48 Hours - Post Mortem | The Game Show and the Murder
Episode Date: October 3, 2023Correspondent Erin Moriarty and producer Stephanie Slifer discuss covering the case of former “Family Feud” contestant Tim Bliefnick, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of... his estranged wife, Becky Bliefnick. Hear never before told stories about how a fitness tracker helped investigators narrow in on their suspect and how the 48 Hours team got their exclusive interview with the convicted killer.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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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 Postmortem.
This week, we're talking to the team behind the 48 Hours episode called The Game Show and the Murder.
Joining me today are 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty and producer Stephanie Slipher.
Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having us. Yeah, and we love talking about this
case because we've spent the last few months talking about this case. We should get into it.
Listen, if you are a true crime junkie or if you have any interest in true crime, you'll remember when this case came out because
it was a headline built for the tabloids. Just in case people can't remember, here's a quick recap.
Tim Bleevenick was arrested and charged in March 2023 with murdering his estranged wife,
Becky Bleevenick. The nurse and mother of three was found shot multiple times in her Quincy, Illinois home.
After the arrest, an answer he gave on the game show, Family Feud, years earlier, got people talking.
The question was, what is the number one regret that people have from their wedding day?
And you said?
I said, saying I do. It was supposed to be
funny. Prosecutors Josh Jones and Laura Keck say it wasn't the game show. It was
other evidence that led them to Tim Bleifnick. The couple had been going
through a contentious divorce and Becky had told family and friends that she
feared Tim might harm her. The idea of murdering someone, let alone the mother of my kids, is not any part of who I am.
And there was this surveillance video of a person riding a bike in the direction of Becky's house
right before the murder and in the opposite direction right after. Prosecutors believe
it's Tim Bleifnick, but there's one big problem. I mean, you can't see whether it's male, female.
It's terrible. The video's terrible.
That's not Tim in that video.
You can't tell who it is.
Casey Schnock is Tim Bleifnick's defense attorney.
There were prowlers in the area.
It wasn't a random prowler. It was an execution.
So this small-town case gained national attention in large part due to an answer Tim gave on an episode of Family Feud.
And while there's no connection between the murder and the show, is this how the case first got on your radar?
Is this what piqued your interest?
Well, I think we were like everybody else.
And when you realize that three years earlier, before his wife is killed, he's making this offhanded remark about the regret he had on his wedding day with saying, I do.
But, of course, he was picking a very good answer for Family Feud.
It was a good answer.
Right.
It was.
It turned out to be like that was number two on the board.
No.
Yes.
So, I mean, he really was playing the game right. But really, I think the
reason why I wanted to do it is that this was the perfect family when you looked at it from the
outside, this beautiful couple with these three adorable kids living in Quincy, Illinois, you know,
just the heart of the Midwest. And they seem to have it all.
So when I go into these kind of stories, I think, do they really have it right? Would
this man really throw his entire life away? It didn't make sense because these kids would lose
both their mom and their dad. It didn't make sense. So that's what drew me to it.
Yeah. What about you, Stephanie?
Absolutely. I agree with what Aaron said. I mean, of course, it came on our radar because of the
family feud connection. That's what brought it to the top of the headlines. But we very quickly
realized it was about a lot more. And in fact, when we went and met with the prosecutors, they
even told us it has nothing to do with the case. It never factored into the prosecution. They never
had plans to bring it up in court. In fact, the prosecutor said to us he felt it would have been
denigrating to the case that they were putting together. So it was an unfortunate coincidence,
but it had happened many years earlier. And, you know, most people at the time even thought it was
just a joke. Becky's sister told us she wasn't really bothered by it at the time.
I think one of the things that kind of bothered me watching this is precisely what you said, Aaron, that this looks like a perfect family.
But you know what?
Perfect families fall apart.
You know, marriages don't always work out.
He says that she was under too much pressure.
She was taking on too much.
She says he was controlling.
It wasn't working out.
He left.
He was getting everything that he wanted.
And it would seem like it should not have ended like this.
It didn't make sense.
