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00:00An all-new 2020 starts right now.
00:08Good morning, everyone. It's Friday with our temperature today, a high of about 78.
00:18The morning of October 2nd, 2020, we were at a diner here in Carrollton having a little
00:25meeting breakfast with our sergeant. This was on a Friday, so that was one of my regular days off.
00:30I occasionally will work off-duty jobs. I happened to be working at a bank that morning.
00:36I had my very first mammogram ever that morning. You have to put everything in a locker and lock
00:41your things up. It was during that meeting that we got a radio that there was a shooting at the
00:47Greentree Apartments in Carrollton, Texas. I was just down the street from Greentree to get a call
00:53from my sergeant. He asked me to come help. My phone went off. It was a Facebook notification.
00:59And the exact words were, is it true? I just heard about Alyssa. What happened?
01:10911, what is the address of the emergency?
01:12It's 1140, my car's the drive. I need an ambulance immediately.
01:15Okay, I'm going to get some help at it that way. Now tell me exactly what happened.
01:18Someone came up and just shot my assistant manager. I need someone here immediately.
01:22Don't touch anything, okay? This is an active crime scene, okay? Who all's in here?
01:30Just me and my co-worker. We're just getting our day started.
01:33Okay. I came in at 9 o'clock. I was in the computer working and then Tony comes in around 9.06.
01:44When suddenly we heard like a car like really close to the parking lot.
01:52And we're like, what the hell is he parking like that? And then we just heard a booming sound.
01:56You were watering the plants. Yeah. And then what?
02:16This is a crime scene now. We got to tape it off.
02:19And one of the chaps, you know. The chaps and I say, I'm looking with what happened.
02:25Do you hear what's that? Only one chaps, yeah.
02:29Is she awake? She's awake. Okay, how old is she? She's 24 years old.
02:34Do you know who she is? Yes, she's my assistant manager. Okay.
02:37So perfect.
02:41Growing up, she was very headstrong, but she also had like the heart of gold.
02:46We had our times, right? Like mothers and daughters do. But I can say she's the one who
02:54anytime I needed anything, she was there. I am Alyssa's sister. We're six years apart, I believe.
03:01She was always the cooler, older sister that I always looked up to. For my 18th birthday,
03:08my mother did this huge party and she actually got Alyssa to make a video. Hey Taylor,
03:15happy birthday, 18. Now that you're getting into adulthood, we're going to become best friends and
03:20we're going to make lots of new memories. We can do everything together now that you're older. And so
03:25that was like really awesome for me at that time. Me and Alyssa became friends in the sixth grade. I was
03:31kind of getting bullied and she asked me to ride the bus home with her and we were inseparable ever
03:39since. She's always been like a mama bird. And she was bold and strong and had to teach me kind
03:45of how to stand on my two feet. She gave me my braveness. There was not a room that she could walk
03:51in that her presence wouldn't be known. Whenever she got pregnant, it was very out of the blue.
03:59She was very scared but determined she was going to go through with it. As soon as her baby came,
04:04she was all mom mode. I think that the most beautiful part of Alyssa's life was when she
04:11became a mother to Willow. We support her for changing her whole lifestyle for that kid. You
04:17have this beautiful 24-year-old mom who is trying to make a life and just was one of the absolute best
04:26moms. Shortly before 9 a.m. on October 2nd, Alyssa Burkett pulled into the parking lot of the
04:35Green Tree Apartments where she worked as an assistant office manager. She was likely sitting in her car
04:42when an assailant dressed in all black approached her car from the driver's side. The assailant,
04:48he pulled right here and he got out and he shot her through the driver's side window.
04:58And he got back in, started to back out thinking that he had done his job.
05:03I heard that pop. I turned around. I knew it was a gunshot. Okay. So I was like what the
05:07So I turned around. I peeked out the window. I see a Ford Explorer. It's like a black navy blue,
05:12something like that. There is a video that is inside that shows the leasing office and it shows
05:16the two co-workers that were here. We digged down, me and Tony. We got down and then we ran to the
05:23other window to take a close look of the truck and I noticed it was a black one and he was dressed
05:29everything in black, like everything. The bastard came out. He was trying to pull away when I saw him.
