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00:09tonight on Dateline she was panicking she said Becky's dead Becky's dead when somebody shot 14
00:17times that's significant this was a cold-blooded execution the entire city was shaken terrifying
00:28absolutely terrifying she's going through a divorce they both by all accounts were looking
00:34forward to getting the divorce behind them we learned that she had a boyfriend it's a big deal
00:40to look at any possible surveillance cameras this is the night of the murder yes it's a person on a
00:46bike in the middle of February there was a footprint by the window there's a person in the driveway
00:53multiple times that was the first time it really registered with her that she or her children could be
01:00in danger everybody had a theory nobody ever had any evidence to back any of that up there's no
01:06possibility of recovering from something like this it's a hole that will always be there it's a purgatory
01:15a valentine's visitor in the dark a bike rider in the cold and murder in the heartland I'm Lester
01:23Holt and this estate line here's Dennis Murphy with Ghost Rider a winter's night
01:51a cyclist pedals down deserted streets the clickety-clack of gears grinding
02:00the whirr of a tire on pavement the only sounds to pierce the silence in this small town
02:09security cameras lonely sentinels in the dark of night capture fleeting images of this ghostly rider
02:18here who was it where were they going on that February night and to what end
02:42here on a bluff above the Mississippi River mark twain country sits Quincy Illinois an apple pie slice of
02:51Midwestern Americana so this is a cool old house yes a small safe town where folks like Taylor and
02:59Taylor Hyman yep they're both named Taylor plant their roots and stay for the long haul like the house also
03:05like the neighborhood yeah oh yeah we heard nothing but good things about the neighborhood and that it was
03:11one of the safest in Quincy actually in the yard across the way is Becky yes yeah Becky bleefnick
03:18their next-door neighbor a mother of three young boys and a nurse at blessing hospital here in Quincy
03:23single mother three kids yeah the kids came over and play with their dog sometimes and she would
03:28even know our front yard yeah friendly neighbors living in nice houses on a quiet safe street until it
03:37wasn't one morning the hymen say they woke up to find their car had been broken into ransacked so they
03:47installed security cameras so the idea is if there's a prowl around this thing will tell you yeah
03:55the cameras send them an alert every time they're triggered which is what happened in the middle of
04:00the night on February 14th 2023 Valentine's Day one of the cameras captured a figure walking between
04:08the Hyman's house and Becky's could you recognize him Taylor if someone showed you a picture in the
04:12next day so that's the guy my camera guy no I could not so it's just a figure moving in
04:16the dark
04:17mm-hmm Taylor says she texted Becky right away asked if she'd seen anything and she responded back
04:23about seven in the morning saying she didn't that night but about a month ago she thought she heard
04:28voices in her backyard and that she's been very paranoid the Hyman's posted a message on the
04:35neighborhood's Facebook page be on the lookout and then the security camera alerted again
04:42February 22nd caught person coming in so when you say coming in they're going yeah coming in coming down
04:47the driveway down our driveway from the road and then about 53 minutes later we saw a person leaving
04:55what was the prowler up to and what if anything did he or she have to do with what happened
05:00the very
05:01next day that unimaginable thing about five cop cars start rolling up with EMTs so I was wondering
05:10what was going on I didn't know until the cop came over and and let us know that she's passed
05:14she's passed
05:15she they told you she was gone Becky Blefnick was dead it was her father who'd found her lying face
05:24up and bloody on her bathroom floor he called 911 was it perhaps a suicide when the officers got there
05:33it was readily apparent that that was not the case Quincy Police Chief Adam Yates heard his watch
05:39commander on the phone with the responding officers and that conversation included the words
05:45this this is clearly not a suicide other phone calls were being made including to Becky's husband
05:51Tim Becky and Tim were separated and the boys were with him that night he would have to break the
05:57news
05:57to the children Becky's sister Sarah got a call from their mother she was panicking she said Becky's
06:03dead Becky's dead we don't know anything but Becky's dead and then she said I gotta go I'll call
06:11you later which you know is uh terrifying absolutely terrifying the terrifying unknown what happened we're
06:25trying to figure it out because Becky was a healthy 41 year old mom there is no logical explanation for
06:34why
