Beverly McColm

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Speaker 3 He was a suave businessman full of big ideas.

Speaker 5 He was a wheeler and dealer.

Speaker 6 He was always going somewhere, doing some, meeting some people, doing something.

Speaker 3 To her, he was a visionary with a big heart.

Speaker 7 He was very passionate about the second-chance home for women.

Speaker 10 I can see how she would be drawn to someone like that.

Speaker 3 But a shocking discovery brings everyone's dreams to an end.

Speaker 11 Look down at it with a spot of blood, also.

Speaker 5 It appeared that he had been deceased for at least 12 plus hours.

Speaker 3 The truth behind this heinous crime will expose a ruthless killer hiding in plain sight.

Speaker 11 They were working on some kind of financial deal. He had asked her for money.

Speaker 4 There was no other exit. It's almost like running into the trap.

Speaker 4 The devil doesn't always look like the devil.

Speaker 3 Less than an hour from Oklahoma City, the quaint streets of Guthrie, Oklahoma provide a glimpse into the past.

Speaker 12 100 years ago, when you come to Guthrie, it's exactly what it looks like today. It's a place where people come for bed and breakfast, for entertainment.
It's a wonderful small community.

Speaker 4 Guthrie is like a Mayberry, Andy Griffin little town. The crime is just like big city crime.
It's just in a lot smaller numbers.

Speaker 3 The peace of laid-back Guthrie is shaken on Saturday, December 10th, 2011, when Sergeant Michael Loya and Officer Jonathan Williams respond to an alert from Dispatch.

Speaker 3 A woman has asked police to check on her brother, 60-year-old Maurice Byrd.

Speaker 11 She was really worried. She said, All the family is supposed to be meeting to decide what we're going to do about our mother.
That Maurice wouldn't miss that for anybody.

Speaker 13 Mr. Bird was supposed to be in Wichita, Kansas because of his mother's failing health.

Speaker 16 When he failed to arrive at Wichita, they phoned 911 in Guthrie and requested officers go to the residence and check his welfare.

Speaker 3 Maurice Byrd is a familiar name in the neighborhood.

Speaker 11 I knew him. He did a lot of working with young people.

Speaker 11 And he used to live right across the street from the police department.

Speaker 3 Officer Williams and Sergeant Loya attempt to gain entry to the house.

Speaker 11 I went to the house, walked around, you know, checked it, looked through the windows, walked around the front, around the back.

Speaker 11 Everything seemed in order. I decided to check the door.
So I turned the doorknob and the door came open.

Speaker 4 And with everything that the family was saying and what Officer Williams

Speaker 4 had checked before, we went ahead and decided to go inside the house and do a welfare check, which normally we do do that. We announced ourselves, you know, got through police department.

Speaker 4 As you enter the house, it was warm inside.

Speaker 3 At first, everything appears normal until they notice something alarming.

Speaker 4 I could see a chair was knocked over, noticed some papers on the ground. So that part right there seemed out of place.

Speaker 3 As officers venture through the home, their suspicions begin to grow.

Speaker 11 We was walking through the kitchen. We look down at it with a spot of blood on the floor.

Speaker 4 You know, the hair in the back of your neck stands up because you say, okay, this is okay, so something maybe happened here.

Speaker 11 I went toward the bedroom

Speaker 11 and had my flashlight out and looked in the bedroom. I was signing my flashlight, and I sanded it over to the left,

Speaker 11 and I could see a body laying on the floor.

Speaker 11 We went in the room,

Speaker 11 and I knew Maurice Byrd,

Speaker 11 so I knew who he was when I seen him.

Speaker 3 Born in Independence, Kansas in 1951, Francis Maurice Byrd shared a tight bond with his seven siblings and his many cousins.

Speaker 7 They lived a block apart, so really close family. All of the kids grew up together.
And then me and my cousins, we were all close to. Maurice was just always very inviting, welcoming.

Speaker 7 He was just a really nice guy. And he was really good friends with my dad.
My dad and him were like best friends.

Speaker 7 He was athletic when he was younger and through the college years, very in shape, basketball, that type of thing.

Speaker 13 He was very young in spirit.

Speaker 3 After graduating college with a business degree, Maurice married and had children.

Speaker 7 Maurice had two wonderful children. They're my cousins, Jamal and Layla.

Speaker 22 He loved his children. He really loved his children.

Speaker 6 Spoke very highly of both of them.

Speaker 3 To provide for his family, Maurice worked as a building contractor.

