Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Family Feud Killer

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The Family Feud Killer · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, the nation was stunned by headlines
0:11
Speaker 1: calling him the family feud killer. You see, Timothy Bleiefnick
0:15
Speaker 1: had once taken part in a game show and smiled
0:18
Speaker 1: on national television, joking that the biggest mistake he'd ever
0:22
Speaker 1: made was saying I do at his wedding. Now, that
0:26
Speaker 1: same husband stood accused of brutally murdering his wife, the
0:29
Speaker 1: mother of his three children. And this is the story
0:32
Speaker 1: of that case, a case that would turn a harmless
0:35
Speaker 1: game show moment into a massive, abusive and true crime
0:39
Speaker 1: red flag. This is the story of the family feud
0:43
Speaker 1: Killer and the murder of Rebecca Bleefnick. My name's Ben, I'm.
0:49
Speaker 2: Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim, a true
0:52
Speaker 2: crime podcast.
0:54
Speaker 1: The following intended your audience. If for whatever reason, you
1:22
Speaker 1: hear a helicopter. There's one been like circling the area
1:26
Speaker 1: for like the last half an hour.
1:28
Speaker 2: It's searching for us.
1:29
Speaker 1: It might be it might be the FBI has seen
1:32
Speaker 1: our Google searches. They know what we research, and they
1:34
Speaker 1: think you know what they're up to something They're on
1:37
Speaker 1: to us.
1:38
Speaker 2: Clearly, Yeah, we've waited for quite some time, but at
1:41
Speaker 2: this point it's like, Okay, we gotta we gotta get going.
1:44
Speaker 2: And it does seem like it's gone quieter.
1:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's starting to expand. Its search doesn't
1:48
Speaker 1: know exactly where we are, just the area is going
1:51
Speaker 1: to the outlying areas of that search. So I think
1:53
Speaker 1: we're safe. A fingers crossed.
1:55
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, the joys, the joys.
1:58
Speaker 1: Right, gotta love it. Any audio interference can be a
2:01
Speaker 1: lot noise pollution. It means quite the difference on just
2:03
Speaker 1: the quality of a show. We try to make it
2:06
Speaker 1: as best we can.
2:07
Speaker 2: I feel like living in a tiny home doesn't necessarily
2:10
Speaker 2: help with that either.
2:11
Speaker 1: That's true, but what.
2:12
Speaker 2: We're a lot of the outside environment.
2:14
Speaker 1: That's really true. But what does really help the actual
2:17
Speaker 1: quality of our show is signing up on Patreon and
2:21
Speaker 1: getting up behind the scenes and exclusive content.
2:23
Speaker 2: It sure does.
2:25
Speaker 1: Just like Joline Maynard, Kim Klein, Marie Alaska, Martin Mesquez,
2:30
Speaker 1: Ashley Middlestat, Dina Kost, Shannon Ingram, and Jennifer Workington did
2:35
Speaker 1: they all signed up this week on Patreon, So thank
2:37
Speaker 1: you very much, Dang.
2:39
Speaker 2: I mean, last week we had a giant list and
2:40
Speaker 2: this is still pretty large. It is. It's awesome.
2:43
Speaker 1: So we got some pretty cool people supporting the show.
2:45
Speaker 2: We sure do.
2:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you like my pre lootings?
2:48
Speaker 2: Real good? Actually, yeah, I'm quite impressed.
2:51
Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, we have an interesting
2:55
Speaker 1: show today, the Family Feud Killer.
2:58
Speaker 2: Well, and it's not real tay, because I have not
3:01
Speaker 2: heard of this.
3:02
Speaker 1: No, it's not very old at all. And uh yeah,
3:05
Speaker 1: we're going to post a little clip on social media
3:07
Speaker 1: of this this guy, let's say, on the game show
3:12
Speaker 1: Family Feud.
3:12
Speaker 2: Okay, But I just have to say okay, because in
3:15
Speaker 2: our relationship we're like quite jokey. Yes, like I would say,
3:19
Speaker 2: we probably we easily flip each other off more in
3:22
Speaker 2: a day than we say, like I love you one
3:23
Speaker 2: hundred and ten percent. So if you were on this
3:26
Speaker 2: game show and you were like said that, I don't
3:30
Speaker 2: know if I would really like bad.
3:31
Speaker 1: And I kay. But there's a difference between doing it,
3:35
Speaker 1: you know, with your spouse. In his case, he was
3:39
Speaker 1: doing it on national TV when she wasn't even on
3:41
Speaker 1: the game show.
3:42
Speaker 2: He was there, I know. But even in public situations,
3:45
Speaker 2: we still kind of joke sometimes.
3:47
Speaker 1: But usually with friends or private conversations, not on National television.
3:52
Speaker 1: I get what you're saying, but it is still a
3:54
Speaker 1: bit different.
3:54
Speaker 2: Okay, well, yeah, I'd have to kind of see it.
3:58
Speaker 1: I guess I'm not saying that a joke like that
4:00
Speaker 1: on national TV is necessarily a red flag on its
4:04
Speaker 1: own or necessarily wrong, because do you're right? It could
4:07
Speaker 1: be the relationship, but there is still a time and place,
4:10
Speaker 1: and with his time and placement, it was definitely pushing
4:14
Speaker 1: the boundaries. Let's say that.
4:15
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go.
4:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you ready to get into it.
4:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's hear about this.
4:21
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, it takes place in Quincy, Illinois, which is
4:25
Speaker 1: a quiet city along the Mississippi River where neighbors still
4:28
Speaker 1: wave across the street. Everybody seemed to know Becky Bleefnick.
4:32
Speaker 1: She was a nurse who stayed late after her shift,
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Speaker 1: the woman who remembered every patient's name, and the mom
4:37
Speaker 1: who never missed a school pickup or a little league game.
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Speaker 1: At forty one, Rebecca or Becky Beef Beleefnick, she built
4:46
Speaker 1: a steady life with a good job, three healthy boys,
4:48
Speaker 1: and a home on Hampshire Street that overflowed with laughter, homework,
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Speaker 1: and of course, the clatter of dinner time. Chaos. I
4:55
Speaker 1: can only imagine how chaotic that would be with having
4:58
Speaker 1: three boys.
5:00
Speaker 2: I have to just say too, I love the name
5:02
Speaker 2: Quincy for a town. Oh my gosh, that is adorable.
5:05
Speaker 1: It's a very quaint name.
5:06
Speaker 2: It's so cute.
5:07
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, her husband, Timothy Bleifnick, was outgoing and quick
5:11
Speaker 1: with a joke and proud of his family. In twenty nineteen,
5:14
Speaker 1: he even landed on a national television program, appearing on
5:18
Speaker 1: The infamous Family Feud alongside his brothers and parents. It
5:23
Speaker 1: was the kind of small town moment that made you know,
5:25
Speaker 1: local headlines. He came across on the show as witty
5:28
Speaker 1: and charismatic, a guy who could make anyone laugh, and
5:32
Speaker 1: together the two of them seemed like the picture of
5:35
Speaker 1: perfect middle class happiness. A nurse and a real cycling
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Speaker 1: industry professional raising three boys in a close knit community
5:42
Speaker 1: where crime was rare and scandal was even rarer. Their
5:46
Speaker 1: home in Quincy was a place where people left, you know,
5:49
Speaker 1: the doors unlocked. They trusted their neighbors, and they greeted
5:53
Speaker 1: each other by name at the grocery store even, you know,
5:55
Speaker 1: recognizing people having those casual conversations and carrying on to
5:59
Speaker 1: bump into the person you know. Violence was sure rare,
6:03
Speaker 1: and it usually occurred elsewhere. But now Rebecca Apostle and
6:07
Speaker 1: Timothy Blifnick, as they were first known, they first met
6:10
Speaker 1: each other in university. They were two bright, ambitious students
6:15
Speaker 1: going to Quincy University. She was warm, funny, and fiercely compassionate.
