A bitter custody battle ended in blood when the mother-of-one, Alyssa Ann Burkett, was assaulted but her killer took steps to ensure he wasn’t caught
Alyssa Ann Burkett(
While Alyssa Ann Burkett had left her relationship behind and was trying to start a new life, she couldn’t escape her past. It was 2020 and 24-year-old Alyssa was locked in a lengthy legal battle with her ex-boyfriend Andrew Charles Beard over custody of their one-year-old daughter.
Alyssa, who was in a new relationship, was convinced Beard was trying to rig the court process and was afraid of losing her baby girl. She had even set up a public fundraising page to help cover her legal fees. She described how her ex had taken her to court several times over the past year when he tried to get custody. She also accused him of violating a court order and not returning her daughter.
“At this point I fear for my life and that of my daughter,” she wrote. On September 2, someone calling himself Frank Marrow gave authorities a tip, claiming that Alyssa had been selling drugs from the trunk of her car. “Frank” asked her to check the spare tire. Officers followed up and, after a search, did find drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, as well as a handgun and ammunition exactly where he said they would. The serial number was scratched off the gun so it couldn’t be traced.
Alyssa was incredulous. She strongly denied knowing anything about the findings and accused Beard of hiding the drugs and gun. She was convinced Beard was trying to discredit her, but she couldn’t figure out why he always seemed to know where she was. Officers investigated her allegation and Alyssa was not charged. Then, on September 30, Alyssa was awarded custody of their daughter. It should have been a great relief, but was it really the end of the bitterness?
Alyssa had a little daughter(
On October 2, 2020, Alyssa joined a real estate leasing company in Carrollton, Texas, where she served as a manager. As she parked outside, a man dressed in black approached her vehicle with a gun. Alyssa was behind the wheel when he raised the gun and shot her in the head.
The attacker walked back to an SUV – intending to drive off, but amazingly, Alyssa managed to get out of her car. Bleeding profusely, she staggered to the door of her workplace seeking help. Alyssa’s attacker saw that she wasn’t dead and got back out of the SUV.
He went to Alyssa, grabbed her and stabbed her 13 times in the upper body. She collapsed and her attacker fled. Although colleagues desperately tried to save her life and rescue workers rushed to the scene of the accident, Alyssa succumbed to her injuries in the parking lot. It was a rapid, brutal attack at 9 a.m.
Alyssa’s family immediately suspected Beard and told police, but two witnesses described the killer as a black man. They also reported seeing a black SUV — very different from the white pickup Beard usually drove. If it was an attempted robbery, what was the point if nothing was stolen?
Alyssa’s mother and her colleagues told police that she was afraid of Beard and believed he was tracking her down somehow. Alyssa’s friend told officers that Beard appeared to be “overly obsessed” with Alyssa and her child. Additionally, Alyssa had told her boyfriend that Beard “always seemed to know where she was,” which scared her.
Three hours after the attack, Beard was stopped by police as he was driving away from his home in a white pickup truck. Officers found three phones in his possession, including a prepaid burner phone. One of the phones searched the internet for “how to remove gunpowder residue from hands”? Beard was now the prime suspect.
The parking lot where Alyssa was murdered
A day after the murder, police also found the black SUV used at the scene. It was left near Beard’s home and they discovered it was indeed his – he had recently bought it with cash. There was dried blood in the vehicle that matched Alyssa’s. Investigators also found evidence that Beard had attempted to disguise his origins. There were two bottles of dark liquid foundation makeup, wipes with brown residue, and a dark prosthetic beard with dark brown makeup. Officers found cloths with brown residue that Beard had attempted to burn and a burned metal cylinder of what appeared to be a makeup brush container. It appeared that Beard had attempted to pose as Black before attacking Alyssa, believing that doing so would eliminate him as a suspect.
Investigators also found a pair of men’s hiking boots that had been cut into pieces and soaked in bleach, as well as a knife and a screwdriver. At Beard’s home, they found a battery that matched a GPS tracker that investigators found on the underside of Alyssa’s car. He also had one attached to her friend’s car.
A script was found that Beard had written and used when he made the false allegation that Alyssa was dealing drugs a month earlier. As Alyssa suspected, her ex was willing to do anything to get her out of the picture and get custody of their daughter. Beard was arrested. Incredibly, he managed to raise the $1 million bail he needed and was placed under house arrest, much to the dismay of Alyssa’s family. But he was soon in prison again for possessing an unregulated gun silencer.
Her family has turned the donation page Alyssa set up to help pay for her legal fees in her custody battle into a fund to raise money for her funeral and her daughter’s future. In June last year, Beard pleaded guilty to cyberstalking, using a deadly weapon and firing a gun in a violent crime. He admitted to putting GPS devices in Alyssa and her boyfriend’s cars and tracking their movements. He also admitted that he had tried to hide his origins and that he had bought an SUV for the crime with cash from a private seller on Craigslist just days before the attack. The motive was to gain custody of their daughter – a girl who had lost her mother and whose father was destined for prison.
In May of this year, 36-year-old Beard was sentenced to 43 years in prison. Prosecutors said it was a “sobering reminder” of the violence women could endure at the hands of their intimate partners. Alyssa was hunted down and killed trying to protect her daughter. Her family have vowed that the young girl will grow up knowing how much her mother loves her.
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