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00:00some stories are unforgettable this is one of them she was panicking she said Becky's dead
00:14Becky's dead a healthy 41 year old mom there is no logical explanation for why she would be found
00:23dead in her home this wasn't just a murder this was a cold-blooded execution this victim is fleeing
00:28in terror you could sense the fear so what's unforgettable here Becky the victim her
00:34hopes and dreams destroyed in one of the most grisly shootings I've ever covered when somebody
00:40shot 14 times that's significant the entire city was shaken she's going through a divorce
00:47they both were looking forward to getting the divorce behind them we learned that she had a
00:53boyfriend it's always a puzzle right everybody had a theory nobody ever had any evidence there's a
00:58figure scene on somebody's video of a guy on a bicycle yes this is the night of the murder the
01:03night of the murder yes you see the person riding the bike and then turn whoa this ghostly image of
01:10a bicycle rider makes the hair on my neck stand up and investigators wondered if they were staring at
01:16a killer there's a person in the driveway there was a footprint by the window that was the first time
01:23it really registered she or her children could be in danger terrifying absolutely terrifying this is
01:38dateline unforgettable I'm Dennis Murphy with a fresh look at Ghost Rider a winter's night a cyclist pedals down
02:00on deserted streets the clickety-clack of gears grinding the whirr of a tire on pavement the only sounds
02:13to pierce the silence in this small town security cameras lonely sentinels in the dark of night capture
02:21fleeting images of this ghostly rider who was it where were they going on that February night
02:30and to what end
02:33here on a bluff above the Mississippi River Mark Twain country sits Quincy Illinois an apple pie slice of
02:58Midwestern Americana so this is a cool old house yes a small safe town where folks like Taylor and
03:06Taylor Hyman yep they're both named Taylor plant their roots and stay for the long haul like the house also
03:12like the neighborhood yeah oh yeah we heard nothing but good things about the neighborhood and that it
03:18was one of the safest in Quincy actually in the yard across the way is Becky yes yeah Becky bleefnik their
03:25next-door neighbor a mother of three young boys and a nurse at blessing Hospital here in Quincy single
03:31mother three kids yeah the kids came over and play with their dog sometimes and she would even know our
03:36front yard yeah friendly neighbors living in nice houses on a quiet safe street until it wasn't one
03:47morning the hymen say they woke up to find their car had been broken into ransacked so they installed
03:54security cameras so the idea is if there's a prowl around this thing will tell you yeah the cameras
04:03send them an alert every time they're triggered which is what happened in the middle of the night on
04:08February 14th 2023 Valentine's Day one of the cameras captured a figure walking between the Hyman's house
04:16and Becky's could you recognize him Taylor if someone showed you a picture the next day so
04:20that's the guy my camera guy no I could not so it's just a figure moving in the dark mm-hmm Taylor says
04:25she texted Becky right away asked if she'd seen anything and she responded back about 7 in the
04:31morning saying she didn't that night but about a month ago she thought she heard voices in her
04:36backyard and that she has been very paranoid the Hyman's posted a message on the neighborhood's
04:42Facebook page be on the lookout and then the security camera alerted again February 22nd caught
04:51person coming in so when you say coming in they're going yeah coming in coming out driving down our
04:55driveway from the road and then about 53 minutes later we saw a person leaving what was the prowler up
05:03to and what if anything did he or she have to do with what happened the very next day that unimaginable
05:10thing about five cop cars started rolling up with EMTs so I was wondering what was going on I didn't
05:18know until the cop came over and and let us know that she's passed she's passed they told you she was
05:23gone Becky Blefnick was dead it was her father who'd found her lying face up and bloody on her bathroom
05:33floor he called 911 was it perhaps a suicide when the officers got there it was readily apparent that
05:41that was not the case Quincy Police Chief Adam Yates heard his watch commander on the phone with the
05:47responding officers and that conversation included the words this is clearly not a suicide other phone
05:56calls were being made including to Becky's husband Tim Becky and Tim were separated and the boys were
06:02with him that night he would have to break the news to the children Becky's sister Sarah got a call from
06:07their mother she was panicking she said Becky's dead Becky's dead we don't know anything but Becky's dead
06:15in decades of talking to grief-stricken families my interview with Sarah will always stand out in my
06:21memory without hesitation she took a deep dive into a pool of emotional pain how eloquent Sarah is in