6:19
Speaker 1: He was confident, charming and outgoing, the type of guy
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Speaker 1: who can make you a room full of strangers become
6:25
Speaker 1: friends almost now after graduation. Life led them in different
6:28
Speaker 1: directions for a few years, but eventually they found their
6:30
Speaker 1: way back to each other, and by two thousand and
6:33
Speaker 1: nine they were married, and soon they bought a home
6:35
Speaker 1: in Quincy, the same community where they had met, and
6:38
Speaker 1: from there they began to build a life together. Becky
6:41
Speaker 1: left her career at pharmaceutical sales to raise her children,
6:45
Speaker 1: while Tim pursued his work at the recycling industry. Friends
6:48
Speaker 1: described them as the perfect pair, two people who seemed
6:52
Speaker 1: to have everything figured out. Their social media pages were,
6:55
Speaker 1: of course filled with photos of family outings or barbecues
6:59
Speaker 1: and smiling holiday portraits. They were also raising their three sons,
7:04
Speaker 1: who were born close together in age, and because of that,
7:07
Speaker 1: you know, they became the center of Becky's world. She
7:11
Speaker 1: had always been nurturing by nature. When her boys were
7:14
Speaker 1: old enough for school, that's when she decided to return
7:17
Speaker 1: to the workforce and that nurturing part of her while
7:20
Speaker 1: it reflected in who she truly was, because she went
7:24
Speaker 1: back to school to become a nurse, a decision that
7:26
Speaker 1: to her felt like a calling, and to others who
7:29
Speaker 1: knew her best, this was Becky stepping into her purpose. Then,
7:34
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, their marriage would be captured forever in
7:37
Speaker 1: a moment that later felt surreal. That's when Tim and
7:40
Speaker 1: some family members were selected to appear on the long
7:43
Speaker 1: running game show Family Feud. On stage under the bright
7:47
Speaker 1: studio lights, the host Steve Harvey turned to Tim and
7:50
Speaker 1: asked the question, all right, Tim, we talked to one
7:54
Speaker 1: hundred married people. What's the biggest mistake you made at
7:59
Speaker 1: your wedding. Tim smiled and paused just long enough for
8:03
Speaker 1: dramatic effect, and he replied, Honey, I love you, but
8:08
Speaker 1: said I do so I do is apparently the biggest mistake. Now,
8:14
Speaker 1: for clarity, if you do not know the show Family Feud,
8:18
Speaker 1: they interview and pull one hundred people on the streets
8:21
Speaker 1: and you're supposed to guess what the top answers would
8:25
Speaker 1: be from what they said, So not what you necessarily
8:29
Speaker 1: think it is, but what you think other people would say, well.
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Speaker 2: Being that the divorce reign and stuff is so high
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Speaker 2: that that might be an answer that's up there.
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Speaker 1: It might be, it might be. And like, honestly, in
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Speaker 1: the situation, like everyone started roaring with laughter and Steve Harvey, Harvey,
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Speaker 1: he has this infamous blank stare, which honestly they feed
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Speaker 1: into it on the show. They obviously ask leading questions
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Speaker 1: to get answers like that out of you, and his
8:54
Speaker 1: reaction is supposed to feed the humor in the situation, right,
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Speaker 1: So he kind of gave that classic like are you
9:02
Speaker 1: serious stare? And it also made this clip very memorable,
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Speaker 1: and Tim quickly added, not my mistake, not my mistake.
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Speaker 1: I love my wife. I'm gonna get in trouble for that,
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Speaker 1: aren't I. So he was clarifying not his mistake, but
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Speaker 1: he believed that's how other people would have answered. Now
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Speaker 1: at the time, it was viewed as a harmless television
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Speaker 1: comedic moment, one of the thousands of jokes that passed
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Speaker 1: through that game show that they try and you know,
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Speaker 1: get out of you to make it so humorous.
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Speaker 2: I don't know. Sitting here, I'm like, that's not terrible.
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Speaker 1: It's not terrible, which is why so many people laughed
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Speaker 1: at the time. Why it was funny at the time.
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Speaker 1: But it's the hindsight that makes it a little bit interesting.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, was that one of the answers? Though, I'm like,
9:43
Speaker 2: kind of want to know. Do you even know?
9:45
Speaker 1: You know what? I didn't look up to see if
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Speaker 1: it was one of the answers or not. I'm sorry
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Speaker 1: I didn't. I do have the clip. I did watch
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Speaker 1: the clip, but I didn't see the actual result.
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Speaker 2: Okay, well, I mean they weren't focusing on that, so
9:55
Speaker 2: that's fair.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, years later, after the headlines and everything that
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Speaker 1: mom would resurface on screens across the country. Millions watched
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Speaker 1: that same clip, no longer with the amusement that they
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Speaker 1: once had, but instead with disbelief, calling it chilling foreshadowing
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Speaker 1: of what was to come. And they could be right,
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Speaker 1: but they could have also just been that an innocent joke. Regardless,
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Speaker 1: the story still goes on now. At the time, their
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Speaker 1: family seemed stable, comfortable, even and ordinary. Becky was building
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Speaker 1: her nursing career, volunteering for animal rescues, and earning respect
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Speaker 1: from patients and coworkers alike. Tim continued his career and
10:35
Speaker 1: was seen by many as an active, involved father. Together
10:39
Speaker 1: they looked like a family in motion, you know, busy, imperfect, sure,
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Speaker 1: but safe and together. The turning point in their marriage, though, well,
10:48
Speaker 1: it wasn't sudden. Instead, it was more slow and quiet.
10:53
Speaker 1: Small disagreements eventually grew into something sharp and unrelenting. Friends
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Speaker 1: would later say that they could see it in Becky's posture,
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Speaker 1: in the way she began choosing her words carefully when
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Speaker 1: Tim was around. To many, they were still a perfect
11:05
Speaker 1: picture of a family life. But when you looked a
11:08
Speaker 1: little closer, there were those signs, those things that had
11:11
Speaker 1: begun to change. When Becky returned to school to become
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Speaker 1: a nurse, Tim well, he told friends and family he
11:19
Speaker 1: was worried about her, stress about her time away from
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Speaker 1: the boys. Even to Becky though, this felt more like
11:24
Speaker 1: a way to hold her back. This was supposed to
11:27
Speaker 1: be a partnership, but now things had seemed to turn
11:29
Speaker 1: into a bit more of a quiet power struggle between
11:32
Speaker 1: the two. Sarah, really Becca's older sister, remembered watching the
11:36
Speaker 1: change happen. She said Tim grew more manipulative and controlling,
11:41
Speaker 1: the kind of subtle dominance that never left bruises specifically,
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Speaker 1: but it left marks all the same. Becky told her
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Speaker 1: sister she felt like she was always walking on eggshells. Now,
11:50
Speaker 1: Tim didn't yell often, but when he did it was
11:53
Speaker 1: sure explosive. He would throw things, shove her, or stand
11:56
Speaker 1: inches from her face, shouting until she went quiet, shut down.
12:02
Speaker 1: But of course for every outburst, Tim had an explanation.
12:05
Speaker 1: In fact, he said that she was exaggerating, that she
12:08
Speaker 1: was the emotional one, and that she actually was, you know,
12:11
Speaker 1: the one with quite the temper.
12:13
Speaker 2: Oh wow, of course he did, right, Yeah.
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Speaker 1: He put all the blame back on her and instead
12:18
Speaker 1: described himself as misunderstood, you know, just a husband trying
12:21
Speaker 1: to protect his family from Becky's erratic behavior. But the
12:25
Speaker 1: reality was she wasn't erratic. In fact, Becky was scared.
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Speaker 1: In September of twenty twenty one, she texted her sister
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Speaker 1: a message that would later become one of the most
12:35
Speaker 1: haunting pieces of evidence in this case. Quote, if something
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Speaker 1: ever happens to me, please make sure the number one
12:44
Speaker 1: person of interest is tim Holy shit. She followed it
12:50
Speaker 1: up with another one, saying, quote, I'm putting this in
12:53
Speaker 1: writing because I'm fearful he will somehow harm me, come
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Speaker 1: after me, or do something that takes me away from
12:59
Speaker 1: the kids or the kids away from me.
13:02
Speaker 2: That is actually terrifying.
13:04
Speaker 1: That speaks volumes.
13:07
Speaker 2: I hate that.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so with things like this, that makes the appearance
13:12
Speaker 1: in the game show and the thing he said a
13:14
Speaker 1: little bit, you know, it's different context.
13:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean it's one thing to have arguments
13:19
Speaker 2: and stuff, but to actually literally think that this person
13:24
Speaker 2: could kill you or you know, take you away in
13:27
Speaker 2: some manner. Is that's next.
13:30
Speaker 1: Level, isn't it. So what do you say when you
13:32
Speaker 1: get a message like that too?
13:34
Speaker 2: Right? I think you say that they need to leave.
13:37
Speaker 1: Well, that's kind of what she did. She did the
13:39
Speaker 1: best she could, and she told Becky to be careful,
13:41
Speaker 1: to talk to someone, reach out to maybe a domestic
13:43
Speaker 1: violence group. But Becky, like so many others in her position,
13:47
Speaker 1: kind of downplayed it. The next day. Yeah, their marriage
13:51
Speaker 1: continued its slow decline. Becky's career flourished, and Blessing Hospital,
13:55
Speaker 1: where she worked in the emergency department. At home though
13:58
Speaker 1: she faced emotional exhaustion. She was sleeping less, eating less,
14:03
Speaker 1: and confiding to close friends that she was doing everything alone.
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Speaker 1: Tim meanwhile resented her and continued to abuse and control
14:11
Speaker 1: the situation. When she came home late from shifts, for example,
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Speaker 1: he would accuse her of neglecting her family, and by
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Speaker 1: February of twenty twenty one, Tim Bliefnick had filed for divorce,
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Speaker 1: and now their marriage became a war fought on paper.
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Speaker 1: Their issues were typical things like money, property, there are
14:29
Speaker 1: three boys, and who lived where? Who picked them up
14:32
Speaker 1: from school? Who got the house on Kentucky Road, all
14:34
Speaker 1: this sort of stuff. But beneath those logistical battles was
14:38
Speaker 1: something heavier, that control. Becky wanted freedom, but Tim wanted order.