People get divorced all the time and it doesn't end in murder.
And Aaron asked Tim in the interview, you know, you filed for divorce.
Why not just end it?
Why have this drag out?
And he didn't really want to get into the details of that for whatever reason.
So how did you manage to get this interview with Tim?
It took a lot of patience and perseverance.
Tim? It took a lot of patience and perseverance. We started by sending Tim a letter and we did not hear anything back after that. And then we went to town for the trial and to begin conducting
interviews. We developed a relationship with his defense attorney. And, you know, we had mentioned
to her repeatedly that we were interested in talking to Tim. We always are interested in
talking to all sides and every story that we cover. And she indicated to us that she didn't think it was going to happen.
He wasn't really up for speaking. And while we were in town, you know, the jail is right across
the street from her office. And I said to her, do you mind if we just try to go visit him?
said to her, do you mind if we just try to go visit him? And she said, sure, go try. So Aaron and I and our field producer, Gabby, walked across to the jail. We went in, we met with the sheriff
who runs the jail. I thought you usually have to make appointments ahead of time or requests.
This is Quincy, Illinois, which is a wonderful but small town, just a wonderful town.
We got lucky though, because they weren't even allowing in-person visits.
It was all like video visits that they were doing at the jail.
But we met with the sheriff and he agreed to let us meet with Tim in person that day.
So he had his deputy lead us downstairs, brought us into a room.
And next thing you know, we were face to face with Tim.
And he wants to talk.
Well, wait a minute. He was surprised to see us. When he walked out and saw all of us there,
I think he for a second thought, oh, what did I just get into? But Stephanie stayed really in
contact with him. And I think Stephanie was very successful in explaining, look,
he did not speak at all during his trial. This was an opportunity for him to say what he wanted
to say to the American public. Yeah. I mean, he was still hesitant at first, even after we met
with him. He didn't want to commit to anything then and there. But I think it was that night when we got home
from Illinois and I got a text message on my phone and it was him. Yes, he can text from jail. It was
bizarre. We had never seen that. I had never seen that before, at least. But in this jail, he had
access to some sort of a tablet and he could text anytime. And so I received a text saying, hi, Stephanie, it's Tim.
And I was, wow. And we just, we continued talking from there and ultimately he decided he did want
to talk to us. So during this interview, Erin, I found myself watching your face as much as I was
watching him. What did you think of him? How did you feel about how that
interview went? Well, one of the first things, and I think you've run into this too, whenever you
interview somebody who's in jail or prison, you want to keep them in the seat. And it's a very
difficult dance at times because you have to ask the very tough questions you do. But you don't, you want to do
it in a way that they, they feel that they can answer and really explain the evidence. Now,
in this case, we were a little hamstrung. He told us in advance that he would not discuss any of the
evidence. And so we did get to ask these questions of his lawyer, but not him. And that's a little frustrating. But I was torn in two different ways. One is I was very impressed
with him. He was very well-spoken. He seemed very emotional. He said several times that he did not
kill his wife and would not have killed his wife. But the problem was he was a very,
very controlled interview, and that didn't quite match the evidence that we know at trial.
Was he able to explain how he ended up in this situation? If it wasn't him,
then how did things end up like this?
He doesn't have, you know, we of course asked whether that who would,
does he have another idea who, because, you know, this was a very violent murder. She was shot 14
times, close range in a period of a minute. That part I can't get over that somebody came in the
house. And then by the time she tried calling 911 and the time that person left was around one minute.
Wow.
She was shot 14 times.
That is anger.
And so, I mean, who else would have that kind of anger?
And he did not have an answer for that.
So let's talk a little bit about Tim and Becky's relationship.
In The Hour, you showed a video of Becky and Tim during one of their arguments.
Tim said that Becky had become combative during a disagreement at a parent-teacher night.
I want to play a little sound.
Stop. I'm asking you to stop harassing me and stop following me.
I'm not harassing you. I'm asking you.
He offered this video of the incident as proof.
I will make a copy for you.
I don't want you to take me.
Then stop doing this.
