48 Hours - Post Mortem | Kristen Trickle: Autopsy of the Mind

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

Join Correspondent Erin Moriarty and Producers Asena Basak and Iris Carreras as they discuss the suicide-turned-homicide case of Kristen Trickle. They delve deeper into the text messages between her and her husband, Colby, which prosecutors alleged showed his motive for murder. They also cover why Colby claimed he needed to buy a life-size sex doll with the insurance money he received after Kristen’s death. 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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and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. 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. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host, Anne-Marie Green. Today, we're talking about the murder of Kristen Trickle, a 26-year-old woman who died from a gunshot wound to the head.

But did Kristen pull the trigger, or was her husband, Colby Trickle, capable of murder? With me to discuss the case is correspondent Erin Moriarty, producer Asena Basak, and field producer Iris Carreras. Welcome, guys. Thank you so much. Hi. Hi, Annemarie. Hello. We always love to talk about cases that have some very unusual aspects. And so if you have not listened or watched this episode, I urge you to go back. The episode is Kristen Trickle, Autopsy of the Mind. You're going to find it just below this podcast in your feed. So check it out and listen and then come back. But if you have, let's get started.

Something a little unusual, Erin. What sets this hour apart from others this season? I think the main reason why we did this story was that we encountered something Something a little unusual, Erin. What sets this hour apart from others this season? I think the main reason why we did this story was that we encountered something we had never ever encountered in a case before. And it was something that was called a psychological evaluation, essentially an autopsy of the mind

where the prosecution hired a forensic psychologist to talk to everyone in the victim's life to try to determine what was her state of mind leading up to her death. The psychologist, Dr. Christensen, talked to Colby and members of his family. And talked to Kristen's friends and family. She interviews many people in Kristen's life. She also looks at medical records, journals, diaries, her legal past, if she had any convictions. She just tries to review everything that's possible out there to review that'll give her any idea about who Kristen was

leading up to her death. Yeah. And Erin, you have the document, this psychological assessment, and it's pretty thorough. Oh, absolutely. And what she does is she kind of weighs against the risk factors, what makes you more likely to be depressed or maybe consider taking your life against the protective factors, the things that would keep you from taking actions like that. So I had said to you that I was a little suspicious of this. And I was surprised that they allowed this report to be entered in as evidence. And part of it had to do with,

you don't know what's in other people's minds. We often present ourselves differently in public than maybe the way we feel inside. And I just thought, we don't know what happened in those final hours of her life with her, with her relationship with her husband. Yeah. Nobody knows the last 48 hours of Kristen's life. Except for Colby. Except for Colby. Right. So her family saw her three days before her death. So they're not really sure. Was there a huge fight? We don't know any details about the night before other than what Colby had told investigators. So there's a this case, as you can imagine, Colby Trickle defense

says, you know, people's memory, they are changed, they are degraded after two years. So or something stays in their head that may not be accurate. Also, they're going through a grieving process. So that makes it harder for people, I think, to give a fair assessment two years later. Ultimately, do we know why the judge determined that this report was valuable, was essential? I think what made this so controversial was the fact that the defense objected to allowing in a report when this psychologist never got to talk to Kristen herself. I mean, it's often done with defendants and they are alive and they're able to talk to psychologists. It's rare for someone to be hired to try to figure out what was in the state of

mind of the victim. You can't talk to the victim. And in this case, what the defense really objected to was that she didn't interview anyone until almost two years later. It's almost like putting together a puzzle with a piece missing in the middle. The most important piece. Yeah. The psychologist does not say suicide or homicide. I guess the conclusion of the report was that it is relatively less likely that Ms. Trickle's death was a result of suicide. So I think the judge felt that this was not a determination of homicide or suicide.

The big question, I think, was how much did it influence the jury? only here, it's relatively less likely. Do they then take the word of a PhD psychologist who had interviewed people on both sides? And do they take that as a determination? But I think I have to say, I know you have your questions about it. I found the report so helpful. I'm taking this report with me as a reporter to analyze every case that I run into when there's a question between homicide and suicide. I found it very helpful. According to Kristen's family, they don't believe that she killed herself because she was planning for her future. She was excited about a business that she wanted to start, boarding animals. She was looking at that cute little house.

