The public release of video showing a “vehicle of interest” hovering in a parking lot near the church where Missy Bevers was murdered last April has spurred new speculation about the killer’s identity. But what you think you see may only reflect what you want to see in the grainy images.
Investigators first asked for the public’s help in identifying the mysterious Nissan Altima with a tweet, weeks after Bevers was beaten to death inside Creekside Church of Christ in Midlothian, Texas. They only shared a single frame of the car’s rear, which appeared to show a distinctive oval bumper sticker.
The full video, recorded by 17 security cameras mounted on the SWFA Outdoor store, was only recently posted online by the gun store’s manager. It shows the car pulling into the store’s parking lot and circling the store with lights off before parking for three minutes in the front.
If the car is connected to the Bevers case, was the driver checking the lot to make sure there were no police or security guards on duty? Was the killer changing into the SWAT-like gear, seen in the chilling video from inside the church, during the three minutes the car was parked in front of the store?
While online amateurs are sharing blurry images of their attempts at zooming into the car, have detectives been able to use high-tech tools for a clearer view of the driver? Or have they been able to read the license plate? Police said earlier that they have yet to identify the car’s owner or drivers — and if it is connected to the murder across the street two hours later.
Bevers, 45, was found dead inside her church at 5 a.m. on April 16, 2016, by someone who was arriving to take part in a fitness class she planned to lead that morning. Security video showed a person dressed from head to toe in a SWAT-like police uniform, including gloves and a helmet walking through the church an hour earlier. Investigators aren’t even sure if the killer was a man or woman.
Warrants in the case revealed detectives searched Bevers’ Facebook and LinkedIn for information about her sexual affairs with married men that her husband told them about. A Midlothian police spokesman said months later that investigators had not successfully connected her extramarital relationships to the murder.
It is not known if that has changed since — as CrimeOnline.com recently reported — investigators and Bevers’ family have grown silent about the case over the past two months. Nancy Grace confirmed from three sources that this silence is because of a new “person of interest” — who is connected to law enforcement — and also fear that the killer could strike again if stirred by publicity.
Click on this Google Maps link and you can see for yourself how close the SWFA lot is to the church where Bevers was killed with a hammer. Nancy Grace looked at the satellite view and noted how close a car could park to the church without being seen by the church’s exterior cameras.
[Feature Photo: Handout/Midlothian PD]
