Sentencing and the Future for Willow

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Weight loss by Hers is not available in all fifty states. Wagovi is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Woi clinical study information and restrictions, visit for hers dot comot Everyone learns a language for different reasons. Maybe you want to watch K dramas without subtitles, or talk with family members in their native language. Your life is unique Your language learning should be too. Rosetta Stone, the trusted leader in language learning for over thirty years, just launched Rosetta Stone Sapphire, a new app that combines its proven immersion method with the latest innovation and technology to help you learn faster, personalize your lessons, and have more fun along the way. Most language apps teach the same generic topics Sapphire helps you focus on what you actually want to talk about, whether that's travel, family, work, or your favorite hobbies. If you want to take your language skills to the next level, don't wait to try Rosetta Stone Sapphire. Listeners can get twenty percent off their Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription when they sign up today. You'll get unlimited access to all twenty five Rosetta Stone languages, plus all the new Sapphire learning tools. Visit roosettaestone dot com slash audio to redeem your twenty percent off That's roosettaestone d. com slash audio and start learning a language for real. Welcome back to Post Mortem. I'm your host Anne Marie Green, and today we are discussing the case of Alyssa Burquett, who in twenty twenty was brutally murdered by Andrew Beard, her ex boyfriend and also the father of her young daughter Nearly three years after Assa'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 forty eight Hours correspondent, Peter Van Sent, producer Liza Finley and Gabby De Murergin. Thank you so much guys. Thanks, Anne Marie. Thanks, Anne Marie. Great to be here again, Anne Mie. Okay, as per usual, everyone, remember, if you haven't listened to the forty eight Hours episode yet, you can find the full audio just below this episode in your podcast feed Take a listen and then come back for this conversation So here we go Alyssa Bquette was murdered in broad daylight outside of her workplace in Carrolton, Texas. This is just north of Dallas There were witnesses. And even though Andrew Beard wore a skguise, 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. 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, quick side, I used to live in Carrolton, Texas when I was a reporter in Dallas and about a mile and a half from this site, so it's really something. Carrolton's a great town and I love living there and this is an extraordinary case for 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. He' a white man as an African American man. Y. So they got this. makeup, you know, sort of the Java makeup and he put this on like It was ridiculous. And then he put on a 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? Yeah 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 How did he think that he was going to get away with this? Yeah There's no way. I mean, he had a history with this woman of tormenting her and stalking her. And here he is in nine 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 Yeahes, 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. M 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 Assa 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 seem quite amicable And then something changed drastically between the two of them. Do we know why Polly 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. Yeah. And Elysa is like, yes, thank goodness. And her mother was happy and her sister was happy. Finally, you know, somebody that's going to be able to calm Andrew down, but behind the scenes, let me tell you, behind the scenes She is up to no good. talk about you know sort of a two faced personality. Alyssa had no idea she had these evil designs to eliminate her and become Willow's mother. 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 pressure on him and The murder took place in October of twenty twenty. This is in June. And Holly is texting Andrew. She says some nasty things. Alyssa She refers to her as BM, which is a baby mama. And here's some of that exchange Holly writes oututside 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 This this killing Andrew said, I do It would be unbearable. You know 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 I love how serious you were taking it and was just so wrapped up in how great it's been I didn't give you any acknowledgement of that Holly writes back but you chose to be I decay, I don't know For lack of a better term submissive to her Like let me deal with some crazy ass courts 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 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. Oh, 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 Burquette as well which I thought is kind of cld. Yeah, yeah, that's a little odd. We saw in the hour that they had done this whole fake drug bus scheme to try and get Elyssa arrested, and maybe they should lose custody. But that wasn't the only thing they tried Andrew Beardet, Holly, was behind a lot of these schemes. She called nine hundred and eleven, claiming to be a woman named Amber for instance, and she wanted to report that there's a car that matched Alysa's car with the same license plate, driving recklessly fly U and she was afraid Holly was afraid. and they went and checked it out and they didn't find any evidence that Lissa was even on the road that night And remember they'd put a tracker on her car. We talked about this where she'd be out at a club and Andrew would walk in. It was like How did he know I was here? She had no idea that this inc incredible The plot was unfolding where she was the target. And it was escalating So I have to admit Elkins interview video that we saw. I Foul for it She looked truly distressed. She voluntarily speaks to police. She tells them that she knows nothing about Allyssa's murder. Some of the interview was in the hour, but we're going to actually play a clip that was not included in the hour I know what it's like to lose a momp. Anybody losing a mom is not okay with by any means. and I don't care if I liked her, disliked her, or thought anything about her because that is not okay. I didn't always have the best relationship with my mom either, but losing a mom is not okay So one of the things I thought was interesting about what she says is I know what it's like to lose a mother. I would never do anything like that. 