48 Hours - Post Mortem | The Detective’s Wife

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

Producers Marie Hegwood and Morgan Canty share exclusive interview audio and tackle your most pressing questions about the case of Amy Fanion, whose husband Brian, a local police detective, was charged with her murder. The team discusses his suspicious internet searches about gunshot residue and addresses the surprising letter of support for Brian signed by the victim's family.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

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. Hello and welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host, Anne-Marie Green, and today we are discussing the case of Amy Fannion, whose husband Brian, a Westfield, Massachusetts police detective, was charged with her murder. So joining me to give us an inside look at reporting on this

case are 48 Hours producer Marie Hedwood and field producer Morgan Canty. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. Hi, good to be here. Hello. So listeners, you know what I'm going to say. If you have not listened or watched the episode, The Detective's Wife, Go do that now. You can find the full audio right below this episode in your podcast feed, and then you can join us after you've already listened for a deeper dive. For everyone else, here we go. What is so unusual, of course, about this case is that Brian is a detective himself. How did his colleagues at the Westfield Police Department react when they first learned that he was being investigated for Amy's death? Because he's not just a detective. He has been a detective for many years. He comes from a prominent family, and he's really well

liked. The colleagues were really shocked. The colleagues from the Westfield PD, they really supported Brian. They actually loved him. They respected him because he comes from a long line of police officers. His father before him was a detective. And so the Fanghans had a legacy. There's law-abiding people who love the community, support the community. And when they heard about this, they all came to his house in full force and stood beside him, just trying to comfort him and help him get through it. Yeah. Even the police chief, who is now the mayor of Westfield, Massachusetts, he ended up testifying and he called Brian his go-to guy. And from the beginning of the

investigation, the ones who responded first to the scene of the crime was Westfield PD. But Massachusetts State Police took over the case to avoid a conflict of interest. We heard in the broadcast, though, that it was actually really hard for them to interview Brian because he's a detective. I mean, he knows how this is going to go down. The detectives we spoke to, the ones who interviewed Brian, they did a really excellent job. They were really on top of their game. They knew exactly what they were doing going into it. Let's listen to a clip from Detective O'Toole.

This is not a normal interview for myself and Mike. We've done thousands of interviews. You know, we're pretty good at it, but it's hard when it's a police officer because he knows exactly how we work. It was a difficult interview. The state police, they all talked about how difficult, not just because he was a detective, because they knew him. He was the evidence officer, so he would be on scene for a lot of these cases there picking up evidence.

So they knew him. He was known. And like I said, the Fangs were well-respected. They had been around for years in that community. And so I think that was also difficult because you're basically interviewing one of your own. Oh, that's interesting. In The Hour, we see Brian's interviewed. He's interviewed twice by police and he kind of changed his story a few times. So initially in the first interview, Brian told the detectives that he saw Amy standing with a gun in her hand. In Brian's second interview, he changed it to Amy was sitting. And so that was where the detectives noted that there was a flip-flop between whether Amy was sitting or standing when Brian, you know, talked about what he saw that day. Yeah. And I mean, if he's the evidence guy, he knows how police would think about the evidence that they found at his own scene, the questions that they would ask, the

things that they would look for. Brian tells Detective O'Toole during his first interview that he and Corey, who's a fellow missionary that he met on a trip in Mexico in 2017, that they were just friends. That's it. We later find out, right, that this is not true. I want to listen to this never before aired clip of Brian talking to Detective O'Toole. Did this Corey want to take it to a different level with you, Bri? We talked about that. We had an understanding that that's as far as it's going to go. Okay.

So Corey talked about it with you? We both talked. From the beginning, we said this is what it is, just to make sure we were both on the same page exactly just friends no not a sexual relation i don't put words in your mouth but frank because you know i'm saying that you know i don't want friends with benefits okay all right so in case in case people don't know what friends with benefits is the benefit is usually sex when people are talking

about that um it seems like they had never slept together and maybe that was what made the big difference for him from what we've what we've learned from um brian's police interviews um police interviews with cory knolls the woman who Brian was seeing, they never slept together. They never had sex. We do know that they that they kissed. We do know that there was some makeout sessions in the back of her truck. And there were thousands of text messages between Brian and Corey that police would find deleted from Brian's phone. So were they texting back and forth, like throughout the day, how long it had been going on?