05:35He knew that I saw him so he tried to run off after he popped there. Okay. And they hear the gunshot and
05:40then they're trying to figure out what to do. Me and Tony, we ran. I was like, he's going to try to
05:45do something to us. So I ran and I told him to call the cops. He tried to go into his car. He was pulling
05:51out but he noticed that she stepped out so she was still trying to live.
05:53He realized that Alyssa had gotten out. She was fighting to get into the leasing office where
06:08she knew her co-workers were. He stops, sees her, comes back, runs out with a knife.
06:14The suspect got out of his vehicle, followed her up here along this path, drops the sheath
06:22over here on the sidewalk and then catches up to her on the stoop of the leasing office
06:27where he proceeded to stab her multiple times.
06:32Hey guys, I'm going to start taping stuff off.
06:35Did you see him holding the knife?
06:37Uh, yeah, in the hand.
06:38You saw him holding the knife?
06:39Yeah, uh-huh.
06:40We couldn't help her, obviously.
06:41He's strapped. What the hell am I going to do?
06:43Okay.
06:43So then, I wanted to call the police.
06:48Where is the shooter?
06:49He's gone. He left in his car.
06:51Okay, how long ago did he leave?
06:53He literally left a second ago.
06:55Okay, did he leave in a vehicle?
06:57Yes, he left in a vehicle.
06:58What's the color and type of vehicle, do you know?
07:00It's a black tornado, and I didn't get a good look at it.
07:03Was she shot in the chest or in her arm?
07:05I can't tell.
07:07There's blood all over the place.
07:10How badly was she wounded?
07:15A lot of blood.
07:18She was still breathing.
07:20Is she still conscious, or has she gone completely unconscious at this point?
07:23She looks unconscious, but she's fighting.
07:29As I'm coming back out to get my things, my phone is just ringing nonstop, and I'm like,
07:35what is going on? It was my supervisor calling. She's like,
07:39I'm calling about Alyssa, and you need to go to Green Tree.
07:43According to the witnesses, nobody actually saw it happen. They just heard the pop.
07:46It was just call after call after call. I got a phone call. It was my friend,
07:51and all she said was he stabbed her. I said, who?
07:54What's going on?
07:57And then I remember her saying she was shot.
08:00You went that way?
08:01It was really just a scramble of trying to figure out what happened and who did it.
08:07October 2nd.
08:19Unfortunately, it is a day that I replay a lot.
08:24But the whole world was spinning. I felt my heartbreak that day.
08:33I remember pulling up. I see all of the lights, the ambulance, the police.
08:38And I remember asking, she didn't make it, did she? And he was like, no, she didn't.
08:44And then I remember just losing it from that point on.
08:48Oh, my God.
08:52I just didn't want it to be true that Alyssa had died,
08:56and that they didn't know where Willow was.
09:04We're in the parking lot of the Green Tree Apartments.
09:07This is where we were for the murder investigation of Alyssa Burkett.
09:10When I arrived, it was the most brutal scene I think I'd ever been to.
09:18You could just see the rage and the hate that was in the killer's mind and heart.
09:24Don't touch anything. It was an active crime scene.
09:26We knew we had a lot of evidence. We had Alyssa's car.
09:30That was a crime scene in and of itself.
09:32We also collected the knife sheath that was here on the sidewalk.
09:35Feast of a knife laying over here in front of the car.
09:38That the suspect had dropped.
09:40We heard. We heard a pop.
09:42We want to talk to everybody that's on scene.
09:43Y'all come with me, please? Were you here when everything happened?
09:45Yes.
09:46All the witnesses had very similar descriptions.
09:48He come out right there and he was a kid at the car, black car, like an SUV car.
09:52Black SUV backed up and stopped.
09:54The one consistent thing that I remember is them describing him as an African-American male
09:59with a beard.
10:00It was a look like a black guy.
10:03I see the face, black guy.
10:05Alyssa had this feeling that someone was watching her.
10:09After Alyssa's murdered and the police are examining her car, they find a tracker.
10:18It seemed like there was something else that we were missing pretty early on.
10:22And we were.
10:22It's kind of murder 101.
10:24I mean, you always start with the closest circle to that victim.