06:29recollecting her sister Becky wouldn't any of us feel lucky to have someone like her be a voice for us
06:34such love and passion Sarah floored me from the get-go reliving those awful seconds when her mom cried out
06:41that Becky is dead and then she said I gotta go I'll call you later which you know is uh terrifying
06:50absolutely terrifying the terrifying unknown what happened we're trying to figure it out because
07:00Becky was a healthy 41 year old mom there is no logical explanation for why she would be found dead
07:09in her home I guess you're thinking the usual things this is botched robbery that goes wrong I didn't even
07:15think a robbery I it didn't even cross my mind but a botched robbery was very much on the mind of the
07:23phalanx of law enforcement that had descended on Becky's home including an assistant state's attorney at the
07:30time Josh Jones he and fellow prosecutor Laura Keck were assigned the case I was actually in Laura's office
07:37and I got a phone call that there was homicide and they said gave me the address and my first response
07:43was where because that was not an address that nice houses nice lives good cars in the driveways not
07:49what not what you would expect so I drove out there it took about five minutes and a couple detectives
07:55met me at the door the prosecutor was led up the stairs and into Becky's bedroom you could see that
08:03that door to the bedroom was shut and the person was trying to shut it and somebody kicked in that
08:09door or broke in that door with their shoulder and then you found her in the bathroom with her hands
08:14above her head and there were bullet holes in her hands this victim is fleeing in terror you could sense
08:19the fear that she must have felt who had pursued Becky in her own home and shot her dead it's always a
08:29puzzle it may be a puzzle that you buy for a two-year-old that has four pieces to it or in certain
08:35investigations it could be a 2,000 piece jigsaw puzzle where 25% of the pieces are missing and
08:41you don't have the box to look at the picture to see what it's supposed to be when you're finished
08:44anyway this one was shaping up to be one of those puzzles with plenty of missing pieces but maybe
08:51something at the scene would help reveal the picture it wasn't just a murder this was a cold-blooded
08:56execution 41 year old mother of three Becky Blefnick was dead her sister Sarah consumed by grief how'd you
09:18get through those first few days you know in between the moments of totally breaking down
09:23it was logistics that um got us through being able to focus on small tasks we had to fly to Quincy
09:36investigators in Quincy were focused on the immense task of processing Becky's home
09:41I've been to lots of crime scenes before this one was different you could see that there was
09:49a concerted effort to be violent in this case you're about to hear details of the killing that
09:55I'll likely never forget hats off to Jones the prosecutor for going to the crime scene in person
10:01it's not part of his job description normally cops gather evidence and prosecutors later present it to
10:07the jury but Jones took it upon himself to get to the murder scene when it was fresh and ugly I had the
10:14impression that seeing the brutality of what had gone down with his own eyes fired an anger in Jones
10:19that would smolder right until his opening statement at trial the violence occurred in the bathroom off
10:26Becky's bedroom she was found there on her back we later learned she was shot 14 times 14 times it was
10:3314 times this is somebody delivering a message to shoot 14 times is not you're just losing your cool
10:40this is you wanted that person dead what did the crime scene techs find we found eight shell casings
10:47around the body that's helpful we knew that that was going to be important we found lots of little
10:53pieces of plastic around the body it seemed like they were parts of a plastic bag was it an attempt
10:59to silence the weapon wasn't an attempt to catch the shell casings so you got casings unexplained
11:05plastics what else is in there honestly at that point there wasn't a whole lot more
11:08investigators did find a footprint next to a broken second floor window that appeared to have been
11:14forced open the killer's likely point of entry rest of the houses have been tossed Josh any sign of
11:20valuables missing no there was no evidence of anything missing from the house it didn't appear
11:26that the house had been ransacked it really appeared from the very beginning that whoever broke into the
11:33house broke into the house with the express purpose of executing becky bleefnik
11:38an execution someone hated becky enough to want her dead but to her family and friends that idea just
11:49didn't compute it wasn't possible to hate becky becky just naturally could get along with everybody that
11:57she met sarah says people were drawn to becky she was just a likable kind funny person she was really
12:09quirky add to that determination compassion and a whip smart brain and you have all of becky's
12:17qualities that good friend shannon zanger knew so well we met really in first grade we would hold hands and
