A former “Family Feud” contestant convicted of wife’s murder speaks out: “I’m innocent. I didn’t kill Becky.”

This tale in the past aired on Sept. 30, 2023.

Josh Jones and Laura Keck have prosecuted loads of circumstances, however disagree case has afflicted them rather just like the homicide of Becky Bliefnick.

Josh Jones: You set your self within the intellect of Becky Bliefnick within the terminating moments of her existence, the concern that she needed to be feeling … You’ll’t exit out of that space and no longer be suffering from it.

Becky was once simply 41 years used when, at the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2023, her personal father came upon her dead on the toilet surface of her Quincy, Illinois, habitat. She were useless for hours — shot a complete of 14 occasions. Not one of the wounds had been straight away gruesome.

Josh Jones: It took her mins to die. … It was once an emotional reaction for either one of us to comprehend no longer simply that she were accomplished … however that her terminating mins had been mendacity on a surface unloved, within the unlit, in latter ache, ready to die.

ILLINOIS MOM GUNNED DOWN IN HER HOME

Quincy is a calm the city alongside the Mississippi River the place violent crimes are uncommon and unsettling.

Laura Keck: She was once a carer … who had 3 kids. … I feel folk had been simply horrified {that a} mom of 3 younger boys may well be shot and killed in her own residence.

Sarah Reilly is Becky’s used sister and her most effective sibling. She lives in Untouched York, however was once away on diversion along with her husband, Bret Reilly, after they were given that life-changing name.

Sarah Reilly: You simply wanna get up and feature it no longer be actual.

Bret Reilly: It’s a residing nightmare. … How briskly are we able to get to the airport, fly again to Untouched York, unpack our swimsuits and collect funeral garments, and get out to Quincy, Illinois, and simply keeping each and every alternative up in screaming agony.

Erin Moriarty: How would you each describe her?

Bret Reilly: Selfless.

Sarah Reilly: That in reality captures it. … She considered everyone that was once in her existence as any individual impressive and any individual particular. … The children had been her international.

Becky’s 3 sons – ages 12, 10 and 5 – weren’t at habitat on the year of the homicide. They had been staying with their father, Tim Bliefnick, a couple of mile away. The couple was once within the procedure of having divorced. Tim says that once he couldn’t succeed in Becky at the twenty third, he contacted her father.

Tim says that once he couldn’t succeed in Becky at the twenty third, he contacted her father.

Tim Bliefnick: He stated, ‘Good day, I haven’t been in a position to get a book of her both. I’m gonna advance over to the home.” … What came about to Becky must have by no means came about. And it simply— it nonetheless doesn’t—now and then, it nonetheless simply doesn’t really feel actual.

Police briefly ambitious that the killer had damaged into Becky’s habitat through prying not hidden an upstairs window in some of the kids’s bedrooms. Video presentations a police officer then reenacting how investigators imagine the assailant scaled the home.

Josh Jones: The individual had climbed up on there … there was once a patio chair that was once pulled over … They walked era Becky’s home windows in her bed room … And later they was at a room of some of the boys … and so they pried not hidden, needy the window not hidden, uh, went in. … You must virtually hint their trail … to Becky’s room. They’d kicked in or damaged within the door violently. … Becky later bumped into the toilet grew to become round and … were given shot.

Erin Moriarty: What year do you imagine the intruder entered the home?

Josh Jones: So, it will’ve been round 1:11 within the morning, as a result of we all know that at 1:11 and 10 seconds, Becky attempted to name 911 on her mobile phone. She dialed 9-1-1-2-6. And the telephone was once knocked out of her hand, and it was once discovered in the back of the door.

Not anything looked to be stolen, and neighbors didn’t see or listen the rest. However there was once proof left in the back of: a partiality shoe print akin the purpose of access, 8 spent 9-millimeter shell casings, and miniature items of plastic at the surface round Becky’s frame.

Josh Jones: We idea it was once strange after we noticed that. It was once like, “OK, what is this?”

Detectives canvassing the group in search of surveillance video didn’t must advance a long way. Becky’s subsequent door neighbors, the Heimanns, had put in a digicam at the aspect in their space later a automotive break-in greater than a life previous. It pointed at their driveway, which ran along Becky’s space.