10:29Then you work out.
10:29Alyssa had told me that she had met someone and they had been dating a little bit.
10:38When we met, I just thought, you know, oh, okay, he seems like he's this nice guy.
10:42And okay, we're good to go.
10:44Alyssa and Andrew met online in 2018.
10:48He was 10 years older than her.
10:51And he told me on the phone that at the time they met, he was well established.
10:54He owned his own house.
10:56He had a great job selling power tools.
10:58And he even owned his own airplane.
11:00She seemed like a very caring, funny, loving person.
11:05Andrew wanted eventually to settle down and have children.
11:09He was this warm, giving, loving man that put others first.
11:15I knew that she was seeing someone and it wasn't like anything serious.
11:20And then she, you know, found out that she was pregnant with Willow.
11:23I just asked her straight up, okay, well, do you want to go look at a place and move in?
11:28And she looked like she was very relieved for that.
11:31I said, okay, well, let's do that.
11:34They found a beautiful home on the lake in a suburb of Dallas.
11:38He envisioned that they would raise their daughter there.
11:42I know she felt very uncomfortable about it.
11:44I was like, well, are you going to move in there with him?
11:46And she was like, well, the deal was,
11:48is he was going to help her like go to school and all of these things.
11:52Everything had to be on his terms and his way.
11:55And she was just like, no, this is, this is not the deal for me.
11:58And I don't want to do that.
12:00Which is why she moved out like two weeks later.
12:05When Willow was born, he was at the hospital.
12:07Holding Willow was probably one of the most fulfilling moments.
12:13From the beginning, we absolutely had the full understanding that we're just going to be co-parenting.
12:19She wanted it to be fair.
12:22She wanted him to have time with Willow, a relationship with him.
12:25So that's what she agreed to.
12:28She was always team co-parent.
12:29And if we can be civil, that's in the best interest of Willow.
12:32After they had come to this agreement and mediation, everything was fine.
12:38All right.
12:38And then Holly came into the picture.
12:40Well, I'll get your fishies.
12:41That's when everything went south.
12:43I've loved two women in my life and Holly was one of them.
12:47Holly's a big personality, exudes energy and passion.
12:53A turtle.
12:54A turtle.
12:55Their relationship was really intense because it was COVID.
12:59And they were spending 24-7 together from the moment they met.
13:04She was jumping into almost like a stepmother role, it seemed like, right off the bat.
13:09Andrew and Holly met with Alyssa and her guy.
13:13And it was all very amiable and very, gosh, we should, you know, why wouldn't we just get along?
13:20Let's do that.
13:20Andrew seemed to like some of the things he was hearing, but Holly didn't.
13:25She really took that as her launching point to tell Andrew, look, you got to be a man about this.
13:32Almost belittling him on a routine basis.
13:35What started off as an amicable co-parenting scenario quickly turned into a bitter custody battle.
13:42I always tell people that Alyssa used to have a really bright light.
13:45Like, and then all of a sudden her light was gone.
13:48Something, something was wrong.
13:50I had worked a case a month before for an anonymous drug tip that involved Alyssa.
13:56The drug tip came from here at Greentree.
14:00911, what is the location of your emergency?
14:02I'd like to report someone selling drugs in my apartment complex, also doing them.
14:08The call seemed very unusual to me.
14:12This was very specific.
14:14It was Alyssa Burkett.
14:17It was marijuana.
14:20It was hand-to-hand transactions.
14:22Where they did find drugs in the truck of her car.
14:25Just a box with some marijuana, a little bit of money, and a gun.
14:30Ms. Burkett insisted that she had never seen that before.
14:33Shockingly, there's no fingerprints whatsoever.
14:36The pistol, the serial number was etched out.
14:40It was always something not right with this call.
14:43She's scared to death at this point.
14:45It's like, what is next?
14:50One month after that 911 call, Alyssa would be dead.
14:54I was there when we get word that Theresa was on scene.
14:58And she's in so much pain, and she's so angry.
15:01She knew about the anonymous drug tip a month prior.
15:05I knew that it was him when the drugs didn't work in the car for him to get the baby.
15:10She even said, I think he's the kind of person that's going to try to kill me.
15:15And he did! And he did!