12:24walk up the giant steps and spent a lot of time together in those those early days just kind of
12:30navigating school and being away from our parents and it's nice to have a buddy yeah it is
12:35best buddies growing up in a small farm town outside Quincy pals all the way through high school where
12:44Becky was the valedictorian and then college where Becky played tennis and met her future husband Tim
12:49bleefnik a standout on the football team who would later be enshrined in the school's
12:54Hall of Fame Becky and Shannon were still tight as Becky started her career as a pharmaceutical
12:59sales rep Shannon became a labor and delivery nurse babies those had always been part of Becky's life
13:08plan according to her sister Becky always dreamed of a family and being a mother was her number one
13:17priority and when it came time for Becky and Tim to have children her friend Shannon the labor and
13:24delivery nurse was there to be able to be there and hold the hand of your friend as she meets one of her
13:31children is it's not something it's not something that you can put into words adequately but those happy
13:40times had a dark cloud Shannon had a child born six weeks before Becky's first son who became gravely ill
13:47so she's first learning motherhood and I was dealing with you know my fourth baby being sick and and
13:57Becky would be there for you absolutely she most definitely was tragically Shannon's child passed away
14:05but the experience of watching what Shannon and her family went through the care her son received and
14:15his spirit through it all inspired Becky to change careers and become a nurse Becky graduated from nursing
14:22school at the top of her class again I wrote the speech because I wanted my friends to know how much she
14:28and her son affected me inspired me to be a nurse and challenged me to be a better person Becky was born for
14:36this role she has an innate quality that you can't teach in a nurse she wasn't just good at testing no
14:42absolutely not she did the important part the caring part it really was her calling she really provided
14:51comfort to people in their greatest time of need but sadly nobody had been there for Becky at her
15:00greatest time of need she was dead and what was left now was for the police to find her killer they
15:08were speaking with the neighbors a couple hours after the body was found that's when they came over
15:12and asked us questions the hymens told them about their security camera footage investigators were eager to
15:19take a look obviously with any investigation it's a big deal to look at any possible surveillance cameras
15:26that could be a solve for your case right absolutely I was like this could be awesome
15:30the murder of Becky bleefnick had left her neighbors like the hymens right next door reeling I was just nervous to be around in general with something happening so close to your home the hymens hope their surveillance cam video of the prowler outside their home could
15:36help police catch becky's killer so did prosecutors josh jones and laura kek
15:42initially we thought we had surveillance video the night of the murder so we got my attention tell me more huh
15:49could be a solve for your case right absolutely I was like this could be awesome and then it turns
16:19angle was not good and two it was not the day of the murder it was the night before
16:23and you you couldn't tell who it was i would be hard pressed to even say if it was a man or a
16:28woman the same was true of the image the hyman's camera captured about a week earlier
16:33still it was a potential lead so detectives hit the pavement looking for more video
16:40it's kind of like finding a needle in a stack of needles a lot of times because a lot of folks have
16:45video surveillance now on their houses the detectives worked their way out from becky's
16:51house knocking on doors of homes and businesses asking the same question over and over again
16:57do you have video cameras and did you capture anything you know around this particular time
17:02the search paid off
17:04laura there's a figure scene on somebody's video of a guy on a bicycle yes this is the night of the
17:12murder the night of the murder yes and you see the person riding the bike and then turn towards
17:17the direction of becky bleefnik's house and i will also say it's a person on a bike in the middle of
17:23february which it's very cold and just the circumstances alone yes and it's the middle of the night so i mean
17:30that part is very strange the bike didn't appear to have reflectors which made it hard to see
17:36but a few blocks away also on the night of the murder another camera picked up what appeared to
17:41be the same cyclist pedaling toward becky's neighborhood and a short time later heading back
17:46how much information did the video give you could you tell short tall none of that all you could tell
17:53is there's a person riding a bicycle each video by itself is not super uh helpful but each video when
18:02it becomes part of the video before the video after is is how these videos become that much more
18:08important the videos fit together to form an important piece of that puzzle investigators had