06:34she would be found dead in her home I guess you're thinking the usual things this is a botched robbery
06:39that
06:39goes wrong I didn't even think a robbery I it didn't even cross my mind but a botched robbery was
06:48very much on the mind of the phalanx of law enforcement that had descended on Becky's home
06:54including Assistant State's Attorney Josh Jones he and fellow homicide prosecutor Laura Kack were assigned
07:00the case I was actually in Laura's office and I got a phone call that there was homicide and they
07:07said
07:07gave me the address and my first response was where because that was not an address that nice houses
07:14nice lives good cars in the driveways not what not what you would expect so I drove out there it
07:18took
07:18about five minutes and a couple detectives met me at the door the prosecutor was led up the stairs and
07:26into
07:26Becky's bedroom you could see that that door to the bedroom was shut and person was trying to shut it
07:34and somebody kicked in that door or broke in that door with their shoulder and then you found her in
07:39the bathroom with her hands above her head and there were bullet holes in her hands this victim is fleeing
07:44in terror you could sense the fear that she must have felt who had pursued Becky in her own home
07:53and shot her
07:54dead it's always a puzzle it may be a puzzle that you buy for a two-year-old that has
07:59four pieces to it
08:00or in certain investigations it could be a 2,000 piece jigsaw puzzle where 25% of the pieces are
08:07missing and you don't have the box to look at the picture to see what it's supposed to be when
08:10you're
08:10finished anyway this one was shaping up to be one of those puzzles with plenty of missing pieces but
08:17maybe something at the scene would help reveal the picture it wasn't just a murder this was a cold-blooded
08:38execution
08:3941 year old mother of three Becky Blefnick was dead her sister Sarah consumed by grief how'd you get
08:47those first few days you know in between the moments of totally breaking down it was logistics that got
08:57us through being able to focus on small tasks we had to fly to Quincy investigators in Quincy were
09:07focused on the immense task of processing Becky's home I've been to lots of crime scenes before this one
09:15was different you could see that there was a concerted effort to be violent in this case
09:23the violence occurred in the bathroom off Becky's bedroom she was found there on her back we later
09:29learned she was shot 14 times 14 times it was 14 times this is somebody delivering a message to shoot
09:3514
09:35times is not you're just losing your cool this is you wanted that person dead what did the crime scene
09:43text find we found eight shell casings around the body that's helpful we knew that that was going to
09:49be important we found lots of little pieces of plastic around the body it seemed like they were parts of
09:55a
09:56plastic bag was it an attempt to silence the weapon wasn't an attempt to catch the shell casings so you
10:03got
10:03casings unexplained plastics what else is in there honestly at that point there wasn't a whole lot more
10:08investigators did find a footprint next to a broken second floor window that appeared to have been
10:13forced open the killer's likely point of entry rest of the houses have been tossed josh any sign of
10:19valuables missing no there was no evidence of anything missing from the house it didn't appear
10:25that the house had been ransacked it really appeared from the very beginning that whoever broke into the
10:32house broke into the house with the express purpose of executing becky bleefnik an execution someone hated
10:43becky enough to want her dead but to her family and friends that idea just didn't compute it wasn't
10:50possible to hate becky becky just naturally could get along with everybody that she met
10:59although sarah who is 16 months older than her sister admits there was a time she may have been
11:05the exception we lived in a one bathroom house and that caused a lot of conflicts you know two teenage
11:11girls trying to share one bathroom it's not a pleasant sight joking aside sarah says people were drawn to becky
11:23she was just a likable kind funny person she was really quirky add to that determination compassion
11:32and a whip smart brain and you have all of becky's qualities that good friend shannon zanger knew so well
11:39we met really in first grade we would hold hands and walk up the giant steps and spent a lot
11:46of time
11:46together in those those early days just kind of navigating school and being away from our parents
11:52and it's nice to have a buddy yeah it is best buddies growing up in a small farm town outside
11:59quincy
12:00pals all the way through high school where becky was the valedictorian and then college where becky
12:06played tennis and met her future husband tim bleefnik a standout on the football team who would later be
12:12enshrined in the school's hall of fame becky and shannon were still tight as becky started her