Speaker 22 He could sit down and sketch it out, and in a few days, he would have the buildings drawn in, the streets drawn in. He was just magnificent when it came to drawing.

Speaker 3 Though Maurice's true passion was his work as a director for the community building nonprofit, United Way.

Speaker 22 His personality was excellent.

Speaker 6 He always had a positive mood about him.

Speaker 22 And we're always trying to do something to help humanity. Maurice was not a greedy person.
He was a sharing person.

Speaker 4 Maurice, he had lots of good ideas on

Speaker 8 upward mobility and building.

Speaker 23 He was a young, energetic guy that had lots of drive, lots of plans for the future.

Speaker 7 He was a soft,

Speaker 6 soft soul.

Speaker 7 He wasn't a fighter.

Speaker 6 He was a lover.

Speaker 7 He wanted to make things better.

Speaker 3 Though professionally he was thriving, the demands of Maurice's busy schedule took a toll on his marriage. And after more than 35 years together, Maurice and his wife divorced.

Speaker 3 Now in his late 50s, Maurice found himself alone and in need of a fresh start.

Speaker 3 He moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma, and instead of looking for love again, he threw himself into starting a real estate firm called Blackstone Global Management.

Speaker 23 He was single as far as I know of.

Speaker 4 In fact, he was with a group and they had built several houses.

Speaker 23 So he was very instrumental and very active in the construction area.

Speaker 4 Mr. Bird was a wheeler and dealer, you know what I'm saying? As far as investments and stuff like that and getting people to invest money into whatever he was doing.

Speaker 22 We became partners in 2009. He was the one that was looking for the funds for us to move forward.

Speaker 21 And Maurice was always dedicated to what he was doing.

Speaker 22 In Guthrie, we had plans on building a school here, a technology school.

Speaker 21 We did build a few houses together here.

Speaker 3 While he built his business, Maurice continued to volunteer with youth organizations and became a well-known figure in Guthrie.

Speaker 3 Yet during this period of prosperity, Maurice was dealt some terrible blows.

Speaker 26 We just had a lot of deaths real close.

Speaker 7 My grandmother died, my grandfather died, my father died, and my father's sister died, all within two years.

Speaker 3 Through it all, Maurice kept his focus on work and his charity.

Speaker 7 My was very passionate about like a second chance home for women who have lost lost their children due to drugs or crime.

Speaker 21 I looked at the pictures that he had drawn up.

Speaker 22 He saw a need for humanity and females seemed like they had one of the greatest problems because discrimination that was practiced against females in America.

Speaker 3 But on December 10th, 2011, Maurice's dream is torn apart when Guthrie police find him covered in blood in his bedroom.

Speaker 11 We could see Barley of Maurice Bird laying on the floor next to the bed. He was kind of on his side, face down on the carpet.

Speaker 15 Initial appearances, it was unclear what had happened.

Speaker 27 There was some blood on his back in a couple of different areas.

Speaker 4 So at that point, we backed out of the house, called our investigative unit, and actually we ended up calling OSBI and set up a crime scene.

Speaker 3 When homicide detectives and Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation special agents arrive, they work quickly to piece together what happened.

Speaker 14 Directly from the kitchen going into the bedroom, you can see the deceased laying face down next to the bed between the dresser and the bed.

Speaker 4 It appeared that he had been deceased for at least 12 plus hours.

Speaker 28 The individual appeared to have been shot four times.

Speaker 14 He had a bullet wound to his back, which that was the blood that was on his back, and he had a wound on his chest.

Speaker 3 A.38 caliber bullet is also found embedded in the carpet.

Speaker 15 And a projectile was found under his body, under his chest, which showed he was in that position when he was shot.

Speaker 3 Coming up, evidence at the crime scene points to a desperate attack.

Speaker 4 It looked like it was defensive and it seemed like he ran.

Speaker 3 And police catch an important break.

Speaker 15 To have a vehicle stay in the area once it's committed a crime is unusual.

Speaker 18 It's a strange situation.

Speaker 11 Nobody knew who it was.

Speaker 3 On Saturday, December 10th, 2011, Guthrie, Oklahoma police officers find Maurice Byrd lying dead in a pool of blood inside his home.

Speaker 3 Homicide detectives and OSBI special agents quickly determine that that Maurice had been murdered and fought for his life.

Speaker 4 When we came inside the dining room, we looked to the right and I saw the chair knocked over and saw blood on the floor. And the first indicator on my mind is like, okay, a fight.

