48 Hours - Kristen Trickle: Autopsy of the Mind

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

A Kansas woman is found dying from a gunshot wound. Evidence at the scene doesn’t add up, so a prosecutor gets creative. Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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There's definitely mysteries involved in this case. It was a cold Halloween morning, even had some snow on the ground. The call came out at 5.37 in the morning. Colbert Trickle had called our dispatch. They met us on the porch. Exactly where is the house? It's right here. It's this one that's red and white. Did he seem upset? There were tears coming down. And it was hard to understand. I was ch and white. Did he seem upset? There were tears coming down.

And it was hard to understand. I was choked up. We go up to the door, start making announcements inside. Hays Police Department. Looking to my left is when I first see Kristen. I kind of focused in on her jaw moving. I could see the movement of her jaw. We've got a hole. We're going to start to see the other.

Do we have a hole? Yeah. Yep. So she was still alive. We were hopeful. Could she be saved? No. After you did your autopsy, how did you

rule on Kristen Trickle's death? Homicide or suicide? Suicide. Suicide. Yep. The victim's family in this, right out of the gate, was just adamant that this was not a suicide. The scene was kind of unusual. You had a female with a large weapon laying in bed,

and it's not common to see that. You have a replica or a very similar type of gun. Can you show it to me? Sure. How large? It's pretty hefty, as you can tell. It's a hand cannon. I'm a little surprised. Yeah. It's pretty hefty, as you can tell. It's a hand can. I'm a little surprised.

Yeah. It's awkward to maneuver, not something you'd easily turn on yourself. We had evidence that led us to believe that Colby Trickle had killed his wife. I do not believe he did it. I was Colby Trickle's defense attorney. When he called 911, she was still showing signs of life. Had he intended to murder her, it just seems odd that he would call immediately.

I think it's very possible that Kristen Trickle picked up a gun that night in great anguish and ended her life. A professional came in and looked at the life of Kristen, dug into basically every aspect of her life, got into who Kristen was prior to her death. So basically this is a psychological autopsy trying to figure out the state of mind of a person who died.

That's difficult to do, isn't it? Yeah. And had this ever been done in the state of Kansas before? Never in a criminal case, no. Erin Moriarty reports. Kristen Trickle, autopsy of the mind. Sergeant Brandon Hauptman of the Hayes Police Department vividly remembers the dark, cold Halloween morning as he arrived at Kristen Trickle's home. The bedroom she was in is actually this window on the left.

Oh, the bedroom's right there. Yeah, that's the bedroom right there. And the moment he found the 26-year-old near death in bed. I could see the firearm. From what I could tell initially, a large caliber revolver and laying across her abdomen about like this. How was she dressed? Almost fully undressed.

She was just wearing underwear. After Kristen showed signs of life, the sergeant quickly moved the revolver away from her and carried Kristen into the living room for CPR. The only injury that I could see at that point was the entrance wound. And where was that entrance wound? Underneath her chin here.

There was nothing the first responders could do for Kristen. I went out to Colby on the porch and told him that she had died. Hello. My name's Brandon Hauptman. I'm the sergeant working today. Hauptman's body camera was only recording

audio that day. She died. And I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Are you sure? Are you sure? Sergeant Hauptman says he asked Kristen's husband, Colby, to go to the police station so he could tell investigators what happened.

Did he seem to be cooperative? He was, yep. Decorated the go-up. We got him some shoes. At the station, Colby said that hours earlier, Kristen had come home from Walmart, where she worked in the gardening center, and the couple had played video games. He went to bed before his wife, he said, and woke up to his ears ringing, and then found Kristen lying next to him with a gunshot wound to her head. I ran up to her, and she was just looking at me.

What did you do? I ran over to my phone and I called 911. Colby told investigators that while he was on the phone with 911, he checked Kristen's pulse but felt nothing and then picked the revolver off her body. Where was the gun at? It was laying by her neck. What did you do with the gun?

For a moment, he says he thought about taking his own life. Sending people. Does that make anything help her? While Colby Trickle was still at the station, Kristen's Aunt Delynn and Uncle Brant Rice, a local pastor, found out Kristen had died. I got a call from my mom. And worst phone call ever to get.