It's very difficult for me to believe that Amy didn't eventually discover the texting because it was so plentiful. I mean, they were texting every single 10, 15 minutes. I don't even know how they had time to work because they were texting so much, you know? And you could see the relationship evolve through the text. I mean, at first it was just, it was a friendship because Brian told Corey that he had women friends. Like that was his thing. He had several women friends and they would text. So having that friendship, the way it started, it wasn't unusual for Brian, but it started to evolve. And even when you look at the text, you start seeing moments where they were starting to flirt. And then at one point,

he apologized and said, you know, I shouldn't have said certain things to you. You know, we just need to take it down a level because I don't want it to go anywhere. But then he just kept on texting. And she also wanted to get out of a marriage. She was in a marriage. So that was kind of the foundation of their text. Can you help me? I'm dealing. And she also wanted to get out of a marriage. She was in a marriage. So that was kind of the foundation of their text. Can you help me? I'm dealing with a difficult marriage. I'm thinking I should leave. What do you think?

So they were, that's how it really got going. In the text messages that you guys saw, does he talk about his wife? I mean, he does say some things about Amy, you know, but more of it is, you know, more flirtation. Was it sexting? Were they sexting? No.

Okay. Okay. There were just a lot of flirty texts. There were things, there were innuendos, but no, no photos or anything explicit. There were some text messages where Brian, he'll refer to Amy. He'll say something like, he'll put a sad face and say, Amy's being so clingy right now. So there are moments when, you know, it's clear that he doesn't want to be where he is. And I think also in context was that, you know, he's trying

to sneak and do things like he wants to go meet her and here's Amy, you know, won't let him go. But he was really struggling with this because he was on the computer looking up things like, is it a sin or is adultery a sin? Like, he was really struggling with what he was doing with Corey. By April of 2018, he started Googling, can you have an affair without sex? He was Googling things about infidelity. He visited websites like My Perfect Affair, How I'm Getting Away With It, Emotional Infidelity, Worse Than a Sexual Affair. So it seems like he was really having this soul-searching moment of trying to figure out if what he was doing was okay, because this is a man who was a deacon at his church. was okay because this is a man who was a deacon at his church. So I think he just was really struggling. Just remember that, you know, Brian and Amy got married basically out of high school. They were each other's first. And they come from a religious background where they don't believe

in divorce and also adultery. So he was really struggling, you know, in terms of what he was doing. And so here we have another case, right, where the big question is, was the victim's death a suicide or was it a homicide? I feel like there have been several like that this season. The prosecution alleges that Brian killed Amy, but the defense argues that she shot herself in the midst of an argument. One of the biggest questions that we heard from our audience was about the gunshot residue. And I was wondering that myself. Do they test Brian Fannion's hands for residue? hands tested for gunshot residue. And both of their hands tested positive for gunshot residue. So it was sort of inconclusive. You know, it didn't tell them any information about,

say, who was holding the gun. But part of the reason that that might have happened, Brian says that he was holding Amy's hand after she was shot and fell to the ground. So there could have been a transfer of gunshot residue. We don't know. There's another aspect to it that was not in the show is that he actually did wash his hands. So they fingerprinted Amy's thighs, her legs. You could see where his handprint was. And even her brother who came into the house, he had testified saying that, yes, Brian was holding her hands, had his hands on her thighs. But once he did that, he had blood on his hands. That's what was said. We didn't have pictures of that, but we do know right before the detectives arrived that he did wash his hands. It seems like with every one of these hours, when I say, but didn't they test the hands?

The answer is there's gunshot residue everywhere. And so it's really difficult to determine, you know, who was holding the gun at the time. Yeah. And I think the thing, you know, the biggest thing was that was there fingerprints on the trigger? Because that was a question that, you know, who pulled the trigger? Right. So they did test the gun for prints. That was another test that was kind of inconclusive because there weren't sufficient prints on the gun to make an identification. It's something called friction ridge detail that they found on the gun. It's just, it's not quite enough to get a fingerprint off of. And so they couldn't identify if anyone's fingerprints were on it. But they also tested the gun for DNA, and on the gun they found positive profiles for both Amy and Brian.

Of course, it's a gun that's in their house. It would, even if, you know, it would stand to reason that his DNA would be all over it, so. Of course. Yeah. And also, Amy's brother, Eric, as Marie said, came into the house. He saw Brian distraught. He saw the gun next to him. He decided to pick the gun up and move it outside so that Brian might not hurt himself with the gun. And when testing was done on the gun, they found an additional minor profile. We don't know whether or not that was Eric Hansen, Amy's brother or not, but he did pick up the gun. Brian's DNA was found on it. Amy's DNA was found on it. Eric's also could have possibly been on it, but he did pick up the gun. Brian's DNA was found on it.

