Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
Worried Mother’s Call For Welfare Check Ends Horrifically
on a chilling december night,cedar park police were informed about a missing woman but what started as a routine welfare check would spiral into a twisted chain of events,fueled by darkness, allegations, and something far more horrifying that would haunt the officers for the rest of their life.
it all started december 12.2019 when a desperate mother called 911 to report her daughter ,amanda gordon better known as mandi had disapeared without a trace.
she had not just been missing gor a few hours, but it already been three days with no sing of her.
with little information in hand,officers swiftly arrived at mandi’s reesidence for a welfare check,only to encounter an unthinkable act by her husband, samuel byrd, who had set a bizarre demand for the police:
they were to speak only through the window, this strange request from sam only left the detectives in a more complex situation,making the detective’s suspicions about what he might be hiding inside.
sam indeed portrayed himself as a cocerned husband, telling the police manid had willingly left on her own,leaving their two children behind.
he deisplayed a mix of emotions, expressing anger that mandi had also abandoned him, while also showing worry about her whereabouts.
however , sam was not alone inside,his brother joshiah byrd was also there, helping with the kids.
as detectives gathered more information, they were puzzled to know that mandi had been living with sam and their children, who seemed to have a contented life.
so why would she suddenly leave , especially without her kids?was the responsibility too much for her to bear or was there something else that drove her away?
before the police could make sense of it, sam’s strange behavior raised a red flag.
suspicionb was already thick in the air, but his ctions only made it worse,considering that if he was telling the truth, why would he dare to stop the police ,unless he was concealing something far more sinister?
his aura grew increasingly mysterius, enveloping the surroundings ,as the officers’ sharp eyes noticed something amiss.
the place inside was in complete disarray,with items scattered in disheveled positions, building more tensions and suggesting that there was something else going on.
and sam was the center of it.
their doubt turned out to be true when they realixed it was not just a usual mess,but drug dealing was occuring,making the situation more dangerous, espceially with the children inside.
recognizing the threat, they decided to secure the children first and deployed the SWAT units to enter the scene.
but their entry only escalated the tension when they discover mandi was not there.
in addition ,they uncovered exclusive items revealing further danger,including drug paraphernalia.
but this twas only the beginning.
as more clues came to light, the entire case took a new turn, deepening the mystery and leaving investigators more conflicted than ever.
there was an outbuilding behind the residence it was highly concerning because there were footprints leading up to the door of the shed.
and when they entered the shed ,it was fresh varnish.you could smell it.
it was odd, a lot of splashes and paint on the legs of things like it had been done very recently,and very quickly.
sam hadn’t moved anything , so all the furniture was in place. he just warnished arount it, which was extremely unusual .
but the discoveries didn’t end there,detectives soon found themselves facing an even more twisted finding ,mandi’s belongings were completely missing.
it appeared that she had packed up everything and simply left the home,and sam informed the police.
if that were true. then perhaps he was telling the truth,however , al,ost immediately after another puzzle was locked away,signifying that everything might have been deliverately staged to support a lie.
as they began searching the residence , they uncovered something suspicious.
in the master closet , one side was deliberately organized,while on the other side, mandi’s belongings had dissapeared entirely.
not even a single thread was found.
these findings raised the ultimate question n the detective’s mind,if mandi truly left the house, she might have been in a hurry that could have caused her to forget something .
but it seemed completely overdone.
they also discovered numerous cameras inside the house,all of which were sent for digital forensic testing.
so far, nothing had made sense to the detectives, but just as they were digging into unanswered questions, a new lead began to emerge, giving the investigation a new direction.
mandi’s neighbor told the detectives that sam’s brother,josiah frequently visited her home.he also mentioned that shortly after mandi’s disappearance,josiah began sending weird texts to her family members and friends.
this particular statement raised further suspicion,prompting investigators to keep both brothers undersurveillance.
their growing doubts led them to search the residence one more time.allthough they didn’t find evidence against josiah.
but sam’s car hinted at another clue: he had a regular subscription to a car wash,and if a crime had taken place, any potential evidence might have already been washed away.
knowing theurgency ,the detectives rushed swiftly to the car was facility, but nothing could have prepared them for what they were about to uncover.
the records revealed that sam had visited the car wash facility on december 11,just one day mandi’s mother reported her missing.
with this information, the detectives began reviewing the CCTV footage,where they found the most significant lead so far.
that video showed that he was by himself,nobody else was driving his truck.what kristy whitley observed in that is that sam had no shoes on, it was december.
it’s cold outside but yet a video od sam at a carwash with no shoes on.
the most critical question raised here was that sam’s wife had been missing,and their children were left alone, but why was he so obsessed with washing his car?
thus brought more fear about his deranged behavior that detectives could not fully understand, however , they knew one thing for sure:it was crucial to determine sam’s whereabouts during mandi’s disappearance.
just as they were wondering how to trace his movements ,his car revealed aprominent picture. a large patch of mud was spotted on the tires.
which clearly didn’t belong to Ceder’s location.
when the question suddenly occurred to them ,where did that mud come from?
maybe it wasn’t just dirt but the last clue that had been buried – his darkest secret.
