First, an Announcement

Hi all — if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a private Facebook group run by Ashleigh Turczyn and Carol Mize. It’s called Finding Becky Beard: Community Discussion,

Ashleigh has been publishing new information and digging into areas I haven’t explored. She’s a masterful storyteller, and her posts have been deeply thought-provoking. She’s also doing a fantastic job getting this story in front of more content creators and true-crime followers. Check it out!

Today, we will reach the end of the main story that needed to be told.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a tidy ending, but this story is gaining traction on social media. It’s going to catch fire.

We started with a neat little bow-wrapped case that had been solved and forgotten. It had a narrative set by the good ol’ boys: “Paul Taylor alone killed Rebecca Beard–case closed–don’t bother us about this any more.”

Well, it’s not going to be like that.

All who find this revival of Rebecca’s story to be a pain in your arses, keep in mind that Rebecca’s family believed the “Paul Taylor Alone Did It” story for over 35 years. They did not question it or the authorities in Brazoria County.

The family didn’t go looking for the truth, but, by golly, the truth came looking for them. Karma just might be interested in this situation. Truth hasn’t stopped chasing Rebecca’s sister, Carol, since the first whisper of “You really need to look into this … y’all were never told the truth.” D

We began this series by naming Paul Taylor as Rebecca’s convicted killer — that he supposedly went to the Excalibur Club the night Rebecca disappeared, March 1, 1986, and that she left with him.

But the facts presented a different story: Paul Taylor didn’t take Rebecca home from the Excalibur Club. Instead, someone else brought her there, and likely from a party at Surfside Beach.

Was Paul Taylor innocent? Heck no.
But it’s doubtful he acted alone.

One theory suggests Taylor was sitting at home that night when his friends showed up with a very drunk girl in their car. One by one, Taylor and two or three other men sexually assaulted her at his house on 3rd Street. During or after that assault, Rebecca was shot.

Facts That Don’t Support the Outcome of This Case

[Note, this will recap some of the points that defy the outcome of the case. New material begins below at “The Day Paul Taylor Took a Plea Agreement.”]

Fact 1: During the original interviews in March 1986, no one said Paul Taylor was at the Excalibur Club the night Rebecca disappeared. Investigators’ notes confirm it.

Fact 2: The police file shows that someone Rebecca had been dating — a businessman referred to here as “Tucker Black” — was at the club. Yet there’s no record of him being questioned.

Fact 3: Tucker Black had invited Rebecca on an out-of-town date for her birthday — a night in Galveston — but it turned into a nightmare. According to later accounts given to her family, four men assaulted her that night, and their names were provided to her family.

Fact 4: The following week, Tucker sent flowers and called repeatedly. Rebecca refused to take his calls, ignored his messages, and threw the flowers away. (He was not accustom to that kind of rejection.)

Fact 5: After Rebecca disappeared, Tucker Black called the police detectives and ask if he could offer a $10,000 reward for information. They never interviewed him.

Fact 6: Witnesses Mel S. and Kevin K. told investigators that Rebecca left the club with a slender Hispanic man, about six feet tall, with dark hair. (Paul Taylor was only 5’7″.) Mel S. also noted the man drove a metallic silver Z28 Camaro. Taylor didn’t own a Z28, but a regular at the club did. We called him “Antonio Grey,” when we covered him in Part 7.

Fact 7: In March 1986, Carol learned from a classmate that Rebecca had been at a party at Surfside Beach that night — a lead detectives never investigated. Toward the end of their investigative notes, they acknowledge Tucker Black had been at the club and had been at the Surfside Party.

Fact 8: In 2024, Carol confirmed Rebecca had been at the Surfside party. Witnesses saw her there and said she’d been over-served or possibly drugged and got into a fight with a woman named “Marty.” When police sirens sounded, Rebecca — barely conscious — was shoved into the back of a vehicle by Tucker Black. Inside that car were Tucker, Rick Brown, Rebecca, and one other male whose identity I’m not sure about. It may have been Antonio Grey.

Fact 9: In August 1986, Rick Brown sent an anonymous letter to Rebecca’s grandfather claiming Paul Taylor had confessed. Brown said he told the sheriff months earlier, but Taylor wasn’t indicted for eight more years. Why so long?