Was there any evidence at all, any warning signs that she had considered taking her own life? Not that it seemed to be clear to the prostitution or really even the defense couldn't. There was evidence that Colby Trickle had at times talked about. I had suicide ideations, but not with Kristen. And in fact, there were all these signs that she was thinking about the future. She was planning to go to her grandmother's house and decorate a Christmas tree the next day. She didn't plan to have someone take the dogs. The only big question was, did she know about the online relationship? I think their marriage was less than perfect. They had a lot of financial

issues and they had just gotten back from Kansas City. So they were living in Kansas City and Kristen was a little bit isolated, living about 300 miles away from Hays, Kansas, where Kristen's family was. After Kristen came back to Hays, she was reconnecting with her family. She was back at her church. She had future plans, long-term and short-term. So those are the things that Dr. Christensen looked at to see if she would be suicidal towards the end of her life. And she decided it was less likely looking at all of that.

Yeah, there was a lot made of the fact that she had plans. Yes. And her, you know, one of the things the cops noticed right away when they got to the house is they heard her alarm going off. Yeah. That really struck me. Yes.

Very eerie. And that was actually recorded on the police body cam. You hear it. It's very eerie. So would she, if she thought she was taking her life that night,

set her alarm? Why would you set your alarm? And it wasn't just once. She had multiple alarms set. You're right. Here's the big question we can't answer, the investigators can't answer. So, Colby was having some kind of online virtual relationship. Did Kristen know about it? At one point, he tells the psychologist she did know that she had known that week, but he told the police she didn't know. And Colby's a liar.

Anybody who watches the show knows that Colby doesn't always tell the truth. And so that's the big mystery here. I imagine they must have searched through her phone, looked at text messages, any indication that maybe she shared this concern with family or friends? No. As you mentioned in the hour, the death certificate listed Kristen's death as a suicide. And this actually really limited investigators' ability to obtain warrants, which was new to me. I didn't realize that that could happen. Was there any evidence that Colby was, I don't know, like a violent person or that he abused Kristen? The coroner actually at the scene looked for signs of abuse or signs that something had happened that night, any kind of marks on her body. And he did not see any.

He took Colby's word that Colby woke up with his ears ringing and found his wife dying next to him with a single gunshot wound. The gun had not been held right up against her chin, but close enough that it was consistent in the coroner's mind with suicide. So he went with that. What we learned from speaking with him was that he never did see the weapon because the weapon had been taken. He did not get to talk to Kristen's family. And the investigators did not share everything they could have with him. So three days after he's at the scene, the coroner rules suicide. So something that was not in the hour was this essay that Colby wrote and he gave it to Kristen's uncle, Brent Rice. And in the essay, you know, he talks about his life. He talks about his childhood in detail. It's pretty long. He wrote this essay so

that Kristen's uncle can get to know him a little more. And he described a situation when he was younger with his father. He had a very tum he was younger with his father. He had a very tumultuous relationship with his father and they were out hunting. And there was a moment when he thought that he might shoot his father, but then he backed out and he describes that. And that was very alarming to Brent Rice. Colby goes into more detail later on. During that day, he goes back home and he thinks about killing himself. He picks up a gun, he puts it in his head and pulls the trigger and the bullet somehow gets stuck. So he doesn't end

up taking his own life. But his suicidal ideation was also mentioned in that essay he wrote. That did not get into the trial. But of course, as you can imagine, it really worried Kristen's aunt and uncle. And they were very worried about her marrying him after that. But she married him anyway. And so, of course, even though her death occurs five years later, they keep thinking back when he had thought about, he wrote down, he gave it to her uncle. So he wanted his, her uncle to see it where he'd actually talked about thinking about killing his own dad. And so you can imagine that that definitely played a part in her family's view that this was a murder, not a suicide. The investigators right away are not kind of, they're not buying suicide.

Did they, and I don't think this was in the hour, did they check to see if there was any residue on his hand, anything to indicate that he had been holding the gun? There was GSR everywhere. Oh, like all over the room? I mean, they were in the bed together. So gunshot residue. Gunshot residue.

From what we found out from the prosecutors, it just wasn't any reliable evidence to include in the trial because GSR was, as I said, everywhere. If he's lying that close to her, even if she was holding the gun, he would get gunshot residue on him as well. So that wasn't admitted into evidence. And I, not to be morbid, but it is 48 hours.

I assume like blood stain? Not much blood. There wasn't? No. Because there wasn't an exit wound. Just a single shot. In fact, when they first looked at her,

they were surprised. I mean, she was fine except for that horrible wound below her chin. Yeah. One of the officers said she looked like she was sleeping

peacefully with her arms on her side. She's 26. I don't know why that just breaks my heart when I hear those details. She was so young. She was. So much potential for both of them. I mean, I don't know what was happening in their marriage, but both of them could have called it quits and restarted because they were so young. So it's such a shame.

