A Texas mother was brutally killed by her bitter ex after his new fiancée coerced him into a twisted murder plot, it has been revealed.
Beloved mother Alyssa Burkett, 24, was shot and stabbed to death on the morning of October 2, 2020, outside her work. Her ex-boyfriend and father of her daughter Andrew Beard, then 33, was promptly arrested for her murder.
Detective Jeremy Chevallier told CBS News’ 48 Hours that ‘at first, it seemed like an open and shut case’, with the motive seemingly a hostile custody battle for Burkett and Beard’s one-year-old daughter Willow.
Chevallier said when he began his investigation, he sought out Beard’s new fiancée Holly Elkins, and initially ‘wanted to use her as a witness in this.’
‘If she had information that could put her in that witness column and not in the suspect column, I was gonna listen to her,’ the detective told the outlet.
Elkins insisted under questioning that she couldn’t ‘believe my fiancé would do something like that to a woman, or to anybody’ – and insisted Beard was with her on the morning Burkett was killed.
But as Chevallier put it, he later discovered ‘Andrew Beard was only half of the story.’
Beloved mother Alyssa Burkett, 24, was shot and stabbed to death on the morning of October 2, 2020, outside her work in Carrollton, Texas
Burkett’s ex-boyfriend Andrew Beard was promptly arrested for her murder, with it later revealed he disguised himself as a Black man before shooting and stabbing his ex
When Burkett was murdered, witnesses said they saw what they thought to be a black man pull up beside her car as the parked outside her work at the Greentree Apartments leasing office in Carrollton, Texas.
The killer shot her through her drivers’ side window, and believing her to be dead, left her there. Burkett survived, and climbed out of her car to try and get help from her co-workers inside the office.
This led the killer to chase after her with a hunting knife, and stabbed the young mother to death 44 times on the steps of her work before fleeing in a Ford SUV.
Bodycam footage from the scene captured the tragic moment Burkett’s mother Teresa Collard raced to her daughter’s work after hearing the news, and immediately told officers she believed Beard was the killer.
‘She said he was the kind of person who would try and kill her,’ Collard said at the scene through tears. ‘And he did, he did… oh my god.’
Beard’s new fiancée Holly Elkins insisted Beard had an alibi and said he ‘couldn’t have’ carried out the murder – but detectives came to realize the actual killer ‘was only half of the story’
Witnesses said they saw a black man pull up beside Burkett’s car as the parked outside her work at the Greentree Apartments leasing office (pictured), and shot her through her window before stabbing her 44 times
Police bodycam footage from the scene captured the tragic moment Burkett’s mother Teresa Collard (left) broke down in tears as she pointed the finger at Beard
Despite the witness descriptions of a black man being the killer, police quickly tracked Beard down and pulled him over in his truck with Elkins and Willow inside.
Investigators allowed the three to leave but told them they couldn’t return home, and when cops searched Beard’s home, they found GPS tracker batteries and charging stations that matched a tracking device found under Burkett’s car that day.
Burkett’s family later told police that she had previously told them she was afraid Beard was stalking her and always seemed to know where she had been.
The next day, a search of Beard’s vehicle uncovered two bottles of dark foundation makeup – and it was discovered that Beard had used the makeup to disguise himself as a black man to carry out the murder.
Later that night police also found the Ford SUV witnesses described at the scene of the crime, left abandoned less than a mile from Beard’s home.
Beard surrendered to the Carrollton Police Department and was charged with murder. He was released on bond two weeks later, but due to fears for Willow’s safety, cops enlisted the FBI to take him back into custody.
They said they found an unregistered silencer at Beard’s home, allowing him to be re-arrested on new charges of cyberstalking using a dangerous weapon resulting in death.
Bears surrendered three days after the murder and was charged with murder, and two weeks later the FBI re-arrested him on new charges of cyberstalking using a dangerous weapon resulting in death
Burkett and Beard had been locked in a bitter custody battle over their one-year-old daughter Willow
Beard pleaded guilty in June 2022, and spoke with the FBI one month later as part of a plea deal – ultimately pointing the finger at Elkins as the orchestrator of Burkett’s murder.
In his interrogation, Beard said: ‘It was …’this is how you’re gonna do this,’ it was, ‘you’re gonna wear this dark makeup.’ That was her plan… that’s how it’s gonna be done.”
Chevallier told CBS’ 48 Hours that he came to realize Elkins ‘was the one running the show… she was telling him what he was going to do.’
In text messages between the couple, detectives said they could tell Elkins hated Burkett, and in one exchange the week before the murder, Elkins texted Beard while she was on a trip to Mexico ordering him to carry out the murder.
‘I hope you handle it I’m not coming home to b***s***,’ she texted him.
‘That’s my goal,’ Beard responded.
In his interview with the FBI, Beard went on to explain: ‘I just basically said, ‘OK’ and became submissive to whatever she wanted me to do, that’s the task I did.’
The investigation found that Elkins hated Burkett, and ordered her fiancée to ‘handle it’ while she was on vacation, telling Beard: ‘I’m not coming home to b***s***’
The show shared gut-wrenching footage of Willow visiting her mother’s grave
In May 2023, almost a year after his guilty plea, Beard was sentenced to 43 years in federal prison, and Chevallier said he believes Elkins thought at the time she had gotten away with it.
‘I think she believed that the further she got away from this, the less involved she was gonna be,’ he said. ‘But it didn’t work out for her.’
Two months later, Elkins was snared at Miami Airport after returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic, and was charged with conspiracy to stalk and stalking using a dangerous weapon resulting in death.
She pleaded not guilty. At her trial, a federal prosecutor summed up the case against her: ‘Andrew Beard was a monster, but he was Holly Elkins’ monster.’
Jurors ended up deliberating for just 90 minutes before returning a guilty verdict, and she was ultimately sentenced in August to two life terms – longer than Beard’s sentence.
As put by another detective on the case: ‘I 100% believe that if Holly and Andrew had never met that Alyssa Burkett would be alive today.’