15:19Oh, my God!
15:22She was sitting there screaming, it's Andrew.
15:23And knowing that, from the witnesses' accounts, that it was a black male that we're looking for.
15:28In the back of my mind, it wasn't really adding up.
15:31While police are talking to Alyssa's mother, they find out that Andrew had custody of baby Willow that day.
15:38I want my green baby away from him.
15:41Do you know what kind of car you drive?
15:43He has, like, a whiteboard truck.
15:45My brother, something's happened.
15:48So there are people right now they would like to talk to.
15:51Like, freaking out. What is going on?
16:05Andrew and Holly lived together at their Flamingo address in Rowlett.
16:10So we had Rowlett Petey out here to survey the house.
16:13While we had our own resources en route and Detective John Meyer and Matt Burnham.
16:20The call we got, they said they saw Andrew and Holly leaving and possibly had luggage with them.
16:28We happened to be pulling onto the street at the exact same time that Andrew's truck was coming head on to us.
16:35So Matt hit the lights on his truck. We were in an unmarked Cobra vehicle.
16:40Andrew came to a stop.
16:43We had them exit the vehicle separately.
16:47All right. Take a seat.
16:50Sit right there.
16:53So I'll talk to you about what's going on here in one second.
16:56Hi, brother. Something's happened right now.
17:00That's why we're here. I can't go into the details.
17:03I'm loaded, but it's pretty significant.
17:05So there are people right now they would like to talk to.
17:08What do you mind going for, like, I'm running poor, but mind going to the trucker.
17:13I'm, like, freaking out. What, to be honest, do I need an attorney for this or what is going on?
17:20When the police pull over Andrew, they don't tell him that Alyssa's been murdered.
17:25And the body cams are rolling, and he doesn't seem too surprised, but also doesn't seem too edgy.
17:31I knew that he had just gotten Willow from Alyssa, and I'm thinking she is in danger, and we need to go get her.
17:44We all knew he had an airplane.
17:45That was, like, a huge concern is that he was going to take off on that airplane, and we'd never see the baby ever again.
17:51So after we got Holly and Andrew out of the car, I observed that Willow, the daughter, was in her car seat in the back seat of the pickup.
17:59Yes, the daughter's in the car seat in the back seat.
18:02The AC is on and everything?
18:04Yeah, I can go double check now.
18:06She has a bottle. She should be okay.
18:09Andrew and Holly had said they'd been at the house. They were relaxing all morning.
18:13We were just going to brunch, TLC on the lake.
18:15Okay.
18:16What in the car?
18:18Holly was overly cooperative, too. I asked for consent to search her purse because she wanted some stuff out of it.
18:23I just need my small Louis Vuitton bag.
18:25Okay. And she was like, oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
18:28Can we leave your passport in the truck? Is that cool?
18:30Because obviously you're not going out of the country today.
18:31No, no, no. I just got back from Mexico a couple days ago, actually.
18:34I'm not leaving the country, so as long as I can have it back in the near...
18:37Yeah, you'll get it back in the meantime.
18:38Yeah, it's going to be in the truck. We're not taking it.
18:39I was in Granite Bay in California, and I get a call from Holly. And she goes,
18:49Andrew and I got pulled over. And, you know, it was horrible. They pulled guns. And I was like,
18:55what?
18:58I'm taking your phone and her phone right now, but I will allow you to call the 205.
19:04Take it. And then if you can leave here and just go straight to the Carrollton Police Department,
19:10and they'll advise you.
19:11They were just trying to do everything they could to try to get them back to the PD for an interview,
19:16so that we can get them in a room and talk to them, kind of figure out what they knew,
19:19kind of see if there's anything that would lead us down to a suspect.
19:24We asked for consent to search the vehicle at the scene, and Andrew told us we couldn't search
19:29the truck. But we had enough developments coming from the crime scene to get a search warrant for
19:34the truck.
19:35How about going to the Raleigh Police Department?
19:36I would rather just wait for my mom than my lady to say.
19:40You're not going in your house.
19:40Okay.
19:41Are you telling me I'm not allowed in my house?
19:42Because we're about to run the search warrant.
19:44We told them that they weren't allowed to go back to the house.