Erin Moriarty: What does it document?

Taylor Heimann: It data motion. So anytime it senses motion, it’ll notify us on our telephones.

The Heimanns’ digicam didn’t seize the rest at the evening of the homicide, nevertheless it did seize one thing strange about 24 hours previous. Now we have bogged down probably the most movies so you’ll be able to see them higher. At 1:05 a.m., an individual was once perceptible strolling indisposed the driveway in opposition to the again of Becky’s space. And what looked to be that very same individual was once perceptible once more 48 mins then — this year, strolling in the wrong way. The digicam had additionally captured a related incident — a couple of future previous – on February 14, Valentine’s Year.

Taylor Heimann: I noticed that one in the course of the evening. … And texted Becky straight away. I instructed her …we simply noticed any individual within the driveway. And he or she answered no longer until the subsequent morning—

Erin Moriarty: And what did she say when she answered?

Taylor Heimann: That’s when she instructed me that she hadn’t perceptible the rest. However she idea she were listening to voices in her yard and her movement sunny advance on. And he or she was once very paranoid.

On the year, the Heimanns idea it was once a local prowler in search of one thing to scouse borrow. However now, with Becky useless, they started to marvel. And investigators did, too.

Josh Jones: Officials went round all of the group looking for extra video. … And we had been in a position to discover a video from a space … and we had been in a position to seek out video from the Quincy bus barn. … And the ones movies confirmed an individual … using a motorbike within the path of Becky’s space.

Nearest examining the recorded occasions of the movies, government started to suspect that the individual perceptible at the motorbike was once the similar individual perceptible within the driveway.

Josh Jones: Each and every year you notice an individual on the Heimann place of abode, you notice an individual using a motorbike indisposed the street, only some mins sooner than you notice an individual on that Heimann video.

And even if there was once disagree video from the Heimann place of abode at the morning Becky was once killed, there was once video of an individual on a motorbike using within the path of Becky’s space proper sooner than the homicide, and in the wrong way proper later.

Laura Keck: And this isn’t part of the city that folk trip motorcycles in the course of the evening in iciness. … And, so, if in case you have this surveillance video … and it precisely fits the timeline … that’s suspicious.

However there was once one large illness:  you’ll be able to inform completely not anything from the movies — most effective that the motorbike didn’t seem to have reflectors at the wheels.

Erin Moriarty: I heartless, you’ll be able to’t see —

Josh Jones: Deny.

Erin Moriarty: — whether or not it’s male, feminine.

Josh Jones: Deny. It’s severe.

Laura Keck: It’s severe. The video is severe.

Government wanted extra leads, and they might get one from Becky’s sister that may level them in an excessively explicit path.

“IF SOMETHING EVER HAPPENS TO ME …”

When Becky’s sister Sarah and brother-in-law Bret discovered of her homicide, they are saying one individual got here to intellect because the high suspect: Becky’s estranged husband Tim Bliefnick.

Sarah Reilly: I instructed Bret it was once Tim.

Bret Reilly: After all, it was once Tim.

Sarah Reilly: I stated —

Erin Moriarty: Straight away?

Bret Reilly: Straight away.

Tim and Becky met after they had been scholars at Quincy College, nevertheless it wasn’t till two years later graduating that they started relationship.

Erin Moriarty: And the way would you describe Becky again later?

Tim Bliefnick: Satisfied, a laugh. … She was once stunning.

The 2 ultimately moved in in combination, married, and began a community. Becky leave her task in pharmaceutical gross sales to turn into a stay-at-home mother, year Tim persisted his a hit profession within the recycling business.

Tim Bliefnick: I believed this was once it. You already know, I’m gonna be 85 and sitting on a porch in a rocking chair along with her speaking about how just right existence was once.

However issues didn’t prove that method.

Sarah Reilly: She was once … more than happy with their marriage for almost definitely the primary … 5 years. And later, you already know, issues began to modify. … He were given step by step … extra manipulative and controlling … He didn’t do any of the paintings ever on the space.

Shannon Zanger is Becky’s near good friend.

Shannon Zanger: When she’d come over and we’d communicate husbands, as better halves do … she felt like she was once shouldering many of the load … I believed, guy, I in reality have a spouse right here and he or she doesn’t appear to have that partnership.