14:45
Speaker 1: It even reached a boiling point when eventually they both
14:47
Speaker 1: even filed restraining orders against each other. Tim first accused
14:51
Speaker 1: Becky of stalking and harassing, even producing a cell phone
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Speaker 1: video of an argument at a parent teacher night as proof.
14:59
Speaker 1: The jud Wish denied his request, though, but Becky fought back,
15:03
Speaker 1: and she filed her own petition soon after, alleging that
15:06
Speaker 1: Tim had entered her home without permission and had repeatedly
15:09
Speaker 1: falsified interactions between the two of them. The judge, though,
15:13
Speaker 1: denied hers as well. In the end, the only agreement
15:16
Speaker 1: the court made was that they must stay away from
15:18
Speaker 1: each other's homes unless they were exchanging the children. Even
15:24
Speaker 1: those boundaries in place, though well, Becky still she still
15:28
Speaker 1: had fear and it was still growing. Tim, you see,
15:31
Speaker 1: was in possession of a nine millimeter handgun, a gift
15:34
Speaker 1: she'd actually once given him when things were still good.
15:37
Speaker 1: The gun, though, was originally hers, and she'd actually asked
15:40
Speaker 1: for it back in the separation, and Tim refused to
15:43
Speaker 1: return it. The judge, even in the divorce filings, ordered
15:48
Speaker 1: him to return it, but he never did. Oh wow,
15:51
Speaker 1: the gun was still in her name that he was
15:55
Speaker 1: in possession of.
15:58
Speaker 2: Now.
15:58
Speaker 1: Regardless, Becky did her best pick things back up and
16:01
Speaker 1: keep it normal. She worked long shifts at the Blessing Hospital,
16:04
Speaker 1: picked up extra hours when she could, you know, trying
16:07
Speaker 1: to get that extra income and support her boys. She
16:10
Speaker 1: was even nominated for the Daisy Award, an international honor
16:13
Speaker 1: given to nurses for extraordinary care. And this was even
16:17
Speaker 1: in the chaos of all this divorce.
16:18
Speaker 2: Oh my, okay, because I have kind of thoughts. She
16:21
Speaker 2: seems like a saint of sorts.
16:23
Speaker 1: One hundred percent she does. Her coworkers adored her friend
16:27
Speaker 1: said she could turn a twelve hour er shift into
16:29
Speaker 1: a series of jokes and stories. She was the nurse
16:32
Speaker 1: who stayed late for patients who had no family, the
16:34
Speaker 1: woman who brought baked goods for her kid's school event.
16:37
Speaker 1: She was a mother who showed up no matter how
16:40
Speaker 1: exhausted she was. She was quite literally superwoman.
16:44
Speaker 2: Huh. Well, yeah, she sounds.
16:46
Speaker 1: Incredible, definitely, But beneath all that surface, she was scared.
16:51
Speaker 2: Well, I just have to say too, because being able
16:53
Speaker 2: to be that awesome when you have that much personal
16:56
Speaker 2: shit going on that, you know, it makes it seem
16:59
Speaker 2: even more like.
17:01
Speaker 1: It's it's incredible that she was able to help other
17:04
Speaker 1: people so much when she herself was suffering.
17:07
Speaker 2: When she herself couldn't need some help, you know.
17:10
Speaker 1: Yeah. By late twenty twenty two, her divorce was still
17:13
Speaker 1: dragging through the courts, and Tim was becoming a little
17:16
Speaker 1: more unpredictable. He seemed to know things he shouldn't, where
17:19
Speaker 1: she'd gone or who she'd seen. Sometimes there seemed to
17:23
Speaker 1: be evidence that someone had been near the house She
17:26
Speaker 1: told her sister about hearing noises outside late at night,
17:29
Speaker 1: her motion lights even flicking on outside without cause. And
17:32
Speaker 1: then Becky even confided in her sister something chilling, she
17:36
Speaker 1: thought someone was watching her. And now around this same time,
17:41
Speaker 1: she had actually started dating again. Friends described her new
17:44
Speaker 1: relationship as light and easy, the first bit of happiness
17:47
Speaker 1: that she'd really had in years for herself, but for
17:50
Speaker 1: Tim Well, it was confirmation that he had lost all
17:54
Speaker 1: control of that relationship. As the date of the divorce
17:58
Speaker 1: trial approached, tensions reached the breaking point. Becky was hopeful
18:02
Speaker 1: it would finally end, that she could close a chapter
18:04
Speaker 1: and move forward in her life. But by early February
18:07
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three, Quincy, Illinois, while it was still
18:11
Speaker 1: deep in the quiet of winter, snow crusted the edges
18:14
Speaker 1: of driveways, and nights dropped below freezing, with Becky just
18:18
Speaker 1: feeling uneasy. For weeks, she'd been hearing those things, faint
18:23
Speaker 1: noises outside her house, you know, maybe the soft crunches
18:26
Speaker 1: of footsteps that stopped when she listened too closely, And
18:29
Speaker 1: sometimes her dog would even bark at the window, but
18:31
Speaker 1: there'd be no one there. Becky told Sarah she was
18:35
Speaker 1: probably just on edge that the divorce said left her paranoid,
18:38
Speaker 1: but then came Valentine's Day. That evening on February fourteenth,
18:43
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, Becky's home on Kentucky Road appeared ordinary
18:47
Speaker 1: from the outside, but her neighbor, Taylor Heman, caught something
18:51
Speaker 1: strange on the security camera mounted alongside his house. At
18:55
Speaker 1: around one oh five am, a figure appeared in the frame,
18:58
Speaker 1: a lone person walking down the driveway towards the back
19:01
Speaker 1: of Becky's house. The cameras infra red light washed them
19:05
Speaker 1: in pale gray and their features were impossible to make out.
19:09
Speaker 1: Forty eight minutes later, the same figure returned, walking back
19:13
Speaker 1: in the opposite direction. When Taylor reviewed the footage, she
19:17
Speaker 1: immediately texted Becky. He told her what the camera had
19:19
Speaker 1: picked up and asked if she'd noticed anything strange. Becky, however,
19:23
Speaker 1: didn't respond until the next morning and text back, I
19:26
Speaker 1: didn't see anything, but I did hear voices in my backyard.
19:30
Speaker 1: My motion light came on. It scared me.
19:32
Speaker 2: Okay. I was worried that she wasn't gonna text back.
19:35
Speaker 1: No, he got a text back.
19:37
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, like I mean that she was, you know,
19:39
Speaker 2: not alive or something.
19:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, at the time, they brushed it off as
19:43
Speaker 1: just a prowler, maybe someone checking for unlocked cars looking
19:46
Speaker 1: to steal something. Right, that same camera had actually recorded
19:49
Speaker 1: what appeared to be the same figure a week earlier
19:52
Speaker 1: doing almost the exact same thing.
19:54
Speaker 2: Oh, that's that's too unsettling.
19:56
Speaker 1: It is. Now, video footage from an nearby home and
20:01
Speaker 1: from the Quincy bus depot just a few blocks away
20:03
Speaker 1: would later also show that a cyclist was heading towards
20:06
Speaker 1: Becky's neighborhood just minutes before that person appeared on that
20:10
Speaker 1: security footage in the driveway. Now that bike had no
20:14
Speaker 1: reflectors on it either. Forensic data would also later show,
20:18
Speaker 1: you know, after an investigation ensued, that on that same
20:22
Speaker 1: Valentine's night, Becky's neighbor, you know, the same time that
20:24
Speaker 1: the neighbor's camera picked up the site, Tim had made
20:27
Speaker 1: over two hundred online searches for a very specific license
20:31
Speaker 1: plate number and VIN number. Now that plate and VIN
20:35
Speaker 1: number belonged to a truck that was parked in Benky's
20:37
Speaker 1: driveway that night, which was her boyfriend's truck.
20:41
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, what a complete creeper. Yeah, that's the
20:44
Speaker 2: one that initially filed for divorce, So what the hell
20:47
Speaker 2: does he think was going to happen that she wouldn't
20:49
Speaker 2: move on?
20:50
Speaker 1: No kidding, right, So it seems as though Tim had
20:53
Speaker 1: biked to Becky's house that night, seen the vehicle, written
20:57
Speaker 1: down the details, gone back home and looked them up.
21:00
Speaker 1: Now Becky, of course, never knew about those searches. All
21:03
Speaker 1: she knew was that she couldn't shake the feeling that
21:05
Speaker 1: she was being watched. The nights that followed were quiet,
21:09
Speaker 1: no more movement on the camera, no strange noises outside,
21:12
Speaker 1: and no reason to believe the tension would escalate. From there.
21:15
Speaker 1: She focused on work, herself, the kids, probably assuming that
21:19
Speaker 1: whatever or whoever had been creeping around had finally stopped.
21:23
Speaker 1: Then it was February twenty third, twenty twenty three. Becky's
21:27
Speaker 1: day was just like any other. Her three boys, aged twelve, ten,
21:31
Speaker 1: and five, were staying with their father. Parts of the
21:34
Speaker 1: shared custody agreement that forced her and Tim to remain
21:37
Speaker 1: still entangled, dropping him off, taking him up back and forth.
