True Crime All The Time - Brian Trimble

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

In January 2003, 28-year-old Randi Trimble was found stabbed to death inside her home in East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania. Police suspicion would eventually settle in on Randi’s husband Brian Trimble. Brian had been telling people that he and Randi were having marital difficulties for a few months leading up to her murder.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Brian Trimble and the murder of Randi Trimble. Even though police suspected Brian, they had a number of hurdles to clear. Brian was 40-45 minutes from the scene at the time Randi was murdered, which seemed to be a rock-solid alibi. But, police unfolded a murder-for-hire plot that could have come straight from a script for a bad movie on late-night cable. You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 323 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in True Crime. Mike Gibson, give me, how are you? I'm doing good, man. How about you? I'm doing well. You and I just recorded our weekly Patreon. Yeah.

Preview. We call it sneak previews. But, you know, we talked about Sirhan, Surhan, the Murdox, Shweddy Balls. For some reason, you brought that up. And also my game. that I play on HBO Max where I have to watch the next movie up. It's a good game. It is a good game.

It's opening me up to some movies that I probably would not watch if I hadn't instituted this new policy. There's some HBO executive right now listening thinking this is why we do that. It works. Next movie up, yeah. So let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Allison Old. Hey, Allison. Carolyn.

What's going on, Carolyn? Cherry Love. Hey, Cherry. Lane Lozier. We appreciate that, Lane. Aaron S. jumped out at our highest level. What's going on, Aaron.

Mariah. Hey, Mariah. Chris Onyika. Oh, Anoyika. Mindy. What's going on, Mindy? Kinsey Kay. Hey, Kenzie.

Victoria Olson. Appreciate that, Victoria. Hannah Woodman. Hey, Hannan. Ashley Obdel. Is it Avdel? Are you asking me if it is what I just said? Yeah, this is confirmation.

Okay. Let's go with that. Since we both said it pretty much the exact same way. Alexis Erickson. Hey Alexis. Asia Chan Orlando. What's going on, Orlando? Hannah Colbert.

Hey, Hannah. Zina Gutschow. Ooh, gutchao. Carla. Good old Carla. Brian Ricketts. Hey, there's Brian. Vincent.

Hey, appreciate that, Vincent. Stephanie. Stephanie. And last but not least, Rebecca Hurley. Oh, awesome, Rebecca. And then if we go back into the vault, this week, we selected Kyle Gifford. Hey, Kyle. Yeah, appreciate the new support, to continue support.

we had great PayPal donations from Robin Taylor. Hey, Robin. Alicia Hunt. Appreciate that, Alicia. Sherley Hobart. Hey, Sherley. And Eddie Matton. Oh, you're awesome, Eddie.

Yeah, thanks to all of you as well. Gibbs right now on True Crime All the Time Unsolved. We have an episode out on what we're calling the South Pole poisoning. Yeah, it's a good episode. So make sure you check it out. We're going to talk about the mysterious stuff and maybe what the possible causes were. Yeah, it's one of those where I think people, you know, can digest the facts and kind of play in her detective and come up with their own theories and things like that.

Definitely got to put your thinking cap on. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all of the time? I'm ready. We are talking about a man named Brian Trimble. In January 2003, 28-year-old Randy Trimble was found stabbed to death inside her home. in East Pensborough Township, that's in Pennsylvania, police suspicion would eventually settle in on Randy's husband, Brian. So we'll get into all of it. Randy Trimble was born on

December 15th, 1974 in Norfolk, Virginia. She was an only child and was raised by her mother, Nancy Chavez. Nancy Chavez is a domestic violence survivor. Nancy wrote on the Randy's house of Angels, which is her charity organization website, we were 18 and my plans always included my daughter. I kept my promise to her that I would take her away from the physical, mental, and verbal abuse that she witnessed for so many years as a child. We struggled as a single parent family. Money was scarce. Although my parents were always there to support me, I was determined to make it right on my own.

I got a job with the state, worked a part-time job, and went to school at night. So obviously, this is something that her mother wrote after the tragedy that we're going to talk about in this episode. But it really kind of hit me hard. You know, single mother, you and I have talked about that quite a bit. We have. And the admiration that we have for single mothers. Now, in this situation, there was domestic violence in the home.

So Nancy got herself out of it, but she also got her daughter, Randy, out of it. And she was determined to give her daughter a better life. And I'm sure she wanted a better life too. Well, absolutely. Yeah. But when you hear about, okay, got a job, got another job working part time, and then went to school at night. as a single parent and still, you know, managed to raise your child.

You really got to give it up for her. And, you know, that's not something that's easy to do. No way. For anybody. Yeah, it's admirable because I'm thinking I remember raising my kids with help, right? Sure. From their mom at that time. I had that.