Shannon and Sarah say the connection most effective become extra strained when Becky determined to advance again to college to turn into a carer.

Sarah Reilly: He no longer most effective didn’t assistance her, he didn’t build up his year with the men.

Week Tim recognizes that he wasn’t in partiality of Becky taking up a profession in nursing, he says it was once out of shock for her well-being. He spoke solely with “48 Hours.”

Tim Bliefnick: As a result of the tension piece of it …  

Erin Moriarty: Have been you frightened you’d have to pick out up extra of the paintings with the children?

Tim Bliefnick: Certainly not. … I’ve at all times been concerned with the children each and every hour.

In January 2021, later 11 years of marriage, Tim filed for judicial separation. Despite the fact that he wouldn’t speak about the specifics of why he filed, he hinted that it needed to do with what he noticed as a transformation in Becky’s character later she become a carer.

Tim Bliefnick: She struggled with endurance and rigidity a quantity, particularly when it got here to the children, and it — it created some war.

However Sarah Reilly says Tim is solely making excuses, and he or she believes the explanation Tim filed for judicial separation is as a result of he couldn’t keep watch over Becky. She says Becky was once a loving mom and attempted in useless to salvage the wedding.

Sarah Reilly: She sought after to advance to marriage counseling with him and he refused.

No matter the cause of the judicial separation may had been, something is sure: issues between the 2 quickly grew to become contentious. In line with judicial separation paperwork, they fought over as regards to the whole lot: cash, the marital habitat and custody of the children.

Erin Moriarty: I don’t perceive why it were given so contentious should you had been the one that sought after to get out.

Tim Bliefnick: Yeah, I used to be the person who sought after to get out and I attempted on a number of events. … However … there are main points that I’m — I’m no longer — which can be hardened to speak about that came about within the judicial separation.

Within the months later Tim filed for judicial separation, Becky started voicing issues about Tim’s conduct. She despatched a textual content to a pal: “He has screamed in my face, he shoved me in front of the kids, and has thrown things across the room…” And he or she texted every other good friend, “I truly believe Tim has serious mental health problems and he is becoming more vengeful and unpredictable …” However Tim says it was once Becky who was once vengeful.

Tim Bliefnick: She … instructed folk I had an affair … which is unfaithful. She attempted to inform folk that I used to be an alcoholic, which is unfaithful. … She was once telling folk these items as a result of (sighs) she was once indignant concerning the judicial separation.

At one level, Tim sought an series of coverage in opposition to Becky. He alleged Becky “stalked” and “harassed” him. He additionally referenced an incident the place he stated Becky had turn into “combative” all over a confrontation at a parent-teacher evening.

BECKY BLIEFNICK (cellular phone video): I’m inquiring for the letter.

TIM BLIEFNICK: Ban. I’m asking you to ban harassing me and ban following me.

BECKY BLIEFNICK: I’m no longer harassing you. I’m asking you …

He presented video of the incident as evidence.

TIM BLIEFNICK: I will be able to produce a album for you.

BECKY BLIEFNICK: I don’t need you to tape me. Don’t tape me.

TIM BLIEFNICK: Nearest ban doing this.

BECKY BLIEFNICK: Don’t tape me. I don’t –

TIM BLIEFNICK: Nearest ban doing this.

BECKY BLIEFNICK: I didn’t ask you to tape me.

Erin Moriarty: Do you in reality suppose she was once looking to harm him in that video?

Casey Schnack: I don’t suppose any one was once looking to harm any one. I feel you’ve two folks that had been having a confrontation … and didn’t understand how to do business in with it.

Casey Schnack was once one in all Tim’s judicial separation legal professionals.

Erin Moriarty: The pass judgement on didn’t provide that series of coverage.

Casey Schnack: Didn’t provide it. Deny.

Days later Tim filed for that series of coverage, and greater than a life sooner than her loss of life, Becky despatched her sister Sarah this newsletter: “If something ever happens to me, please make sure the number one person of interest is Tim…” She would then produce related statements to pals.

Sarah Reilly: I stated, “What did he do?” … and that, uh, textual content was once brought about through, uh, the homicide of one in all her, um colleagues … Some of the nurses that she knew … was once murdered through, um, her spouse … That scared her. … She felt like, this would occur, that is actual.