Do you guys sort of think about how much of their relationship you want to show?
You want to be unbiased.
Well, I felt it was important to show that particular snippet because he had actually filed for an order of protection in part based on that.
That was his evidence.
based on that. That was his evidence. And when I saw it, I saw a woman who was upset that he was photographing her with his phone. But I didn't think I didn't get the feeling from looking at
it that she was threatening him. And here he was going to court asking for an order of protection.
So I thought it was only fair for viewers to make their own decision. Maybe somebody else
looking at it would feel differently than I did. But I think it was more fair for viewers to make their own decision. Maybe somebody else looking at it would
feel differently than I did. But I think it was more the way you described. These are two people
going through a contentious divorce. But I didn't see, in my view, but somebody else might see it
differently. I didn't see her threatening him. I saw a very frustrated woman and he was recording it. Yeah. And, you know,
when Becky had tried to get an order of protection against Tim, she wrote in her petition that he
would often falsify interactions between the two. So he was alleging in this parent-teacher night
that she was combative. Now we have video. Let the viewer decide for themselves.
So the other thing about this case is that there isn't really the clear bridge between this like
toxic relationship that they're in that has fallen apart and a homicide. It just, you're like,
how do you make that leap? But then there are some text messages that are presented by the prosecution.
I want to play a little sound from the episode.
Days after Tim filed for that order of protection and more than a year before her death, Becky sent her sister Sarah this text.
If something ever happens to me, please make sure the number one person of interest is Tim.
She would later make similar statements to friends. I said, what did he do? And that text was prompted by the murder of one of her
colleagues. One of the nurses that she knew was murdered by her partner. that scared her. She felt like this could happen.
This is real.
You know what?
When I, you know, look at those texts, what I was most struck by was the prosecutor, Laura
Keck, who said to us that the reason why this case had stayed with them so much is
that sometimes abuse doesn't end up with bruises and that they really believe that Tim Bleifnick was not just controlling but abusive in a way that you only see behind closed doors.
Wasn't just one or two reflected the fact that sadly, Becky was seeing something that the her friends and the neighbors and people didn't see.
And and that is what has stayed with me.
I mean, that's the thing.
Becky was shouting from the rooftops pretty much that she was scared of Tim. She had a feeling something bad was going to happen at trial.
Eight people testified that she bad was going to happen. At trial, eight people testified
that she had expressed fear to them. And one of the reasons why her sister wanted to speak about
this is because she's hoping that something can change from this. She's hoping that people will
take it more seriously in the future. Many of the people that Becky expressed fears to said,
oh, you know, Tim wouldn't do that.
He doesn't look like that type of guy.
Wow.
Watching that interview, it was really hard to make the connection for me between what he is in prison for and this guy who looks like any guy that, you know, you'd see in
suburbia cutting his lawn and taking his kids to soccer.
suburbia, cutting his lawn and taking his kids to soccer. And can I just, if in fact he did, you know, we know he was convicted of it, 14 times she was shot. That reflects such
anger. Yeah. And I didn't see any of that in Tim. There is a lot we didn't see.
He's accused of doing this too while his kids are home sleeping in his house.
It's very hard to comprehend. Yeah.
When we get back, we are going to talk about the trial. Stephanie, you were in the courtroom,
so I want to hear about that. And we're also going to discuss an interesting piece of evidence
that was not in the hour, which was actually a lack of evidence.
I'm going to explain what that means when we get back.
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It's just The Best Idea Yet. Welcome back.
This case really moved at lightning speed.
Becky was gunned down, killed in her own home on February 23rd, 2023.
Tim went on trial for her murder May 23rd, 2023.
Exactly three months later, exactly three months later, a prosecution had 90 days to bring this to trial.
That is an unusual timeline, I think.
Usually these things take years almost, right?
This is the first time for me, actually.