21:42
Speaker 1: So tonight Becky was alone in her two story home
21:44
Speaker 1: on Kentucky Road outside the town of Quincy, slept beneath
21:48
Speaker 1: the heavy February chill and sometime after midnight, a dark
21:52
Speaker 1: figure appeared near the side of Becky's home. A lawn
21:56
Speaker 1: chair had been drugged to her patio and placed beneath
21:58
Speaker 1: a second floor window one of the boy's bedrooms. In fact,
22:02
Speaker 1: the window screen was pried loose and the latch inside
22:05
Speaker 1: snapped cleanly off, as if almost by practice force. Investigators
22:10
Speaker 1: later reconstructed what happened next from evidence left through the house.
22:14
Speaker 1: The intruder climbed onto the chair, forced open the window
22:17
Speaker 1: of the crowbar, and slipped inside. No lights were turned on.
22:22
Speaker 1: The intruder moved through the hallway towards Becky's bedroom with
22:25
Speaker 1: a nine millimeters pistol in hand. At one eleven am,
22:31
Speaker 1: Becky managed to dial nine to one one. Dispatch logs
22:35
Speaker 1: showed the call connected, then the line stayed open for
22:37
Speaker 1: a few seconds before it cut off. Police would later
22:41
Speaker 1: trace it, but it was too late. What happened inside
22:46
Speaker 1: that house was brutal. Becky was startled awake just after
22:50
Speaker 1: one am by this intruder holding the gun. Now she
22:54
Speaker 1: ran from her bedroom towards the bathroom at the end
22:56
Speaker 1: of the hall, but she was followed and bullets tore
23:01
Speaker 1: through the air of that home as she ran for
23:03
Speaker 1: cover in her tiled bathroom. Some of the bullets struck
23:06
Speaker 1: the walls in the cabinets, but fourteen bullets in total
23:10
Speaker 1: hit Becky that night. Holy shit, none of them were
23:14
Speaker 1: instantly fatal. Forensic pathologist later said that she was conscious
23:19
Speaker 1: for every agonizing moment, bleeding out on the cold tile floor.
23:24
Speaker 1: Her last minutes alive were spent laying there in extreme pain.
23:29
Speaker 1: Blood pooled beneath her body, splattered up the shower curtain,
23:32
Speaker 1: and streaked along the baseboards as the gunmen stood over
23:35
Speaker 1: her and fired the final shots while she was already down.
23:40
Speaker 1: When it was over, he left the bathroom, stepping carefully
23:44
Speaker 1: to avoid tracking any blood across the floor. The intruder
23:48
Speaker 1: exited the same way they came through, through the upstairs window,
23:51
Speaker 1: lowering themselves back onto the lawn chair, and left no
23:54
Speaker 1: fingerprints on the windowsill, only a faint shoe impression in
23:58
Speaker 1: the dirt below.
23:59
Speaker 2: That is really fucked up.
24:01
Speaker 1: Then they disappeared in the night.
24:04
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, Well, I mean, we all know who it is,
24:08
Speaker 2: so it just makes it like even more messed up.
24:11
Speaker 1: Do we know who it is?
24:13
Speaker 2: I do?
24:14
Speaker 1: Okay, just making sure. Well, I think I'm just just
24:17
Speaker 1: asking questions, that's all.
24:19
Speaker 2: I mean. Gosh, oh, it just makes it so much
24:23
Speaker 2: worse that someone can do this too, to someone who,
24:26
Speaker 2: like you know, is a mom and has these boys
24:29
Speaker 2: that you know need her.
24:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well and this is someone who well we know
24:35
Speaker 1: who it is. It's obvious I was just throwing questions. Yeah,
24:37
Speaker 1: I was just throwing shade, just confusing you, just trying
24:40
Speaker 1: to keep you off theos.
24:42
Speaker 2: Shares these boys with her. He's taking away their mind.
24:46
Speaker 1: He built a family with her. They built this family together,
24:49
Speaker 1: they said, I do they live together. This is someone
24:52
Speaker 1: you're supposed to trust, trust the most, and father children with. Yeah,
24:58
Speaker 1: and they're capable of this.
25:00
Speaker 2: Honestly makes you never really want to get married in
25:02
Speaker 2: a way because it's so terrifying.
25:04
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad we're already married then, because you wouldn't
25:07
Speaker 1: be saying I do anymore. Apparently you regret that.
25:09
Speaker 2: No, I don't regret it at all. It's just so
25:12
Speaker 2: it's so odd to think that I don't know, getting
25:15
Speaker 2: married because you we hear so many cases like this
25:18
Speaker 2: is honestly slightly putting you at risk in a way.
25:22
Speaker 1: Well, it's it's well, it's not funny, it's ironic because
25:27
Speaker 1: you're kind of going in the direction that a lot
25:29
Speaker 1: of people are suspicious of Tim being by saying he
25:31
Speaker 1: regrets I do on the Family Feud show. How involved
25:36
Speaker 1: was he in the marriage, because clearly he wasn't. Maybe
25:40
Speaker 1: he didn't actually want to get married. So you're going
25:43
Speaker 1: down that same psychological rabbit hole that people are suspecting
25:46
Speaker 1: he could have been in when he was on the
25:48
Speaker 1: game show.
25:50
Speaker 2: No, I'm just saying it's scary because because you're supposed
25:54
Speaker 2: can kill you, which is so messed up.
25:56
Speaker 1: Yes, you're on the other side of the reason, but
25:59
Speaker 1: it's the same psycho logical rabbit hole of that regret,
26:03
Speaker 1: of that you know, resistance to take the plunge to say,
26:07
Speaker 1: there's many reasons yours would be. What you're saying is
26:10
Speaker 1: more defensive and protective. His are a little bit different,
26:13
Speaker 1: but it's the same same sort of path psychologically of
26:17
Speaker 1: regret thinking that you know what I wish I didn't
26:20
Speaker 1: say I do.
26:21
Speaker 2: I guess. I mean, I just have to for the record,
26:23
Speaker 2: just in case anything ever to happen. I don't regret
26:26
Speaker 2: marrying Ben.
26:28
Speaker 1: You sure about that.
26:29
Speaker 2: I'm sure.
26:30
Speaker 1: I'm going to send a couple of texts tonight to
26:31
Speaker 1: some people just to make sure I have some traces.
26:35
Speaker 2: Honestly, though, like just being Devil's advocate is people, could,
26:40
Speaker 2: you know, set other people up kind of like she could,
26:43
Speaker 2: you know, in the heat of the moment, send those
26:45
Speaker 2: and them not really be true because people do send
26:49
Speaker 2: things right when they don't necessarily mean and they're just
26:52
Speaker 2: angry or whatever.
26:53
Speaker 1: Could be manipulation, false evidence.
26:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, now we very much so know, but I don't
26:59
Speaker 2: know or like, I'm just saying she could have set
27:01
Speaker 2: him up in a way, but I don't think she
27:03
Speaker 2: did it all, but someone could.
27:05
Speaker 1: It's in a situation it's possible for someone to do
27:08
Speaker 1: that in a manipulative manner, is what you're saying. Yes,
27:11
Speaker 1: definitely Becky didn't do it in the manipulated matter. No,
27:15
Speaker 1: And when Dawn broke, Becky's house was still in silent,
27:19
Speaker 1: her phone lay in the bathroom floor, half hidden by
27:21
Speaker 1: the door, and her boys were well, they were across
27:23
Speaker 1: town sleeping at their father's.
27:24
Speaker 2: Oh okay, I'm like her boys were not in that house.
27:27
Speaker 1: Okay, No, Tim had the boys. They were unaware that
27:30
Speaker 1: their mother was already dead. At three point thirty pm
27:34
Speaker 1: that day, Becky's father arrived at her home after she
27:37
Speaker 1: failed to pick the kids up from school. The front
27:40
Speaker 1: door was locked, but he had a spare key, so
27:41
Speaker 1: he let himself in and upstairs he found the horrific
27:45
Speaker 1: scene of his daughter laying dead on the bathroom floor,
27:50
Speaker 1: something no father should ever have to see, and he
27:52
Speaker 1: immediately dialed nine one one.
27:55
Speaker 2: That would break him. That is horrible.
27:58
Speaker 1: When the first officer arrived at one seven three to
28:01
Speaker 1: one Kentucky Road, they were met with Becky's father, pale, shaking,
28:05
Speaker 1: and still in shock. He assumed he'd find his daughter
28:08
Speaker 1: had simply fallen ill or gotten called into work or something,
28:13
Speaker 1: but that wasn't the case. Detective stepped into a scene
28:16
Speaker 1: that felt both chaotic and eerily still. Upstairs, the narrow
28:20
Speaker 1: hallway was littered with spent nine millimeter shell casings, their
28:24
Speaker 1: brass surface gleaming under the camera flashes. Becky's body lay
28:28
Speaker 1: inside the bathroom door, just slumped up against the tub.
28:32
Speaker 1: Blood had sprayed across the wall and pooled alongside the tiles.