But I was only working one job, you know? So add on a part-time job on and then going off the school. At night, yeah. Yeah. I don't know how some people do it. It's amazing. Randy was very studious in high school and she was involved in plays, the chorus, the marching band. Randy attended college at Bloomsburg University and studied speech therapy.

She graduated in 1999 and also earned a master's degree in speech and language pathology. So, you know, a little parallel. Yeah. to my own life. My oldest daughter is getting ready to graduate from college. She's going to go on to get her master's degree in speech therapy. Yeah. How amazing is that? Yeah. Nancy wrote that Randy worked two to three jobs during the summers while she was a student. Randy wanted to maintain a financial cushion for her marriage. So we talked about her mother, Nancy, being a very hard worker. I mean, I think you can tell from from this. Randy was a very hard worker as well.

Going to school, working two to three jobs during the summer, not just one, two to three. Multiple, yeah. Randy worked an internship at Hershey Medical Center and eventually started working there full time. She worked as a speech therapist and then had a part-time job helping the elderly and stroke patients regain their speech. In September 2000, Randy married Brian Trembled. They had been together for five years. Brian and Randy lived in East Pensborough Township. Brian was diagnosed with MS.

And it was said in all of the research, a number of articles talked about how he hated how MS affected his life. And I get that. I've known a few people who, you know, have been diagnosed with MS. have had to live with MS. It can be a very tough one. Yeah, yeah, same here. I have somebody in my life that has that, and it's not easy. It seemed like Randy and Brian had a pretty happy marriage.

Randy worked multiple jobs because she wanted to help support Brian and to save up money for their future child. So they had plans. They were already married by this point, but they were thinking about, you know, having at least one child, maybe. multiple children. Brian was a computer technician at Capitol Blue Cross, and it was there that he became friends with another computer technician named Blaine Norris. Blaine was a couple of years younger than him. They'd been friends for about two years at the time of Randy's murder. Tracy Thompson,

who worked at the same office, told NBC that she thought Brian and Blaine were what she called an odd pair. Brian, according to her, was subdued and Blaine was outspoken. It's like the yin and yang. Yeah, you could say that. You could say opposites attract. Again, I don't know how much science there is to that, but it seems to come up a lot, whether it's friends or relationships. I don't, I don't know what it is. Now, it was also said that Brian wasn't a spender like Blaine was because his wife, Randy wouldn't allow it. And man, I have been there. You know, what not being a spender? Not being allowed. Yeah. To spend. You know, I think back, I think I've said it before, but I've been married, what, 26 years going on 27. And starting out,

like most people, we were not making a ton of money. We were eating instant mashed potatoes and microwave Salisbury steak. And that's how we, you know, kind of made it through. And there were things that I wanted to buy as a young guy. Right. Or, you know, go somewhere with my friends. And it's not that my wife would ever say, no, you can't do that. Yeah.

But we would talk about it. And I think she would. help me see the reasons why maybe that wasn't such a good idea because my wife's what you would call a saver. Yeah, I'm a non-spender. Yeah, we know you are. Tracy Thompson told NBC, he didn't really come out and say that his wife had all the money, but you could tell because he had to borrow money for lunch or he called his wife and asked if he could take money out of the Mac machine to go to lunch with the guys. The old Mac machines. The Mac machines. Now, I definitely don't want anybody to think that that's the situation I was in.

I'm talking more about like big expenditures. Sometimes I wanted to go overboard. My wife helped me see that, you know, maybe not the best course of action. Maybe not the time to buy that just yet. Yeah. According to NBC, Thompson also said he portrayed that they had a nice marriage. They went to different cruises. They liked to go ballroom dancing.

According to her, from what she thought, they had a wonderful marriage. Remember when you used to do ballroom dancing? Yeah. Yeah. It was really good at it. You're really light on your shoes, man. You can just glide across that floor. Light on your shoes.

Yeah. Okay. I was a glider. You were. But here again, you know, something that you and I have talked about quite a bit. What is the difference between what people, let's say at work, your coworkers? Think about you and your relationship with your spouse versus what's really going on at home. No.

Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of wool pull over the eyes. Well, you know, let's face it, if somebody's really having big time struggles at home, will they confide in a coworker? Yeah, some people will. But some don't want to bring that in. They don't want other people to know that, you know, they're struggling or, you know, their relationships gone sour or something like that. They're keep the facade up that everything's nice at home.

Yeah. In the summer of 2002, Blaine Norse assembled a cast for a horror movie set on the Appalachian Trail. The movie was titled Through Hike, a Ghost Story, basically starring five hikers being chased through the woods by a ghost. This sounds very similar to the movie that you tried to get me to be in, except it was just me and you out in the woods and you were going to hunt me. And I thought, that doesn't sound, that doesn't sound. That doesn't sound appealing at all. I thought it was a perfect movie. No, no.