I mean, I know that, of course, I'm familiar with the concept of speedy trial, but here's what happened. So they, you know, she is shot. They then, the evidence is pointing toward
Tim. They arrest Tim. He has a right to a speedy trial, which means that they had to bring the case
in 90 days. Why? That just was so fascinating to me because I thought, can they? Can they develop
a case in 90 days? Sometimes DNA tests take 90 days. And so one of the reasons why I was so
interested in doing this case is, you know, you only get one bite of the apple. They're going to
take him on trial. They don't convict him. It's done. Could they prepare a case in time?
Yeah. And they did a case in time? Yeah.
And they did a remarkable job. They pulled it off. I mean, the police work that went into this was amazing. And you mentioned, you know, something that did not make it into the hour. That was a very interesting piece of evidence. And it dealt with a fitness tracker that Tim would wear around his wrist. It's called a whoop. And when investigators executed a search
warrant on Tim's house and car, they noticed that he was wearing this fitness armband. And so they
were able to obtain it and retrieve data from it. And they realized that his whoop accounted for
every second of every day, except for the time at which that person was seen on the driveway video
and when that person was seen on the bike. And that was big. Yeah. And I mean, I spoke about the
police work that went into this. They had to go through almost 1.5 million pieces of data
from that fitness tracker to determine those gaps in the timeline.
Wow.
And to them, that meant that they had the right guy.
Right.
Because, you know, how it works is so it has to be connected to his phone.
And clearly he did not have his phone with him at that moment. So just during those times that otherwise, so when he was near his phone, the whoop was working.
So that otherwise, so when he was near his phone, the whoop was working, except for the time when somebody is seen on the bike and, you know ended up helping to convict him because he didn't take the whoop off and it wasn't connected to the phone and therefore there was no data during those time
periods. But it turns out because he lived so close to her, about a mile, that if he carried
the phone with him, they might not have been able to tell anyway where he was because he was within that mile it you know he could have been
hitting off the exact same um like cell tower anyway and so you know that that was interesting
and that helped the prosecution um the other bit that's fascinating is the surveillance footage
that they use the only thing about the surveillance footage that they use.
The only thing about the surveillance footage is that it's super blurry.
Like you can barely kind of make out who this is.
And it's absolutely true.
You can't tell gender, nothing.
The video is only good to show that somebody was going back and forth from the direction of Tim's house to her house and back at certain times. But you can't tell who's on the bike. So Erin, you spoke to a juror, which gave you guys some real insight as to what was
going on during deliberations. Right. And I mean, that's why we try to talk jurors in every single,
you learn something that there's no other way you're going to find this out.
Yes. So Erin did interview a juror, but we weren't able to include this in the hour.
We just didn't have enough time to get to everything, unfortunately.
But he did share with us that some members of the jury felt that Tim had the same walk
as the person seen in that surveillance video.
They were paying attention to the way that he walked in and out of the courtroom.
Wow.
And they felt that there was a similarity.
Wow.
And it's actually not the first time we heard that in our reporting either because Becky's brother-in-law said the same thing.
He said when he saw that surveillance video play in court, he knew it was Tim's walk.
So they did not deliberate for very long.
But one of the other things you learned about the deliberations is that there
was a holdout initially. Yeah, that was surprising. You know, we wouldn't have known that had we not
spoken to that member of the jury. And we're always kind of wondering when we're covering a trial,
what's going on in that deliberation room. You know, we're hanging out around the courtroom,
waiting for the verdict to come in, and hour after hour passed and nothing.
And it turns out there was a holdout and they had to go over the evidence multiple times before they were able to reach a unanimous verdict.
But think about it, Anne-Marie, there really wasn't much direct evidence.
And in fact, the jurors said to us that what really convinced him was really the only bit of direct evidence, which we did have in our piece, which was the spent shell casings.
There were 27 spent shell casings found in his house that prosecution said matched.
I mean, they had expert that said matched the shell casings found at the crime scene.
I think that was probably the real problem with jurors. There wasn't a lot of direct evidence.
And as we all see, he just didn't look like the type to kill his wife.