She said, Kristen's dead. She's been shot. And it was just awful. I said, Mom, that can't be right. That can't be right. That doesn't even make sense. But more baffling was that Colby had said Kristen's death was a suicide. What did you tell investigators initially? We just don't think she would do this? Oh, 100%. I said, there's no way of all the people I know in this world,

the last person that I would ever think would take their own life would be Kristen, because of the joy she has. It's so out of character to Kristen and how she solves problems. She's not a runner from problems. D'Lynn and Brant Rice say Kristen's family and her two dogs meant the world to her.

The thought of her hurting herself in any way. Or anyone. Or anyone is so foreign. She would never take her life and not tie up loose ends with her family, make sure her dogs had somewhere to go. And they believe they knew her better than just about anyone else. They had watched her grow up. It is hard to find a photograph. She is not smiling just fully.

She had had that smile even though Dillon and Brandt say Kristen had a tough childhood. Her mother left her and her father when Kristen was two years old. When she was 17, Kristen moved in with her aunt and uncle and their three kids. D'Lynn and Brant say she thrived. She loved being with our family. She loved the peace in our home. Chloe is Brant and D'Lynn's daughter. Kristen was my older sister figure in my life,

and I really looked up to her, and she was just, like, always there to make me smile and feel important. The family remembers when Kristen met Colby. They were both 18 years old. Colby attended our church. Colby, for a time, was on the worship team at our church. They are the band that plays the worship music during our services. He wowed her with his guitar playing abilities, songs that he had written.

As years went on, I quickly grew. But just five years later, Kristen was dead, and Colby was saying she took her own life. Coroner Lyle Nordhook examined the scene. And looking at the wound, he believed the revolver was in close range to her chin when it was fired. And in Nordhook's experience, that was not unusual for a self-inflicted gunshot wound. How would you believe the revolver was being held? Close to the chin and parallel to the body. Like this?

Yeah. But Detective J.B. Burkholder had also been called to the house. We respond to suicides. They happen several times a year. And to him, this didn't seem like suicide. several times a year. And to him, this didn't seem like suicide. Having a female with a gunshot wound, especially to the head, was unusual for us.

Why? Why is that more unusual for women, you think? For women, they're a little bit more concerned about looks, even after death, and so they think about that. And there was something else. When I got there, I remember an alarm going off. Kristen's cell phone alarm is heard repeatedly on audio recorded by first responders. I think I actually silenced it. She had set an alarm to get up, to get ready for work, and had plans for that day. A lot of times individuals who are thinking about suicide, they're not setting alarms, it doesn't matter when they get up.

There was candy set out in the kitchen area. She and Colby had planned for Halloween to go on as it normally would with trick-or-treating. And nothing troubled him more than that weapon found at the scene. Detective Burkholder wasn't sure Kristen was the one who fired him. The gun was a full-sized.357 revolver, a large caliber weapon, approximately 11 to 12 inches. It can be hard to handle. And so being able to place that gun under your chin

and discharge that firearm just didn't seem very likely for a smaller female in what was described as a dark bedroom. This wasn't an open and shut suicide case. There was questions. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS.

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Colby Trickle spoke with investigators for more than 11 hours. What's your name? Colby. Colby? Yes, ma'am. I'm so sorry. He was asked over and over again to recount the events of the night before. Did you guys have any fights, anything like that yesterday? No. Colby also told investigators

about his job with the U.S. military as part of human intelligence. There's some interesting places they send you with being intel but they sent me to Middle East and they sent me down into Central America. Sounds like some movie stuff right there. First impressions of Colby Trickle, it's that he was a guy who was in the military. He had a, I guess, a decorated past of overseas tours. And then also Colby Trickle was a guy who loved his wife. But Detective J.B JB Burkholder says he had questions about Colby's account of the morning Kristen died. After finding Kristen, Colby says he called 911,

and as he later told police, he picked up the gun and thought about ending his life. What troubled Burkholder is where Colby put the gun after he changed his mind, back on Kristen's stomach. I put it back down and ran outside. It's just very odd. It doesn't seem as though if I'm calling 911, if my wife's dying on the bed, that I would place the gun back down on her body. Colby was asked if there was any life insurance on Kristen. I have some on me from military, but that's it.