Plus anyone who likes animals, you know, I got a soft spot for them because I'm an animal lover. The coroner testified at trial? Yes. And he was steadfast. Yes, it was still a suicide, but, you know, it wasn't that, oh, I know it's a suicide. He just said, that is how I ruled based on what I saw at the scene.

He said, state of Kansas requires you to make a determination within three days on the death certificate. But he had the option to keep that as pending as well. And he didn't do that. He still checked the suicide box. He could have checked it undetermined. box, he could have checked it on the tournament. It was 1989 in Titusville, Florida. Kim Halleck said she and her ex-boyfriend Chip Flynn were kidnapped and attacked at gunpoint. Kim fled the scene, but Chip didn't make it out alive. Did you kill Chip Flynn? No, ma'am. Crosley Green has lived more

than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most, involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother. They always say lies. You can't remember lies. A lack of physical evidence and questions about whether Crosley Green was accused, arrested, and convicted because he's Black. Just because a white female says a Black man has committed a crime, we take that as gospel. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, The Trouble Case Against Crosley Green,

wherever you get your podcasts. Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets,

the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's

most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Welcome back. At trial, prosecutors show text messages from Colby and Kristen alleging their relationship could be both loving but also toxic. In your reporting, what else did you learn about those text messages? It did appear when you read those messages, and I think my colleagues will agree that, I mean, she opened up more to him than to anybody else. She really, she loved him. But I also think

they would agree, and they can speak more on this, there was a real controlling tone on his part on those messages, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Yeah. Like he was asking her very intimate questions about her life before him. But it was very obvious that she did love him. And Colby admits in those text messages that he likes control. What made me really sad when I read through them, and that's one of the hard parts of

our job, I think sometimes is that when someone dies, you know, all of a sudden their private messages become public information. And remember, they're very young and he's questioning her about any man she's been with in the past and she doesn't have much of an experience. So it's kind of heartbreaking to read where she's talking about really very little contact with other men. And she may have had one really bad experience and he's pushing her on it. And that made me incredibly sad. Yeah, actually, I have at least part of the text message exchange. And Kristen says in this text message, please tell me what I've been doing wrong. I will be waiting. And he says, it's about you being lovey-dovey

with other people, all right? Controlling. Kristen later says, I'm not talking with anyone, so I have nothing to hide. I'm tired of hurting you. So do what you need to do to feel better. Just don't shut me out. He says, no, I shouldn't have to monitor your actions, connections, and whereabouts just to make myself feel better. I have enough things to worry about without that on my mind as well. And it does sound a little condescending. It does sound like an adult talking to a child. And you should know better. And that he thinks he has to monitor her. Yeah. So that is, of course, an issue that came up at trial because the prosecution,

when they talk about the three motives, they say for murdering her, one of them was loss of control. One was cash. And the other one was his virtual relationship with another woman. But control was part of it. According to the prosecution, he felt that he was losing control of his wife. That relationship, was that anything really? The online one with him? The texts are pretty explicit. Kobe Trickle was in an online relationship with this woman and she testified at trial. I would think this was very uncomfortable for her because all of these very private, sexually explicit conversations were now part of the trial and the jurors had access to them. And yeah, I would assume this wasn't comfortable for her to talk about. Erin, one of my favorite parts of the hour was when you actually held that.357 revolver.

Well, I mean, I have shot many guns, mostly 9mm. I think a lot of women would agree that 9mm, it's an easier gun to use. It doesn't have as much of a kick. So I never held a.357. And so I was actually a little surprised by the weight of it. And the idea that she would choose a gun that heavy, that large. Yeah, it looks kind of long. The barrel, according to the prosecution and investigators, was 11 to 12 inches long.

But yes, I was surprised. So that was a very honest reaction. When he gave me the replica, it's a very similar gun. I didn't actually hold the actual gun. It was heavy. Yeah. And Kristen was small. And it was dark when she did this.

And she would have had to position this very large gun under her chin in the dark. It just. Yeah, I have not shot many guns. The last one was for a 48 hour shoot. Of course. But one of the things that always surprises me is the amount of pressure needed to pull the trigger. Because when you watch it on TV, it looks like very simple. But it's a lot of pressure depending on the gun.

