A Texas mother was brutally murdered by her bitter ex after his new fiancée forced him into a twisted murder plot, it has been revealed.
Beloved mother Alyssa Burkett, 24, was shot and stabbed to death outside of work on the morning of October 2, 2020. Her ex-boyfriend and father of her daughter Andrew Beard, then 33, was promptly arrested for murder.
Detective Jeremy Chevallier told CBS News’ 48 Hours that “it initially appeared to be an open and shut case,” with the motive being a hostile battle for custody of Burkett and Beard’s one-year-old daughter Willow.
Chevallier said that when he began his investigation, he looked for 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 the witness column and not the suspect column, I would listen to her,” the detective told the newspaper.
Elkins insisted under questioning that she “couldn’t believe my fiancée would do something like that to a woman, or to anyone for that matter” — and insisted Beard was with her the morning Burkett was killed.
But as Chevallier put it, he later discovered that “Andrew Beard was only half the story.”
Beloved mother Alyssa Burkett, 24, was shot and stabbed to death outside her work in Carrollton, Texas on the morning of October 2, 2020
Burkett’s ex-boyfriend Andrew Beard was immediately arrested for her murder, and it was later revealed that he had disguised himself as a black man before shooting and stabbing his ex.
When Burkett was killed, witnesses said they saw what they thought was a black man pulling up next to her car while it was parked outside her work at the Greentree Apartments leasing office in Carrollton, Texas.
The killer shot her through her driver’s side window, and, believing she was dead, left her there. Burkett survived and got out of her car to get help from her office colleagues.
This led to the killer chasing her with a hunting knife and stabbing the young mother to death 44 times on the sidewalk of her work before fleeing in a Ford SUV.
Bodycam footage from the scene captured the tragic moment when Burkett’s mother Teresa Collard rushed to her daughter’s work after hearing the news, immediately telling officers she believed Beard was the killer.
“She said he was the kind of person who would try to kill her,” Collard said at the scene, tears welling in his eyes. “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 real killer was ‘only half the story’.
Witnesses said they saw a black man pull up next to Burkett’s car as it was parked in front of her work at the Greentree Apartments leasing office (pictured) and shoot 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) burst into tears while pointing the finger at Beard
Despite witness descriptions that a black man was the killer, police quickly tracked down Beard and put him in his truck with Elkins and Willow inside.
Investigators allowed the three to leave but told them they could not return home, and when police 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 feared Beard was stalking her and always seemed to know where she had been.
The next day, a search of Beard’s car revealed two bottles of makeup containing dark foundation – and it was discovered that Beard had used the makeup to disguise himself as a black man to carry out the murder.
Later that evening, police also found the Ford SUV witnesses described at the crime scene, abandoned less than a mile from Beard’s home.
Beard surrendered to Carrollton police and was charged with murder. Two weeks later he was released on bail, but fearing for Willow’s safety, police called in the FBI to take him back into custody.
They said they found an unregistered silencer at Beard’s home, allowing him to be rearrested on new charges of cyberstalking with a dangerous weapon causing death.
Bears surrendered three days after the killing and was charged with murder, and two weeks later the FBI arrested him again on new charges of cyberstalking using a dangerous weapon resulting in death.
Burkett and Beard were involved in a bitter custody battle over their one-year-old daughter Willow
Beard pleaded guilty in June 2022 and spoke to the FBI a month later as part of a plea deal, ultimately pointing the finger at Elkins as the orchestrator of Burkett’s murder.
During his interrogation, Beard said, “It was… ‘this is how you’re going to do this,’ it was, ‘you’re going to wear this dark makeup.’ That was her plan… that’s how it’s going to happen.”
Chevallier told CBS’ 48 Hours that he realized Elkins “was the one running the show…she told him what he was going to do.”
In text messages between the couple, detectives said they could tell Elkins hated Burkett, and in a conversation the week before the killing, Elkins texted Beard while she was traveling to Mexico and ordered him to carry out the killing.
“I hope you handle it. I’m not coming home to mess around,” she texted him.
“That’s my goal,” Beard replied.
In his interview with the FBI, Beard further explained, “I basically just said ‘OK’ and became submissive to whatever she wanted me to do, that’s the job I did.”
The investigation revealed that Elkins hated Burkett, and ordered her fiancé to “deal with it” while she was on vacation, telling Beard, “I’m not coming home to fuck.”
The show shared heartbreaking footage of Willow visiting her mother’s grave
In May 2023, nearly a year after his guilty plea, Beard was sentenced to 43 years in prison, and Chevallier said he believes Elkins thought she was getting away with it at the time.
“I think she believed that the further she got away from this, the less involved she would be,” he said. “But it didn’t work for her.”
Two months later, Elkins was ensnared at Miami Airport after returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic and charged with conspiracy to commit stalking and stalking with the aid of a dangerous weapon resulting in death.
She pleaded not guilty. During her trial, a federal prosecutor summed up the case against her: “Andrew Beard was a monster, but he was Holly Elkins’ monster.”
Jurors ultimately deliberated for just 90 minutes before returning a guilty verdict, and she was ultimately sentenced in August to two life sentences — longer than Beard’s sentence.
As another detective on the case said, “I 100% believe that if Holly and Andrew had never met, Alyssa Burkett would still be alive today.”