In the months after Alyssa Burkett was murdered, she appeared to her mother, Teresa Collard, in a dream.
Teresa Collard : I see her across the room and in my dream — I knew she was gone but I was hysterically happy that I was seeing her and I was thinking “you’re back.”
Teresa Collard : She came to me and said, no, I’m not back. And I don’t want to come back and I never want to be there again. I was puzzled why don’t you want to come back and she said, because I was always afraid there.”
Although 24-year-old Alyssa Burkett had been afraid for months, the attack at the apartment complex where she worked in Carrollton, Texas, north of Dallas, came as a surprise.
THE DEADLY ATTACK ON ALYSSA BURKETT
According to Sgt. Michael Harding, one of the lead detectives, Alyssa pulled into her usual parking space at around 9 a.m.
Sgt. Michael Harding (in the parking lot): Alyssa’s car was actually parked right here … where the green van is right here. … And the assailant’s vehicle had parked right next to her …