Speaker 3 The chaos appears to be concentrated in the dining room, suggesting the struggle began there.

Speaker 27 You have items that are knocked over, things that are thrown.

Speaker 30 There was a larger binder with papers with the pages strewn about.

Speaker 4 It seemed like he ran. He's fighting, he's running.
He was shot definitely once in the kitchen because of the blood that was on the floor.

Speaker 3 Detectives believe Maurice likely ran to the bedroom, hoping to defend himself.

Speaker 4 Mr. Bird did have a handgun in his bedroom, and it might have been that that's where he was trying to get to.
He was even maybe shot in his back and running into the bedroom.

Speaker 3 Maurice never reached that weapon and was shot three more times.

Speaker 4 There was no other exits out of his bedroom. It's almost like running into the trap.

Speaker 3 A further sweep of the house seems to rule out at least one motive for the crime.

Speaker 12 They assumed just a break-in occurred.

Speaker 20 A robbery.

Speaker 12 is usually the number one thing, in and out type deal. But the more and more it went on, realized this was not a robbery.

Speaker 11 It was not a ransack. Only the living room and the kitchen was a little bit, you know, in disarray other than the bedroom.

Speaker 3 As detectives scour the inside of Maurice's home, outside, officers speak with his landlord.

Speaker 31 Mr. Wallace Owens showed up on scene, actually, and stated that he had known Mr.
Bird for about two years. And in speaking with him, he had some information for us.

Speaker 3 According to Wallace, Maurice was a well-known entrepreneur in the community who had various business ventures.

Speaker 31 We were wondering, is this a business deal that had gone bad? You know, there obviously had been some type of altercation inside the house.

Speaker 4 A lot of things go through your mind. Why a chair is knocked over? Why is there papers?

Speaker 3 Though he can't be certain, Wallace doesn't know of any bad deals that might have landed Maurice in hot water.

Speaker 23 It was a very good tenant. Maurice paid his rent on time, and as far as I know, he didn't owe anybody.

Speaker 8 He was a very nice guy and I think he took care of business.

Speaker 6 I couldn't figure out who could have done it or why.

Speaker 3 Hoping for more information, investigators canvassed the neighborhood.

Speaker 4 We started being dispatched to canvass the neighborhood, start talking to neighbors, start talking to see if there's any witnesses, if anybody heard gunshots or any movement.

Speaker 11 The thing about that house is the way that house sits.

Speaker 6 There's not a lot of houses around that,

Speaker 11 you know, you can look out and see anything.

Speaker 3 Though Maurice's neighbors may not have witnessed anything unusual, there may be another way to know what happened.

Speaker 16 I immediately began looking in the area for any type of cameras or surveillance equipment.

Speaker 8 It is a huge, huge tool.

Speaker 4 A lot of them at the time are running 24-7 and some of them are motion activated. We did look at the church next door which was south of his residence and uh that had cameras on it

Speaker 11 when we found out where the cameras were facing oh yeah now we got something going

Speaker 16 detectives obtain the tapes and soon realize that their big break is also a big job when you find video surveillance of a particular area that you want to review and you're not 100% sure of when the crime occurred, you have to start at the very beginning and you start watching frame by frame, waiting for anything to develop.

Speaker 16 You're actually scared to blink, scared that you're going to miss something.

Speaker 3 Investigators work backward from the time Maurice's body was discovered. Hours and hours of video show no activity at Maurice's home.

Speaker 11 Quality of the video was kind of poor. We couldn't really

Speaker 11 see a whole lot.

Speaker 3 Finally, when detectives scroll to December 8th, two days before Maurice's body was discovered, someone approaches his front door.

Speaker 18 At approximately 10.30 a.m., the landlord arrived at the residence.

Speaker 9 You can see him go and he rings the doorbell.

Speaker 18 There's no answer.

Speaker 3 Though it's not much, it does give law enforcement a critical data point.

Speaker 4 I believe he was deceased at that time.

Speaker 3 Then, authorities rewind to the evening of December 7th at 7.18 p.m.

Speaker 8 I was able to observe a gold-colored vehicle pull up to the church on the south side.

Speaker 11 You couldn't see license plates. You couldn't see a whole lot, you know, just enough to make out that this was an elderly lady.

Speaker 8 A unknown white female, appeared to be elderly, gets out

Speaker 27 and walked around the church to Mr.

Speaker 16 Byrd's residence.

Speaker 15 She was in there approximately five minutes, came back out, and went back out to her car.