19:46They wanted to keep it where no one came in and no one went out.
19:51The decision was made. He's not leaving with the truck.
19:53If he wants to go, they can go to the police department.
19:56Yeah, we'll just leave you. That's fine.
20:00So we see Andrew and Holly leaving with Willow, carrying her in her car seat,
20:05and they go to get an Uber because they can't go home.
20:08The order was given to us, like, hey, stay with Andrew. Like, make sure that they don't throw
20:15anything out of the car. And as we're traveling, they take an exit that we weren't expecting.
20:20And it was at that point, the attorney was on the phone.
20:22So I don't know if something serious is going on.
20:27And they said that we have to go to the police station.
20:30If I can't, they say I can't go home.
20:32Yes, ma'am.
20:33Seems very good about what's going on.
20:37Yeah, I mean, I guess what's going on is baby mama is mad and she's now made some
20:42false complaints against me again.
20:44I'll be completely honest with you. Baby mama was murdered this morning at her work.
20:49Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
20:56Andrew and Holly had originally agreed to come to the police department to speak to
21:00us. And somewhere along the way, he decided he wasn't going to do that anymore.
21:04They never went to the police station. They went to an Airbnb. They had nothing. They had no change
21:13of clothes or anything for Willow. We knew where they were. We knew where Willow was. But we couldn't
21:19take Willow. I feel like that was a dangerous person. And they knew it at that point. And why
21:24would they have left her? Yeah, I was upset.
21:32And our next goal now is we still have the house. So we write up a search warrant,
21:36which ultimately gets signed by a judge.
21:41That same night, officers go inside Andrew and Holly's house.
21:46Carrollton Police Department search warrant. If you're in there, come out with your hands up.
21:51We probably have no less than six detectives there. And we go through the house room by room by room.
21:58I got up top, Claire. There's a hallway to the right there.
22:07One of the first things that we do find was a Diamond's direct envelope that had like a receipt
22:13for an engagement ring that I presume was for Holly. But on the back of that envelope was basically the
22:19script for the drug tip. Written on that envelope, all the details the caller needed to make that false
22:26accusation against Alyssa. There's Alyssa's license plates on here, the address for the green tree,
22:35and other information that was needed to make to make that call. Once we saw that, it was like,
22:40okay, we're on the right path. The room that was a spare bedroom that was full of junk, had heaps of
22:49clothes on the bed, all kinds of stuff. One of us found a box for a tracker inside that room.
22:56These are the tracker boxes and charging stations that we found in one of the bedrooms at Andrew
23:06Beard's house. These are identical to the ones that we were able to find under the cars. We didn't find
23:13the gun that we were looking for. Right. But what we did find was what came to be a homemade silencer.
23:20We started getting the puzzle pieces together. After police are done searching Andrew's home,
23:27they start canvassing the area, and they find this black Ford Expedition that looks a lot like the
23:33vehicle that the killer was driving. We all rushed over to this area, and that's when we found the
23:39black Expedition parked along the side of the road up here. Witnesses reported seeing a black man driving
23:46away in that type of vehicle, but things aren't always what they see. When we searched that vehicle,
23:54that was the mother load of evidence.
23:56We didn't find much in Holly's car, but we found a nice bunch of Easter eggs in Andrew's vehicle.
24:14We found Willow's diaper bag. Inside were several trash bags, and in each one were boots that had been
24:26cut up and then doused with bleach. The other things we found in that bag were these dark java colored
24:32makeup vials. And inside that abandoned black SUV, they find one last piece of the puzzle. This is the
24:41beard that we found in the vehicle. This also had DNA from Andrew as well as Alyssa on it. And you can
24:48actually still see that discoloration from the makeup on the beard. I immediately thought, well,
24:54there's our African-American male. I'd never seen someone go to that length to try to paint themselves
25:00to look like another race. I would say between the truck and the Expedition and the treasure trove that
25:04was found there, it was overwhelming. It was just small pieces of that puzzle that came together.
25:10All along, it was Andrew in disguise, wearing dark makeup and a beard.
25:16The ham-hadinness of some of the things that they did is just so buffoonish.
25:25The judge signed the warrant for Andrew's arrest for the murder of Alyssa Burkett.