Tim Bliefnick: I by no means understood the place that got here from. … We’d get into arguments, and once in a while, we’d get boisterous, however … that’s all it amounted to.

Sarah says she really helpful Becky search aid from a home abuse group and, ultimately, Becky filed for an series of coverage in opposition to Tim. In her petition, she alleged that Tim “entered her residence without permission.” She additionally stated that he “repeatedly falsified interactions” between the 2. That series of coverage was once no longer granted. However a pass judgement on did in the end series Tim and Becky steer clear of each and every alternative’s flats except for when exchanging their youngsters. And the pass judgement on additionally ordered Tim to go back a 9-millimeter handgun that Becky had talented him after they had been in combination.

Sarah Reilly: He was once into, um, you already know, leisure taking pictures. … she sought after that individual gun again. … For the reason that gun was once in her title.

However Becky by no means were given it again. And it was once a 9-millimeter handgun that was once then impaired to blast her.

Tim Bliefnick: I’ve no longer perceptible that gun in 3 years. … I didn’t have it.

Becky was once killed one future sooner than the judicial separation case was once prepared to advance to trial. When Sarah Reilly knowledgeable legislation enforcement in their historical past, Tim become an individual of hobby. Government saved digging, and days then, they discovered a motorbike — and not using a reflectors at the wheels—identical to the only perceptible on the ones surveillance movies.

Erin Moriarty: How near was once that motorbike that you simply discovered to Tim’s space?

Josh Jones: Lower than part a prohibit.

They later accomplished a seek warrant on Tim’s space and automotive as Tim appeared on. And on March 13, 2023, simply over two weeks later Becky’s loss of life, Tim Bliefnick was once arrested and charged along with her homicide.

Tim Bliefnick: I will’t even fathom the theory of taking into account murdering any individual, like I will’t.

Tim’s judicial separation lawyer Casey Schnack would turn into his protection lawyer, and he or she says she’s satisfied police were given it fallacious.

Casey Schnack: He knew how a lot the ones youngsters intended to her and what kind of … she intended to them. He wouldn’t do that to them. He wouldn’t.

REVEALING TEXTS

When Tim Bliefnick was once arrested, it made nationwide information in massive section as a result of an look he made along his folks and brothers at the sport display “Family Feud.”

STEVE HARVEY | “Family Feud” host: Alright Tim, we talked to 100 married folk. What’s the largest mistake you made at your wedding ceremony?

TIM BLIEFNICK: Honey, I really like you however, stated “I do.”

The episode was once filmed in 2019, just about two years sooner than Tim filed for judicial separation, however as a result of the fees he now confronted, it had folk speaking. And there was once additionally chatter about Tim’s look in his mug shot, even if it was once disagree miracle to Becky’s community.

Sarah Reilly: We had perceptible via social media … the deterioration of his look and that went hand in hand with the deterioration of his psychological situation over the process the judicial separation.

However Tim says that’s no longer the case and that he were rising out his hair for a fundraiser for most cancers analysis.

Tim Bliefnick: I’m no longer a violent individual. I’m no longer an indignant individual. I’ve by no means been that method.

Tim’s lawyer Casey Schnack was once ambitious to turn out his innocence. She says simply because Tim and Becky had been going via a messy judicial separation, it doesn’t heartless he killed her.

Casey Schnack: It wasn’t lovely, however the issues that they had been preventing over weren’t huge issues.

Erin Moriarty: You already know there have been a lot of pals—Becky’s pals, who stated that she expressed splendid concern of Tim.

Casey Schnack: Mm-hmm. Yeah. … That’s a quantity of lady communicate. … I’ve by no means perceptible any footage of her with bruises, or marks, any allegations of him beating on her … Not anything.

However Adams County prosecutors Josh Jones and Laura Keck say even if there won’t had been bodily abuse, there was once emotional abuse — viewable in Tim’s texts to Becky.

Erin Moriarty: What do his textual content messages expose?

Laura Keck: So, I’d say what they expose is any individual … who needs energy and keep watch over. He needs to keep watch over the connection. He needs to keep watch over how folk understand him.