Speaker 14 Then the vehicle appears in the alleyway.

Speaker 15 It pulls up, and you can see it on the north camera.

Speaker 14 And it's there for approximately 18 minutes. After the vehicle drives away from the church, over the next 10 minutes, you can see the vehicle drive past Mr.

Speaker 27 Bird's house two more times.

Speaker 3 On its third pass, the vehicle goes directly to Maurice's home.

Speaker 29 At 20-30 hours, a set of headlights appears and pulls into Mr.

Speaker 22 Bird's driveway.

Speaker 3 This time, the car sits parked for more than an hour until it finally drives off at 9.45 p.m.

Speaker 3 The driver's strange behavior sends up red flags for detectives. Could they have caught their killer on tape?

Speaker 16 In my investigative experience, to have a vehicle stay in the area once it's committed a crime is unusual.

Speaker 18 It's a strange situation.

Speaker 14 Here's a, you know, a mature female lady that's walking into this house.

Speaker 31 And you might think to yourself, hey, this person couldn't be capable of committing a heinous crime.

Speaker 3 Though they doubt the elderly woman is Maurice's killer, authorities believe she may be a valuable witness.

Speaker 11 We thinking that this lady knows something. We immediately thinking she knows something

Speaker 11 because the timeline of the murder and the timeline of her coming and leaving, so we thinking that, you know, she may not have dated, but she knows something.

Speaker 3 Authorities put a bolo on the woman and her car, but identifying her won't be easy.

Speaker 4 You know, to be on the lookout for maybe a white female driving a golden colored four-door sedan. You know, we would be stopping a lot of people.

Speaker 3 Coming up, a family's grief turns up a lead.

Speaker 12 Family members noticed a lady at the funeral and she told them that she had loaned Mr.

Speaker 13 Bird several thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 And an unlikely interview shines new light on the investigation.

Speaker 30 I then placed a picture from the surveillance camera in front of her.

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Speaker 3 Detectives in Guthrie, Oklahoma are eager to identify an elderly woman seen on security footage walking toward the home of murder victim Maurice Byrd.

Speaker 4 You wanted to talk to her to find out if she knew anything. Not that she was necessarily the suspect, but maybe she knows something.

Speaker 3 Police ask the public for help identifying the woman. Authorities are looking for the person who killed 60-year-old Francis Maurice Byrd.

Speaker 3 Tonight, they're asking anyone who might know something to speak up.

Speaker 3 But days pass with no reported sightings.

Speaker 5 Investigators are looking for those clues, and of course, the public is trying to figure that out, too.

Speaker 12 People are looking for this gold vehicle. People are on social media asking for ideas.

Speaker 5 But days have gone by.

Speaker 12 There's still no answers.

Speaker 3 Then, one week into the investigation, Maurice's family lays him to rest and contacts detectives with a strange new lead in the case.

Speaker 4 The funeral was in Kansas, and one of the family members contacted law enforcement saying that something strange happened there.

Speaker 12 Some family members noticed a lady at Mr. Bird's funeral.

Speaker 12 She speaks with family members about Mr. Byrd.

Speaker 6 She told them that she had loaned Mr.

Speaker 20 Byrd several thousand dollars and she was inquiring about the money.

Speaker 4 She wanted to know if the family could pay her that money that Mr. Bird owed her.

Speaker 4 They thought that it was real strange for her to be contacting trying to get money like that.

Speaker 3 The woman's behavior raises a red flag for investigators as well.

Speaker 31 First thought is brazen. You know, I'm going to show up to the funeral of the family who's grieving and then ask them for money is shocking.

Speaker 11 Why would she be at the funeral saying that Maurice owed her money? I mean, what kind of dealing were they doing?

Speaker 14 I asked him if he happened to have gotten her name, and he said, yes, he did, and her name was Beverly McComb.

Speaker 12 Mr. Bird's phone records were retrieved and looked at, and there was a message or a phone conversation with Ms.
McComb at 8.02.

Speaker 3 The call took place a half hour before police believe Maurice was killed.

Speaker 15 That was extremely important. I also got tower information on Beverly McComb's phone showing she was in Guthrie, Oklahoma at the time she made that phone call.

Speaker 3 Is Beverly McComb the elderly woman from the security video?

Speaker 27 I researched and contacted Texas Department of Public Safety.

Speaker 16 They in turn searched for Beverly McComb and they found that she lived in Forney, Texas, and she did own a gold Toyota Avalon.

