28:30
Speaker 1: even warning me against talking to him.
28:33
Speaker 4: I wouldn't reach out to Brandon.
28:35
Speaker 1: But of course, I didn't listen.
28:43
Speaker 7: Hello?
28:44
Speaker 1: Hi, Brandon.
28:46
Speaker 7: Yes, it is.
28:47
Speaker 1: Hi, Brandon. Is now a good time? Do you have
28:49
Speaker 1: like a couple minutes?
28:51
Speaker 3: Well, depending on what it is.
28:53
Speaker 9: Okay.
28:54
Speaker 1: While I was hoping to get a full interview with
28:56
Speaker 1: Brandon for the podcast and give him the opportunity to
28:59
Speaker 1: defend himself from online sleuths that are constantly hurling accusations
29:03
Speaker 1: at him, he told me that he's just not interested
29:06
Speaker 1: in talking to anyone in the media. He doesn't trust it.
29:09
Speaker 1: And honestly, I get it. His wife's murder is probably
29:12
Speaker 1: the most traumatic thing to ever happen to him. Why
29:16
Speaker 1: would he want to talk to a stranger like me
29:17
Speaker 1: about it, especially all these years later? He did talk
29:21
Speaker 1: with me on the phone a little bit, though. I
29:23
Speaker 1: won't play any more of the audio of our conversation
29:25
Speaker 1: out of respect for him and his family's wishes, but
29:28
Speaker 1: I was grateful he took the time to speak with me.
29:30
Speaker 1: It was a pleasant conversation. He wasn't mad I was
29:33
Speaker 1: doing the podcast, he just didn't want to be a
29:35
Speaker 1: part of it. I reached out to Missy's oldest daughter, Hannah, too,
29:39
Speaker 1: and hope she'd want to speak with me. She shared
29:42
Speaker 1: a similar sentiment to her dad. Her email back to
29:45
Speaker 1: me said, Unfortunately, I am not wanting to participate in
29:48
Speaker 1: any media coverage. As I am sure you learned from
29:59
Speaker 1: my dad, it's been a struggle dealing with the backlash
30:01
Speaker 1: from people on social media. Right now, I am not
30:04
Speaker 1: wanting to open the floodgates again, if that makes any sense.
30:07
Speaker 1: Thank you for thinking of me, and I wish you
30:09
Speaker 1: the best. This was an incredibly nice response. I was
30:14
Speaker 1: disappointed that Missy's family's voices wouldn't be present here, but
30:17
Speaker 1: it felt good to know that they weren't against it.
30:20
Speaker 1: They didn't want Missy's story to be forgotten either. When
30:23
Speaker 1: talking with Brandon on the phone, I did pick his
30:25
Speaker 1: brain a little bit about what he thought happened. Who
30:28
Speaker 1: did he think did it? He told me he's entertained
30:32
Speaker 1: many theories over the years, and at this point, he
30:35
Speaker 1: leaned towards this being a burglary gone wrong. Missy was
30:39
Speaker 1: simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. I
30:42
Speaker 1: hadn't considered this before, and in all fairness, it seems
30:46
Speaker 1: pretty unlikely. I mean, it's a church, not a bank.
30:50
Speaker 1: I decided to run this theory by Crystal and Renee.
30:53
Speaker 4: It's the stupidest thing ever.
30:55
Speaker 8: That's actually comical to me.
30:58
Speaker 1: On the next episode of The Unforgotten, Who Killed Missy Beavers?
31:02
Speaker 1: I go to the scene of the crime. What a
31:05
Speaker 1: wonderful opportunity to say, look.
31:07
Speaker 3: At the power of the Lord.
31:09
Speaker 7: Do you realize that Jesus would still be who he
31:13
Speaker 7: is and God would still be good even if this
31:17
Speaker 7: had not been the outcome?
31:19
Speaker 6: Even if this had not been the outcome, because here's
31:21
Speaker 6: what radical belief does.
31:23
Speaker 1: Radical belief says, God, I'm with you. You are my
31:26
Speaker 1: ride or die, no matter what. Could this really have
31:32
Speaker 1: been a burglary gone wrong? Or was someone really out
31:35
Speaker 1: to kill Missy Beavers? Coming up on this season of
31:39
Speaker 1: The Unforgotten, who killed Missy Beavers?
31:42
Speaker 3: Okay, she was stabbed.
31:43
Speaker 1: No, wait a minute, it was a hammer.
31:45
Speaker 8: And come to find out, she was shot dead.
31:49
Speaker 3: Midlothians is when your capital of the world.
31:51
Speaker 4: So I don't give a crap. If she had 15
31:54
Speaker 4: affairs with 15 different men in two week time period,
31:58
Speaker 4: that is not an open invitation to murder someone period.
32:03
Speaker 4: Because if it is, there's a lot of people going
32:04
Speaker 4: to be dead.
32:06
Speaker 3: I don't believe anyone could argue with that walk and
32:09
Speaker 3: the perps walk in the video that they are not identical.
32:13
Speaker 8: Obviously the only thing anyone's talking about is the Missy
32:16
Speaker 8: Beaver's murder, right? So you've got a beaver, same spelling,
32:20
Speaker 8: coming in here with a shirt with blood all over it.
32:23
Speaker 8: She calls the police.
32:32
Speaker 1: The Unforgotten is a Free Range production. Season 6, Who
32:35
Speaker 1: Killed Missy Beavers, is written and hosted by me, Zoe Kolkin.
32:39
Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Wes Ferguson. Audio editing by Aislinn Gaddis.
32:45
Speaker 1: Engineering and sound design by Austin Sisler with Eastside Studios.
32:49
Speaker 1: Get our newsletter at unforgottenpod.com. Thanks for listening.