ELLIS COUNTY, Texas — Small town secrets seem hard to keep, because on rural Texas roads everybody knows everybody.
But nobody seems to know who killed Missy Bevers.
Around 4 a.m. on April 18, 2016, the 45-year-old fitness instructor walked into Creekside Church in Midlothian to lead a workout.
Bevers was a Camp Gladiator bootcamp instructor.
When Bevers’ workout group arrived, they found her body.
Police say she died from puncture wounds to her head and chest.
Surveillance cameras captured someone dressed in police SWAT gear walking the church halls overnight.
Detectives don’t believe the person seen on surveillance video was an actual police officer.
They still don’t know who it is.
And they still don’t know who killed Bevers.
“It’s scary. You don’t know if they’re just walking amongst you while you’re shopping,” said Renae Rodden, who used to work with Bevers.
“Why haven’t they been caught? Why don’t we know four and a half years later who it is?”
Rodden met Crystal Lawson in a Facebook group for people interested in Bevers’ unsolved killing.
Early in 2020, the pair launched a podcast called True Crime Broads.
Podcast listeners and Ellis County Crime Stoppers raised enough money to put up a billboard on State Highway 287, the same highway that's home to Creekside Church.
The billboard says: ”Help find her killer. Who murdered Missy Bevers?”
It directs people to call Ellis County’s tip line at 972-937-7297.
Midlothian Police have previously said they have received more than 2,000 tips in the Bevers case. But none has led to an arrest.
Rodden and Lawson hope if they keep talking about Bevers, the right person will start talking.
“I know police are still working the case, but I’m hoping that someone will call in with a tip that will help solve the case and the killer will be brought to justice,” Rodden said.
“She was very kindhearted, and it was genuine. So, I know for a fact if it was someone else, she’d be right here standing along with me or by herself doing exactly the same thing,” Rodden said.
They hope the deadly secret comes out before the billboard comes down in December.