18:14a suspicious cyclist in the area on the night of the murder and as they kept digging they came across
18:20that same bike moving along the same route on two other nights and those sightings match right up date
18:26in time with the prowler in the driveway videos turned over by the hymans given the timing police
18:33now believe that the cyclist and the prowler were the same person and in all likelihood the person who
18:39killed becky but they wouldn't be able to get an id from the videos alone they didn't even know if
18:46they were looking for a man or a woman so they turned to becky's inner circle they were actually
18:51reaching out to us giving us information you know you may want to talk to this person you may want
18:56to talk to that person they started to learn more about becky and her soon-to-be ex-husband tim they'd
19:02once come across as the perfect couple he was a big personality remembers becky's friend shannon
19:09kind of a name in town he was a star for sure yeah very athletic good-looking charismatic guy
19:18and she was pretty proud of him and you could tell that in the beginning they married after college
19:24tim was a successful salesman and the couple owned a trailer park and part of a crossfit gym where tim
19:31he was the biggest mistake you made at your wedding
19:38he was the biggest mistake you made at your wedding
19:53honey i love you but said i do saying i do was the biggest regret yeah i'm gonna get in trouble for
20:00that aren't i and the audience eats it up they go crazy but back home becky not so much says shannon
20:08there was some truth in what he said she thought i think she felt it at that point and you think that's
20:13the beginning of the end from my perspective yes yeah sarah says the marriage had been unraveling in
20:23part because tim wasn't pulling his weight tim was very much absent in home life and we used to
20:33say kind of in a joking manner but certainly not in a funny manner that becky was a single married mother
20:42it was tim who filed for divorce in 2021 moved out of the house the boys had been with him the night
20:52becky was killed police of course would have to check out tim but there was another man in becky's
20:59life for the authorities to consider a new guy named ted johnson our detectives became aware of
21:08the fact that mr johnson and miss believe nick had a relationship and they reached out to mr johnson
21:14ted told detectives that he had stayed overnight at becky's house on valentine's day february 14th
21:21you'll want to remember that and he was also there on the 21st two days before her body was found
21:27making him possibly the last person known to have seen her alive as for the night of becky's murder
21:35ted said he stayed home hadn't seen her that would have to be verified so we certainly explored that and
21:42we followed that path but that wasn't the only path they followed you must have known instinctively
21:48your guy was in trouble absolutely suspect number one
21:55the quincy community was mourning the loss of becky bleefnik loving mother and nurse extraordinaire
22:12and nurse extraordinaire there was memorial service at the hospital where she worked
22:21a ceremony by the quincy nursing honor guard they present her becky with white roses and ring a bell
22:30and say her name three times and then the nurses in the room stand up and we
22:36really serve duty officially and it was a beautiful beautiful thing and she deserves to be remembered
22:43that way
22:48she certainly does not deserve to be remembered as the victim of a terrible crime
22:55when the authorities were working double time to solve they knew becky had that new man in her life
23:00ted johnson he had agreed to speak with the police he gives us appropriate answers he's cooperative with
23:08the police there's no evidence that he was involved there was no evidence of motive and so we start
23:14looking at a different path and focusing our efforts in a different path down a different path and on a
23:22different man becky's estranged husband tim bleefnik tim handsome charismatic gregarious i can't say
23:30i blame the police for him being a suspect casey schnock was tim's divorce attorney at the time but
23:37she also handles her share of criminal defense cases you must have known instinctively your guy
23:43was in trouble absolutely suspect number one did you tell him it's going to be bad i told him you need
23:48to keep your mouth shut as soon as i sat down with attorney casey schnock i was struck by her confidence
23:55and intelligence she was the daughter of a prominent local defense attorney and was fierce
24:00about not yielding anything to the prosecution good criminal defense attorneys sharpened the game
24:05of law enforcement putting checks against cutting corners in the investigation people shouldn't
24:10automatically assume that defense lawyers stand in the way of justice schnock had a constitutional
24:16duty to fulfill and she did it well i spoke with one of the investigators that was on the scene that
24:22night and i told her that you know tim wants to be helpful to the investigation but he needs to focus
24:28on his kids right now tim's kids were also his alibi he said he was home with them on the night of the
