MIDLOTHIAN, Texas — Missy Bevers is one of the most bizarre North Texas murder cases because of where it happened, how it happened and the video of the suspect.
WFAA's Rebecca Lopez was the first reporter on the scene on April 16, 2016.
She received a call from a resident who lived in Midlothian and told her that a woman had been killed inside a church.
Lopez arrived at Creekside Church hours before any other media. Police announced in a news conference that fitness instructor Missy Bevers was found dead inside the church. She was there to lead a Camp Gladiator class and had arrived at 4:30 a.m.
She had moved the class to the church the night before because it was going to rain and posted about it on Facebook.
"As the campers, as they call them, started to arrive, they noticed her vehicle on the scene, but she wasn't out there. As time went on and the class was supposed to start they knew that wasn't like her to not be there. And they actually went and discovered her body that day, that morning, early," said Lt. Andy Vaughn, Midlothian Homicide Unit.
When police got to the scene, they noticed someone had shattered the glass on the back door and broke in. Initially, they thought it might have been a burglary, but nothing was taken.
"It certainly is strange occurrence at this time of the morning for a church to be burglarized early in the morning," said Midlothian Police Chief Carl Smith, 2016.
Police found surveillance tapes from cameras inside the church. And what they showed was shocking.
A person dressed in what appeared to be police SWAT gear complete with helmet and gloves was rummaging around the church, carrying what appeared to be a hammer.
"For all intents and purposes, here he is designed to look like a police officer. His intent was to look like a police officer," Smith said.
The video showed the suspect walking around inside the church, opening cabinet doors for at least 30 minutes before Bevers even arrived.
Once police released that video, chaos broke out.
"Within the first month we had received over one thousand tips," said Chief Smith.
People fixated on how the person walked - they walked with a gait. It looked like the suspect may have been limping.
"It's hard to track down everyone with a limp or gait, but what we have done is a gait analysis. So, we have a general idea about what we're looking for," Vaughn said.
And everyone had an opinion as to whether the suspect was a man or a woman.
"I've looked at that video 100 times and you know, for me, I can see characteristics that would make me think, yea, that's a woman or it could be a man," Smith said.
Early on, police focused on those closest to Bevers -- her husband Brandon, who was out of town on a fishing trip when it happened. We've interviewed him multiple times and he thinks this was not random.
"I have flip-flopped on this over the years and I can only offer an opinion based on inside info and I feel she was targeted," said Brandon Bevers in 2021.
Police agree this was not just someone off the street who committed this crime but they have no suspects, motive, or theory on what happened.
They have gathered mountains of evidence -- thousands of tips, cellphone data dumps, and interviewed hundreds of people and worked closely with federal, state and other local agencies.
"It's been a full court press on this case. No one's ever really stopped working on this since day one," said Vaughn.
They have so much evidence and some of the detectives have changed over the years. So, it's overwhelming to go back and try to go over everything they have, so Midlothian police are turning to technology and artificial intelligence to help them try to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
"I believe that when they have this type of data, we have large database that files can be more efficiently looked at through artificial intelligence, creating opportunities for us to find unique repetitions and information that we haven't been able to find yet," said Smith.
They hope it will lead them to a suspect, possibly someone they have already talked to. They just need to connect the dots.
"We do have information, and you know you compare that against potential suspects, and you hope that ends up matching up as one of those puzzle pieces that we put together with other information through different technology and forensic advancements as they come along," said Vaughn.
Detectives and the police chief say this is a case that can be solved, and every day, they get one step closer to justice for Missy.