I, you know, just kind of going back to him and his demeanor, I was surprised that he didn't take the stand. I know typically people don't, but it seemed like he might have presented well, for lack of a better
phrase. He would have, but there's no question that, you know, her text messages, he would have
been asked about why. So, you know, the prosecution would have been able to bring up things. And I think that often happens with trials, that they just think the risks are too much. and so there is a scene of the person the prowler is seeing um on video and tim says that's not him
but later that morning after that he is looking up the vin number and the um license tag of the
car that's sitting in her driveway and so that's very damning evidence because how did he know
that car was in if he wasn't that person on the driveway? And now he says, oh, I knew Becky had
started dating someone. I knew that for months. But it's the timing of those searches and the
obsessiveness of the searches. I mean, we're talking about, I think, 200 searches in the
middle of the night right after that person is seen talking about, I think, 200 searches in the middle of the night,
right after that person is seen on that driveway camera. He's trying to find the owner of,
you know, who owns this car with this license plate number and this VIN number.
He's calling the Department of Revenue. In the middle of the night.
In the middle of the night. Yeah, but that's what he would have been asked
by prosecution. That would have been, that's what I really wanted to ask him.
So I think that was a big reason why he couldn't have taken the stand.
Yeah, how can you explain it?
Just how many times he tried to do the research tells you something about Tim that we just had not seen in the interview or saw at all in the courtroom.
Was it just the VIN number?
He looked up other phrases too, right?
Oh, if you're talking about all the searches. Yeah, the other searches. Oh my gosh. I mean,
that also was very incriminating. So they found a number of searches on his phone. And now we don't
know, and I'm not quite sure why they couldn't tell when he made these searches but they couldn't say when but they were things like how do you wash gunpowder off your hands that's
pretty right not a typical google search um but also the fact that she was shot um you know so
that with a nine millimeter yeah um you know can use a crowbar to get into your house. You know, there were a number of incriminating searches.
How does the defense explain that?
Well, the defense points us to the fact that they can't say when those searches were made.
So they could have been made after the murder.
Maybe he was trying to understand what had happened.
He was doing research.
That's what the defense says.
But, you know, there was
even more searches than we were able to mention in the episode. Another one that comes to mind was
average Quincy Police Department response time. What? There was a lot of searches.
And the one that I thought was really the most interesting because it was new for me was how to make a homemade silencer for a gun.
Oh, my gosh.
I mean, look, people have guns, but why the silencer?
And the idea that, you know, there were those little bits of plastic
that were found around her, and they were trying to figure out
what were those little pieces of plastic.
And now they believe that whoever killed Becky,
and they believe it was Tim,
was either using it as a silencer,
these plastic bags around,
or some way to collect the casings,
which clearly they did not work
because there were casings left at the crime scene.
And another thing he had searched for was,
does my whoop record the times I wear it?
There you have it.
But now that could be anything, Stephanie.
Just saying.
Just saying.
So your team was actually at the trial.
You guys were there.
I'm really curious about the mood in the courtroom.
Stephanie, I know you were there for a lot of it.
Right.
I mean, this is really a family torn apart.
And, of course, Becky's family was there in the courtroom each day.
And Tim's family was there during the trial as well.
His mother, his father, his two brothers were there.
And I got the sense that this was the first time they were hearing all the evidence.
And they're trying to comprehend it all as it's being presented in court
and what this means. And, you know, it was heartbreaking because you're really just
thinking about Becky and Tim's three kids during all of this too. They've lost their mother and
now they're potentially losing their father too. The juror said something and we see it every time we cover these trials. So you have
this couple and their families came together for a marriage. And then at this trial, it's a little
like the same thing. You have the bride's family on one side and the husband's family on the other.
But this time now it's the state, the prosecution, and the defense. And that's
really heartbreaking. And nobody ever shares sides. They're always sitting on opposite sides
of the courtroom. And that strikes me, it never seems old to me. It strikes me anew every time
I see it. And it struck the juror that we talked to as well. Tim was found guilty of first degree
murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole, without the possibility of parole. that we talked to as well. Tim was found guilty of first-degree murder
and sentenced to life in prison without parole,
without the possibility of parole.
