In Midlothian, there is one question nagging the entire town: Who murdered 45-year-old fitness instructor Missy Bevers?
"Everyone is talking about it," said human resources manager Tonya Stanton. "Everyone is obsessed with it."
A railroad town, Midlothian was founded in 1888. Rarely has a crime mystery so captivated everyone.
At Ellis County Barbecue, the chopped beef is mixed with cold beer and hot gossip.
"You know we're all just shocked," Stanton said. "This is such a small town community and we just want this person caught."
Amy McClain, an executive for a medical device company, said everyone feels the same way.
"Everyone wants to make sure it's solved," she said. "Nothing like this ever happens here."
But 18 days without an arrest is taking its toll on this growing town of 20,000.
Midlothian bills itself as the cement capital of North Texas. Now it's desperate for concrete answers.
"It's crazy. I've never seen anything like it," said Sharlene Cazares who works at a salon downtown. "There was a lot of fear, especially with young teenage girls. I heard a lot of the mothers say that they had to sleep with them the first week or two."
That fear is turning into suspicion. People are now playing amateur detectives.
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Was the killer, captured wearing a police uniform on church surveillance video, a man or a woman?
"Not only myself, but everyone in town, everywhere they go, they're looking at someone possibly built that way," Cazares said.
And then, there's the killer's unusual way of walking with his or her right foot bent outward.
"You know, you get a person walking around with a foot out like that, there's something wrong," said Vietnam veteran Don Radabaugh. "Somebody has got a broken leg or something. Somebody knows."
With the killer still walking the streets, the growing question in town is: Is he or she getting away with murder?
"Even though it's taking a while, I think Midlothian will definitely get it solved," McClain said.