to gain more insight into th situationb, sam was brought in for interrogation.
however ,his reaction completely baffled the officers.
sam’s reaction only disappointed the officers as he refused to cdooperate,but that didn’t make them lose hope because they shifted their focus to his brother ,josiah,who was about to introduce a shady individual to the case.
josiah seemed to ve cooperative and shard his part of the concern with the police.josiah proviede the most significant information.
sam had been in contact with a girl named rachel buckly.he also stated that they were not dating,but it immediately raised the question about her rol in his life.
believing rachel might hold a missing piece of the puzzle,they quickly headed out to locate her to ask about sam.
rachel was indeed shocked to see the officers and quickly realized they were there to ask about sam.still, she believed that mandi had intentionally run away as she had done in the past,so it was nothing unusual to her, knowing she was missing.
and if anyone thought rachel was genuinely concerned,her following statement would make her interest very clear.
even though she initially showed some interest, it didn’t take long before she dropped a bombshell that turned the entire investigation on its head.
she delivered the critial details that sam had once handed her a mysterious bag, asking her a favor to hide it somewhere.
late,he personally accompanied her to the isolated place known as LagoVista,where under his guidance, she stashed the items,believing it was just a simple favor.
however,at this moment, te detectives were unaware that these findings would be the biggest breakthrough ever,leading them straight to the hidden sight of the crime.
the officers quickly arrived at the location wherre they found a msyerious bag. containing an incrminating sign of a crime.
the galon ziplock bag contained a 9 mm semi automatic pistol, which appeared with a broken handle, along with a fired shell casing.
this chilling sight escalated even more when they also discovered a phone with what appeared to be blood on its lenses ,revealing a sinister act.
the shocking piece of revelation wasn’t over yet.rachel stepped forward with one final detail that would deliver the ultimate blow.
she was ready to discuss the bag she had received from sam,and especially her relationship with him.
she explained about a business deal involving two brothers in bastrop county,texas. this raised futher alarm bells for them,
as this bad business deal could have cost mandi her life.
to dig deeper ,detectives began their search into the connection between sam and these mysterious brothers.
soon enough ,they stumbled upon evidence that could establish their connection in depth.
on december 9, just two days before sam’s visit to the car wash, a toll both camera had captured his pickup truck heading toward bastrop at 10:41 p.m.to trace his movements that night , officers retraced the rout and checked nearby gas stations.
eventually, they found a surveillance video that could hold the answers to all their questions related to the investigation.
if sam had taken that route he would’ve ended up in bastrop county.
now, investigators needed to determine exactly here he had gone and how he had ended up with mud all over his truck.
then came a crucial clue that helped trace his path.another toll booth camera picked up his truck a second time,nearly 12 hours later , on december 10.
by 11:00 a.m .,he was spotted again on the same gastation’s surveillance ,this time heading back.
it was now confirmed that he had gone to the ranch on december 9th and returned the next morning.but the question remained : what was he doing there for nearly 12 hours?
with such a vast area to cover ,finding answers wouldn’t be easy.
investigators had to narrow their search and that’s when they decided to use a tactic.
one that could lead them straight to the truth.
through this tactic ,investigators received an anonymous tip about sam,the caller revealed that he had been involves in a business partnership connected to a single recycling facility located in bastrop ,texas.
armed with these new details, investigators managed to trace a phone number that led them directly to one of the brothers.
the brothers agreed to let the officers visit the ranch for further investigation.
however , unbeknowns to them, they were going to uncover something that would stun them to the core.
as they arrived at the ranch, sutle but telling clues began to surface, each one tying sam directly to the property and the day of the murder.
the color of the soil on the ranch matched the mud found on sam’s puck up at the car wash on december 11.
the brothers admitted that sam had been to the property multiple times.but then came the most shocking revelation one that would turn the entire case on its head.
the brothers explained that sam had a mobile home on this property that he used as a place to bring women and be romantically involved with and things.
one of the brothers revealed that on december 9, he received a text from sam asking him to come out and burn some trash.-he agreed -thinking nothing of it- and didn’t press for details.
but what investigators uncovered next was far more terrifying han anything they had anticipated.
there were flames in the air about ten feet high, and he yelled at him that he needed to leave,but he didn’t immediately leave.
mr martinez showed where the burn pit was,it was a very large, probably 125 to a 150 foot diameter area where it looked like things of all sorts had been burned at some point
within five or 1o minutes of sitfting through the just the very top portion of the dirt detectives began to find very small pieces of white, fragmented bone that appeared to be human in nature.
the evidence suggested that something horrific had taken place on that property.but then came the most damning discovery, one that would shatter everything.
they were’re able to confirm that those were human bone fragments.
one search and rescue told investigators that the cadaver dogs did alert to a pond through a wooded area.
the brothers had explained that they had seen sam traveling back and forth towards this area multiple times while the fire was going.
it was too shallow and muddy for divers to go in , such as they would a lake,so they have to actually drain the pond.
what was ultimately found were bone fragments ,a single projectile that was misshapen from an extremely hot process.and there was also jewelry.