25:30We arranged for Andrew to surrender here at the Carrollton Police Department,
25:34and he did that mid-afternoon, I think.
25:36I just knew, okay, well, at least you're going to get me any minute.
25:43In my mind, this isn't real. My son would not do this. And I remember one of the female law
25:51enforcement ladies saying, you don't know your son. And it turns out that there's a chunk in
25:57there that I couldn't possibly have known. He thought he could beat this up until the day
26:02that he decided, I can't beat this. And I think that's why Holly came in the day or so after
26:09Andrew's arrest. She was using that opportunity to come and get what we had on Andrew.
26:15I believe that he told you something and then told you don't tell the police that I was gone for a few
26:20hours this morning. He did not. We have video all over the neighborhood and all over the neighborhood
26:25to the north. Then why can't you show me? Because I'm not going to show you all that.
26:30It's our investigation. It's our case. Okay.
26:31We would talk to her about her relationship with Andrew and she's very adamant. Andrew would never do
26:35this. He's not that type of person. I don't believe Andrew is capable of murdering someone.
26:40And I'm offering you, I will walk you down the road and show you the photos of why I know he's a
26:47murderer. I don't want to see violent things. Then you don't care. Then you don't care to know the
26:53truth. I do want to know. You don't if you're, if you're shutting this out. It's only because I am
26:59prone to anxiety and panic attacks and things like that. So I, if I get in a certain frantic way,
27:05I'm just concerned about my own actual condition. Then listen.
27:08With Holly not providing much information and police worried that Andrew might be a flight risk,
27:14they set his bail at one million dollars.
27:19So while Andrew is locked up in jail, Holly and Andrew's mom become super close. In fact,
27:27the two of them are living together at this point. Holly and I were linked arms. We're never leaving
27:33each other's side. This is terrible. You know, I was genuinely afraid.
27:40So Holly is living with Andrew's mother for, you know, a short period of time. And then she decides
27:47to pack up and go back home to Michigan. I said, Holly, Andrew's coming here tomorrow. You know,
27:55don't you want to be here? And she said, my dad really needs me. She left and never came back. And
28:04that told me so much. When Andrew bonded out, it surprised me, but it also concerned us because
28:10he's got the means and ability to get out of town if he, if he had to. So the police contact the FBI
28:18because when they searched Andrew's home, they found this unregistered silencer. And the FBI says,
28:25you know what? That's something that we can charge on federally. That gave me some hope that we were
28:30going to be able to get him back into custody. Police discovered that those GPS trackers found
28:35in Alyssa's car, technically they'd been operating across state lines. So prosecutors pursue the
28:41federal charge of cyber stalking resulting in death and discharging a firearm. You think, well,
28:49yeah, he put a tracker on a car, right? But did they ever leave Texas? Luckily for, I guess,
28:53luckily for us, bad for them, is that the company, Spybot, was based out of Florida. And so servers
29:00and all that stuff was out of Florida. With Andrew's case now turned over to the feds,
29:05he's rearrested on those charges, ensuring that he cannot bond out again. The state murder charge
29:12is dropped. And as for Holly Elkins, well, she's no longer the supportive fiancee.
29:18It was a bit expected because when she was asking for money for some house project while I'm in the
29:26midst of this, that's when I realized you're not really worrying about what I got going on right
29:30now. I spoke to Andrew Beard from behind bars. This is the first time he's speaking out about the case.
29:36Your mother supported you the whole time. When you decide to plead guilty and you had to call her,
29:43what was that conversation like? I called my mom at the plea agreement in front of me and I told her
29:47that, you know, I'm guilty and I am guilty. And she didn't even comprehend that. It seemed surreal.
29:56And he said the reason that he held out so long
30:04was because he didn't want to disappoint me. And he just,
30:07he had such regret and not as you would think regret for being caught. He had regret about doing
30:16what he did to the mother of his child and to his child.