You didn't have an armorer. I didn't feel safe. There was nobody else. You were doing the camera as like a GoPro on a headband. Yeah, I was trying to do like that whole Blair Witch thing, you know? Yeah. I didn't like it. Now, Brian was supposed to be a cameraman.

He couldn't film in the woods because of his MS. So he offered to lend Blaine money for video equipment. Brian would later testify that they collaborated on the movie for months and he helped write the script. The Sentinel wrote that he admitted that the movie was a bone of contention between him and Randy. By the fall of 2002, they were having marital difficulties. Randy was upset that he wanted to lend money to Brian to buy video equipment. Brian said she thought that it was not a good idea to lend money. to lend money to someone she did not know that well.

So it's why it's important to talk about the money situation in this relationship, because now you have this thing. Okay, somebody wants to make a movie. You want to lend that person money, and your wife's like, I don't think that's a good idea. Well, it is part of her money as well, right? Sure.

It's a marriage. So, yeah, absolutely. You have the conversation. You agree or you disagree. If you don't agree, you don't agree. you don't lend it. I think you have to be on the same page when you lend money out. NBC interviewed several actors who were hired to star in Blaine Norse's film.

Blaine had someone who was willing to put $18,000 into the movie. Brian was supposed to film the movie with his personal camera equipment. The actors thought it was strange that they never saw Brian at their auditions or rehearsals. Brian did take a few headshots of the actors, but according to NBC, they turned out, to be such a mess that they gave the money man cold feet. So this is, you know, not filming the Titanic here. Right. This is not even Blair Witch project.

This sounds like a little bit more than, you know, a few people out in the woods with a camcorder. And for some reason, somebody's willing to put up $18,000 until they get a sense of what's going on. And then they're like, no. Yeah, after seeing that sneak peek, yeah, I'm not willing to part with my money. Actor Sean Gaston told NBC that when Blaine refused to fire Brian, the investor took his money out of the project. Blaine then informed the actors that Brian suffered from M. Mass and would not be able to hike up the Appalachian Trail to film.

According to Gaston, Brian said that his wife had, quote, put her foot down and told him to forget about making the movie. Despite losing his investor, though, Blaine decided to go through with the movie anyway. He also started telling the cast that the movie was causing a strain in his relationship with his wife. Actress Robin Griggs told Dateline, the weird thing was he started to email me about things that didn't have anything to do with the project. It was, you know, him telling me his wife was accusing him of being with us. It was just really odd. Almost like he was confiding in her. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, but there again, for someone that you don't know all that well, to start telling you very personal, intimate details. Yeah. Okay,

that can really put a lot of people off. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Number one, I don't like to hear a lot of your details. I know. You cut me down all the time.

And I consider us to be very good friends. I know. As soon as I say something like, hey, so the other day I went and you're like, nope, stop there. TMI. Yeah. TMI. So this investor backed out. And in order to finance the movie, Blaine Norris had gone into almost $18,000 in debt on his personal credit cards.

The crew spent five days shooting the movie. But none of the actors noticed that Blaine seemed stressed. He didn't complain about money or marriage problems and instead talked about some of his favorite horror movies. After filming was over, Blaine informed the cast that his marriage was over. They noticed that he stopped sending them emails about the movie's progress. Now, while all of this was going on, Brian and Randy were having more trouble in their marriage. Court documents indicate that right after Christmas, Brian told a coworker, he and his wife were not getting along well, that they couldn't stand each other for long periods of time and that they couldn't be in the same

room together. That's pretty rough at that point then, right? If you can't even be in the same room with your spouse, it's not going to have a happy ending. No, you've got a serious problem. If that is really true. It's one thing to say we're not getting along. It's another thing to say we can't stand each other for long periods of time. And then another one to say, we can't even be in the same room together. Yeah. You know, add all three of those up, you got a real recipe for disaster. Brian also talked to Blaine about his marriage issues. So, you know, to me, the important thing here is that both of these guys are having marital problems. Blaine had told people that his marriage was basically over. Brian had told people that he's having all of these problems and his. At 8.30 p.m.

on January 10th, 2003, Brian Trimble called 911. and reported that he found Randy bleeding and unresponsive in their garage. Randy had been strangled and stabbed multiple times. Brian appeared to be hysterical. He said that he didn't touch Randy and called 911 as soon as he found her. So this is the point in any story where I start to really analyze what people do in a given situation. I know you and I have talked about it before. Okay, he appears to be hysterical.