But I want to talk about Becky's sister's impact statement.
She delivered this directly to Tim before he was sentenced.
You actually, this interview, to remind people
that you were able to do, Aaron,
happened before he was sentenced, found guilty, but had not been sentenced.
So this is sort of fast forwarding in time.
And she's able to speak to him directly.
I want to play some of that sound.
Your children's future will be forever impacted by your crime.
They're already suffering.
Maybe you should have Googled childhood PTSD in between your internet searches for homemade silencers and VIN numbers.
I'm really curious, Stephanie, about what it was like to be in the courtroom when she was delivering this statement.
It was very emotional.
And many family members of Becky actually gave victim impact statements that day.
Her mom spoke, her aunts and cousins, her brother-in-law.
And there's something that Becky's brother-in-law said while he was on the stand giving his impact
statement that really stuck out to me. He said to Tim, and he was looking directly at him,
you rode on that bike that night towards all of us. And it just really put in perspective
the amount of victims in this case. Everyone who knew and loved Becky has been impacted by this. And I think that that's really what they were trying to get across in the impact statements. And I was just really struck by how forcefully they all spoke.
brother-in-law and sister in particular looked directly at Tim the entire time. And when Becky's sister actually walked off the stand, she stared directly at Tim's parents. And his parents were
sitting behind me. His mom, I think, had sunglasses on, so it was hard to tell what their reaction was,
but it was certainly a tense moment in the courtroom. Any final words on this episode in this case? If this case has gotten national attention because of Tim's answer on Family Feud, to go beyond the humor of that and to recognize how serious, there's a real serious message with a case like this about hidden abuse. And Becky's sister is fully aware that the reason
why this case got the attention that it did is because of Family Feud, but she's made the decision
to use that to their advantage. They have this platform and they want people to learn from
Becky's story. You know, one of the things that Sarah told us in our interview with her is that, you know, she's just hoping that in the future, if anybody that's in a position
like Becky, she wants them to be able to find a way to make themselves safe. And, you know,
whether that's having a working alarm system or, you know, telling people repeatedly like Becky did,
but making sure that the person you're scared of knows that you've told
those people. Stay with someone else. Don't be alone. Don't let there be an opportunity for
something like this to happen. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good message. This is a case where what
you see on the surface is not necessarily what's happening beneath the surface in that she doesn't come off as an abused woman. He doesn't come off as
an abuser. There were no bruises that I was aware of or talk of physical abuse. And we have this
sense that in order for something, a situation to get to the point where someone is killed, there must be an escalation.
It must go from arguing, toxic, physically violent before we get to murder.
Doesn't necessarily have to be the case.
You can have abuse without bruises.
That's what the prosecution said.
But I should point out as we're coming to an end on this, that this may not be the end of the case.
Tim made it very clear to us in the interview that he is appealing this case.
And I have run into this in the past.
Remember what Stephanie had said, that there were eight witnesses at trial who talked about the fact that she had either texted or told them that she feared
that Tim was going to hurt her. Well, the problem is Becky is dead and Tim could not confront the
accuser. And in some cases in Wisconsin, I've covered another case, the trial was overturned
because the judge allowed in that testimony.
Is this is this hearsay? Would that be?
Well, the judge did not view it as hearsay, but it depends if he appeals.
Right. So if if it doesn't end, I mean, there he is appealing this case. And it's based in part on the fact that the judge allowed in these witnesses to talk about what Becky said when Becky wasn't there to explain.
Really fascinating. So this may not be the end of this.
now to join us next Tuesday for another postmortem. And if you're liking the show,
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Before we leave, we have a final note.
We'd like to take a moment to remember longtime 48 Hours colleague John Yakobian.
He died this week.
John was the director of Global News Syndication and had an almost encyclopedic memory of every 48 Hours episode ever made.
John was also one of the nicest guys in the newsroom and will be forever known for his good heart and his quiet kindness.
And he certainly will be missed by the 48 Hours family.
Thank you, John.
will be missed by the 48 Hours family.
Thank you, John.
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