24:37murder according to casey and it was tim who alerted becky's father that something was off when he told
24:43him becky wasn't responding to his texts about the boys becky and tim had been separated two years by then
24:49could they be civil with one another they could be they had gotten a lot of the ugliness out of
24:57their system by the time february rolled around and they both by all accounts were looking forward to
25:03getting the divorce behind them but investigators had pulled those divorce records and didn't like
25:09what they saw it's not only that she's going through this divorce but it's actually scheduled to go
25:14to court a week after the murder so it hasn't all been settled no in fact there were multiple issues
25:22that were contentious at that point they were fighting over the big two issues money and custody
25:30shannon noticed it was taking a toll on her friend becky the divorce is where it was she just looked
25:36sort of beaten down by the whole process the process had taken a particularly nasty turn when tim
25:44filed for a protective order against becky she followed suit with one of her own the dueling
25:50petitions laid bare a marriage in its death throes accusations flew back and forth of poor parenting
25:57verbal assaults harassment and rage-filled destruction of property there were also accusations of pushing and
26:03grabbing but no documented physical injuries tim's attorney says it was all a lot of smoke no fire very
26:11common game play in a divorce in adams county illinois but there is no evidence in any court filings
26:16that i've ever seen that would suggest that he was abusive they both said things that they shouldn't
26:22have said during the divorce they both probably did things during the divorce that they could take back
26:27if they could becky also filed for a protective order against tim's father ray she accused him in court
26:35filings of inappropriate sexual behavior with female members of tim's extended family including minors
26:42accusations that had been floating around tim's family for years she did not want ray bleefnik to
26:48be around her children alone and that was a very contentious issue and the divorce father i don't
26:53want him near my kids yeah doesn't want him anywhere around the kids unsupervised
26:59tim fiercely defended his father and ray unequivocally denied the allegations allegations that
27:05nobody in the family ever brought to the attention of the authorities the protective order against ray
27:10was denied same thing for the protective orders against becky and tim but the puzzle of becky's
27:16murder was starting to reveal itself to investigators the bitter divorce had given them a string to pull
27:24a lead to follow and they began to think this former football star was hiding something behind his
27:30megawatt smile time to go back to those fuzzy pictures from the security camera another look at that biker
27:38on a cold winter's night
27:53tim bleefnik was used to being the center of attention
27:56from his college days as a hero on the football field to parties organized around that appearance
28:02on family feud but there were different sets of eyes on tim now and they weren't looking to heap
28:09laughter and praise investigators were hearing that in the privacy of his own home the outwardly
28:15charming bleefnik was a starkly different man domestic violence doesn't always manifest itself as
28:22the wife with the black eye does it it doesn't you know tim can put on a show and that show did not
28:30play out in their household he was very emotionally uh abusive to becky you know he was very very
28:39controlling uh-oh controlling that sets off alarm bells in my head as a crime reporter i've heard
28:46countless descriptions of dr jekyll and mr hyde characters they're guys who by day are all megawatts
28:51smiles and the pleasing center of attention but at night they turn controlling bossing their
28:57partners saying you can't do this you can't do that let's call it what it is emotional abuse and the
29:03victims often feel powerless to escape shannon remembers when becky's third son was born
29:11as both nurse and friend she implored becky to stay an extra night in the hospital to heal
29:16and her immediate reaction was i can't he won't let me we have to go home he won't let me we have
29:22to go home yes and after they separated friends and colleagues say becky became increasingly worried
29:30about what tim might be capable of she had made lots of statements to people about being scared of
29:36tim that she thought tim might do something to her according to sarah becky started telling her how
29:43scared she was after a nurse colleague of hers was murdered by her ex-partner i think that was the
29:50the first time it really registered with her that she or her children could be in danger
29:56but remember despite that very real fear becky felt the judge denied her an order of protection
30:02against him the bulk of her allegations were not physical in nature and she had no injuries to show
30:08the law with regard to protective orders treats emotional and verbal abuse differently than physical