Tim denies that.

Tim Bliefnick: Deny. She wasn’t the person who was once emotionally abused. … I attempted to build territory. I attempted to stick out of her existence.

And Tim says he has an alibi for the year of the homicide. He says he was once habitat with their 3 youngsters. They had been slumbering over that evening as a result of Becky had requested him to book them an too much evening.

Casey Schnack: She instructed him that she wasn’t feeling properly … And he stated, that’s advantageous… That’s how you wish to have to peer two folk in a divorcing status work with youngsters.

However Jones and Keck imagine Tim noticed a chance.

Josh Jones: She confirmed condition to a predator. … And that’s what predators do, after they see a condition, they assault.

And so they additionally say that explains the intruder’s level of access: an upstairs window in some of the youngsters’ bedrooms.

Josh Jones: Should you’re a random intruder … why do you advance to the second-floor window? … You advance era no longer only one window, however … 3 home windows which can be imaginable front issues. … And also you simply occur to get fortunate that it’s a slight boy’s room that’s no longer there that evening.

However Schnack issues to what she says is a dearth of bodily proof tying Tim to the crime. Deny homicide weapon or bloody clothes was once discovered, and year police did grasp pairs of Tim’s footwear, they weren’t in a position to check them to that partiality shoeprint discovered on the scene.

Casey Schnack: They took each and every unmarried pair of athletic footwear that they idea could be a fit. They didn’t in finding any that — that had been an appropriate fit.

Schnack additionally issues out that Tim’s DNA wasn’t discovered on that patio chair that investigators imagine was once impaired through the killer to climb onto Becky’s roof.

Casey Schnack: Not anything on that was once hooked up to Tim. … They took each and every pair of gloves from Tim’s automotive, space and — and — that they might in finding and none of the ones gloves had any — the rest that connected him to this crime.

But when Tim didn’t blast Becky, who did?

Tim Bliefnick: If I knew that solution, I’d’ve for the reason that title or whoever it was once an extended year in the past. 

Tim’s lawyer says that she believes investigators must have given extra weight to the concept that it will had been a random prowler who killed Becky in a break-in long past fallacious. Keep in mind, police discovered the ones movies of an individual on a motorbike and an individual strolling indisposed Becky’s neighbor’s driveway. Tim insists it’s no longer him in the ones movies.

Casey Schnack: You can’t say with any diploma of walk in the park who that individual is on any of the ones movies … All you notice is a motorbike with out reflectors.

And even if a motorbike and not using a reflectors at the wheels was once discovered not up to part a prohibit from Tim’s space, Schnack says that doesn’t heartless the rest.

Casey Schnack: His DNA was once no longer discovered on that motorbike. … And we don’t even know that the motorbike that was once discovered … is similar motorbike that was once within the video.

However prosecutors Jones and Keck say they did in finding proof tying Tim to that motorbike.

Josh Jones: We had been in a position to obtain knowledge off his telephone, and we discovered that Mr. Bliefnick had a, what I’ll name burner or faux Fb account, for the title “John Smith.”

And so they say that “John Smith” Fb account gave the impression to had been taking a look at this motorbike on the market: a blue Schwinn and not using a reflectors at the wheels— identical to that motorbike that was once discovered.

Casey Schnack: I heartless, I’ve a pretend Fb account. … I’m no longer happy with it, however folk do it.

Erin Moriarty: Isn’t it a bit of of a illness although that on his telephone, he will get an alert for that blue motorbike?

Casey Schnack: Positive. … Are there similarities? Positive, however … that’s no longer the one lonely motorbike that’s been discovered round the city.

Jones and Keck say they’re assured they were given the suitable man.

Josh Jones: The detectives adopted the proof precisely the place it took them. And there was once one inescapable conclusion, that it was once Mr. Bliefnick.

However regardless of their self belief, they quickly confronted rather a problem. When Tim was once arrested, he was once ordered held with out bond. He had a proper to a fast trial, which he took — that means prosecutors could be required to struggle the case inside 90 days of Tim’s arrest.

Josh Jones: We had been gonna be able come hell or top H2O.

However did they have got plenty to turn out their case past an affordable unsureness?

