Speculation Runs Wild as Mystery Remains in Midlothian Church Killing

Maybe, Missy Bevers' killer was a woman. Maybe not. Maybe Bevers was singled out, hunted down after she made it clear where she'd be before sunrise Monday. Or maybe she walked in on a burglary.

All of those possibilities are plausible and all have been cited by Bevers' family or Midlothian police as things that could've happened. Nothing is certain but one thing is clear: The more details emerge in Bevers' killing, the stranger it feels.

Tuesday night, Midlothian police released another 35 seconds or so of video of their suspect, decked out in tactical gear, waddling through the halls of Creekside Church of Christ on East U.S. Highway 287 in Midlothian. Bevers used the church to teach a boot camp-style fitness class, and scheduled one that morning.

Police corrected their earlier references to the suspect as a man, saying that the suspect could well be a woman. This had been pointed out by an avalanche of commenters on the police department Facebook post of the initial, shorter video. Brandon Bevers, Missy's husband who was in Biloxi, Mississippi, when she was killed, also pointed to the suspect's gait repeatedly during a 20-minute conversation with reporters outside a vigil held in honor of his wife Tuesday night, calling it a "distinctive walk."
The video shows an object that appears to be a hammer dangling from the suspect's left hand. That detail, combined with the police's admission that Bevers had suffered obvious trauma before she died, has led some to surmise that this is the murder weapon. But police still haven't released the results of Bevers' autopsy. It was completed by the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office on Tuesday, but police said Wednesday that information contained in the report is important to the case — they don't want to give anything away that would compromise information that would otherwise only be known by the killer. 

Wednesday afternoon, Midlothian police told reporters that Bevers' phone was found unlocked and they'd had no problems accessing her calls and texts. Brandon Bevers, police said, was cooperating fully and they are getting help from both the Texas Rangers and the ATF, who brought dogs to the church Wednesday to sniff for gun-powder and other explosive residue.

There is now a $10,000 reward for any inforamtion leading to an arrest and an indictment in Bevers' killing. Anyone with information should call the Midlothian Police Department at 214-775-7624.