28:36
Speaker 1: Her phone was found nearby. Its screen was cracked, and
28:39
Speaker 1: the nine one one call that had connected briefly at
28:42
Speaker 1: one eleven Am. Now made sense as she tried to
28:46
Speaker 1: reach out for help in her final moments, but was
28:49
Speaker 1: unable to speak. Crime scene technicians documented every inch of
28:54
Speaker 1: that house. A broken window latch on the second floor
28:57
Speaker 1: immediately stood out, as did the patio chin beneath it,
29:01
Speaker 1: dragged from the yard to create a makeshift ladder. On
29:03
Speaker 1: the ground below, they found a partial shoe imprint in
29:06
Speaker 1: the soil, faint but distinct enough to suggest an athletic tread. Downstairs,
29:11
Speaker 1: nothing was disturbed. There was no sign of a robbery,
29:13
Speaker 1: no missing valuables, no forced entry other than the window.
29:17
Speaker 1: It was that whoever had done this knew how to
29:20
Speaker 1: get in, it seemed, and knew how to find Becky inside.
29:23
Speaker 1: The police department, detectives from Adams County Major K Squad
29:27
Speaker 1: were already comparing notes. The intruder had entered through an
29:31
Speaker 1: upstairs windows in the child's bedroom. It was odd unless
29:35
Speaker 1: he knew exactly which window would lead to an empty
29:38
Speaker 1: room that night. Becky's three sons were at their fathers
29:42
Speaker 1: that night. She was alone, so whoever broke in seemed
29:44
Speaker 1: to know that. Neighbors began recalling details too. One mentioned
29:48
Speaker 1: the motion light flicking on in the early hour mornings,
29:52
Speaker 1: and another so they'd heard what sounded like faint pomps
29:55
Speaker 1: but thought it was a car backfiring in the cold.
29:58
Speaker 1: Then came a very crucial detail. The already mentioned security
30:02
Speaker 1: camera footag from Becky's neighbor, just from a week before
30:06
Speaker 1: the same figure was now seen on camera again. That
30:10
Speaker 1: combined with the timeline from Becky's missing nine one one call,
30:13
Speaker 1: it gave investigators a good time frame and an unidentified suspect.
30:18
Speaker 1: Reporters descended on the town of Quincy. The murder of
30:21
Speaker 1: a well beloved e R nurse and mother of three
30:24
Speaker 1: in a quiet Midwestern town, and her connection to a
30:27
Speaker 1: former family feud contestant too quickly drew national headlines. News
30:32
Speaker 1: outlets replayed the clip of Tim's now infamous answer, what's
30:36
Speaker 1: the biggest mistake you made at your wedding? Honey? I
30:39
Speaker 1: love you, but said I do were played over and
30:42
Speaker 1: over on news outlets. It had been a throwaway joke
30:46
Speaker 1: in nineteen but now in the shadow of his wife's murder,
30:49
Speaker 1: it felt more sinister. As detectives processed evidence from the scene,
30:54
Speaker 1: they also found something else, something strange. It was small
30:58
Speaker 1: fragments of an all de grocery bag near the top
31:01
Speaker 1: of the stairs, and throughout it looked torn, you know,
31:04
Speaker 1: with small traces of a residue even on them. Meanwhile,
31:10
Speaker 1: Becky's friends and colleagues gathered at Blessing Hospital to grieve.
31:15
Speaker 1: Coworkers described her as the light of the er, and
31:18
Speaker 1: her sister Sarah posted a message online saying Becky was
31:22
Speaker 1: the kindest, most selfless person I've ever known. She loved
31:26
Speaker 1: her boys more than anything. She should still be here.
31:31
Speaker 1: Within hours, a GoFundMe went live to support her children
31:34
Speaker 1: in the aftermath, and it quickly surpassed one hundred thousand dollars.
31:38
Speaker 1: But while the public mourned, investigators were still zeroing in
31:41
Speaker 1: on the person who seemed to fit every piece of
31:44
Speaker 1: the puzzle at hand. Within twenty four hours of the murder,
31:48
Speaker 1: detectives with the Adams County Major k Squad began piecing
31:52
Speaker 1: together what had happened inside Becky's house. The entry point,
31:55
Speaker 1: the window, the children being away, the precise knowledge of
31:58
Speaker 1: when Becky would be alone at all. It all suggested familiarity,
32:01
Speaker 1: and investigators started with the people closest to her friends, family,
32:06
Speaker 1: and coworkers. Then they circled back to the one person
32:09
Speaker 1: whose name was under the microscope since day one, Tim Bleefnik.
32:15
Speaker 1: It wasn't just the divorce or the restraining order, or
32:18
Speaker 1: the fact that Becky had once told her sister, you know,
32:21
Speaker 1: if something happens to me, make sure he's interests person
32:23
Speaker 1: number one. It was the timing too. Their custody hearing
32:27
Speaker 1: was scheduled for the week following her death, and on paper,
32:31
Speaker 1: Tim had everything to lose in that legal battle.
32:34
Speaker 2: Oh seriously, yes.
32:37
Speaker 1: So detectives began quietly monitoring his movements as hours passed,
32:41
Speaker 1: trying to get you know, not give away their suspicions
32:44
Speaker 1: before they found anything. They pulled the footage from neighborhood cameras, doorbells,
32:48
Speaker 1: you know, business fronts and parking lots, and in one
32:51
Speaker 1: clip captured at around twelve forty five am on the
32:54
Speaker 1: night of the murder, they spotted something A cyclist riding
32:58
Speaker 1: down the dark, empty streets near Kentucky Road, no reflectors,
33:02
Speaker 1: no visible lights, just a shadow on two wheels cutting
33:05
Speaker 1: through the cold, Quincy night. Another camera, just blocks from
33:08
Speaker 1: Tim's rental home on Hampshire Street caught what appeared to
33:11
Speaker 1: be the same bike, returning roughly forty eight minutes later
33:15
Speaker 1: at around one thirty am, minutes after Becky failed her
33:20
Speaker 1: nine on one call on March first, twenty twenty three,
33:24
Speaker 1: police then executed a search warrant at Timbleefnick's home. Officers
33:29
Speaker 1: in tactical vests swarmed the property, combing through garages and
33:32
Speaker 1: the carrying boxes out with potential evidence. In unmarked vehicles
33:36
Speaker 1: and inside the house, investigators found more than they expected.
33:40
Speaker 1: Among the item sees were a crowbar showing small chips
33:44
Speaker 1: of paint and wood consistent with the broken window frame
33:46
Speaker 1: at Becky's home, all de grocery bags matching the torn
33:50
Speaker 1: fragments recovered from her staircase, and nine millimeter shell casings
33:54
Speaker 1: from Tim's basement that forensic experts later confirmed were fired
33:58
Speaker 1: from the same weapon used in Becky's murder. Now, for clarification,
34:04
Speaker 1: Tim was he was avid with firearms, let's put it
34:08
Speaker 1: that way. So the shell casings they found in his
34:11
Speaker 1: home were not from the murder scene. They were collected
34:14
Speaker 1: shells from, you know, going out to a firing range
34:16
Speaker 1: or something like that. But they were fired from that gun, okay,
34:20
Speaker 1: And they can compare those with the ones found at
34:24
Speaker 1: the scene, and it was confirmed they're from the same weapon.
34:29
Speaker 1: They also confiscated Tim's phone, laptop, and external hard drives,
34:32
Speaker 1: and when digital forensic experts came through the data, the
34:35
Speaker 1: picture grew darker. In the weeks leading to Becky's death,
34:38
Speaker 1: Tim had made a series of online searches that read
34:41
Speaker 1: like a blueprint for what was to come, things like
34:44
Speaker 1: how to open my door with a crowbar, how to
34:46
Speaker 1: make a homemade pistol silencer, how to clean gunpowder off
34:50
Speaker 1: your hands.
34:52
Speaker 2: So he was okay, he was probably using that bag
34:55
Speaker 2: as some sort of a silencer.
34:56
Speaker 1: Then I'm I assuming we get into it, but yes,
35:00
Speaker 1: because I.
35:00
Speaker 2: Was like so confused of these fragments all over the place.
35:03
Speaker 1: But that is the leading theory. Yes. There were also
35:06
Speaker 1: the searches that were related to Becky's boyfriend the license
35:09
Speaker 1: plate in the fin number searches, and investigators later determined
35:12
Speaker 1: that he had ran those on February fourteenth, the same
35:14
Speaker 1: night the Prowler was caught outside Becky's home on camera.
35:18
Speaker 1: Now more evidence came from Tim's fitness tracker. Data from
35:21
Speaker 1: his whoop device, which is like a wear role tracker,
35:25
Speaker 1: came to kind of like a smartphone sort of or
35:27
Speaker 1: smart watch sort of thing. Yep, it showed a sudden
35:29
Speaker 1: and unexplained gap in activity the night of February twenty
35:32
Speaker 1: second to twenty third, no recorded heart rate, no sleeplog,
35:36
Speaker 1: no movement data, when all other days it was all present.
35:41
Speaker 1: So it seems like he'd taken it off for going there.
35:44
Speaker 2: This guy is just a complete idiot that he thought
35:47
Speaker 2: he could get away with this, No kidding, Just sitting
35:50
Speaker 2: here listening to this all he like, are you fricking
35:52
Speaker 2: kidding me?