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 And u 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. abbsolutely knowing that she had also lost her mother so recently She was masterful in that, I thought. The acting performance Right. She could be nominated for an Oscar. Absolutely convincing. One of things the cops told us that she always thought she was the smartest person in the room. She thought she could outsmart everybody Everyone learns a language for different reasons. Maybe you want to watch K dramas without subtitles, or talk with family members in their native language. Your life is unique. Your language learning should be too. Rosetta Stone, the trusted leader in language learning for over thirty years, just launched Rosetta Stone' Sapphire, a new app that combines its proven immersion method with the latest innovation and technology to help you learn faster Personalize your lessons, and have more fun along the way. Most language apps teach the same generic topics. Sapphire helps you focus on what you actually want to talk about, whether that's travel, family, work, or your favorite hobbies. If you want to take your language skills to the next level, don't wait to try Rosetta Stone Sapphire. Listeners can get twenty percent off their Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription when they sign up today. You'll get unlimited access to all twenty five Rosetta Stone languages plus all the new Sapphire learning tools. Visit roosettestone dot com slash audio to redeem your twenty percent off That's roosettaestone d. com slash audio and start learning a language for real Panpiano. If you've used Babel, you would. Babel's conversation based technique teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world. With lessons handcrafted by over two hundred language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babel today Get up to fifty five percent off your Babble subscription right now at babble d. com slash listen at spellbaabbEL. com slash listen. Rules and restrictions may apply Welcome back, everyone So Elkins was actually arrested nearly three years after Alyssa's murder. What was she doing during that time? So we don't know much, but according to court documents, we learned that she had gotten married in february twenty twenty three. We don't know to who, but she had also made. twelve trips to the Dominican Republic So she was keeping busy. She's living large. Andrew was in the rearview mirror, left behind deal with this situation she had helped create for him. And she was obviously not afraid of getting caught. I mean, this was an opportunity for her to go disappear somewhere in remote region of the world and get away with murder. But I guess she didn't think she had anything to fear So what evidence did the FBI uncover that really pointed to Elkins involvement in Elyssa's murder? Because as you point out, Liza, she was probably feeling like, well, I didn't do it. I don't know. Maybe she was thinking it's illegal to bring up an idea Right, right. Well, they had all these very damning texts, but they also had some real evidence that really put her ack in the middle of the plot. They found that she had bought that makeup, that dark makeup and ordered him, according to his FBI interview to wear it and to be this persona. She was there when they bought the knife, when they brouought the ammunition. I mean, really tangible stuff, know forty eight hours viewers know this. Every modern car has a GPS tracker. Authorities can see where you went on particular days and if your car went to a Walmart parking lot They can then check that day on the cameras. If you use your credit card anywhere, they're gonna to find that purchase And so they are able to trip them up on all of these things. And another thing is that there was evidence that Holly was with Andrew when he placed the GPS tracker on Hela's car in June of twenty twenty. Interesting. And there was one search on her phone that said freeply stalking music And another search, something to the effect is illegal to track somebody afterfter the murder, she did some searches and she wrote Can I not be brought into court if I have a psychiatrist note? She also wrote U Vulnerable patients going to court. She's looking into apparently mental illness And she also wrote contontact psychiatrist in Dallas suggesting she was mentally troubled with a bunch of question marks What was that about prosecutors thought that Holly was trying to create a narrative about herself. potentially for her own defense. So she was thinking of a way that she might be able to, I'm guessing the blame on And, that I I was mentally damaged or mentally ill at the time and he manipulated me. Right. That's just a theory. I have no idea, but that's a theory. And also what's so weird is that if it was so obvious that Andrew did this and he was going to get caught for doing it. she would never get willillow. and she knew that. So really, what was the game? What was it? So the forty eight hours team was actually in the courtroom for Elkins's trial. that this was April of twenty twenty four. What was it like in the courtroom 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 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. So you're in the courtroom and you're hearing all this evidence, crazy evidence about the makeup What did you learn? 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 the 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. It took about twenty minutes The jury is looking at each other, like, what is going on? Wh? Everybody in the room is like Are they really just like giving Holl Ekins 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 firstverse. What was her demeanor like in the courtroom? 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 u Like we said, she lost her mother. And her dad did show up the very last day, I believe. Wow. Yeah Andrew's mom also attended Holly's trial 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 Alysa'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. Yeah. This is something that I think was kind of unique. Andrew's mother was not defending her son I mean, she acknowledged that he did this horrible thing. She is heartbroken about it Was it difficult to convince her to talk, Lizette? Does she want to talk She wanted to talk She needed to talk sitting across from her. This was a very cathartic moment for her She did want to communicate that My son had been a normal boy. He had dreams and I loved him. and I never saw this kind of behavior before. Pople T H personality like Andrew must have come from a bad seed somehow. I think she also wanted the world to know, I'm a normal person which makes us ever more haunting of how this can happen. lookingooking in the depths of the human psyche, how her son could go from this terrific young man Kill her and She just wanted to talk about it I mean, she feels very tainted, you know, she feels that H people look at her with