12:17career as a pharmaceutical sales rep shannon became a labor and delivery nurse babies those had always
12:26been part of becky's life plan according to her sister becky always dreamed of a family and being a
12:34mother was her number one priority and when it came time for becky and tim to have children
12:41her friend shannon the labor and delivery nurse was there you the first grade mates holding hands
12:46going up and starting life in school and now that you're delivering her child yeah how important was
12:52that to be able to be there and hold the hand of your friend as she meets one of her
12:58children is
13:00it's not something it's not something that you can put into words adequately
13:05but those happy times had a dark cloud shannon had a child born six weeks before becky's first son
13:12who became gravely ill so she's first learning motherhood and um i was dealing with you know my
13:22fourth baby being sick and becky would be there for you absolutely she most definitely was tragically
13:30shannon's child passed away but the experience of watching what shannon and her family went through
13:39the care her son received and his spirit through it all inspired becky to change careers and become
13:46a nurse becky graduated from nursing school at the top of her class again i wrote this speech because
13:53i wanted my friend to know how much she and her son affected me inspired me to be a nurse
13:58and challenged
13:59me to be a better person becky was born for this role she has an innate quality that you can't
14:05teach
14:06in a nurse she wasn't just good at testing no absolutely not she did the important part the caring part
14:14it really was her calling she really provided comfort to people in their greatest time of need but sadly
14:25nobody had been there for becky at her greatest time of need
14:29she was dead and what was left now was for the police to find her killer they were speaking with
14:35the neighbors a couple hours after the body was found that's when they came over and asked us questions
14:41the hymans told them about their security camera footage investigators were eager to take a look
14:48obviously with any investigation it's a big deal to look at any possible surveillance cameras that
14:53could be a solve for your case right absolutely i was like this could be awesome
15:12the murder of becky bleefnik had left her neighbors like the hymans right next door
15:17reeling i was just nervous to be around in general with something happening so close to your home
15:24the hymans hope their surveillance cam video of the prowler outside their home
15:29could help police catch becky's killer so did prosecutors josh jones and laura keck
15:36initially we thought we had surveillance video the night of the murder so we were
15:41got my attention tell me more huh could be a solve for your case right absolutely i was like this
15:45could
15:45be awesome and then it turns out one the the camera angle was not good and two it was not
15:51the day of
15:52the murder it was the night before and you you couldn't tell who it was i would be hard-pressed
15:57to
15:57even say if it was a man or a woman the same was true of the image the hymans camera
16:02captured about a
16:03week earlier still it was a potential lead so detectives hit the pavement looking for more video
16:11it's kind of like finding a needle in a stack of needles a lot of times because a lot of
16:15folks have
16:15video surveillance now on their houses the detectives worked their way out from becky's house knocking on
16:22doors of homes and businesses asking the same question over and over again do you have video
16:28cameras and did you capture anything you know around this particular time just to see if there's
16:33any additional evidence maybe of someone driving to and from or walking to or from or something like
16:37that the search paid off because something like that was exactly what they uncovered
16:45laura there's a figure scene on somebody's video of a guy on a bicycle yes this is the night of
16:50the
16:51murder the night of the murder yes and you see the person riding the bike and then turn towards
16:56the direction of becky bleefnik's house and i will also say it's a person on a bike in the middle
17:02of february
17:03which it's very cold and just the circumstances alone yes and it's the middle of the night so
17:08i mean that part is very strange the bike didn't appear to have reflectors which made it hard to
17:14see but a few blocks away also on the night of the murder another camera picked up what appeared
17:19to be the same cyclist pedaling toward becky's neighborhood and a short time later heading back
17:26how much information did the video give you could you tell short tall none of that all you could tell
17:32is there's a person riding a bicycle each video by itself is not super uh helpful but each video
17:40when it becomes part of the video before the video after is how these videos become that much more
17:47important the videos fit together to form an important piece of that puzzle investigators had
