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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome back to Postmortem. I'm your host, Anne-Marie Green. And today we are discussing the case of Alyssa Burkett, who in 2020 was brutally murdered by Andrew Beard, her ex-boyfriend and also the father of her young daughter. Nearly three years after Alyssa's death, Andrew's fiancee, Holly Elkins, was arrested in connection with the murder.
So joining me now to unpack all the twists and turns of this case are 48 Hours correspondent Peter Van Sant, producer Liza Finley, and Gabby Demergen. Thank you so much, guys. Thanks, Anne-Marie. Thanks, Anne-Marie.
Great to be here again, Anne-Marie.
Okay, as per usual, everyone, remember, if you haven't listened to the 48 Hours episode yet, you can find the full audio just below this episode in your podcast feed. Go take a listen and then come back for this conversation. So here we go. Alyssa Burkett was murdered in broad daylight outside of her workplace in Carrollton, Texas. This is just north of Dallas. There were witnesses.
And even though Andrew Beard wore a disguise, he was really quickly identified as a suspect and surrendered to authorities just three days later. But what I was really surprised by is he picked such a public place to attack her. Do you have any insight into why he would do it there in broad daylight?
Well, first off, it's absolute madness that he did it where he did it. His own mother even said this was stupid. She wasn't involved in the murder, of course, but to have all those eyeballs there where he was spotted, his getaway vehicle was spotted, how he killed her was seen. Authorities think it's all part of this enormous psychological pressure he was under from Holly that he had to act.
That's the power that she had over him, that he would have done something this stupid, which put authorities right on top of him so quickly. And by the way, a quick side, I used to live in Carrollton, Texas when I was a reporter in Dallas and about a mile and a half from this site.
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Chapter 2: What happened to Alyssa Burkett?
So it's really something. Carrollton's a great town and I loved living there. And this is an extraordinary case for those folks.
It was unbelievable. I mean, just to go back to how stupid it was, for instance, they made up this decision to have him appear as a white man, as an African-American man. So they got this you know, sort of the Java makeup, and he put this on like... It was ridiculous. And then he put on a fake beard that was a Halloween costume.
And he expected people to think that he was an African-American man. And a lot of the witnesses said, you know, something about him. I don't think he was. Really?
Chapter 3: Who were the primary suspects in Alyssa's murder?
Yeah. Yeah. And he wasn't fooling anybody. It was ludicrous. And you do wonder, I mean, one of the things we think about all the time is like, why How did he think that he was going to get away with this? There's no way. I mean, he had a history with this woman of tormenting her and stalking her. And here he is at 9 o'clock in the morning doing this savage murder.
You know, the thing about Andrew is that he was really willing to talk pretty openly with the FBI almost right away. Did you all reach out to him?
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.
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.
And I always find some people, they just want to talk because they also realize we're the last gasp of the real world from the horrible confinement in prison. And we're a relief to them. They sometimes seize on that and they want to talk to us because after that, it's just bars, horrible food, violence, isolation, shame.
Makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Of course, part of the reason that he was a suspect sort of early on is because Alyssa and Beard had had this contentious relationship, this custody battle over their daughter, Willow. But when Beard started dating Holly Elkins...
Alyssa was actually hopeful that maybe this new woman would create sort of a new, more positive environment, that all three of them could maybe work together to support Willow. And there were a series of text messages that we actually did see in the hour between Alyssa and Elkins from this period, and they seemed quite amicable. And then something changed drastically between the two of them.
Do we know why?
Holly Elkins was just acting and she says they met for the first time. They all had a meal together and they were very friendly. And she wrote texts to Alyssa that said, I really want a super healthy relationship. And Alyssa's like, yes, thank goodness. And her mother was happy and her sister was happy and everything. finally, you know, somebody that's going to be able to calm Andrew down.
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Chapter 4: What evidence pointed to Andrew Beard as a suspect?
We have some other texts that didn't make it into the show. And this is an exchange about what Andrew was going through with Holly, how she put pressure on him. And the murder took place in October of 2020. This is in June. And Holly is texting Andrew, and she says some nasty things about Alyssa. She refers to her as BM, which is a baby mama. Here's some of that exchange.
Holly writes, outside of not wanting some garbage mom pathetic hookup in my life, if I raise Willow with you and we don't work out, I lose a child. Do you get that? She's talking now to Andrew, the man she's manipulating to do this killing. Andrew said, I do. It would be unbearable. He was just so submissive to her, right? Then Holly writes,
If those things were important to you, you would have brought them up to baby mama on your own, Andrew. And Andrew writes back in his submissive style, And Holly writes back, But you chose to be, IDK, I don't know, for lack of a better term, submissive to her.
Like, let me deal with some crazy ass quartz baby mama situation for the rest of my life to raise Willow, who I have no right to, and I lose if anything goes sideways. This was part of her plan. badgering of Andrew. You're not a man unless you do this. You are to stand up and defend me. These are my desires, my wants. And he is very submissive.
But you know, what's sort of interesting is we spoke to Holly's best friend growing up and in high school. And this is exactly how she treated boys growing up. She was the catch of the day. You know, everybody wanted Holly, all the guys.
She had the fanciest clothes and the nicest pocketbooks, and she wound them around her little finger and got them to do things for her, like pick her up at midnight and take her to get a hamburger. Yeah, she really, she had it down.
Gabby, in your correspondence with Andrew Beard, did he talk about how he felt about Elkins?
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.
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Chapter 5: How did Holly Elkins become involved in the case?
Lisette, you almost felt like she'd gone back in time and she was the same age, like they were dear friends. And that was a fascinating dynamic. But it's part of Holly's ability to manipulate things. For Lisette, she felt as though Holly was a member of the family and she came to love her. Then Holly abandons Andrew and Lisette never hears from her again.
Right. The minute he gets out on bond, she just disappears.
The charge I thought was interesting because Elkins is ultimately found guilty of conspiracy to stalk and stalking using a dangerous weapon resulting in death. But then she gets two life sentences. It just didn't seem like those charges would result in such a heavy penalty.
Most murder cases are handled on the state and county level. On the federal side, they do have a murder charge, but it's rarely used. They use these other charges that sound convoluted, but they still pack a wallop in terms of a sentence. And you can be sentenced to life as a result of that charge. And she got two life sentences.
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.
Remember, Willow asks her grandmother, does mama have a cell phone in heaven? Can I call her? Yes. It's heartbreaking. I can't imagine, right? Who can imagine that? I have to say Alyssa's mom, though, is just the most loving person. And so she'll be surrounded in that. And hopefully she can come through the other side of this disaster.
Well, it sounds like she has an incredible support system. But this is, you know, this is something that will hang over her for the rest of her life. It was a really fascinating hour, an incredible twist at the end. Peter, Liza, Gabby, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you for having us.
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Chapter 6: What were the significant text messages exchanged between Holly and Andrew?
Thanks for having us, Annemarie.
Another fascinating talk. Thanks so much.
If you like this series, Postmortem, please rate and review 48 Hours on Apple Podcasts and follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also listen ad-free on Amazon Music, Wondery Plus, and the Wondery app or with a 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Thanks again for listening.
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