they took the jewelry to mandi’s mother,who instantly recognized each piece as her daughjter’s.
the confirmation hit hard ,and mandi was gone,leaving her family devastated.
to solidify the identification ,investigators also comapred the recovered teeth from the burn pit with mandi’s dental records and it was undeniable.
while mandi’s family grieved for their loss,investigators began to gather evidence against their possible suspect,her husband , sam.
forensic experts had managed to extract footage from the DVR of their home’s surveillances system and carefully examined the videos for any signs that could explain what really happened to mandi.
what they found in it was nothing short of a horror movie…
despite sam’s efforts to cover his trcks, he had left one thing that could blow the entire case with him at the very centre of it.
sam did his very best to delete as much as possible,but it is very difficult to delete everthing.as a camera that looked in the backyard in between the back of the main house and the office shed.
the camera had captured a critical moment at 11:45 p.m. on december 8,one that would soon become a key piece for solving mandi’s murder mystery.
it was clearly visible that mandi was sprinting from the residence into the shed, and sam was chasing after her.
shortly after that sam was seen leaving,then returning moments later wearing only his underwear.
this strange behavior was peculiar to the situation, and it didn’t go unnoticed.
investigators then turned to the footage from the following day ,december 9 where he was seen doing something odd during the day and even at night.
sam was going back and forth between the main house into the shed.
in the afternoon as detective’s were watching sam ,he has a power washer and that he’s using it in the area. between the house and the shed.
later in the afternoon ,about 5:30,he’s huncches over the yard as if he’s about to vomit.
at 7:45, hedisables the porch light that was illuminating the backyard.
and that allowed him to not be seen by neighbors or by people driving down the road.
it appeares that he’s moving some stuff around th area where his truck is in the shed around the shed.
he then unplugs the cameras , dismantling his own security system in an attempt to erase any evidence from what happened to mandi.
but he missed onecrucial detail, which became the holy grail for the officers leading to the biggest breakthrough.
the interesting thing about some of these systems is that when it sees movement,it will take a snapshot and send it to your mobile device.
it’s got a screenshot of the beginning of the video,if you delete the video itself , doesn’t delete the same thumbnails.
detectives were able to locate four photos.
mandi is running.it’s kind of hard to make her out because her image of her body is in motion.we don’t see sam in that photo.
the next one we see sam crouched over on the right side of the frame.we see legs.
we see a pool of what apears to be blood on the other end of the room.
there’s also, it looks like a shattered piece of wood that’s near that small pool of blood by that desk.
in the snapshots, it was clear that sam had committed an unthinkable act.
we see mandi’s body pulled a little bit farther away from the door into frame.he’s crouched over her you see obvious trauma around the head area and significant amount of blood.
the next photo is him out.he’s just in his underwear.his stepping around mandi.
we see a huge amount of blood.
four photos of the actual murder itself occurring inside the shed.detective now know that sam byrd had committed the murder.
and taken the life of mandi gordon.
with all the damning evidence,sam was charged with felony murder of his partner, mandi.
detectives were happy that surveillance video worked,that the cameras actually recorded.the images that were collected from sam’s phone were crucial in his conviction.
him standing over mandi in the shed and with video and surveillance from the gas stations that he drove past to get to the ranch where he disposed of her.
it was essential to the investigation.
allthough he did not provide any reason or details about the murder,te police had their own theory.
on the day that mandi was murdered.she got home on the 8th.went inside, had some sort of conversation with sam byrd.
there was an argument, and they’re sure it was about their relationship.this very much angered sam,who retrieved a pistol,threatened mandi with the pistol at that point mandi ran from the residence into the office shed.
he shased after her, followed her to the back of the shed.most likely he struck her on top of the head with the butt of the pistol.
he hit her in the corner of the room. that’s wht broke the pistol and that’s what caused that amount of blood. and as she left , he shot her , shot her in the head and she dropped right where we see her in the screenshots.
once sam took mandi’s life,detective’s don’t believe he had a specific plan.
he needed to hide her body.
sam’s own surveillance system captures him cleaning up after the murder,later he’s seen disabling the cameras and loading mandi’s body into his truck,unuware he’s just recorded the very evidence that would expose him.
he was able to gte mandi into the back of his truck.load all of this stuff up on top of her so she wouldn’t be seen.
drove her body to the burn pit at the ranch in bastrop.
used gasoline to pour over tenuously, set fire to her body , reducing it to two small bone fragments and ash.
they found no evidence that josiah byrd ,his brother , or rachel buckley were involved in the crime.
they also found no evidence to suggest that the brothers were engaged in shady business practices.
the only charges that were brought were against sam byrd.
rachel buckly was utilized as witness. josiah byrd was also used as a witness.
the business partners were also involved as witnesses.
all roads lead back to sam byrd then he was the one charged with mandi’s murder.
on november 14,2022, three years after the incident, samuel byrd was charged with mandi’s murder and he pled guilty.
following his plea, he received a 45 year imprisonment sentence.
as of now ,he is serving his sentence at Mark W. stiles Unite in Baumont, Texas.
while his parole eligibility date is scheduled for june 2042,his projected release date is december 2064.