17:53a suspicious cyclist in the area on the night of the murder and as they kept digging they came across
17:58that same bike moving along the same route on two other nights and those sightings match right up date
18:05and time with the prowler in the driveway videos turned over by the hymens given the timing police now
18:12believed that the cyclist and the prowler were the same person and in all likelihood the person who
18:18killed becky but they wouldn't be able to get an id from the videos alone they didn't even know if
18:24they were looking for a man or a woman so they turned to becky's inner circle they were actually
18:30reaching out to us giving us information you know you may want to talk to this person you may want
18:34to
18:35talk to that person they started to learn more about becky and her soon-to-be ex-husband tim they'd
18:41once come across as the perfect couple he was a big personality remembers becky's friend shannon
18:48kind of a name in town he was a star for sure yeah very athletic good-looking charismatic guy
18:57and she was pretty proud of him and you could tell that in the beginning
19:03i think they naturally gravitated toward each other and they complemented each other at that
19:09time in their life they married after college tim was a successful salesman and the couple owned a
19:15trailer park and part of a crossfit gym where tim worked out regularly it made it easier for this
19:22salesman to pitch his favorite product himself he relished the spotlight literally taking center stage
19:29at charity events and appearing with his parents and brothers on the tv game show family feud where
19:36he basked in the laughs he got for one of his answers what's the biggest mistake you made at your
19:40wedding
19:41honey i love you but said i do saying i do was the biggest regret yeah i'm gonna get in
19:48trouble for
19:48that aren't i and the audience eats it up they go crazy but back home becky not so much says
19:55shannon
19:56there was some truth in what he said she thought i think she felt it at that point and you
20:01think
20:01that's the beginning of the end from my perspective yes yeah sarah says the marriage had been unraveling
20:10in part because tim wasn't pulling his weight tim was very much absent in home life and we used to
20:20say kind of in a joking manner but certainly not in a funny manner that becky was a single married
20:30mother
20:33it was tim who filed for divorce in 2021 moved out of the house the boys had been with him
20:39the night
20:39becky was killed police of course would have to check out tim but there was another man in becky's life
20:47for the authorities to consider a new guy named ted johnson our detectives became aware of the fact
20:56that mr johnson and misbelief nick had a relationship and they reached out to mr johnson ted told detectives
21:04that he had stayed overnight at becky's house on valentine's day february 14th you'll want to remember
21:09that and he was also there on the 21st two days before her body was found making him possibly the
21:17last person known to have seen her alive as for the night of becky's murder ted said he stayed home
21:24hadn't seen her that would have to be verified so we certainly explored that and we followed that path
21:32but that wasn't the only path they followed you must have known instinctively your guy was in trouble
21:37absolutely suspect number one
21:57the quincy community was mourning the loss of becky bleefnik loving mother and nurse extraordinaire
22:07there was memorial service at the hospital where she worked a ceremony by the quincy nursing honor guard
22:15they present her becky with white roses and ring a bell and say her name three times and then the
22:24nurses in the room stand up and we release her of duty officially and it was a beautiful beautiful
22:32thing and she deserves to be remembered that way she certainly does not deserve to be remembered as
22:41the victim of a terrible crime when the authorities were working double time to solve they knew becky had
22:50that new man in her life ted johnson he had agreed to speak with the police he gives us appropriate
22:56answers
22:57he's cooperative with the police there's no evidence that he was involved there was no evidence of motive
23:04and so we start looking at a different path and focusing our efforts in a different path
23:10down a different path and on a different man becky's estranged husband tim bleefnik tim handsome
23:18charismatic gregarious i can't say i blame the police for him being a suspect
23:25casey schnock was tim's divorce attorney at the time but she also handles her share of criminal
23:30defense cases you must have known instinctively your guy was in trouble absolutely suspect number
23:36one did you tell him it's going to be bad i told him you need to keep your mouth shut
23:40and under no circumstances do you talk to anybody i spoke with one of the investigators that was on the
23:46scene that night and i told her that you know tim wants to be helpful to the investigation but he