No insurance on Kristen, he said, and then was asked if he had anything to do with Kristen's death. Did you affect kill her? No. Colby left the police station that day, but first responder Sergeant Helpman was increasingly suspicious about Colby's actions at the scene. He wondered why Colby didn't demand to be by Kristen's side as they tried to save her life. Your wife's inside and here she is, you know, bleeding out, dying, and you're on the porch.

While first responders were administering CPR, Colby was chatting with officers about video games. That conversation was recorded by a police body cam. What kind of games do you guys like to play? Counter-Strike? Everything from Call of Duty to Minecraft. That day, as investigators got a search warrant for Colby's cell phone, an autopsy for Kristen Trickle was underway. At the scene, Coroner Lyle Nordhug, who suspected suicide, had looked for any evidence that someone else was involved,

like signs of a struggle. Were there any signs of defensive wounds or any signs that she had fought with anyone before she died? No. Coroner Nordhoek says he also examined Kristen's body for signs of past physical abuse. Typically, if there's a series of progressive injuries over a period of time,

so you can tell that they've been beating on each other. In this case, I wasn't really seeing that, so I'm going, well, I have to take the husband's statement at word value that he was there and the gun went off and she is dead. Nordhoek says three days after Kristen's death, based on the information he had at the time, he determined that the manner of death was a suicide. But Kristen's Uncle Brent and Aunt Delynn say the more they learned about the facts of the case, the more questions they had. When I heard that it was a gun, there's no way. We knew Kristen was scared of guns. Kristen was also very, very private in her body, very modest. When I found out she was not dressed, that was shocking to me. Reflecting on Kristen's relationship with Colby,

Brant and Dillon told authorities that for years they were bothered by what they say was Colby's controlling behavior. If she didn't immediately respond to a text or wasn't able to answer her phone, he would get very frustrated with her. He wanted her at his beck and call. At the time, the Reises say, they told Kristen they had serious concerns about Colby. We know that she was not happy with us.

I believe that he convinced her that we were against her, and therefore she separated herself somewhat. Kristen decided to marry Colby and eventually moved almost 300 miles away to Kansas City. But life for the couple was difficult, says Brandt. Colby enlisted with the Army Reserve and did odd jobs. Kristen worked at a vet clinic. Money was tight. In early 2019, the couple moved back to the Hays area. And the Rises say Kristen was coming to their church again.

Oh, we were thrilled. We were so thrilled to reconnect with Kristen. And it was just like it was when she lived in our home. And in the months before her death, they say she was making plans to launch her pet boarding business. She had picked out a little house that's south of town and has a little barn behind it.

And she wanted to turn the little barn into the boarding area. To the Rice family, Kristen seemed happy and excited for her future. But after her death, Brant and D'Lynn wondered about Colby. Was Colby's story, they poured over the data in his cell phone. There's several, I guess, two big aha moments. They discovered Colby had been exchanging flirtatious Snapchat messages with another woman. He had conversations with her, which would be described as a sexting conversation. Also on that cell phone, according to Detective J.B. Burkholder, was evidence that contradicted what Colby had first told investigators when asked about life insurance on his wife.

I have some on me from military, but that's it. Cell phone data revealed that not only was Colby aware Kristen was covered by a life insurance policy called SGLI for spouses of military members, in the days before her death, they say, he Googled the amount the policy would pay out. Detective Ridgeway was able to find a, well, I believe it was a screenshot of a search that he had conducted 10 days prior to Kristen's death, asking what his spouse's life insurance would be. On November 4th, 2019, investigators asked Colby to return for more questioning. 10 days ago, you looked up a life insurance issue? When?

I never did. You did? I never did. If I died? No, if your spouse died. Colby, who agreed to talk without a lawyer, suggested that Kristen might have done the search herself on his phone. Investigators also asked Colby about his online relationship.

