Gabby Demirdjian
Appearances
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
She very rarely throughout this seven day trial looked back into the gallery to see everybody. Do you know if there was anyone there on her behalf? There was a couple there. I didn't know if they were related to her, but, um, like we said, she lost her mother and her dad did show up the very last day, I believe. Wow. Yeah. Um, Andrew's mom also attended Holly's trial.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
And she was sitting in the same section with the victim's family. And the judge actually ordered her to sit on the opposite end, away from Alyssa's family. Yikes. And Lizette, Andrew's mom, said to the judge, well, I'm not here in favor of the defense. making it very clear what her position was.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
I know. What about Willow? How is she doing? Willow is five years old now. And Alyssa's mother, Teresa, said she's a very loved little girl. It's very clear that they've made a lovely home for her. She has this beautiful princess bedroom, all pink. And I think, you know, now that she's growing up, Teresa is worried about how she's going to have to explain what happened to Alyssa to her.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
Thank you for having us. Thanks for having us, Annemarie.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
Yes. So I had originally sent him an email. He's in prison, but there is a system where you can contact incarcerated people through. And that's how I was able to get my message to him. And so I'd sent him an email and I said, hey, would you be willing to speak with me over the phone? And he was. He was very polite, answered all of my questions, and he was very willing to help.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
And he wanted to do an interview on camera. And he was trying to facilitate this with the prison. Ultimately, they didn't let us in there. Wow. But he wanted to talk on camera. He was ready. Did he express regret? Not to me.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
No. Really? But he would refer to her as Elkins. And I thought that that was interesting. And he does that in his interview with the FBI. And he refers to Alyssa as Burkett as well, which I thought is kind of cold. Yeah. Yeah.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
Did she lose her mother? Yes. So about two months before she met Andrew Beard, she lost her mother to suicide. It's very clear in this interview, she's trying to play on the sympathies of these cops. She wants them to feel badly for her.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
And knowing what we know now, it's honestly crazy that she had come up with a plan to kill Willow's mother, a baby that she'd come to love so much, knowing that she had also lost her mother so recently. Absolutely.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
So we don't know much, but according to court documents, we learned that she had gotten married in February of 2023. We don't know to who, but she had also made 12 trips to the Dominican Republic. So she was keeping busy.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
And another thing is that there was evidence that Holly was with Andrew when he placed the GPS tracker on Alyssa's car in June of 2020. Interesting.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
And another search, something to the effect of, is it legal to track somebody?
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
So it was very sad. Andrew had pled, so he never got to go to trial. So this is the first and only trial that Alyssa's family was ever going to attend. And it was almost four years later after the murder. So they have to relive this whole thing with the anticipation leading up to it. The prosecution played Holly's interview in court as well.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
And, you know, it's very evident in some places where she's just overacting and lying. And, you know, knowing what we knew sitting in the courtroom, it was very intense being in there.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
So her defense put on a makeup artist as their expert, and they used the same bottle of makeup That was found in Andrew Beard's car that investigators say he used to cover his face the morning of the murder. They took that bottle of makeup and they essentially did a makeover on Holly Elkins in front of the jury, a demonstration to show that this makeup could be used to contour her face.
48 Hours
Post Mortem | The Plot to Eliminate Alyssa Burkett
It took about 20 minutes. The jury is looking at each other like, what is going on? Right. Everybody in the room is like, are they really just like giving Holly Elkins a makeover at her own trial? And the judge says something to the effect of like, I've been a judge for a very long time. This is definitely a first. What was her demeanor like in the courtroom?