Laura Keck: Juries be expecting a confession. They be expecting that DNA proof that claims one in 500 million … We’re gonna have to turn them that’s no longer what we’ve right here.

THE CASE AGAINST TIM BLIEFNICK

On Might 23, 2023, precisely 3 months later Becky Bliefnick was once gunned indisposed in her habitat, Tim Bliefnick went on trial for her homicide.

JOSH JONES (trial opening statements): The defendant appeared indisposed at Becky and he pointed a gun at her. And he pulled the cause.

Prosecutors Josh Jones and Laura Keck started through methodically laying out the proof they are saying issues without delay to Tim, forming with the ones unusual items of plastic that had been discovered round Becky’s frame. They are saying investigators ambitious that they had been shreds from an ALDI grocery pack bag.

Josh Jones: And later within the defendant’s space, we discovered stacks of ALDI luggage. He had fired via an ALDI bag, both in an struggle to muffle the pitch or to catch his shell casings.

And prosecutors say that within the procedure, DNA was once left in the back of on a work of that plastic. Knowledgeable testified that it was once much more likely than no longer that Tim was once a contributor. And Tim additionally couldn’t be excluded from DNA that was once discovered below Becky’s fingernails.

Josh Jones: That was once thrice much more likely to have come from the defendant or a male family member from the lineage of the defendant.

CASEY SCHNACK (trial opening statements): And this situation, is dripping with cheap unsureness.

However protection lawyer Casey Schnack says that proof is a long way from definitive.

Casey Schnack: Everyone on the town has ALDI luggage that they’re hoarding. … They might have got here from Becky’s space.

Erin Moriarty: With DNA from him?

Casey Schnack: Smartly, as a result of they transferred stuff backward and forward for the men in ALDI luggage.

Erin Moriarty: There was once DNA discovered below Becky’s fingernails.

Casey Schnack: Yeah … And it was once simply as prone to be Tim’s as any some of the boys.

Prosecutors additionally instructed the jury that police discovered a crowbar in Tim’s basement. And so they referred to as a professional to the arise who testified that she in comparison it to instrument marks left at the window that was once pried not hidden at Becky’s. Week there have been microscopic consistencies, she couldn’t say with medical walk in the park that that crowbar made the ones marks.

Casey Schnack: The skilled stated that that was once inconclusive. … Inconclusive leaves a jury guessing and speculating, which they don’t seem to be allowed to do.

The jury heard concerning the couple’s acrimonious judicial separation and from Becky’s sister—and several other pals— who testified about the ones fears Becky had raised about Tim. A number of of them said that they regretfully didn’t remove steps to aid her.

Sarah Reilly: “How could Tim do that? I’ve known Tim forever.” … When she reached out to folk, that’s what they stated.

Bret Reilly: In hindsight, after all, we must have finished extra. … There’s just one person who believed it was once true and that was once Becky herself.

And the prosecution argued that the timing of the homicide is vital. Keep in mind, Becky was once killed one future sooner than the couple’s judicial separation case was once prepared to advance to trial. And prosecutors instructed the jury, there was once one thing even larger than cash and custody that was once going to come back into play games.

JOSH JONES (trial opening statements): Becky didn’t need their 3 kids to be across the defendant’s father unsupervised.

They didn’t inform the jury why, however “48 Hours” exposed courtroom paperwork that expose Becky had accumulated observers who she stated deliberate to testify about Tim’s father, Ray Bliefnick, and would allege that he had a “history of perversion and abusing minor children” a few years previous.

The alleged sufferers weren’t Becky and Tim’s kids. Becky sought an series of coverage in opposition to Ray, however a pass judgement on denied her request.  In a letter, Ray’s attorney wrote that Ray “vehemently denies the claims” and that he has “never been charged with any criminal offense” stemming from the allegations.

Josh Jones: Data was once going to come back out that he didn’t wish to pop out. … and he began to really feel like he was once shedding keep watch over.

The prosecution identified that at the hour of Becky’s homicide, hours sooner than someone except for her killer knew that she was once useless, Tim introduced a youngsters’ basketball hoop to his father’s space.

Josh Jones: He’s doing that as a result of he is aware of Becky’s no longer gonna be a illness anymore. Becky didn’t need the ones boys round Ray. And in Tim’s intellect, that illness was once solved as a result of Becky was once useless.