Fact 10: Hector Green, owner of the Excalibur Club, originally told police Rebecca was alone that night and never mentioned Taylor. By April, his story had changed — now Taylor was supposedly bragging at the bar about “murdering Rebecca.”

Fact 11: Early on, Rebecca’s family told police they didn’t believe she even knew anyone named Paul Taylor.

When you line up these facts side by side, one thing becomes clear: the story told to the family never truly fit the evidence. Key witnesses were ignored, powerful people were protected, and convenient lies filled the gaps where real investigation should have been.

It’s no wonder the case went cold — it was built on contradictions from the very beginning.

This case looks like a cover up.

Sue White

Was Sue White a casualty? We won’t ever know for sure, but I didn’t want to wind this down without mentioning her. (Sue’s story is in Part 7.)

The Day Paul Taylor Took a Plea Agreement

On February 6, 1995, before District Judge J. Ray Gayle, III, both sides announced they were ready for trial. The court’s docket said:

“Both sides present and ready. The Defendant was arraigned and pleaded ‘Not Guilty.’”

“The panel is present for purposes of voir dire… instructed as to the burden of proof, reasonable doubt, presumption of innocence, and that an indictment is no indication of guilt.”

A full jury panel was selected and sworn in, then released for the evening.

But on the morning of February 7, 1995, before opening statements, Paul Taylor suddenly changed his plea to “Guilty.” A plea deal had been struck.

The deal required Taylor to lead investigators to Rebecca’s body so her family could finally bury her.

Betrayal of the Family’s Wishes

On February 8, 1995, the jury was discharged and Taylor was given time to fulfill his side of the agreement. His sentencing was set for February 17, 1995.

On the 17th, the record reads:

“The body of Rebecca Jean Beard has not been located. The State is satisfied that the Defendant is being truthful about where he thought he buried her body. The State will honor the plea bargain.”

Rebecca’s family was crushed. They were told that if they wanted the trial to continue, they’d need to “file a motion” — in other words, hire a lawyer again. After nine years, Linda Barnes couldn’t fight anymore.

“Defendant is found guilty of murder as charged in the indictment with no affirmative finding of a deadly weapon.”

That phrase “no affirmative finding of a deadly weapon” made Taylor eligible for parole. That must have been part of the deal. And it was a blatant lie.You’ll see what I mean below.

Taylor was sentenced to life in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, but was inexplicably given credit for time served from March 1, 1986 — the very night Rebecca disappeared. Another part of the plea deal?

The Two Lies of Omission

Folks, this is undeniable evidence of hiding critical information from the family. The family was told:

• No murder weapon was ever found.
• Rebecca’s body was never recovered.

The court’s docket said the jury was dismissed on February 8, 1995. But another document, one  included here … and possibly sealed and released by mistake,  stated:

“2-9-95, 10 a.m. – Larry Bullard to testify about finding R. Beard’s body. Jury dismissed until 2-17-1995, 9:30 a.m. This is to give the state time to find positive evidence the remains are Ms. Beard’s.”

WHAT? A Body?

Larry Bullard found a body.

They  found her body and never told the family?

Paul Taylor’s efforts didn’t produce a body… but Detective Larry Bullard’s did? He had been digging at the house on February 7, the day the trial was to start. If he found a body, of course it was Rebecca’s, right? (If not, whose was it?)

They Can’t Have it Both Ways

Carol Mize posted this on Finding Becky Beard (Facebook, September 9, 2025)

“On Tuesday, July 22, 2025, I was reviewing court paperwork and found an Evidence Sheet from the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department. The weapon was logged into evidence at 8:05 a.m. on February 8, 1995 — a Remington 1100 shotgun.

Evidence Sheet with the Remington Shotgun submitted into evidence for the State vs. Paul G. Taylor.

I called the DA’s investigator and a Freeport Police officer. Both confirmed there was never a weapon or body entered into evidence for trial. Also attached was a photo taken by BCSO on February 7, 1995, showing the wall behind a paneled section.

So we now have supporting documents that a body and a weapon were recovered.”

The shotgun was a 12-gauge.

Thoughts about this? I was curious and looked up the model, a Remington 1100 is a 12-gauge.