Speaker 12 So investigators run this information and it comes back to a 65-year-old lady with no prior criminal history.

Speaker 30 and you're like

Speaker 12 dead end this can't be this can't be a murder this is a dead end

Speaker 3 even if beverly is not the shooter investigators still need to find out what she witnessed i contacted the texas rangers and i requested their assistance in locating beverly mccomb at her residence in forney texas Rangers make contact on December 20th, 10 days after Maurice's body was found.

Speaker 15 I requested that she go to the Forney Police Department and speak with me voluntarily, and she agreed.

Speaker 33 All right. How do you know Maurice?

Speaker 34 I went with his cousin, Tommy, back in 87.

Speaker 33 Okay. When you say you went with him as a dated?

Speaker 34 Yes. Okay.

Speaker 3 For Beverly McComb, Maurice's cousin Tommy was the one that got away.

Speaker 14 When my mom and dad got divorced, we went to dad's on the weekend.

Speaker 7 And his girlfriend was this tall, skinny, pretty redhead named Beverly. She was very nice.
Between the eighth grade and ninth grade year, dad was dating Beverly.

Speaker 21 Beverly and dad were living together.

Speaker 10 She was kind of shy, just quiet and so soft-spoken.

Speaker 25 And

Speaker 10 I don't think she knew an enemy.

Speaker 3 Though Beverly always believed she and Tommy were meant for each other, the relationship didn't last.

Speaker 7 They were together through some of my high school years, and then they weren't together anymore.

Speaker 14 My dad said him and Beverly broke up.

Speaker 3 Beverly was heartbroken, and as the years passed, she never found the same spark she shared with Tommy.

Speaker 35 I don't remember her ever talking about being married or having a boyfriend or anything.

Speaker 35 I was always hopeful that she would meet someone and have a married life and all that.

Speaker 3 But finding a husband would always take a back seat to Beverly's family.

Speaker 10 She had her sister and her mom, but that's not a husband.

Speaker 25 One day her mom had this devastating stroke that left her unable to even take care of herself.

Speaker 35 They looked close and her mom was just an absolute doll.

Speaker 3 After the stroke, Beverly helped care for her mother until she passed away.

Speaker 3 Now alone again, 22 years after they broke up, Beverly found herself longing for Tommy.

Speaker 34 I guess it was maybe like six, eight months ago. I just felt the urge to contact him.

Speaker 34 I finally went on the website 411

Speaker 34 and it had his name and over at the site it had deceased.

Speaker 34 I tried to find out what happened

Speaker 34 and I contacted Maurice.

Speaker 34 That's how I reconnected with Maurice.

Speaker 34 We just started talking like we'd been talking all along for years. We just, that's how our renewed friendship, I guess, started.

Speaker 10 Maurice was going to build a woman's shelter. And I think that Beverly was just a caring

Speaker 10 person in the first place. So I can see how she would be drawn to someone like that.

Speaker 3 Beverly tells detectives that she wanted to support Maurice and his mission.

Speaker 11 They was working on some kind of financial deal, and he had asked her for money to help him.

Speaker 27 Beverly sold her jewelry and then went to the bank and got loans and gave it to him.

Speaker 33 So what time of relationship did you and Maurice end up having? Were you guys boyfriend, girlfriend?

Speaker 34 No, no, no, no.

Speaker 34 We were very good friends.

Speaker 10 She was the kind of person that would do anything for a true friend. And she trusted him.

Speaker 33 If you had to guess at a total dollar amount that you gave him over the past three months.

Speaker 34 I think it came out to $17,000 and something.

Speaker 3 Beverly explains that she planned to move to Oklahoma for a fresh start after her mom passed, and Maurice was going to help her just like she helped him.

Speaker 10 If it was deep enough for her want to move, then I think that's a pretty deep relationship.

Speaker 34 He was gonna help me move. I was trying to find a job in Edmond.
So, you've been up there looking for jobs since yes, yes, several different times.

Speaker 34 We talked about it that rather than me making so many trips since it was so far, that I should just set aside some time.

Speaker 26 Gotcha.

Speaker 34 I decided I would do like seven days.

Speaker 3 According to Beverly, she last saw Maurice a few days before he died.

Speaker 16 I confronted Beverly McComb about being in Guthrie, Oklahoma on the evening of December 7th.

Speaker 27 She had stated that she was not in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Speaker 33 You stayed there all seven nights?

Speaker 34 I didn't stay there the last night, so I decided to

Speaker 34 leave early.