Casey Schnack: I in reality don’t purchase that. I—

Erin Moriarty: Why no longer?

Casey Schnack: For the reason that boys weren’t limited from vision Ray to start with. … They simply couldn’t see him with out supervision.

And Schnack says the ones allegations had been used information.

Casey Schnack: All of the ones allegations had been in pleadings that … her legal professionals had filed and at that time had been already a question of society document. … It doesn’t produce sense that he would throw his existence away over a judicial separation and conserving knowledge out of the society sight that rather frankly was once already out.

However the prosecution wasn’t finished. The jury was once additionally proven various harmful searches discovered on Tim’s telephone like, “How to open my door with a crowbar,” “How to make a homemade pistol silencer,” and “How to clean gunpowder off your hands.”

Laura Keck: It was once mind-boggling.

Josh Jones: It was once mind-boggling, yeah.

And needless to say individual stuck on digicam in Becky’s neighbor’s driveway on Valentine’s Year, a couple of future sooner than the homicide? Smartly, prosecutors say that proper later that sighting, Tim made greater than 200 searches on-line for a particular registration number plate and a automotive VIN quantity. It seems that that registration number plate and VIN quantity belonged to a person whom Becky was once relationship, and his truck was once parked in Becky’s driveway on the year.

Laura Keck: And for any individual with energy and keep watch over problems, you know that your prior important alternative is now in a courting with any individual, that they’re spending the evening on Valentine’s Year. And later the little you get again to your house at 1:10 within the morning, you’re looking their registration number plate quantity and their VIN quantity, that’s any individual who’s misplaced keep watch over.

Tim insists he had discovered about Becky’s untouched courting months previous.

Tim Bliefnick: I in truth didn’t aid.

Erin Moriarty: It sounds such as you had been more or less obsessed ‘purpose —

Tim Bliefnick: Deny.

He declined to advance into extra feature about explicit trial proof, mentioning prison complaints, however his attorney spoke for him.

Casey Schnack: I heartless, if I’m gonna be testing my husband’s untouched female friend, I’m gonna be doing it past due at evening later my youngsters are asleep.

Erin Moriarty: So, it’s only a twist of fate that the evening you notice that prowler … on the subsequent door neighbor’s driveway —

Casey Schnack: Mm-hmm.

Erin Moriarty: — and his truck is there, it’s only a twist of fate that simply mins then, Tim is doing analysis at the VIN quantity and the license tag.

Casey Schnack: That’s no longer Tim in that video.

Erin Moriarty: What concerning the searches that had been discovered on Tim’s telephone?

Casey Schnack: There’s disagree occasion or year as to when the ones searches had been finished. So, we don’t know in the event that they had been finished sooner than the homicide, and we don’t know in the event that they had been finished later the homicide.

Sooner than they rested the case, prosecutors dropped yet one more piece of proof: spent shell casings that had been present in Tim’s habitat. Knowledgeable testified that she in comparison them to the shell casings discovered on the crime scene and ambitious that 27 of them were fired from the very same gun impaired within the homicide.

Josh Jones: Every firearm leaves its personal fingerprint on each and every shell casing that it fires. … It was once the similar gun that killed Becky Bliefnick that fired those shell casings that had been present in Tim Bliefnick’s place of abode.

Casey Schnack: That’s the skilled’s opinion … On the finish of the hour, it’s matter to human error like the rest.

But if it was once the protection’s flip to name observers, it selected to name none.

Erin Moriarty: You must have introduced to your personal skilled to mention the ones didn’t fit.

Casey Schnack: Hmm, I supposition we may have, however we had been strapped on year and budget.

Erin Moriarty: You’ve were given a person’s existence at the form.

Casey Schnack: Mm-hmm. And he didn’t need us to do this.

It was once a dangerous advance, however one that can have paid off for the protection, as a result of when the jury started deliberating, they took a vote—and there was once a holdout.

Casey Schnack: On occasion you simply want one.

A VERDICT

When the jury started deliberating later a six-day trial, Tim Bliefnick was once on edge.

Tim Bliefnick: it was once awful, as a result of I used to be necessarily looking forward to them to come to a decision my destiny.