And then if you're holding it in an awkward manner, then it's not as easy. It's not like it's something that could happen by accident. You know? Also shooting yourself in bed next to your husband, that was also a red flag for the prosecutors. Usually people are private. You don't usually do that next to someone else.

So Colby is talking, but he's kind of changing his stories. His lies are piling up. He tells investigators that Kristen was researching life insurance policies on his cell phone because they're asking, why is this on your cell phone? And he says, oh, she was doing it. But then they find surveillance footage of the exact time. They see that she's working at Walmart. She's not on the phone when these searches are being conducted. But to me, the lies that really stood out the most and perhaps the most troubling were the lies about his military service. He sometimes would tell untruths that didn't need to be told, even when he didn't need to. And why that's such a problem is that jurors are always reminded, you know, what's the credibility of a witness?

And even though he never took the stand, the idea that he would not tell the truth about things that could be checked makes his credibility very problematic. Even his own brother testified that he didn't always tell the truth. What's the jury supposed to think? always tell the truth. What's the jury supposed to think? He was really into video games. So we had this thought that maybe he played so much, you know, the video games became his world. So he was living in this fantasy world. And perhaps that's where the military lies came in from. And that's where he had full control as well. Fascinating. In the year after Kristen's death, Colby Trickle went on with his life. What did authorities say he was up to? Well, he cashed out two life insurance policies. He got about $120,000 from two different policies. So he paid off his debts to his credit, but he also displurged. One of the purchases was a life-size sex doll. Oh, yes.

True touch doll. Yes. Which I had to look up because I'd never actually seen one. I still never seen one in real life, but I did see it online. I've seen it online too for research purposes. Oh, really? Yeah. And he told his mother he wanted something because he was having trouble sleeping.

So he needed something for comfort. So that's why. Dogs? That's what I was thinking. They're very comforting. Yeah, that thing was $2,000. $2,000, yeah. And he bought that two days after he got the money from Kristen's life insurance. Two days later.

Did they admit that into evidence? Do we know what that doll looked like? I saw a picture. Well, we have the bank statement and it says the name. The model. Yeah, where he got it from. And then we've seen photos. Does it look, I mean.

It's pretty disturbing. To me, it looked like a kid. It wasn't very tall, 5'3", maybe. And it had no hair. And I was told that hair costs extra. Interesting. Yeah, it was an odd looking thing. When I was doing research, you know, we spend a lot of time on Facebook. And when I was on Colby Trickle's page, I realized that he had a different page for his 3D printing business. He bought a 3D printing machine with some of the life insurance money. And he was trying to, I guess, start his business of printing things.

And he also went on with his lives. He was performing. He was a musician. So he played around in town and restaurants. He also had a podcast. He was giving people self-help advice. You know, he talked about grief in some parts and seemed very optimistic. He talked about pulling through the storm and coming out in the other hand and moving on with life. Things like that.

Goodness. Wow. You never know who's giving you advice. In January of 2021, a new county attorney, Robert Anderson, he took a look at the evidence against Colby Traycoe. He believed that the coroner reached the wrong conclusion and that Kristen's death was indeed a homicide. In July of 2021, Colby was charged with the murder of his wife. Why did county attorney Robert Anderson decide, no, we're going to trial? Before you take a case to trial, you have to believe that you have the evidence to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that this person did in fact kill his wife. And the first DA may

not have felt it, but what's different by this time is that Robert Anderson, who is the county attorney, had decided to do that psychological evaluation. And so that was the new evidence at trial that the first prosecutor did not have. And so that really was the only new evidence, an analysis of the factors in her life, pro and com, whether she would take her life. And then a decision by a psychologist. Cole Beach, I was found guilty of first degree murder, premeditated murder, and interference with law enforcement for reporting false information.

He is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years. Any closing thoughts at all on this? Your biggest takeaway? Well, my biggest takeaway is that I think other jurisdictions will look at this idea of a psychological autopsy and consider it because you would not believe, well, actually you would, Anne-Marie, because you work with 48 Hours, how many times we have these cases where investigators have to decide between homicide and suicide? It's very difficult to determine at times. I think there will be other jurisdictions that at least try. Judges may not allow these evaluations in, but I don't think this is the last time we'll hear about a psychological autopsy. Well, Erin, Asena, Iris, this has been great.

This is another 48 Hours with a twist that I did not see coming. I did not expect. So thank you so much, ladies. Thank you. Thank you, Annarie. It was great being here. Thank you. So everyone, join us next Tuesday for another Postmortem.

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