Amy's DNA was found on it. Eric's also could have possibly been on it, but they couldn't positively identify his DNA. And one thing I just want to say, bring up too, that's not in the show, but in testimony, they talked about the trigger on his gun, the weight of the trigger, how difficult is it to pull? And for a police officer's gun, evidently,

this was a lighter weight. So it was easier to pull the trigger. How difficult is it to pull? And for a police officer's gun, evidently, this was a lighter weight. So it was easier to pull the trigger. So, you know, that kind of lends itself a little bit to, did she pick the gun up and actually pull that trigger? Not realizing how easy it would be to go back, we don't know. But that was part of the testimony about the weight of the trigger. Wow. Okay. So police actually don't arrest Brian until 17 months after his first police interview when they finally feel they have enough evidence against him. And one of the biggest pieces of evidence against Brian

was the CSI report and autopsy results that concluded the gunshot entrance wound was not consistent with a self-inflicted wound. And there's also no gunshot residue or GSR found on Amy's head. And it's also, the prosecution talked about stippling and tattooing. So when the gun is fired, this particular residue just sometimes makes a tattoo or a marking around the wound. And that wasn't present. The defense said that her hair might've been in the way of that. The defense said that her hair might have been in the way of that. The defense, their expert, Alexander Jason, he testified that the hair

was the reason there was no gunshot residue on her head. So he says that, you know, the reason for the lack of gunshot residue wasn't distance at which the gun was fired. It might have just been because Amy's hair was in the way and it caught all of it. But do they even test that? So that's a really excellent question. And that's something that came up a lot in the trial. No one on the prosecution side did any testing of the hair for gunshot residue. On the scene, there was some looking at the hair, looking at the wound. At the autopsy, the medical examiner, Dr. Robert Welton, he extracted some of Amy's hair, looked at it,

and sent it away to the crime lab. The biggest thing here was that gunshot residue is light. So she was on the ground. And by the time they picked her up, that gunshot residue is light. So she was on the ground. And by the time they picked her up, that gunshot residue could have fell out of her hair. We don't know. So the time to test and look in the hair would be when she was there at the scene. That's when her hair should have been collected and bagged. We do have photographs of some type of residue in her hair.

We just don't know what it is. And just like the expert Alexander Jason said, we should have tested it on the scene. So that was the biggest error in terms of CSI work is not testing Amy's hair, bagging it right there on the scene. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours. And of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most.

Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the Trouble Case Against Crosley Green, wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly. Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala?

From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just The Best Idea Yet. Welcome back. We're going to dig into the trial now. And at trial, the prosecution raised a lot of damaging evidence against Brian. So I want to ask you guys, what stood out the most to you? I think the web searches.

making multiple searches for GSR testing, which was pretty strange because at the Westfield Police Department, that's not something that they do. So there's not necessarily any reason that he would have been doing these searches or any justification. He visited a couple of different websites related to GSR testing. He watched a couple of YouTube videos related to GSR testing and what that can tell us. So that raised questions for the prosecution about why he could have possibly been conducting those searches. But the thing is, in terms of what we've received in terms of evidence, we only can see searches on his work computer, not at the home computer. Now, granted, it was 10 days before Amy died, approximately 10 to 11 days before she died.

So he just could be a guy that just has the worst luck, you know, that he's searching this stuff and all of a sudden now this happens. But I thought that was very damning. The day before Amy died, he's searching several times for how to delete frequently contacted off of his phone. And, you know, of course, because he's seeing this woman, that's extra suspicious. And then the morning that Amy dies, he was searching on his work computer about essentially the Massachusetts State Police units that would be responding to the scene of a murder. That's a very specific search. And investigating the forensics. So it's just odd. And there doesn't seem to be any reason connected with his professional life that he would have been searching that.

So the prosecutor at trial argued that he was researching exactly who he would be dealing with after he killed his wife. So of course, we can't talk about this case without talking about Amy's family. When I was watching the broadcast, I was really shocked to hear that they had signed a letter of support for Brian. And they said that they were certain, they were certain that Amy took her own life. They all stood by Brian at trial, with the exception, of course, of Amy's sister, Anna. What was it like listening to their testimony? You know, it was really interesting. And Anna, Amy's sister, initially signed that letter. But by the time the trial came around, you know, it was five years after Amy's death, Anna testified for the prosecution. And she was the only family member who willingly testified for the prosecution. Nobody else wanted to talk with them. It was really interesting to see the things the family had to say on the stand about Amy. Her own mother testified.