30:15abuse detectives decided it was time to take a look inside tim's home they executed a search warrant
30:25one thing that we found was a box of shell casings spent shopping spent shell casings investigators
30:32had eight shell casings from the scene seemed unlikely these would be a match and in my mind i was like
30:38there's no way there is no way that anybody would keep shell casings from a gun that he used to murder his
30:47wife the shell casings were sent to the lab for testing you never know investigators also found plastic
30:55shopping bags that looked similar to the shards of plastic found near becky's body and we seized a
31:02computer and we didn't know what we were going to find on that something rather interesting it turns out
31:10so when we start looking at the laptop search history that is when we found the information where
31:17he was searching about ted johnson the boyfriend the boyfriend so tim was researching his wife's new
31:24love interest that wasn't terribly strange but when he did it jumped out at investigators
31:31ted johnson had a missouri license plate and in the middle of the night on february 14th at 110 in the
31:38morning he starts searching information about how do i look up missouri license plates valentine's day
31:46why was that important let's go back to those security videos and how investigators saw the
31:52picture finally coming together february 14th was one of the dates they'd spotted the suspicious cyclist
31:58going to and from becky's neighborhood images that coincided with the prowler in the hyman's driveway
32:03just after 12 30 a.m and february 14th was the very same night the boyfriend told police he had stayed
32:10over at becky's parked his car outside so was this tim biking to his wife's house up to no good but then
32:21scared off by seeing a strange car with missouri plates then biking home just before 1 a.m the timing
32:29was just too perfect they thought had to be him because you see a person in the driveway see a person on
32:37the bike you see the person riding back and then at 1 10 a.m he goes down the rabbit hole into these
32:44google searches and if tim was the cyclist that night the theory went he had to be the cyclist the
32:51night of the murder as well and when investigators were poking around less than a block from tim's house
32:57they found a bike ditched behind a garage and it didn't have any reflectors on it no reflectors just
33:07like the bike on video and there was that divorce court date coming up tim was not only going to
33:13square off against becky but also against members of his own extended family who were set to testify
33:19on becky's behalf about those allegations against his father prosecutors believed it spoke to motive
33:25tim's world was going to come crashing down in his mind the puzzle had finally taken shape the
33:33picture at least to prosecutors was clear on march 13th two and a half weeks after becky was shot to
33:39death in her bathroom her estranged husband tim bleefnik was arrested and charged with her murder
33:46were you surprised no no because nobody else
33:52would ever do something like that to becky but there would be plenty of surprises ahead as the
34:01case barrel toward trial could the state put him in that house breaking in put the gun in his hand
34:06being the killer no they can't
34:21murder trials are complicated time-consuming affairs it can be years between an arrest and a jury hearing
34:29evidence in a case and preparing for one is no small feat so what prosecutors josh jones and laura keck
34:36were about to do was downright nuts so what's your shot clock what are you up against here 90 days
34:4390 days they wanted no bail for tim bleefnik and the judge agreed but in illinois if the defendant is
34:52held without bond the state is required to bring the case to trial within 90 days
34:57we got 90 days to take this to a jury uh a ton of evidence still to come back from the lab the defense
35:04could have asked for a delay but tim's attorney casey schnock chose not to so now you're both playing
35:10chicken against the clock huh oh yeah i dropped everything all hands on deck would you like to
35:14make an opening statement remarkably both sides were ready when the trial began in may 2023
35:21the last minutes of becky bleefnik's life were not spent surrounded by family friends and love
35:29the opening statement i started writing in my mind the moment you walked into that bedroom and you
35:33saw her lying on the floor now the last minutes of becky's life were spent in fear and pain and terror
35:45the prosecutors presented all the evidence they'd assembled in that compressed time period
35:51they led the jury through the steps they believe proved tim was the one riding the bike and lurking
35:56in the neighbor's yard on those security cameras they even told the jury how they think he got the bike
36:02we found that he had a a burner facebook profile at john smith we also found that the john smith
36:10was looking at this blue bike with no reflectors on facebook the bike for sale was strikingly
36:17similar to the blue bike with no reflectors found abandoned near tim's house and there was more
36:23evidence on tim's phone more suspicious internet searches his phone shows searches for the phone