Colby admitted that it had started a few months prior to his wife's death, after he met the woman on a group chat while playing video games. Colby told them the relationship was a virtual one, that he had never actually met the woman. But investigators discovered he had been texting with her just hours after Kristen's death while he was still at the police station. I guess to his credit, he said that he was busy and couldn't talk right now. But then he said, I wish I could. Aaron Cunningham is assistant Ellis County attorney. Which is probably the last thing that you should say to a woman you're having an online affair with

when you're being investigated about your wife's death when colby trickle left the police station after his second interview detective burkholder checked out his claim that kristen had used his phone to research life insurance policies we were able to get video surveillance video from the walmart store We were able to get surveillance video from the Walmart store. What they discovered was that Kristen was at work at Walmart at the time the cell phone search was made. We were able to see that she didn't have access to a phone. The inconsistencies in Colby's statements kept piling up, says Burkholder, like this one. She keeps the revolver on her side. Colby had said Kristen had kept the.357 revolver by her side of the bed, but that didn't seem to line up with what Burkholder

saw at the scene. When we looked at the scene, we saw multiple firearms on what was described as Colby's side of the bed. There were also photos of the couple's bedroom found on Colby's phone. So this picture was taken, I believe, a month prior to Kristen's death. You see a large framed revolver on the bed where Colby trickles, described as being his. And do you think that's the.357?

That's the only.357 in the house that we found. That tells me that this was Colby's gun. Still, the investigation stalled. You have all these investigators who are uncovering more and more evidence that there's something really wrong with this case. And you've got the coroner who calls this a suicide. I mean, that's a problem, isn't it? It is and it isn't. It was initially, wasn't it? Sure. Well, certainly as far as their ability to investigate as efficiently as they normally would.

Cunningham says that the coroner's determination that Kristen had died by suicide limited the investigator's ability to obtain search warrants. There were still elements of the investigation law enforcement wanted to follow up on. In the winter of 2020, Colby began collecting payouts from two insurance policies, $23,000 from Walmart and $100,000 from the U.S. military. Meanwhile, investigators continued to learn more about his time in the military. He was a reserve officer in the military that was never deployed.

Wait, so wait a minute. So he was never deployed to Central America? He had no overseas deployments that were told to us by the United States military. And he had no experience talking to informants as part of his job as an intelligence analyst? Right. But even with what looked like blatant lies and an apparent motive to kill his wife, police didn't arrest Colby. and an apparent motive to kill his wife, police didn't arrest Colby.

So in the year after Kristen's death, authorities watched as Colby Trickle went on with his life. It is very frustrating to me. I would run into him in public. Playing music at a restaurant in town. It made my skin crawl. So whatever storm you're in, keep pushing forward. Posting Facebook self-help videos. Get to the outside where you're free and enjoy life. But then, nearly two years after Kristen's death, a newly elected county attorney decided to try something very new that he thought could put Kobe away for life.

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this is something that's clearly a homicide. Help us to get the nails put in this coffin. After reviewing the file, Anderson believed that the coroner got it wrong and that this was a homicide. On July 14, 2021, he charged Colby Trickle with the murder of his wife, Kristen. Certainly the insurance money provides motive. In addition, being in bed next to your husband, naked, shooting oneself in the face,

after having set alarms to get up the next day for work, after setting out candy for Halloween. These circumstances don't point to a woman who was planning a suicide. Hey, uh, could you step out of the car and come to the back of the car with me? When police arrested Colby, he didn't seem surprised. Detectives, I have some questions for you. Sure. Push you under arrest. You turn around, put your hands behind your back. Sure. And denied killing Kristen. I didn't do it. I know many people don't believe that, and I respect that. I believe him. You don't believe that he would shoot his wife? I do not.

Cassie Ziegler is one of Colby Trickle's defense attorneys. He cares about his spiritual life. He's a devoted Christian. I don't see that in him, this ability to connive and plan all of this. Instead, she says Kristen had suffered from depression since childhood. I think that Kristen dealt with a lot more pain in her life than people acknowledged. I don't think there's any worse rejection in life than to be rejected by your biological mother. At an early age, that's exactly what happened. Colby's attorney felt confident going into the trial.