I think if they were in that little house the gun could not have been more than six or seven feet away from her when discharged. If that was the weapon that killed Rebecca, it would have done a lot of damage to her body. Those holes are sure low which tells me she was trying to get away…so horrible to think about.

Do they look like a 12-gauge hole? I’ve never shot anything except skeet with a 12-gauge, so I don’t know.

Two Holes in the Wall behind paneling purported to be from the shots that killed Rebecca.

What the heck, Freeport PD and BCSO?

Why has this family been gaslit (or gaslighted, whatever!) about this for nearly forty years? It’s disgusting how many lies these women were told, and how casually those in power dismissed them.

Under the House 

Taylor’s house was an old house on pilings. No one thought about looking under it for all those years between Rebecca’s disappearance and when Taylor’s court date came up.

Within the last three years, a witness came forward to tell the family that an individual had begun digging under the house on 3rd Street on February 7, 1995. This witness had identified the date simply as “the day the trial was to start.”

Two detectives arrived shortly after the person digging did … like someone was watching the place and called them. They told the digger to stop and they sent the digger packing. The two detectives (I assume the duo was Det. Larry Bullard and Det. Ruben Gonzales) began poking around the old house.

What are the chances that 37 years later, Carol would find a statement from the court’s records about how Detective Larry Bullard would be testifying about finding Rebecca’s remains. The testimony was to be two days after the witness just mentioned above was told to leave the 3rd Street house.

To be honest, I was a little skeptical of the witness’ story at first when Carol told me about it, but when you compare the witness’s account of that day to court notes written 39 years ago, it’s clear that digging did happen that day. A shotgun, and apparently, a body were found. Now you know why Finding Becky Beard asks nearly every week “WHERE’S THE BODY??”

And why was the family treated like this?

Rebecca Beard was a daughter, a mother, and a sister. She mattered.

Unfortunately, her case was treated as though she didn’t matter. She was dismissed as a wild girl who did drugs, slept around, and maybe got what she deserved.

That mindset is how injustice survives.

The Sealed Envelope

When Carol later requested records for Cause No. 28,162, State of Texas vs. Paul Taylor, she received within the stack returned to her an envelope marked:

“Pre-sentence document. Confidential Judicial Document

Not Open to Public Inspection.”

What was that about? Why seal it?

Were the notes about the Remington shotgun and Bullard’s discovery hidden in the envelope, so no one would ever know?

If so, what was the purpose for sealing that?

Something was being covered up. Is that why the digger was sent away from the property when the detectives showed up. It’s almost like the detectives were aware there was a body and a gun there and they wanted to get it out before someone else did …  but that’s probably too far-fetched, right?

And then, in 2025, Carol Mize was lied to about the evidence by a  Brazoria County District Attorney’s investigator and Freeport PD detective when she had right in her hand an evidence slip with the gun and its serial number on it.

WHO was being protected?

Today’s Final Word

This concludes what I know about the murder of Rebecca Beard for now. But there is so much to this story, I’m sure something new will pop up soon.

I don’t think this story is over — do you? I’ll bet there will be more to write as time goes along, and I can’t wait.

Rebecca’s family will not give up. The more they dig, the more truth rises to the surface.

The more Rebecca’s story flows out of content creators on social media, the more creators that want to tell her story.

And if I’ve missed something, #TeamBecky, let me know.
There were so many threads to this story that I’m sure a few escaped my memory before I got them down — and I’ll gladly add to the story if we need to.

I’ll be collecting all of Rebecca’s articles that I’ve written and updating them, revising and running them again at the first of the year. (I’m committed to finishing a  book about the 1965 strangulation murders of two University of Texas Chi Omega sorority sisters before the end of the year, and then I’ll work on Rebecca’s story again.)

Her story will NOT be going away any time soon.

Don’t forget to join the group I told you about. More about it below!

Notably, on March 1, 2026, forty years will have passed since Rebecca’s family last saw her.

Let 2026 be the year this craziness ends.

Finding Becky Beard: Community Discussion is a space for respectful discussion, research, and sharing of information about the Rebecca Beard case. This group is open to anyone interested in exploring the facts, timelines, and developments surrounding this long-standing mystery.