One of her other sisters testified. And they talked about Amy's character. And it wasn't especially flattering to Amy's character. When I looked at the letter, I was like, oh, it must be both families, you know, just assuming because it's a long list of people. be both families, you know, just assuming because it's a long list of people. But it was really her family saying that they believed that Brian was innocent and that Amy had taken her own life. And I think that was really kind of a shock. And then even in court, there was the visual element to it because on Brian's side is where everyone sat, packed. When they testified, Amy's family talked about the Amy look. They use that terminology. It's the Amy look. And the Amy look was basically when you knew that she wasn't, she was displeased with something. They all got up there and did that. And it was kind of like

in unison talking about the Amy look. There was one thing that the mother just went to great pains, didn't make the show because of time, was that she said that Brian cooked and cleaned when he came home from work. It almost felt like the mother was pained when she talked about how Brian was treated by her daughter. I think that was the part that kind of hit me a little bit because it's like, you know, the victim's own mother, you know, is really saying that her daughter was not the best person in terms of how she treated her husband. So it's one thing for them to say, listen, we know Amy and she's got a temper on her. But then they find out that there's this affair. You know, maybe Brian and Corey never slept together, but it's clearly a very strong emotional affair. That doesn't sway their opinion of him at all?

No, and in fact, after Amy died, he went to each family member and had a talk and said, listen, I'm in love with this woman. And he had a frank talk with them. It seemed like he went to each family member, but particularly Anna. He talked to her and told her he was in love with Corey. And I think it came across like Brian was planning the next chapter of his life, you know, definitely like the prosecutor said with this woman, with Corey. And he wanted them to be OK with it. In fact, you know, when Amy had her wake at the wake was at the father's house, you know, they were down in the basement.

Wait, who was down in the basement? Brian and Corey. No. She testified that she and Brian during Amy's wake at Brian's father's house, they were kissing in the basement. Wow. So despite all the support that he's getting from Amy's family, though, the jury does convict Brian of first degree murder and they sentenced him to life without parole.

Was it surprising to you that the jury came back with a guilty verdict after hearing all of the testimony in support of Brian from Amy's own family? I thought it was somewhat surprising. Part of the reason for that is there's evidence there, but I don't know for me personally if that evidence completely proves that he's the one who pulled the trigger. So that's a question that came up for me. But the jury, you know, the jury came to their own conclusion. How did the community react to Brian's sentence? So you hear in the show, immediately after Brian is sentenced, the courtroom erupts with sobs and gasps. And the people sitting behind Brian, it's both his family and Amy's family, and they just break down. They are just blown away by the fact that he was found guilty and that he was sentenced for this crime. and that he was sentenced for this crime. I talked to a friend of both Amy and Brian.

She didn't want to be interviewed on the show, but she told me that so much of the community still stands behind Brian. They love him. And she's a part of a church that Amy and Brian were a part of, and that church stays in contact with the prison where Brian is housed. And they believe in rehabilitation. They visit with Brian. They talk with Brian. And they also correspond with other inmates at the prison. And they're in favor of everybody's rehabilitation. Wow.

I think the thing with Brian and Amy, the family there, is that they're very much a religious community. You know, God is the center of their life. I think in the back of my mind, I said, I really hope that whatever Brian is saying or having him to believe, I hope it is the truth because they definitely do love him and support him. Well, we learn at the end of the hour that his conviction is under appeal. What do his prospects look like, though, in terms of getting this conviction overturned or getting another trial? Netflix. It's called Trial 4. It's about a wrongful conviction case. She spent 10 years uncovering corruption in the Boston Police Department. So I feel like if there's somebody to help Brian out with this, it's her. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's definitely her. I spoke to her a few

times over the phone. She did not make an appearance on our show because Brian, they talked and they've decided that she would not. But she's a powerful, she's a heavy hitter. And I think that, you know, with her on this case, he's got a chance to have his conviction overturned. It'll be interesting to watch as things move forward. Marie Morgan, it's great talking to you about this case. You gave us so many tidbits that just filled out the characters. You really helped to bring color to this story. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. Thanks for having us. All right, everyone, listen, you know what I'm going to say. Join us next Tuesday for another Postmortem and watch 48 Hours on Saturdays, 10, 9 central on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. And if you are liking the show, please rate and review 48 Hours on Apple Podcasts and follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also listen ad-free on the Amazon Music and Wondery app or with a 48 Hours plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. survey as a kid growing up in chicago there was one horror movie i was too scared to watch it was called candy man but did you know that the movie candy man was partly inspired by an actual murder listen to candy man the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder wherever you get your podcasts in the pacific ocean halfway between peru and new ze, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it.

It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely, Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.