30:25Your mother thought that if you had seen her the weekend before this happened, you would not have gone
30:30through with it. Oh, hands down. There's no way it would have happened. But I hate telling her that
30:35because then she feels like she has some responsibility that if only she had just come
30:39for her normal visit like usual. He was wanting to do a plea deal and I was in shock because I just
30:47thought he would take this to his grave. With Andrew pleading guilty to all charges, there would be
30:53no trial. He received a sentence of 43 years. 43 years. I'll be dead. Everybody tries to tell me
31:02he'll never walk out of there, but he might. I mean, I won't be here, but Willow will be. I don't
31:08want her to have to worry about that. But it's not case closed. Andrew then reveals to investigators
31:15that there's a whole lot more to this story. Oh crap, he flipped. So I guess he's going to flip the
31:22script and spill all the tea.
31:40This call is from a federal prison. This call is from Andrew Beard. Hello, Andrew. Yes, sir. It's
31:47John Quinones from 2020. How are you doing, sir? I'm good. I'm good. How are you doing?
31:52I'm in prison, so I'm doing as good as you can for that, I guess. You have a specific reason to
31:57talk to us and thank you for doing that. But what is that reason? For me, it was really just
32:05for obvious reasons. I've never spoken to the media or the news. And so the story just kind of went
32:13completely one direction. I've taken full responsibility and just wanted to basically say,
32:18hey, look, this has started from custody issues. Andrew, this was quite the leap from I want
32:25custody of my daughter to I'm going to kill her mother. John, it's because I feel you need to know
32:32the whole story. I'm not trying to attempt to disparage Alyssa's memory, but yeah, I had growing
32:39concerns for my daughter's well-being and whereabouts. Did you initially have concerns about committing this
32:45crime? Killing her? Oh, absolutely. It goes against the laws of God, nature, and man. Tell me about
32:50that morning. What happened? For a while, that morning was very hazy. Basically just going to
32:57complete this final thing that needed to get done and everything would be better. That was just, that
33:01was the thought in my mind. In my conversation with Andrew, he was vague about what drove him to kill
33:09Alyssa. But as part of his plea deal, he detailed to prosecutors what he says
33:15led up to Alyssa's death. You say you didn't plan on shooting, but I mean,
33:20no, again, I know what you're saying, man, but don't get me wrong. Every plan was eventually,
33:25yes, you're going to then commit this crime. And he gave a full accounting of everything from
33:32the beginning until the very end. Holly was the driver in my mind. We talked about the joking
33:37sprinkled in of, it would be so much easier if you just offer kind of situation. And then it was,
33:42well, you know, we're going to plant these drugs. And then now all this thing happened.
33:48What was Holly's role in all of this? She was basically the mastermind behind it all. She clearly
33:55was leading me down the path. Anytime I would try to pull back from that path, she would make sure I
34:01stayed on it. The end goal was custody and to just be a family. You tried to conceal your identity by
34:09using dark makeup. You think that was a good plan? No, no, I thought the whole plan was ridiculous.
34:15But you did it. Yeah, I did. I did it. So the plan that was made was to dark makeup and make me look
34:24not white and just really commit the crime. And that way, quote unquote, in her words,
34:31even if they see you, it would be somebody else.
34:38He explained how he and Holly got involved. He walked us through the details about how they
34:44devised this plan to smear Alyssa. And when that didn't work, the plan was hatched to actually murder her.
34:51I saw a growing need from Holly that she wanted Willow to, you know, basically be her child.
35:02And that's all well and good, except there's there's a loving mother involved.
35:07One text I found that I forgot to tell you guys about was she had specifically told me on the 25th,
35:14I hope you handled it. I'm not coming home to BS right now. And she said this will be a whole different
35:20conversation if you're ride or die, if you prove that you're ride or die situation.
35:25And your interpretation of ride or die was what?
35:27Well, ride or die 100% meant that I'd be willing to commit a crime for her.
35:34Andrew points the finger at Holly, but the FBI needs to corroborate that what he's saying is true.
35:41So they need to look at the digital footprint of the communications between Holly and Andrew.
35:46They need to look at emails, text messages and where their phones were pinging.
35:50There was a ton of digital evidence. Not only did we have computers from Andrew and Holly,
35:55we also had their cell phones. That's where the majority of the digital evidence came from
36:00that was used in the investigation.
36:06Investigators say they later uncovered archived search histories on Holly's computer,
36:12including queries for spy store and GPS tracker.
