By Investigative Reporter Tammy Rose

A new Texas Attorney General ruling raises another question in the nearly 40-year search for answers in the disappearance of Rebecca “Becky” Beard.

I requested body camera video from the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office connected to the Beard case.

Brazoria County asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office for permission to withhold the recording.

On September 25, 2026, the Attorney General issued its decision.

The county can withhold the body camera recording.

But the reason given in the ruling is what caught my attention.

County says incident was “not criminal in nature”

According to the Attorney General’s ruling, the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office told the state that the incident captured on the body camera “was not criminal in nature.”

The county also represented that the body camera recording “will not be used as evidence in a criminal prosecution.”

Based on those representations, the Attorney General determined the recording must be withheld under Texas Government Code Section 552.101 in conjunction with Article 2B.0112(c) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.

Texas law generally exempts body-camera recordings from the Public Information Act unless an exception applies. One of those exceptions involves information that is or could be used as evidence in a criminal prosecution.

Why the explanation raises questions

This is where I have questions.

Becky Beard disappeared from Freeport in March 1986.

Paul Taylor Jr. later pleaded guilty in connection with her death, but Becky’s remains have never been recovered.

Her family has continued searching for answers and for Becky.

The body camera video I requested is connected to those continuing efforts.

So the wording in this ruling stands out.

Brazoria County represented to the Attorney General that the incident recorded on the body camera was not criminal in nature and that the recording would not be used as evidence in a criminal prosecution.

That raises an obvious question:

If the recording is connected to efforts surrounding a decades-old homicide case, why is the incident being characterized as noncriminal?

The ruling itself does not answer that question.

It also does not independently determine whether the underlying Beard case is open or closed. It addresses whether this particular body-camera recording must be released under the Public Information Act.

Attorney General relied on county’s representations

There is another important distinction.

The Attorney General did not independently conclude from the ruling that nothing criminal occurred.

Instead, the decision specifically says it was “based upon these representations and our review” that the information must be withheld.

In other words, Brazoria County made representations about the nature and potential use of the recording, and the Attorney General applied the law to those facts.

The Attorney General’s Open Records Division also explains that these letter rulings apply only to the specific documents and circumstances involved. They are not precedent for other records requests.

The September 25 ruling makes that limitation explicit, stating that it applies only to the particular information and facts presented in this request.

The search for Becky continues

This ruling means I will not receive the body camera video through this particular Public Information Act request.

But it also adds another question to a case already filled with them.

Why was this incident described as noncriminal?

What exactly was the purpose of the law enforcement contact captured on the recording?

And how does that description fit with the continuing efforts to locate Becky Beard?

Those are questions I will continue asking.

Becky disappeared nearly 40 years ago.

Her family is still looking for her.

And I am continuing to investigate what happened to Becky Beard and the decades of decisions that followed.

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