23:51needs to focus on his kids right now tim's kids were also his alibi he says he was home with
24:00them
24:01on the night of the murder according to casey and it was tim who alerted becky's father that something
24:06was off when he told him becky wasn't responding to his texts about the boys becky and tim had been
24:12separated two years by then could they be civil with one another they could be they had gotten a
24:20lot of the ugliness out of their system by the time february rolled around and they both by all accounts
24:26were looking forward to getting the divorce behind them but investigators had pulled those divorce
24:32records and didn't like what they saw it's not only that she's going through this divorce but it's
24:37actually scheduled to go to court a week after the murder so it hasn't all been settled no in fact
24:45there were multiple issues that were contentious at that point
24:50they were fighting over the big two issues money and custody shannon noticed it was taking a toll on
24:56her friend becky the divorce is where it was she just looked sort of beaten down by the whole process
25:04the process had taken a particularly nasty turn when tim filed for a protective order against becky
25:11she followed suit with one of her own the dueling petitions laid bare a marriage in its death throes
25:18accusations flew back and forth of poor parenting verbal assaults harassment and rage-filled destruction
25:24of property there were also accusations of pushing and grabbing but no documented physical injuries
25:31tim's attorney says it was all a lot of smoke no fire very common game play in a divorce in
25:37adams
25:37county illinois but there is no evidence in any court filings that i've ever seen that would suggest
25:43that he was abusive they both said things that they shouldn't have said during the divorce they both
25:48probably did things during the divorce that they could take back if they could becky also filed for a
25:55protective order against tim's father ray she accused him in court filings of inappropriate sexual
26:02behavior with female members of tim's extended family including minors accusations that had been
26:08floating around tim's family for years she did not want ray beliefnik to be around her children alone
26:14and that was a very contentious issue and the divorce father i want him near my kids yeah doesn't
26:19want him anywhere around the kids unsupervised tim fiercely defended his father and ray unequivocally
26:26denies the allegations allegations that nobody in the family ever brought to the attention of the
26:32authorities the protective order against ray was denied same thing for the protective orders against
26:38becky and tim but the puzzle of becky's murder was starting to reveal itself to investigators
26:45the bitter divorce had given them a string to pull a lead to follow and they began to think this
26:51former football star was hiding something behind his megawatt smile time to go back to those fuzzy
26:58pictures from the security camera another look at that biker on a cold winter's night
27:19so tim bleefnik was used to being the center of attention from his college days as a hero on the
27:24football field to parties organized around that appearance on family feud and the comment that
27:31made some people wonder honey i love you but said i do
27:37but there were different sets of eyes on tim now and they weren't looking to heap laughter and praise
27:42investigators investigators were hearing that in the privacy of his own home the outwardly charming
27:48bleefnik was a starkly different man domestic violence doesn't always manifest itself as the wife
27:54with the black eye does it it doesn't you know tim can put on a show and that show did
28:02not play out in
28:03their household he was very emotionally abusive to becky you know he was very very controlling
28:13shannon remembers when becky's third son was born as both nurse and friend she implored becky to stay
28:20an extra night in the hospital to heal and her immediate reaction was i can't he won't let me we
28:25have to go home he won't let me we have to go home yes and after they separated friends and
28:33colleagues
28:33say becky became increasingly worried about what tim might be capable of she had made lots of statements to
28:40people about being scared of tim that she thought tim might do something to her according to sarah
28:47becky started telling her how scared she was after a nurse colleague of hers was murdered by her ex
28:52partner i think that was the the first time it really registered with her that she or her children
28:59could be in danger but remember despite that very real fear becky felt the judge denied her an order
29:07of protection against him the bulk of her allegations were not physical in nature and she had no injuries
29:13to show the law with regard to protective orders treats emotional and verbal abuse differently than
29:21physical abuse detectives decided it was time to take a look inside tim's home