36:19Three years after Alyssa's death, authorities finally charged Holly Elkins.
36:25They arrested her at the Miami airport while she was returning home from vacation.
36:32The arrest of Holly Elkins came as a shock.
36:35It's bittersweet. You know, it brings up all the hurt of the loss.
36:41But we're glad that she's being held accountable for it.
36:45Count one, she was charged with stalking. Count two, conspiracy to stalk.
36:50Holly Elkins pled not guilty to all charges.
36:56We always knew that Holly had something to do with it.
36:59It was awesome that they finally got her and that they had, you know, gotten all the evidence that
37:04they did have against her.
37:06She was not hiding. She was carrying on her life by traveling and doing everything that she wanted to
37:10do. I think she thought that that this had passed and that she wasn't real concerned about it.
37:17I like to think that there was that little part in the back of her mind that kept bugging her about,
37:23man, I wonder if they're, I wonder if they're going to come after me. I wonder if they're going to find me.
37:29While in prison, you come forward to police about Holly.
37:32Yes, sir.
37:33Why did you do that?
37:35It was the right thing to do. I actually had
37:38a conversation with my attorney and he had told me something that hit home pretty hard.
37:42What about the next guy, Andrew? He said, you know, this is,
37:46you take this fall, but the next one would be on you.
37:48And now Holly Elkins heads to trial.
37:54Elkins says she was aware that Beard and Burkett were in a bitter custody battle over their child,
38:00but denies helping him.
38:01I just couldn't believe some of the things that I had heard, you know.
38:18Prosecutors used phone records and online purchase history to link Holly Elkins to the 2020 shooting
38:24and stabbing death of Alyssa Burkett. The prosecution in this case had everything at their
38:30disposal. They had every tool in the shed and they used them all. Elkins says she was aware that Beard
38:36and Burkett were in a bitter custody battle over their child, but denies helping him. Holly Elkins' defense
38:43was this was a custody fight and it wasn't her that did this. It wasn't her who pushed him and prodded
38:50him. Elkins' attorneys disputed that she was part of the drug planting on Alyssa's vehicle or that she
38:56had anything to do with the GPS tracking devices found on the car. They rejected the argument that
39:02Holly was the mastermind in Alyssa's killing. The woman who plotted the attack was convicted after brief
39:09jury deliberations. I was so relieved even though I felt like we were going to get the guilty verdict.
39:19I just was worried like about the jury putting it all together because it's so much. I do feel like
39:25in a way justice was served. I mean he got 43 years and you know Holly got wife. I'm happy with it.
39:32You have a message for Alyssa's family? I do. I'm so sorry for my despicable and downright evil actions.
39:40Alyssa was an inspiring young woman. She deserved so much more from life. I forgive myself for taking
39:46that away from you and and I know there's nothing I can say or do that will fix what I broke.
39:51I don't think it was genuine. I think if you're going to take someone's life you'll never truly be
39:55sorry for anything. You can say to me as many sorry's as you want. It's never going to be
40:01enough or remorseful to me. There's been times where I'm like okay yeah I'll forgive him one day
40:07but then in my heart do I really? And you have to I guess just to be able to move forward. It will never
40:16be okay what they did but just for my own self and soul I have to forgive that and let that go.
40:24Your message to your daughter? Willow my sweet baby girl you instantly became our world. I'm sorry
40:32for letting you down the way I did. One day you can forgive me for that but I love you with every
40:37inch of my heart I truly do. Andrew has not had any contact with his daughter Willow however when she
40:44turns 18 she will be given the choice the opportunity to reach out to him if she wants to. So Willow is now
40:51my daughter the adoption is finalized. They are a spitting image of each other even the way Willow
40:58walks when she turns around and walks off I see Alyssa walking off like it is just they're that identical.
41:06We're going to become best friends and we're going to make lots of new memories and I love you.
41:10Now that I'm a mother myself I look at myself all the time
41:14and think what would Alyssa told me to do about this situation. Alyssa is watching us. Alyssa gave me
41:21this baby and she told me I'm ready to be a mom just like she was.
41:25That's our program for tonight. Thanks for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts.
41:34And I'm David Muir from all of us at 2020 and ABC News. Good night.
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