The coroner was standing by his assessment that Kristen's death was a suicide. You had the ability, you had the power to change this determination if you wanted to prior to trial. Yes. You could have, but you didn't. If I've made a determination, am I going to change it to homicide based on an accusation before court proceeding? No. So county attorney Anderson knew he had to do something to convince a jury that Kristen didn't die by suicide. And that's when he pursued a different type of autopsy, a psychological one, an autopsy of the mind. And to conduct it,

Anderson hired a forensic psychologist, Dr. Ashley Christensen. Her job? To determine Kristen's state of mind leading up to her death. Being unable to speak with them because they're, of course, no longer here, they have to speak with their family, their friends, their co-workers. They review any social media, diaries, journals, anything that they can. Christensen's conclusions would eventually take center stage at Colby Trickle's trial. It was September 2023 Prosecutor Cunningham began by telling the jury that Kristen Trickle was murdered for the oldest reasons in the world. This case is as simple as A, B, C. A, an affair.

B, a breakdown of control. And C, cold hard cash. Colby's attorney disputed that. You may proceed whenever you're ready, Ms. Ziegler. Thank you, Your Honor. Cassie Ziegler says Colby's alleged affair was really just an online flirtation. I don't think there was a plan to have this long-term intimate affair. She also denies that Colby

plotted to kill Kristen for cash. And about that Google search into the life insurance payout, Ziegler says Colby doesn't remember doing that search. But she acknowledges he had been filling out paperwork around that time for his own military life insurance. And if he did do it, maybe that's why. It's just a coincidence that this is happening days before his wife dies. Unfortunately so, yeah. Bad timing. At trial, the jury learned that Colby Trickle had not only collected more than $120,000 from two life insurance policies on his wife, he had already gone through it. I think he had spent all of the money in approximately eight months.

What did he spend the money on? When Detective J.B. Burkholder took the stand, he was asked to describe one expenditure in particular. Colby's attorney says Colby was having trouble sleeping alone and was quite open about the purchase. He went and talked to his mother about it. If you're going to buy a... It's a little odd. Yeah.

If you're going to buy a sex toy, a grown man's not going to go talk to his mother about this sex doll he's going to buy. What was your reaction to that? Disgusted. Just disgusted. It was described at trial that he needed this doll for comfort. For comfort and warmth. We have electric blankets that we use for that.

When Brant Rice took the stand, he told the jury that his niece had become more assertive in her relationship with her husband in the months before her death. I feel that she had really begun to stand up for herself. We were proud of her for that. And there were texts, says Cunningham, that seemed to support that Colby feared he was losing control over Kristen. On April 8th, 2019, when Colby texted that Kristen seemed different and pushy with things, she responded. I'm just deciding to stick up for myself. Just like you, I'm taking control of the situation. And then prosecutors

called their star witness, Dr. Ashley Christensen. Around the time of her death, there was a lot of data suggesting that she had a lot of hope. Dr. Christensen testified that Kristen talked to family members about future plans and seemed optimistic. She wanted to open her own either pet boarding or dog grooming business and had discussed his goal for opening her business. But Christensen also testified that she interviewed Colby for her report, and he offered what sounded like a reason why Kristen might have been stressed. He told the doctor Kristen knew about his online relationship with that other woman. He reported that they had last discussed that relationship the week of her death. But remember, in his police interview, Colby had told investigators that he didn't think Kristen knew. So which is it? Did she know or she didn't know? I believe she knew.

Whether or not Kristen knew, Dr. Christensen told the jury she believed that at the time of her death, Kristen was at a low risk for suicide. It is my opinion that it is relatively less likely that her death was the result of suicide. I love those words, relatively less likely. That doesn't tell me anything. We can't know the mind of someone who's going to end their life. Defense attorney Ziegler does not think the report should have been allowed in as evidence. She points out that Dr. Christensen, who never met Kristen Trickle,

did interviews and prepared her report nearly two years after Kristen's death. And Ziegler believes people's memories change over time. That is a long time to go back and talk to people about Kristen. But prosecutors thought there was another piece of evidence that could bring them a guilty verdict. What do you think is the most powerful evidence against Colby Trickle? Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge?