29:27they executed a search warrant one thing that we found was a box of shell casings spent spent shell
29:35casings investigators had eight shell casings from the scene seemed unlikely these would be a match
29:42and in my mind i was like there's no way there is no way that anybody would keep shell casings
29:49from a gun that he used to murder his wife the shell casings were sent to the lab for testing
29:56you never
29:57know investigators also found plastic shopping bags that looked similar to the shards of plastic found
30:04near becky's body and we seized a computer and we didn't know what we were going to find on that
30:12something rather interesting it turns out so when we start looking at the laptop search history that
30:21is when we found the information where he was searching about ted johnson the boyfriend the boyfriend
30:27so tim was researching his wife's new love interest that wasn't terribly strange but when he did it
30:33jumped out at investigators ted johnson had a missouri license plate and in the middle of the night
30:41on february 14th at 110 in the morning he starts searching information about how do i look up missouri
30:49license plates valentine's day why was that important let's go back to those security videos
30:55and how investigators saw the picture finally coming together february 14th was one of the dates they'd
31:01spotted the suspicious cyclist going to and from becky's neighborhood images that coincided with
31:07the prowler in the hyman's driveway just after 12 30 a.m and february 14th was the very same night
31:13the boyfriend told police he had stayed over at becky's parked his car outside so was this tim
31:22biking to his wife's house up to no good but then scared off by seeing a strange car with missouri
31:29plates
31:30then biking home just before 1 a.m the timing was just too perfect they thought had to be him
31:40because you see a person in the driveway see a person on the bike you see the person riding back
31:45and then at 1 10 a.m he goes down the rabbit hole into these google searches and if tim
31:52was the cyclist
31:53that night the theory went he had to be the cyclist the night of the murder as well
31:59and when investigators were poking around less than a block from tim's house they found a bike
32:05ditched behind a garage and it didn't have any reflectors on it no reflectors just like the bike
32:13on video and there was that divorce court date coming up tim was not only going to square off against
32:19becky but also against members of his own extended family who were set to testify on becky's behalf
32:25about those allegations against his father prosecutors believed it spoke to motive tim's
32:31world was going to come crashing down in his mind the puzzle had finally taken shape the picture at
32:39least to prosecutors was clear on march 13th two and a half weeks after becky was shot to death in
32:45her
32:45bathroom her estranged husband tim bleefnik was arrested and charged with her murder were you
32:52surprised no no because nobody else would ever do something like that to becky
33:03but there would be plenty of surprises ahead as the case barrel toward trial
33:08could the state put him in that house breaking in put the gun in his hand being the killer no
33:13they can't
33:18do
33:29murder trials are complicated time-consuming affairs it can be years between an arrest and a jury hearing
33:36evidence in a case and preparing for one is no small feat so what prosecutors josh jones and laura keck
33:44were about to do was downright nuts so what's your shot clock what are you up against here 90 days
33:5290 days they wanted no bail for tim bleefnik and the judge agreed but in illinois if a defendant is
34:00held without bond the state is required to bring the case to trial within 90 days
34:06we got 90 days to take this to a jury a ton of evidence still to come back from the
34:11lab the defense
34:12could have asked for a delay but tim's attorney casey schnock chose not to so now you're both
34:17playing chicken against the clock huh oh yeah i dropped everything all hands on deck you like to make an
34:23opening statement remarkably both sides were ready when the trial began in may 2023 the last minutes of
34:30becky bleefnik's life were not spent surrounded by family and friends love the opening statement
34:37i started writing in my mind the moment you walked into that bedroom and you saw her lying on the
34:42floor
34:44now the last minute of becky's life was sent in fear and pain and terror
34:53the prosecutors presented all the evidence they'd assembled in that compressed time period
34:59they led the jury through the steps they believe proved tim was the one riding the bike and lurking in
35:04the neighbor's yard on those security cameras they even told the jury how they think he got the bike
35:09we found that he had a a burner facebook profile at john smith we also found that the john smith
35:17was
35:18looking at this blue bike with no reflectors on facebook the bike for sale was strikingly similar