Speaker 18 I then placed a picture from the surveillance camera in front of her, asking her if that was her.

Speaker 27 And she at that point did state, yes, that's me.

Speaker 15 Do you know how Maurice died?

Speaker 34 That he was shot.

Speaker 15 Let me help you out for just a moment. The worst thing that you can do is lie to me about something.

Speaker 24 Okay.

Speaker 33 I'm going to ask you straight out. Were you in the house when he died, got shot?

Speaker 3 Backed into a corner, Beverly admits she hasn't been entirely truthful with detectives.

Speaker 29 Beverly admitted that she had lied, that she had been to Mr.

Speaker 14 Bird's house that evening.

Speaker 3 Coming up, Beverly points to a killer.

Speaker 15 While she was in the bathroom, she heard a pop,

Speaker 3 and an outrageous revelation catches investigators off guard.

Speaker 3 While interviewing 65-year-old Beverly McComb at the Forney Police Department, Beverly shocks investigators when she reveals that she knows who killed her friend and business partner, Maurice Byrd, because she was there when it happened.

Speaker 6 She stated that it wasn't her that had shot Mr.

Speaker 20 Bird, that it was an individual by the name of Max.

Speaker 33 Is he your boyfriend?

Speaker 34 He's just, he's just someone that I had met.

Speaker 6 How did he?

Speaker 34 In Guthrey.

Speaker 33 Who is he?

Speaker 34 You know, I don't know his last name.

Speaker 3 Beverly says that before long, she and Max grew close. And when she told him about her business plans with Maurice, he said it sounded like Maurice had taken advantage of her.

Speaker 20 Beverly stated that Max had told Beverly that Bert would never give her her money back.

Speaker 34 He brought it up that, you know, that he thought that I needed to do something to try, you know,

Speaker 34 to get some of the money back.

Speaker 3 Beverly agreed and asked Max to go with her to Maurice's home so they could share their concerns with Maurice.

Speaker 4 She thought that he would help her maybe try to recover her money that Mr. Bird owed her.
So she brought him along, as I would imagine, I believe she said to intimidate Mr. Bird.

Speaker 3 Beverly says that on the evening of December 7th, she drove Max to Maurice's house.

Speaker 33 You guys go up to the door.

Speaker 33 And what happens?

Speaker 34 Maurice lets us in. I asked him if, you know, if he really intended on paying me back.

Speaker 34 And he said, yeah, that he did. I went in to use the bathroom.

Speaker 3 According to Beverly, that's when things escalated.

Speaker 16 While she was in the bathroom, she heard a pop.

Speaker 27 At that time, she heard screaming.

Speaker 3 Startled and worried, Beverly says she ran from the bathroom.

Speaker 15 She came out and she saw Max shoot Mr.

Speaker 18 Bird.

Speaker 16 And she stated she couldn't remember much after that.

Speaker 15 She just remembered she was screaming.

Speaker 3 According to Beverly, instead of being scared for his life, Maurice was angry.

Speaker 34 I heard Maurice say something about:

Speaker 34 you have a gun, I have one, two.

Speaker 34 I hurry up and

Speaker 34 go out. I wanted to get out of there.
I was on my way out the door and I heard some more

Speaker 34 shots.

Speaker 16 She goes on out to the car and she gets in the passenger seat. A couple of moments later, Max comes out and gets in the driver's seat and they leave.

Speaker 4 Why didn't you call police?

Speaker 34 I guess I was scared.

Speaker 3 Though Beverly appears genuine, to detectives, there's one fatal flaw in her version of events.

Speaker 28 I confronted her with the fact that there would be video showing who was driving the vehicle.

Speaker 18 She in turn then changed her story again.

Speaker 27 This time, she was the one that got in the driver's seat and that Max had never gotten back in the vehicle and that he had left walking on foot and that's why we wouldn't be able to see him in the vehicle on the video.

Speaker 3 With Beverly's story changing by the minute, detectives are skeptical of her account. Is Max even real? And if so, can he fill in the missing pieces in her story?

Speaker 33 You know his phone number?

Speaker 34 I've got it written down.

Speaker 33 Where's it written down at?

Speaker 34 He wrote it down on a piece of paper.

Speaker 16 She had his phone number written on a piece of paper at her residence.

Speaker 3 As Beverly waits at the police station, investigators perform a search of her home.

Speaker 9 They did, in fact, find a piece of paper where she said it would be with a phone number on it.

Speaker 14 I in turn contacted the Guthrie Police Department and had them begin searching for who owned that particular phone number.