Within that jury room, one juror was once unsure.

Laura Keck: Our stomachs had been in knots. We had been past wired.

However 4 hours then, a verdict.

Sarah Reilly: Once they handed the paper from the jury field to the clerk … that was once … very tricky to understand that there’s a chance that he may escape with it.

JUDGE ROBERT ADRIAN: Would the clerk learn the verdicts, please?

CLERK: We the jury in finding the defendant Timothy Bliefnick responsible of first-degree homicide.

To blame.

Laura Keck: It was once a way of vacay that that they had discovered him responsible, nevertheless it was once additionally a way of those 3 slight boys have now misplaced each folks … it’s no longer a party. 

Once we sat indisposed with Tim Bliefnick, it was once simply over a hour later his conviction. He was once nonetheless waiting for sentencing.

Erin Moriarty: Did you ever believe you could be right here?

Tim Bliefnick: Deny, disagree, by no means. … From time to time, it’s felt like I’m observing any individual else’s existence from the outdoor. Adore it, it could’t be me. … However the one factor I will do at this time is what we’re doing … submitting an attraction. I’ve to — I’ve to imagine in that procedure ‘purpose if no longer (emotional) —

Erin Moriarty: Inform me what you’re considering at this time.

Tim Bliefnick: My youngsters. … I simply need them to understand that I really like them, and I leave out them … I’m blameless. I didn’t blast Becky.

However Becky’s sister says Tim is true the place he belongs.

Sarah Reilly: He referred to as my dad to prepared him as much as in finding her. … That unloved presentations how ruthless he in reality is. … As agonizing as our ache is …  I need him to remember that his worst crime was once in opposition to his kids.

And that’s the message Sarah delivered without delay to Tim all over her sufferer have an effect on remark proper sooner than he was once sentenced on Aug. 11, 2023.

Sarah Reilly: Your kids’s hour will probably be perpetually impacted through your crime. They’re already struggling. … Perhaps you will have Googled “childhood PTSD” in between your web searches for do-it-yourself silencers and VIN numbers.

Pass judgement on Robert Adrian had the choice of sentencing Tim to anyplace between 45 years to existence.

JUDGE ROBERT ADRIAN: Mr. Bliefnick, you researched this homicide, you deliberate this homicide … You needy into her space, and also you shot her: one, two, 3, 4, 5, six, seven, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 occasions (raised tone). The courtroom believes that the suitable sentence … could be herbal existence in jail.

Time in jail with out the opportunity of parole. Prosecutors Jones and Keck say the punishment suits the crime, however even they don’t imagine it justice.

Josh Jones: If I had a necromancy wand, I’d deliver Becky again to existence … Tim can spend the residue of his existence out of jail. That might be justice. … However I will’t. … what we will be able to do is we will be able to book her killer responsible and that’s all we will be able to do.

Now, Becky’s community is left to concentrate on all they have got left of her… reminiscences…  and the loves of her existence… her 3 boys, who at the moment are residing along with her folks.

Sarah Reilly: We will be able to all paintings in combination to produce positive the ones boys have the existence they deserved. … And we began a GoFundMe to assistance the men.

And Becky’s community and pals hope that Becky’s challenge in existence will now turn into her legacy.

Sarah Reilly: Becky would have sought after certain alternate to occur. She would wish any individual else’s existence to be stored. … If we will be able to be told the rest, if any individual reaches out to you and says that — that they’re scared, that they imagine that their spouse … or whoever it’s, is able to violence, you wish to have to imagine them and produce an lively struggle to produce positive they’re shield.

Tim Bliefnick has no longer been allowed any touch along with his youngsters since his arrest.

“48 Hours” Publish Mortem

“48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty and manufacturer Stephanie Slifer speak about the case and proportion supplementary main points with “48 Hours” contributor and CBS Untouched streaming community anchor Anne-Marie Inexperienced within the “48 Hours: Post Mortem” podcast.

Produced through Stephanie Slifer and Gabriella Demirdjian. Elena DiFiore and Marc Goldbaum are the advance manufacturers. Ken Blum, George Baluzy and Jason Schmidt are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior manufacturer. Nancy Kramer is the chief tale writer. Judy Tygard is the chief manufacturer.  

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