35:25to the blue bike with no reflectors found abandoned near tim's house and there was more evidence on tim's
35:31phone more suspicious internet searches his phone shows searches for the following how to open my door
35:40with a program how to make a homemade pistol silencer he is searching things like how to make a homemade
35:49silencer oh you're kidding
35:54prosecutors told the jury the plastic shards of the scene had perhaps been tim's attempt to make a
35:59silencer using the shopping bags found in his home it all added up to tim being the killer
36:06that was a good story that mr jones just told you
36:10a good story and a great theory admitted tim's defense attorney except for one thing could the
36:16state put him in that house breaking in put the gun in his hand being the killer no they can't
36:22you know they have somebody going into that house and killing becky i don't think they gave you tim
36:26and what about the bicycle videos those were infuriating as an attorney because you don't know
36:32where that person's going you don't know if it's the same person on each occasion we don't know
36:38anything about that individual but it tells the story of a round trip bicycle ride to a gruesome murder
36:43well it tells the story of somebody riding a bike late at night so what do you call evidence like
36:47that when it's thrown up against you circumstantial at best and the motive that tim was so angry over
36:54the way becky was handling the divorce her accusations and demands that he plotted her murder his attorney
37:00told the jury that's just not true their divorce was winding down there was no reason that tim had to
37:07do this he wasn't that angry he wasn't that mad why was his life going to be better as the
37:13prosecution saw
37:14with becky dead on the bathroom floor i don't know things weren't terrible with her in the picture and
37:20by all accounts they were looking forward to moving on with their new lives but prosecutors had something
37:27they felt did tie tim to the actual murder remember that box of shell casings found in tim's house the
37:3327
37:34shell casings in his house exactly matched the shell casings that were around becky they were fired by
37:42the exact same gun so the shell casings from the scene match shell casings taken from tim's home
37:49but that's not a smoking gun according to his attorney because no gun was ever found we didn't
37:55have a murder weapon you know they said it was shot with the same gun but we don't know what
37:59kind of gun
37:59they never had you know a gun in tim's possession that they could link to this murder
38:05the puzzle finally assembled but what picture did the juror see i think that was the most
38:13anxiety i've ever felt what if they find him not guilty after four hours of deliberation the verdict was
38:22in we the jury find the defendant timothy bleefnik guilty of first-degree murder it was pure panic
38:33and then utter relief tim bleefnik was sentenced to life in prison he told dateline he maintains his
38:42innocence and is appealing his conviction his future behind bars is of little comfort to sarah
38:48there's no possibility of recovering from something like this
38:54it's a hole that will always be there it's a purgatory
39:02but if sarah and her family are condemned to a type of purgatory she is determined to push so that
39:08other families don't join hers when we think of domestic abuse domestic violence we often think
39:16about oh well that happens to other people that happens to women who date the bad boys
39:25doesn't happen to you know the quintessential american family
39:31when we don't think that it's a possibility it becomes dangerous sarah says that even though the
39:40judge followed the letter of the law in denying becky's order of protection against him the system
39:46failed her sister by not seeing what was really going on the prosecutors in this case agree if
39:53there's not an act of physical violence where a judge can see a bruise or a broken bone it's much
39:58harder to get an order of protection and i think there is such a um stigma for people when they're
40:05going
40:05through a divorce that if they claim domestic violence people assume it's just a divorce tactic
40:10so i think all of us can learn that we need to believe people and be able to help refer
40:15them to the right resources of course all of that's too late for becky and it won't change the fact
40:23that three young boys have effectively lost both parents living now with relatives
40:30and so sarah hopes people remember her little sister not for how she died but for how she lived
40:38as a mom who loved her boys and dedicated her life to making theirs and everyone else's
40:44a little bit brighter if anybody could know becky they would know her generous spirit
40:54i think you're proud of her always
41:03that's all for this edition of dateline we'll see you again friday at 9 8 central and of course i'll
41:09see
41:09you each week night for nbc nightly news i'm lester holt for all of us at nbc news good night
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