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Hellish. On September 22nd, 2023, it was Colby Trickle's last chance to convince a jury that he had nothing to do with his wife's death. He decided not to testify, but his attorney, Cassie Ziegler, called his mother, Tina Kreitzer, to the stand. Kreitzer described her daughter-in-law as a woman who rarely revealed her feelings. Couldn't read her, very emotionless. It's a drastically different Kristen, says attorney Ziegler, than the one her family describes. By their explanation, just the happiest,

most joyful person, never stops smiling. She almost is walking on water. I mean, when the reality is we have no idea how she's really feeling. Now you find out he's having an emotional relationship with someone else online. I just, I can imagine that being the last straw. But in his final argument to the jurors, prosecutor Aaron Cunningham shows them the weapon that killed Kristen and says she couldn't have fired it. Members of the jury, this doesn't add up. The state is going to demonstrate it to you. Prosecutor Cunningham showed us with a similar gun. If you look at the autopsy photos, you see a little divot at the three o'clock mark, which is believed by the coroner to be the sight imprint of the gun. And I knew Kristen was right-handed. The natural way

a right-handed person would hold a gun to their head for suicide would be something like this, or maybe something like this, putting the sight mark somewhere between 9 o'clock and 6 o'clock. So for the sight mark to have wound up over at the 3 o'clock angle would be very unnatural. Cunningham showed us how he believes Colby Trickles shot his wife while she slept next to him. It would be consistent with the placement of the sight mark that he would have grabbed the gun from his nightstand, rolled over in bed,

and placed the gun just underneath her chin and pulled the trigger. So if you keep it here, then this then would explain what appears on her neck here. As the case went to the jury, Ziegler had hoped that they would still have too many doubts. How significant is it, the fact that the coroner went to trial, still saying it was a suicide,

when the prosecutors are saying it's a homicide? Yeah, it's huge. We have to show doubt that's reasonable. And I think there's plenty of that. That's what Kristen's family feared as well. All they have to do is convince one of those 12 that they have a reasonable doubt. What are we going to do if he walks out a free man?

They don't have to wait long. Less than two hours later, there was a verdict. Count one. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of premeditated murder in the first degree of Christian Trickle. Colby Trickle was found guilty for first-degree premeditated murder and interference with law enforcement, falsely reporting information. What do you remember of the verdict? What did you hear? Just feeling like I could breathe.

Yeah. Just feeling a breath. The relief for safety for our family. I feel like we got our life back. Yeah. After the verdict, we spoke with Coroner Lyle Nordhuk, who said he planned to amend Kristen Trickle's death certificate to now read homicide. He admitted he had decided on suicide before talking to anyone in Kristen's family

or seeing the weapon used to kill her. But I'm a little surprised. Wouldn't that have been important for you to make, to know the size of the weapon to be able to make your death investigation determination? The police should have all that information, and it's usually correlated with the pathologist, but it wasn't in this case. The fact that he had done research on insurance, were you aware of that? No. Were you aware that they found evidence that he was having an online affair? No, they didn't share that with me either. If you had known that, would you have left that as suicide? No. Investigators acknowledge they should have done a better job keeping him informed.

On November 20th, 2023, Colby Trickle returned to court for sentencing, admitting only that he could have been a better husband. Something that I cannot apologize for is harming Kristen that morning because I cannot apologize for what I didn't do. Regardless of that fact, I still take partial blame for that morning. I always wondered if she would still be here had I been a better husband. Judge Glenn Braun sentenced Colby Trickle. The court will sentence you to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years. With Colby Trickle in prison, the Reises say their family is finally beginning to grieve the young woman gone way too soon. Kristen's cousin, Chloe, who grew up with Kristen, wrote a song for her.

How often do you think about Kristen? All the time. Every day. Every day. You know, we drive by that little house. The house where Kristen one day hoped to start her dream business. You call it Kristen's house, don't you? Yeah.

She had a future. She had found her faith again. When you were with her, you felt loved, a beautiful heart, a gentle, gentle spirit. And she was just an amazing girl. I never had the chance, so now I'm telling you goodbye. 800-799-7233. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.