Speaker 3 The phone number is not all they find.

Speaker 17 She indicated that she did have a.38 caliber pistol in her closet, and there was also a box of ammunition with five rounds of ammunition missing.

Speaker 14 When I asked her what happened to the five rounds of ammunition, she stated that she had thrown them away and she couldn't remember where.

Speaker 5 Obviously, this puts more pieces to the puzzle together.

Speaker 4 Mr. Bird was shot four times.
A lot of times when you see multiple ones, it's like a revenge type of shooting.

Speaker 3 Investigators need to determine if this is the gun that was used to kill Maurice and if Max wielded it.

Speaker 3 Luckily, it won't take long for them to find out.

Speaker 18 A search of the phone number that Beverly provided for Max came back to a Marion Maxwell from the Guthrie, Oklahoma area.

Speaker 3 It appears Beverly wasn't lying about Max. For Guthrie police, Marion Maxwell is a familiar name.

Speaker 12 When investigators do run Max's name, he does have a criminal history.

Speaker 6 We were looking for him and you know I know him. Everybody know I know him.

Speaker 11 I've arrested Maxwell a few times myself.

Speaker 3 Officer Williams drives around the small town and finally spots Max in a store parking lot.

Speaker 11 I didn't arrest him. I took him in for questioning.
You know, I told him that they want to talk to you about this. You know, he's, I didn't do it, I didn't do it.

Speaker 11 And then he started telling me about him and this lady.

Speaker 3 Sitting down with detectives, Max explains how he met Beverly in the first week of December.

Speaker 11 He said he was just walking, and this lady stopped and started talking to him.

Speaker 3 Max claims Beverly picked him up and took him back to her hotel, where they spent the next few days together.

Speaker 11 He ended up at the motel with her.

Speaker 11 He just had a sexual relationship with this lady.

Speaker 3 When pressed about the murder, Max claims he has no idea who Maurice Bird even is.

Speaker 11 He was cooperative. You know, he would say he don't know nothing about what happened to Maurice.

Speaker 12 Max tells investigators he was not at the house and that he was at a different location at the time.

Speaker 29 of the murder.

Speaker 12 Max tells them at the time that he's given that he's at a grocery store. So investigators, smartly enough, go to videotape once again at that grocery store.

Speaker 11 I go talk to the manager in the grocery store and he shows him the video and there's Maxwell.

Speaker 15 Max was at the homeland store in Guthrie at the time of the murder and so the video cleared Max of the murder.

Speaker 4 He was telling the truth of where he was at. So that proved that she was lying to us.

Speaker 3 Coming up, investigators finally piece together the truth.

Speaker 12 She just builds up frustration, getting more upset, more upset.

Speaker 3 And an unlikely scenario plays out in court.

Speaker 6 I'm just really, really shy.

Speaker 25 The story I heard were like,

Speaker 10 no, she would never do that.

Speaker 19 Nobody thought she was the one that did.

Speaker 3 Having caught 65-year-old Beverly McComb in a series of lies, homicide investigators are now convinced that she killed her friend and business partner, Maurice Berg.

Speaker 12 The more and more he investigated, the more and more put the pieces together. Maybe this is our suspect.

Speaker 3 On December 22nd, 2011, 12 days into the investigation, authorities in Texas place her under arrest.

Speaker 16 Beverly McComb was extradited back to Guthrie, Oklahoma to stand trial for the murder of Mr.

Speaker 18 Byrd.

Speaker 3 As detectives work to solidify their case, they uncover that Beverly had secured the gun just prior to the murder.

Speaker 15 She had bought it in Gainesville, and it was determined that she bought it the day of the murder.

Speaker 3 Ballistics analysis run on the gun confirm that it is indeed the murder weapon.

Speaker 8 She did have a.38 caliber pistol, and it was a.38 caliber projectile that was found under him.

Speaker 3 Preparing for trial, prosecutors begin laying out the events of December 7th.

Speaker 3 They speculate that Beverly went to Maurice's home that evening alone.

Speaker 12 She went up to Mr. Bird asking for her money back, $20,000 back, and didn't get the answer she was looking for, became frustrated, left.

Speaker 3 Instead of accepting Maurice's explanation and heading back to Texas, Beverly circled the block as captured on video.

Speaker 12 That built up in her head of being frustrated that she's out this much money and she just builds up frustration, frustration, drives around the house, getting more upset, more upset, and then ultimately trying to decide, what do I do?

