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Man Allegedly Gunned Down Mother Of His Child While Disguised In Blackface And Fake Beard
Alyssa Burkett, who shared a 1-year-old daughter with Andrew Beard, had been awarded custody just days before she shot and stabbed in the parking lot of her workplace.
A Texas man has been accused of disguising himself in blackface and a fake beard before fatally shooting the mother of his young child outside her workplace.
Andrew Charles Beard, 33, has been charged with murder after police said he shot and repeatedly stabbed 24-year-old Alyssa Burkett, the mother of his 1-year-old daughter, on Oct. 2 outside the Greentree Apartments leasing office where she worked as the manager, according to a police affidavit obtained by Oxygen.com.
The pair had allegedly been embroiled in a “contentious custody battle” for the child leading up to the deadly attack. Burkett had been awarded custody of the child on Sept. 30, just days before she was killed, according to the arrest affidavit.
Burkett’s mother, her current boyfriend and a coworker all told police that she had been afraid of Beard and was worried “that he was going to kill her.”
Authorities were called to the apartment complex around 9:15 a.m. on October 2 and arrived to discover Burkett on the front steps of the office being treated by her coworkers. It appeared that she had suffered a gunshot wound to the head and multiple stab wounds to her torso and arms, according to the affidavit. She died at the scene.
A coworker told police she had been inside the leasing office when she looked outside and saw a black vehicle come to a “quick stop” outside the office window. She saw a man dressed in all black get out of the vehicle and walk toward Burkett’s vehicle, which had been parked in front of the office. As he approached, the man began shooting at the driver side of Burkett’s vehicle, according to the affidavit.
Other witnesses also described a male in dark clothing with a face covering who had been driving a black SUV.
Two of the witnesses believed that the attacker was a Black male after spotting the side of his face, but police would later examine Beard as a suspect after talking with the victim’s friends and family.
Before Burkett was killed, she told her boyfriend that she believed Beard had been tracking her because he “seemed to always know where she was,” according to the affidavit.
Detectives later discovered a tracking device had been attached to the bottom of her car and a similar one had been placed on her boyfriend’s vehicle.
During a search of Beard’s home, they found the “same type of tracking devices” that had been placed on the two vehicles, according to the affidavit.
During a search of Beard’s F-150, they also found two bottles of dark brown liquid foundation makeup and partially burned makeup wipes with brown residue, suggesting Beard may have used the foundation to darken his complexion as part of a disguise. They also found black boots that smelled of bleach, a serrated kitchen knife and flathead screwdriver, the affidavit said.
On Oct. 3, investigators discovered a black 2004 Ford Expedition parked in Rowlett near an alley entrance that appeared to have been abandoned. When detectives contacted the registered owner of the vehicle, the woman told police she had sold the vehicle on Sept. 26 through Craigslist to a white male with a face covering and a ball cap. The man paid $2,000 in cash for the vehicle, took the title and drove away in the SUV.
After reviewing surveillance footage, investigators saw someone parking the SUV near the alley where it was recovered about 30 minutes after the murder occurred. The distance between the apartment complex and the location was approximately 26.8 miles apart; however, the location of the SUV was just about a third of a mile from Beard’s home.
Inside the abandoned SUV, detectives found a dark colored prosthetic beard with what appeared to be brown makeup on it, according to the affidavit.
Beard was taken into custody and charged with the murder.
A spokesman for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office told Oxygen.com that Beard remains in custody as of Monday morning and has not yet posted his $1 million bond.
The couple's child is currently in protective custody with the Texas Child Protective Services, according to The Carrollton Leader.