35:53
Speaker 1: Yeah? Now. Forensics also revealed the residue found on the
35:56
Speaker 1: Aldie bag was sweat and they had recovered a faint
36:00
Speaker 1: trace of DNA from it. Now, it was not a
36:04
Speaker 1: full match, but statistically it was consistent with Tim's profile.
36:09
Speaker 1: Prosecutors believe that Tim had fired the gun through the
36:11
Speaker 1: bag that night, either to muffle the sound like a
36:14
Speaker 1: makeshift silencer, as his search suggested, or to try and
36:18
Speaker 1: catch shell casings before they hit the floor.
36:21
Speaker 2: Okay, I see.
36:22
Speaker 1: One reason or another. They believe it was used with
36:25
Speaker 1: the weapon. Though they also examined sample evidence from Becky's
36:29
Speaker 1: fingernails and they discovered another partial DNA sample under those fingernails.
36:34
Speaker 1: It was degraded mixed with her own blood. But experts
36:37
Speaker 1: said that Tim or a male relative on his father's
36:39
Speaker 1: side could not be excluded from the sample. So neither
36:44
Speaker 1: DNA sample that they had taken was conclusive. But it
36:48
Speaker 1: was not. It wasn't able to.
36:50
Speaker 2: Rule him out right, which right there, Yes, all this
36:54
Speaker 2: other stuff is very leading.
36:56
Speaker 1: It was enough to say it's possibly him. Yeah, it
37:00
Speaker 1: seems that there may have been a desperate attempt with
37:02
Speaker 1: that DNA sample found on her fingernails to show that
37:04
Speaker 1: Becky had fought back in the seconds after she died,
37:07
Speaker 1: one way or another. Now, eight nine millimeter casing shells
37:12
Speaker 1: were found near Becky's body. Investigators compared those casings recovered
37:15
Speaker 1: from Tim's basement, which were you know, as he's a
37:19
Speaker 1: recreational shooter, and they were compared those ones to the
37:21
Speaker 1: ones found the crime scene under a microscope, and the
37:24
Speaker 1: markings on them from the firearm were identical, which means
37:28
Speaker 1: the same gun had fired both sets of rounds, the
37:32
Speaker 1: same gun Becky had once gifted Tim during their marriage, which.
37:35
Speaker 2: Was actually her gun.
37:36
Speaker 1: It was actually her own gun, a gun she tried
37:39
Speaker 1: to reclaim through the divorce. Filings, but he refused to return. Now,
37:43
Speaker 1: that gun, that firearm, that nine millimeter handgun, the murder
37:47
Speaker 1: weapon was never.
37:49
Speaker 2: Found, Okay, of course not.
37:52
Speaker 1: And when detectives questioned Tim, he denied seeing the handgun
37:55
Speaker 1: in years. But he couldn't explain why the casing that weapon.
37:59
Speaker 2: Were in his Yeah, that makes no sense.
38:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, individually, each piece of evidence might have been circumstantial.
38:06
Speaker 1: You know, DNA evidence, that doesn't rule him out. Shellcasings
38:10
Speaker 1: that sure were fired from the same weapon, but who
38:12
Speaker 1: knows the time gap in between. Sure, a guy on
38:15
Speaker 1: security camera. All this it was circumstantial evidence at best,
38:18
Speaker 1: But together they formed a pattern that prosecutors described as inescapable.
38:24
Speaker 1: By the time officers moved in to arrest him on
38:27
Speaker 1: March thirteenth, twenty twenty three, the entire town of Quincy, Illinois,
38:30
Speaker 1: was holding its breath. The sun had barely risen when
38:33
Speaker 1: unmarked cars rolled up outside Timbleefnek's rental brick apartment. Detectives
38:38
Speaker 1: surrounded the property in silence, their radios crackling softly as
38:41
Speaker 1: they took position, and when the door finally opened to
38:44
Speaker 1: his home, Tim appeared in a sweatshirt and pajama pants,
38:48
Speaker 1: disoriented but compliant, There was no struggle. He was cuffed
38:52
Speaker 1: on the porch, his head lowered, and escorted to an
38:55
Speaker 1: unmarked cruiser while neighbors watched from behind their curtains in
38:59
Speaker 1: their homes. Moments later, the Quincy Police Department released a
39:03
Speaker 1: brief statement confirming the arrest of forty one year old
39:06
Speaker 1: Tim Bleefnick on charges of first degree murder and home
39:10
Speaker 1: invasion in the death of his estranged wife, Rebecca aka
39:14
Speaker 1: Becky Bleefnick, and the news spread like wildfire. Local headlines
39:21
Speaker 1: were immediately followed by national coverage. Family feued contestant charged
39:26
Speaker 1: with wife's murder, they would say. Clips from his appearance
39:28
Speaker 1: in the game show also resurfaced once again within hours,
39:32
Speaker 1: and Tim was soon booked in the Adams County Jail
39:34
Speaker 1: and held without bond. His mugshot with his tired eyes
39:37
Speaker 1: and unshaven face with his overgrown hair, became the image
39:41
Speaker 1: plastered on every single outlet alongside that headline. His attorney,
39:47
Speaker 1: Casey Schnack, stepped into the spotlight that same afternoon. She
39:50
Speaker 1: described the case as entirely circumstantial and accused investigators of
39:55
Speaker 1: tunnel vision, saying that Tim was devastated by Becky's death
40:00
Speaker 1: and that he's cooperating fully maintaining his complete innocence. But prosecutors,
40:05
Speaker 1: on the other hand, well, they were fully confident. Investigators
40:09
Speaker 1: continued to shore up their case. Forensic analysis, double check
40:12
Speaker 1: DNA results, ballistic reports, cell phone data, all of it,
40:16
Speaker 1: and now even a blue shwing bicycle without reflectors identical
40:21
Speaker 1: to the one seen on surveillance footage the night of
40:23
Speaker 1: the murder had been found less than half a block
40:26
Speaker 1: from Tim's home, abandoned. No DNA conclusively tied him to it,
40:32
Speaker 1: but there was a fake Facebook account under the name
40:36
Speaker 1: John Smith that he had on his laptop, and it
40:40
Speaker 1: showed that he had recently viewed a post to purchase
40:43
Speaker 1: that exact same bike for sale, or at least one
40:47
Speaker 1: that looked exactly the same make and model.
40:50
Speaker 2: My gosh, not surprising at all.
40:52
Speaker 1: For Tim, the reality was sinking in fast. He was
40:55
Speaker 1: facing life in prison without parole. In his first phone call,
40:59
Speaker 1: even from jail, recorded by authorities, he told a family
41:02
Speaker 1: member quote, they're making a monster out of me, but
41:06
Speaker 1: I didn't do this. He's really really saying he's innocent. Still,
41:12
Speaker 1: investigators felt they built a case that spoke for itself.
41:16
Speaker 1: The trial of Timothy Bleefnik began on May twenty third,
41:19
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, and the Adam County Courthouse. The courtroom
41:23
Speaker 1: was packed with friends, reporters, and family members on both
41:26
Speaker 1: sides that sat shoulder to shoulder. A portrait of Becky
41:30
Speaker 1: was placed quietly near the prosecution table, her smile frozen
41:35
Speaker 1: in the soft light of the family picture. From the start,
41:39
Speaker 1: tension was palpable in the room. The prosecution, led by
41:42
Speaker 1: Josh Jones and Laura Keck, painted the picture of a
41:45
Speaker 1: man consumed by control. In their opening statement, Jones told jurors, quote,
41:50
Speaker 1: he looked down at Becky, pointed the gun and pulled
41:53
Speaker 1: the trigger. It was blunt and deliberate and set the
41:57
Speaker 1: tone for what was to come. The defense took different approach.
42:01
Speaker 1: Casey Snack, the same attorney who had represented tim during
42:04
Speaker 1: his divorce, stood at the podium and told jurors that
42:07
Speaker 1: there was no proof, no gun, no fingerprints, no clear
42:10
Speaker 1: DNA quote. This case, she said, is dripping with sympathy
42:16
Speaker 1: and entirely lacking in hard evidence. The prosecution began by
42:22
Speaker 1: walking jurors through the timeline of the crime, photos of
42:26
Speaker 1: Becky's home were displayed on monitors. The pride open window,
42:29
Speaker 1: the narrow child bedroom where the intruder entered, the blood,
42:32
Speaker 1: the shell casings on the floor, all of it. Then
42:35
Speaker 1: came the evidence that had become the backbone of their case,
42:38
Speaker 1: the all d bag fragments. A forensic analysis testified the
42:43
Speaker 1: small bits of plastic found were consistent with the kind
42:45
Speaker 1: of thin grocery bags found in Tim's home, and when magnified,
42:49
Speaker 1: burn patterns on the plastic suggested a firearm had been
42:52
Speaker 1: discharged through it. When the bag fragments were tested, the
42:55
Speaker 1: DNA came back quote more likely than not end quote
43:00
Speaker 1: to belong to Tim. His attorney countered immediately, saying everyone
43:06
Speaker 1: in Quincy has Aldie bags. She reminded the jury that
43:09
Speaker 1: Tim and Becky had even swamped grocery bags, supplies and
43:12
Speaker 1: stuff like that, you know for kids, whether it's launch
43:14
Speaker 1: or who, who knows, and DNA transfer was not unusual.