Speaker 4 When you look at that, it's like you're building up your courage to do what you think you're going to do.

Speaker 4 And especially somebody that's probably, in her case, not having criminal history, maybe she was building her courage.

Speaker 3 Eventually, Beverly returned to Maurice's home, and Maurice let her in once again, and they continued their argument.

Speaker 4 The paperwork that was on the floor, he probably had it in his hand. You know, maybe the paperwork was trying to show her what he did with the money.

Speaker 3 Prosecutors believe Beverly's anger boiled over and they tussled.

Speaker 4 I believe that looking at the evidence, it appears that it started right where the table and where I saw the chair knocked over area.

Speaker 3 When she pulled the gun, he turned to flee.

Speaker 4 He was shot in his back, running into the bedroom. He was trying to get to his gun, but I think that she probably chased him in there and shot him again.

Speaker 3 Beverly shot Maurice three more times, point blank,

Speaker 3 and watched him die.

Speaker 3 Then she left and drove home to Texas, where she stashed the gun in her closet as if nothing had happened.

Speaker 11 I don't think nobody thought at first that she was the one that did. You know, it was kind of a surprise when we figured out it was her.

Speaker 3 Was it greed that drove the lonely 65-year-old to murder or something more?

Speaker 7 I don't believe that this was motivated by money. I believe that it was motivated by Beverly wanting to have some relationship or hold on to some relationship.

Speaker 31 It was believed that that was a portion of what caused the emotional aspect, caused her to drive up, caused her to take care of this.

Speaker 3 At her arraignment on January 5th, 2012, Beverly looks nothing at all like a cold-blooded killer.

Speaker 12 Ms. McCall made a court appearance in Logan County and pleaded not guilty to the charge of first degree.

Speaker 12 During her court proceedings in the courtroom, it was weird to me to see a 65-year-old lady in an orange jumpsuit surrounded by other people who commit crimes with the chains around her ankles, chains around her wrists.

Speaker 12 You would never ever guessed her as a murderer.

Speaker 3 Then at another hearing in March 2013, the now 66-year-old Beverly proves that looks can be deceiving.

Speaker 12 Several months later, she comes back and pleads guilty to second-degree murder.

Speaker 3 Having had time to think about the evidence against her, Beverly now admits she shot Maurice, but claims there was no premeditation.

Speaker 4 She admitted to doing the murder and explained the reasons why and

Speaker 8 we were all shocked when that happened.

Speaker 3 Beverly's plea comes with a lighter sentence than a first-degree charge.

Speaker 4 Beverly took the plea of second-degree murder and was given a sentence of 40 years. 30 years of that is suspended for good behavior.
So that means that 10 years and she's out.

Speaker 16 I know a lot of it had to do with her age.

Speaker 3 The light sentencing comes as a final blow to Maurice's loved ones.

Speaker 7 I can't believe that this woman creeped back into my life somehow and

Speaker 7 killed my cousin's dad.

Speaker 20 Like, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 7 No one should get 10 years for murdering someone. No one should get 10 years for taking someone's life.

Speaker 7 This woman showed up at the funeral, at his funeral, asking for money.

Speaker 11 She killed somebody.

Speaker 11 She should have went to prison for the rest of her life.

Speaker 12 This was a bizarre case just because of Miss McComb being a 65-year-old 65-year-old lady. It just shows you that anybody at any time can commit a crime.

Speaker 4 The devil doesn't always look like the devil.

Speaker 1 Following her trial, Beverly McComb was transported to Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Oklahoma, where she served the remainder of her sentence.

Speaker 1 Due to good behavior, she was released on parole in 2020. She was 73 years old.

Speaker 2 On Boxing Day 2018, 20-year-old Joy Morgan was last seen at her church, Israel United in Christ, or IUIC. I just went on my Snapchat and I just see her face plastered everywhere.

Speaker 2 This is the missing sister, the true story of a woman betrayed by those she trusted most.

Speaker 1 IUIC is my family and like the best family that I've ever had.

Speaker 2 But IUIC isn't like most churches.

Speaker 19 This is a devilish cult. You know, when you get that feeling where you just, I don't want to be here.

Speaker 19 I want to get out. It's like that feeling of, like, I want to go hang out.

Speaker 2 I'm Charlie Brentcoast Cuff, and after years of investigating Joy's case, I need to know what really happened to Joy.

Speaker 2 Binge all episodes of The Missing Sister exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus. Start your free trial of Wondery Plus on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or in the Wondery app.