Warrants in Fitness Instructor's Slaying Investigation Reveal ‘Creepy' Message

Police say family members and friends are not considered suspects at this time

Missy Bevers received a "creepy and strange" message from an unknown man on LinkedIn in the days before she was found slain in a North Texas church in April, according to police documents released Thursday.

The three search warrants that Midlothian police released show the mother of three was facing financial difficulty and marital discord. But police did not say whether any of those circumstances were a factor in her killing.

Bevers was killed early in the morning on Monday, April 18, by a person dressed in tactical gear, who broke into the church and fled before her fitness class students found her body. She died of multiple puncture wounds to the head and chest, police said.

Police have identified no suspects in the woman's slaying. The only public lead on a person of interest is the as-yet-unidentified person videotaped inside the church shortly before Bevers arrived.

According to one of the warrants, detectives said a friend of the victim's told them that less than three days before her killing, Bevers showed her a private message they both agreed was "creepy and strange" on her LinkedIn account from a person neither of them knew. In her interview with police, the friend could not recall the name of the person who sent Bevers the message.

Detectives also identified another person who confirmed to police that he had engaged in a series of communications with Missy Bevers on LinkedIn starting around January 2016 and that the messages were "flirtatious and familiar." Police said a forensic data extraction was performed on both his phone and Bevers', and that the communications appeared "intimate in nature" and that they had been deleted after the conversation was ended.

In another warrant, messages recovered from the phones owned by Brandon and Missy Bevers "indicate and confirm statement and tips provided to officers of an ongoing financial and marital struggle as well as intimate/personal relationship(s) external to the marriage with identified 'Target Numbers.'"

"Target Numbers" refers to 11 phone numbers for nine people. The data extracted from the phones provided police with a list of potential persons of interest, "Target Numbers," based on the communications (texts, messages, photos, videos and recovered deleted messages) between them and the victim.

"We don't have information that indicates the killer talked to any target numbers, nor do we have specific information to believe the killer video recorded the murder," Midlothian Assistant Police Chief Kevin Johnson said.

As with any investigation where a specific suspect isn't immediately identified, family and close friends were a part of the initial investigative focus, police said Thursday. But family and friends initially investigated in the case are not considered suspects at this time, according to police.

In addition, police emphasized the nine people whose "Target Numbers" were listed in the warrants are not considered suspects at this time.

In the third warrant, detectives requested a batch of cellphone data from around the time Bevers was killed, in hopes that if the killer was carrying a phone it may have pinged a tower near the church where the fitness instructor was found dead. It is not clear if the data that was requested has been received by police.

NBC 5's Jocelyn Lockwood contributed to this report.

Contact Us