43:20
Speaker 1: But next came to ballistic experts. She testified that the
43:23
Speaker 1: shellcasings found in Tim's basement matched those found at the
43:26
Speaker 1: crime scene. Twenty seven casings from his home showed identical
43:30
Speaker 1: microscopic markings. Scrapes patterns, all of it identical to the
43:35
Speaker 1: eight that were recovered from the scene. Quote each gun
43:39
Speaker 1: leaves a fingerprint. These were fired from the same weapon.
43:45
Speaker 1: But the defense argued its own opinion subject to human error.
43:49
Speaker 1: She said, shaking her head. It's not science, it's speculation.
43:54
Speaker 1: When the prosecution turned to digital evidence, the courtroom grew still.
43:57
Speaker 1: On a projector screen, juror saw the list of search
44:00
Speaker 1: terms recovered from Tim's phone. How to make a homemade
44:03
Speaker 1: pistol silencer, how to clean gunpowder off your hands, how
44:06
Speaker 1: to open my door with a crowbar. Each phrase appeared
44:09
Speaker 1: in bold texts on the screen. Jones paused after reading
44:13
Speaker 1: the last one out loud. This, he said, is not curiosity,
44:16
Speaker 1: This is preparation. The jury also heard about the license
44:20
Speaker 1: plate searches, hundreds of them, and all linked to Becky's
44:23
Speaker 1: new boyfriend. The prosecutor suggested it wasn't jealousy but tracking instead.
44:29
Speaker 1: Friends and coworkers of Becky took the stand next, and
44:32
Speaker 1: they described her as loving, generous, and quietly terrified of
44:35
Speaker 1: her estranged husband. One friend said Becky had confided that
44:39
Speaker 1: Tim's behavior was becoming unpredictable, and Becky's sister Sarah. She
44:44
Speaker 1: was the most emotional witness there was. Her voice trembled
44:47
Speaker 1: as she read from the text messages Becky had sent
44:50
Speaker 1: her over a year earlier. Quote if something ever happens
44:54
Speaker 1: to me, please make sure the number one person of
44:56
Speaker 1: interest is Tim end quote And the jury heard that,
45:00
Speaker 1: sitting in silence shocked. The defense subjected calling that text
45:05
Speaker 1: girl talk and claimed it was an evidence of abuse
45:07
Speaker 1: or even danger. They claimed there was no photos of bruises,
45:11
Speaker 1: no police report, or documented violence, and that words don't
45:14
Speaker 1: make a man a murderer. But the prosecution wasn't relying
45:18
Speaker 1: on words alone. They had more to share, and they
45:22
Speaker 1: revealed that on the morning Becky was killed, just hours
45:26
Speaker 1: before anyone else knew she was dead, Tim had stopped
45:29
Speaker 1: by his father's home to drop off eight children's basketball hoop. Now,
45:32
Speaker 1: the prosecutors, they showed that this claimed his demeanor, his
45:37
Speaker 1: calm demeanor, his belief that the problem Becky was now
45:41
Speaker 1: taken care of. Now this is circumstantial at best. Sure
45:45
Speaker 1: he could have just bought in his kids a basketball hoop.
45:48
Speaker 1: But the most dramatic moment came when the jury learned
45:51
Speaker 1: that Becky had planned to reveal something in court. So
45:55
Speaker 1: you remember the upcoming custody hearing, the divorce hearing, and
46:00
Speaker 1: during that she intended to present witnesses alleging that Tim's father,
46:05
Speaker 1: Ray Beliefnik, had a history of perversion and abusing minor children.
46:10
Speaker 2: Oh man, now, okay.
46:13
Speaker 1: This is important. Ray denied the accusations, and he was
46:16
Speaker 1: never charged with a crime, so we don't know if
46:20
Speaker 1: that is true or false. However, prosecutors argued that the
46:23
Speaker 1: possibility of such a testimony even taking place, regardless of
46:28
Speaker 1: truth or not, pushed him over the edge. He couldn't
46:31
Speaker 1: risk the idea of potentially losing his kids and losing
46:35
Speaker 1: his children over this. Whether it was real or not,
46:38
Speaker 1: it presented a risk just the same, and that was
46:42
Speaker 1: the pushing point.
46:43
Speaker 2: I wonder how she had that information or felt like.
46:47
Speaker 1: That, you know, Yeah, I'm not sure. As I mentioned,
46:51
Speaker 1: there was no crime officially filed or charged, so I
46:56
Speaker 1: don't know what the evidence was and it never came
46:59
Speaker 1: to court either. Yeah, so I don't know what evidence,
47:02
Speaker 1: what facts anything. Allegedly that's what she was going to
47:06
Speaker 1: talk about in court, Whether true or false, we do
47:08
Speaker 1: not know.
47:09
Speaker 2: I get that a lot of this is like circumstantial
47:13
Speaker 2: and stuff, and kind of seems, you know, if they
47:17
Speaker 2: just had one piece of this, it wouldn't really be much.
47:20
Speaker 2: But the fact that they have so many, so much
47:22
Speaker 2: of it, it just really does paint like a full picture.
47:26
Speaker 1: It really does.
47:27
Speaker 2: Yeah.
47:29
Speaker 1: When it was the defense's turn, many expected a dramatic
47:32
Speaker 1: rebuttal to the situation, but Attorney Stack made a surprising decision.
47:37
Speaker 1: She called no witnesses, no experts, not even tim himself
47:40
Speaker 1: to the stand. In closing, she told the jury, quote,
47:45
Speaker 1: this is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It's a
47:48
Speaker 1: story told with emotion but missing the one thing that
47:51
Speaker 1: matters evidence end quote. The prosecution's closing statement was short
47:58
Speaker 1: and devastating. Quote. He planned this murder, Jones said this
48:03
Speaker 1: by pacing in front of the jury box. He researched it,
48:06
Speaker 1: he practiced it. He climbed through the child's window and
48:08
Speaker 1: shot Becky fourteen times while she begged for her life,
48:12
Speaker 1: and then he went home and tucked his children into
48:14
Speaker 1: bed end quote. After six days of testimony, the jury
48:19
Speaker 1: retired to deliberate. Then just four hours after the deliberations began,
48:25
Speaker 1: they reached their verdict. The jury found Timothy W. Bleefnik
48:33
Speaker 1: guilty on all counts.
48:35
Speaker 2: Okay, I was like, there's no other They're not going
48:38
Speaker 2: to find him not guilty. There's no way.
48:41
Speaker 1: When the word guilty echoed through the courtroom, the air
48:43
Speaker 1: seemed to collapse in on itself. Becky's family clung to
48:46
Speaker 1: one another in tears, and across the aisle, Tim stared forward, unmoving.
48:50
Speaker 1: There was no outburst or visible shock, just a slow,
48:53
Speaker 1: resigned exhale. The judge thanked the jury for their service
48:58
Speaker 1: and dismissed them for Becky's ones. It was a bittersweet victory, justice,
49:02
Speaker 1: but not peace. The man who had once shared her home,
49:05
Speaker 1: her children, her laughter had now been found responsible for
49:08
Speaker 1: ending her life and taking her away from them.
49:12
Speaker 2: Well, and also leaving the children with no parents exactly.
49:16
Speaker 1: The case entered its final chapter with the sentence hearing
49:20
Speaker 1: on August eleventh, twenty twenty three. The Adams County courtroom
49:24
Speaker 1: filled once again. Tim was brought in in an orange
49:27
Speaker 1: and white prison uniform with his wrists shackled. He didn't
49:31
Speaker 1: speak to anyone, his eyes fixed downward as he was
49:33
Speaker 1: seated at the defense table. His attorney, Casey Snack, leaned
49:37
Speaker 1: close whispered something to him, but gave no response. Before
49:41
Speaker 1: the sentencing was handed down, Judge Robert Adrian allowed Becky's
49:45
Speaker 1: family to speak. It was the first time since the
49:48
Speaker 1: verdict that they would actually address the man responsible for
49:51
Speaker 1: Becky's death face to face. Becky's mother, Bernadette, was the
49:55
Speaker 1: first to stand. Her voice it trembled, but her words
49:59
Speaker 1: were clear. Quote when you murdered Becky, you took from
50:04
Speaker 1: your boys the person who loved them most in this world.
50:07
Speaker 1: You took their mother, the one who held them, comforted them,
50:11
Speaker 1: and fought for them. You left them with an emptiness
50:14
Speaker 1: that can never be filled. Your soul is black with hate,
50:18
Speaker 1: and your heart has love only for itself. You should
50:22
Speaker 1: never be allowed to be free again. There was a
50:27
Speaker 1: long silence after she sat down. Even the judge was shaken,
50:30
Speaker 1: and next Becky's sister Sarah stood up for her statement.