36:29how to open my door with the profile how to make a homemade pistol silencer he is searching things
36:40like how to make a homemade silencer oh you're kidding prosecutors told the jury the plastic shards
36:48of the scene had perhaps been tim's attempt to make a silencer using the shopping bags found in his home
36:53it all added up to tim being the killer that was a good story that mr jones just told you
37:03a good story and a great theory admitted tim's defense attorney except for one thing could the
37:08state put him in that house breaking in put the gun in his hand being the killer no they can't
37:14you know they have somebody going into that house and killing becky i don't think they gave you tim
37:18and what about the bicycle videos those were infuriating as an attorney because you don't
37:24know where that person's going you don't know if it's the same person on each occasion we don't
37:30know anything about that individual but it tells the story of a round trip bicycle ride to a gruesome
37:35murder well it tells the story of somebody riding a bike late at night so what do you call evidence
37:40like that when it's thrown up against you circumstantial at best and the motive that tim was so angry over
37:46the way becky was handling the divorce her accusations and demands that he plotted her murder his attorney
37:52told the jury that's just not true their divorce was winding down there was no reason that tim had to
37:59do this he wasn't that angry he wasn't that mad why was his life going to be better as the prosecution
38:06saw with becky dead on the bathroom floor i don't know things weren't terrible with her in the picture
38:12and by all accounts they were looking forward to moving on with their new lives but prosecutors
38:19had something they felt did tie tim to the actual murder remember that box of shell casings found in
38:24tim's house the 27 shell casings in his house exactly matched the shell casings that were around becky
38:34they were fired by the exact same gun so the shell casings from the scene match shell casings taken from
38:40tim's home but that's not a smoking gun according to his attorney because no gun was ever found we
38:46didn't have a murder weapon you know they said it was shot with the same gun but we don't know what
38:51kind of gun they never had you know a gun in tim's possession that they could link to this murder
38:56the puzzle finally assembled but what picture did the juror see i think that was the most
39:05anxiety i've ever felt what if they find him not guilty after four hours of deliberation the verdict
39:14was in we the jury find the defendant timothy liefnik guilty of first-degree murder it was pure panic
39:25and then utter relief tim bleefnik was sentenced to life in prison he told dateline he maintains his
39:35innocence his future behind bars is of little comfort to sarah there's no possibility of recovering from
39:44something like this it's a hole that will always be there it's a purgatory
39:51but if sarah and her family are condemned to a type of purgatory she is determined to push so
40:00that other families don't join hers when we think of domestic abuse domestic violence we often think
40:08about oh well that happens to other people that happens to women who date the bad boys
40:18doesn't happen to you know the quintessential american family when we don't think that it's a possibility
40:28it becomes dangerous sarah says that even though the judge followed the letter of the law in denying
40:35becky's order of protection against him the system failed her sister by not seeing what was really going
40:41on the prosecutors in this case agree if there's not an act of physical violence where a judge can
40:48see a bruise or a broken bone it's much harder to get an order of protection and i think there is such a
40:54stigma for people when they're going through a divorce that if they claim domestic violence
41:00people assume it's just a divorce tactic so i think all of us can learn that we need to
41:06believe people and be able to help refer them to the right resources
41:12of course all of that's too late for becky and it won't change the fact that three young boys have
41:17effectively lost both parents living now with relatives
41:23and so sarah hopes people remember her little sister not for how she died but for how she lived
41:28as a mom who loved her boys and dedicated her life to making theirs and everyone else's a little bit
41:37brighter what a moving journey it was for me to hear how deeply becky was loved by her friends and
41:44family it was a flat-out privilege to meet her friend shannon becky's confidant since grade school
41:49days becky holding her hand as they stepped into the rest of their lives and of course there's becky's
41:55sister sarah in her simply unimaginable grief paying tribute to her sister's memory with an
42:01impassioned plea for new protections for victims of domestic violence sarah and becky sisters i'll
42:07remember for a long long time if anybody could know becky they would know her generous spirit i think
42:18you're proud of her always
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