50:35
Speaker 1: She walked slowly to the podium, clutching a paper in
50:38
Speaker 1: her hand, and she took a deep breath before looking
50:40
Speaker 1: directly at Tim and saying, quote, your children's future will
50:45
Speaker 1: be forever impacted by your crime. They're already suffering. You've
50:49
Speaker 1: condemned them to a life of confusion and grief. Maybe
50:53
Speaker 1: you should have googled childhood PTSD in between your searches
50:57
Speaker 1: for homemade silencers and V I N numbers. Finally, it
51:02
Speaker 1: was the judge's turn. Judge Adrian spoke softly at first,
51:05
Speaker 1: but his words carried an unmistakable gravity. Now this quote
51:10
Speaker 1: is very interesting, and I'm gonna read it in a
51:13
Speaker 1: very specific way because it's very important to really really
51:17
Speaker 1: get across the gravity of what he says. Mister Bliefnik,
51:23
Speaker 1: you research this murder, you planned this murder, you practiced
51:27
Speaker 1: this murder. You broke into her house and you shot
51:30
Speaker 1: her one two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
51:44
Speaker 1: fourteen times. He counted it out, his voice raising with
51:51
Speaker 1: each number, and he paused before continuing. Some of those
51:57
Speaker 1: shots were fired while she was still laying on the ground.
52:00
Speaker 1: You did all of that while your children were at
52:03
Speaker 1: home a sleep in their beds, blissfully unaware that their
52:06
Speaker 1: mother was dying alone. The appropriate sentence, in this court's
52:11
Speaker 1: opinion is natural life in prison. Damn, it was the
52:16
Speaker 1: harshest penalty available under Illinois law. Life in prison without
52:21
Speaker 1: the possibility of parole.
52:24
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, of course, but his the speech there,
52:28
Speaker 2: it's just like, holy shit. Just imagine sitting in that courtroom, hey,
52:31
Speaker 2: and just listening to him count to fourteen.
52:35
Speaker 1: Well, that's kind of what I was trying to portray. Shit,
52:38
Speaker 1: why I counted it out to give you kind of
52:40
Speaker 1: that same effect on hearing It's almost like a gunshot
52:43
Speaker 1: each time he said number, It's like it's ringing out,
52:46
Speaker 1: almost playing in real time, and it's heavy.
52:49
Speaker 2: God, I feel like I would just be sobbing.
52:51
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now the words were like a final nail sealing
52:55
Speaker 1: the coffin shut. Tim showed little reaction, only a slope
53:00
Speaker 1: and a small nod, as if acknowledging the inevitable, and
53:03
Speaker 1: he declined to make a statement. Becky's three boys went
53:07
Speaker 1: to live with Becky's parents. Sarah and her husband remained
53:10
Speaker 1: closely involved as well, helping raise them together as a family.
53:15
Speaker 1: In the weeks after the sentencing, in the town of Quincy,
53:18
Speaker 1: everyone tried to return to normal life, but the shadow
53:20
Speaker 1: of the belief in the case it lingered over it.
53:23
Speaker 1: The once quiet streets were now marked by camera crews,
53:25
Speaker 1: documentary vans, and visitors stopping by the courthouse just to
53:29
Speaker 1: say they'd seen the place where it all unfolded. Tim,
53:32
Speaker 1: of course, began the process of appealing his convictions, and
53:35
Speaker 1: he maintained his innocence. The irony of his family feud
53:39
Speaker 1: appearance years earlier became a massive stigma in regarding this case.
53:44
Speaker 1: The game show contestant who joked that his biggest mistake
53:47
Speaker 1: was saying I do, only to later stand accused of
53:50
Speaker 1: killing the woman he said it to. Even now, Tim
53:54
Speaker 1: insists that clip means nothing. In an interview, he said
53:57
Speaker 1: it was a joke. It wasn't said with any malice
54:00
Speaker 1: or bad intentions. It was supposed to be funny. But
54:04
Speaker 1: for Becky's family there was nothing to laugh about. They
54:07
Speaker 1: weren't interested in interviews or speculation. They were focused entirely
54:11
Speaker 1: on raising her sons and preserving the memory of who
54:15
Speaker 1: she was. Becky had been a nurse, a friend, a sister,
54:20
Speaker 1: a mother, and the kind of person who made others
54:22
Speaker 1: feel safe. She had earned the Daisy Award nomination for
54:27
Speaker 1: exceptional patient care and had volunteered for an animal rescue group,
54:32
Speaker 1: all while she was going through some of the roughest
54:33
Speaker 1: times of her life. She had cared for strangers as
54:37
Speaker 1: though they were family, and in the end, she had
54:40
Speaker 1: been taken by someone she once trusted the most. As
54:45
Speaker 1: of now, Tim's appeal is still pending. His attorney has
54:48
Speaker 1: filed motions citing insufficient evidence and alleged procedural errors during
54:53
Speaker 1: the trial, though prosecutors remain confident the conviction will stand.
54:57
Speaker 1: For them, the case is closed. But for better He's family,
55:01
Speaker 1: it never truly will be, no matter the appeal results,
55:04
Speaker 1: because honestly, they'll never get to see Becky again. But
55:09
Speaker 1: those who knew Becky say her presence does still linger
55:12
Speaker 1: in the hospital halls where she once worked, and in
55:14
Speaker 1: the stories told by her sister, her mother, her friends,
55:18
Speaker 1: even her sons, and most of all, with her children's
55:21
Speaker 1: laughter as they echoed through the home. But the sound
55:25
Speaker 1: that she loved more than anything. And that's the story
55:30
Speaker 1: of the family feud killer and the murder of Rebecca Bliefnik.
55:37
Speaker 2: Oh, it makes me angry that this frickin' guy is
55:41
Speaker 2: of course he would be going for an appeal. I
55:44
Speaker 2: don't know. That just pissed me off right there, because
55:47
Speaker 2: his frickin children are just like having to be put
55:51
Speaker 2: through the goddamn ringer for no reason other than him
55:54
Speaker 2: being a selfish piece as shit.
55:56
Speaker 1: You nailed it, that's true.
55:58
Speaker 2: He only thinks of himself, really, there's nothing else.
56:01
Speaker 1: Well, from day one, that's all he wanted was to control,
56:04
Speaker 1: to have his situation, have his way. People like that
56:07
Speaker 1: are just disgusting. Yeah, And the fact that he would
56:10
Speaker 1: literally murder, not even think about her family, his family,
56:16
Speaker 1: his kids, her well being, her life and all because
56:22
Speaker 1: what because he couldn't manipulate her anymore.
56:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's just unbelievable to even think of
56:30
Speaker 2: his reasoning here or to comprehend it.
56:33
Speaker 1: You know, I don't get it.
56:35
Speaker 2: It makes no sense. And the fact that he actually
56:38
Speaker 2: thought that he would get away with it is almost
56:40
Speaker 2: comical in this because of all the shit that he did,
56:43
Speaker 2: No kidding, So I don't know, so confidently I guess
56:50
Speaker 2: that he just I don't know. It blows my mind
56:52
Speaker 2: that he thought he would get away with this. Well,
56:54
Speaker 2: even if there is literally no one else that would
56:56
Speaker 2: have done.
56:56
Speaker 1: This to her, exactly, even if there wasn't the circumstantial evidence.
57:00
Speaker 1: It's the long list of circumstantial evidence, he would be
57:02
Speaker 1: suspect number one immediately, Yeah, like immediately, not necessarily just
57:07
Speaker 1: because a history and police look at you know, like
57:09
Speaker 1: spouse's first, but because they have a history, they have
57:13
Speaker 1: a bad divorce, all this sort of stuff. He would
57:16
Speaker 1: immediately be suspect number one.
57:18
Speaker 2: Even if they were still married, he still would have been.
57:20
Speaker 1: Definitely.
57:21
Speaker 2: I feel like the ironic thing is too, it's like
57:23
Speaker 2: she needed to be on that show and saying that
57:27
Speaker 2: was her biggest mistake at the wedding was saying I
57:29
Speaker 2: do because it really was, well, it took her frickin' life.
57:33
Speaker 1: Well to be true. He did say not me, not me.
57:38
Speaker 1: Maybe he was speaking for his.
57:40
Speaker 2: Wife this one. Yeah, this one hurts the fact that
57:45
Speaker 2: she's no longer here. Dang, she just seemed incredible.
57:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, thank you guys for being here. We appreciate
57:51
Speaker 1: you through all these episodes. If you're listening right now,
57:53
Speaker 1: you make a big impact on our show. Staying till
57:56
Speaker 1: the end, going, following us, whoa my voice cracked, going
57:59
Speaker 1: and follow showing us on social media.
58:01
Speaker 2: Bens like you know, going through purity.
58:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, all of it. It makes a big impact and
58:06
Speaker 1: it helps you know what, It helps us grow. So
58:08
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being here. If you wouldn't
58:10
Speaker 1: mind giving us a review, if you haven't yet, that
58:12
Speaker 1: helps us too. Giving us a good review shows other people.
58:15
Speaker 1: You know what, we should probably check this episode, this podcast.
58:18
Speaker 2: Out, this awesome podcast.
58:20
Speaker 1: Exactly where Researched hosted, produced all of it on our
58:23
Speaker 1: own and our little old tiny home, just us and
58:26
Speaker 1: of course you, so thank you, and until next
58:29
Speaker 2: Time, Until next time, stay wicked,