Right. I believe that most husbands, the majority of husbands who find their wife in that situation would be hysterical. Yeah, nothing abnormal about that. No, I would, I would expect that. Now, when he comes out and says, I didn't touch her. Do you read into that? Do you make something of that?

My thought is, and again, you can never truly. know unless you're put in a situation. But my thought is if I found my wife in the garage, there is no way I could keep myself from holding her or, you know, grabbing her up thinking that I could help her in some way. Yeah, I'd have to be right there with you. I could not touch them. I'd have to. Yeah. So now the detective in me says, okay, don't touch. touch him. Sure. But that's if you're assuming it's a crime scene. Yeah, exactly. And so there is another layer. But for me, I'm like, obviously, if that was somebody I cared about, my compassion would be, I'd want to touch them, see what's wrong with them, see if they're okay,

if I can do anything. And then the devious side of me would say, I'm still going to touch them, because then I can say, oh, reason my prints and my fibers and stuff run on it's because I try to revive them. Yeah. To me, it was just a strange thing to say, I didn't touch her. Yeah, the vocalize that out, right, on the call? Why? Yeah, exactly.

Per NBC, detective Richard Chip Doherty described a gruesome crime scene. He said there was a body there, a tremendous amount of blood, and the hair was madded with so much blood. I couldn't tell if it was male or female. Sounds like a disaster. Yeah, I mean, it's descriptive. Very much so. Randy's car was still in the garage. She was laying face down on the floor surrounded by a tremendous amount of blood.

An extension cord was wrapped around her neck. Cabinets were overturned and the contents of drawers were dumped out. You know, essentially it looked like a robbery gone wrong. But right from the beginning, the police felt as though it was. staged. Doherty described it as almost like a TV set, like they'd walked onto a movie set. Well, that's going to raise suspicions. Yeah. I mean, police have their intuitions. They go to a lot of crime scenes. They know what in most cases something should look like or does look like. Now, they could be wrong. Yeah. No doubt. But just the mere fact that they have this suspicion,

that this whole kind of thing looks contrived, it looks staged. It's definitely telling you something. Now, of course, Detective Doherty talked to Brian Trimble. What stood out to him was that Brian had no blood on him. And just like we talked about, the detective said he would have expected Brian to have at least some amount of blood on him. Yeah, just on his hands, right? Just by touching the body.

From touching, holding his wife. you know, seeing even if she was okay. He also said that he noticed that Brian cried, but no tears came out. The fake cry thing, huh? Yeah, we've seen this before. Yeah. And for me, it really stands out. Now, I know, okay, people cry differently, whatever.

But it's usually proven correct when I think somebody is not really crying. At the end of the documentary, it turns out, they did it. You know, so, you know, you can tell when somebody's crying. I mean, there's, there's, there's, there's, your eyes get all puffy and red. And, um, it's not the fact that you just squint your eyes and make noises and hold your head down. Well, that's why I always rub salt in my eyes before I have to do something like that. Well, it's why you keep salt in your pocket, too, which I, I always thought was strange. Brian informed the police that he was out at, you know, dinner with a friend that night at a restaurant about 40 minutes away from the house.

The next day, Detective Doherty spoke with Brian's friend and the restaurant staffed who confirmed his story. So it sounds like he's got an alibi. Yeah, they've got some confirmation. According to Doherty, the corner put Randy's time of death around 7.30 p.m. And at that time, Brian was 40 to 45 minutes away from the crime scene. Randy's death was ruled a homicide on January 13th, 2003. Her autopsy identified her cause of death as multiple cutting and stabbing wounds. According to the Sentinel reporter, Randy was stabbed 27 times. It seems like a, you know, like a pretty high number.

But investigators, you know, they were kind of had a roadblock. really didn't have any evidence pointing to, you know, another suspect. They had their suspicions about Brian, but he's got this alibi. And it's pretty solid. There was no forensic evidence against him. There really was no obvious motive. But even with all of that, Detective Doherty was convinced that Brian killed Randy. Again, call it a intuition, a hunch.

you know, I think you add up the staging, the no blood. I mean, you can see why he's got this theory. Oh, I can see it for sure. Now, it actually said he was convinced. That's what, you know, outlets reported. I think tough to be convinced, but obviously we know he's going to turn out to be, right? Well, yeah, of course, yeah. Another person was also suspicious.

And that was Brian's co-worker Tracy Thompson. She told NBC that after Randy was murdered, she went into the office and asked, hey, did Brian kill his wife? As soon as she heard the news, she believed Brian did it because before the holidays, he announced that he wanted a divorce. Wow. You know, when somebody you work with, when it's their first thought that you probably did it, that's not good.

No, it's not good, but is it solely based on the fact that he told a, coworker that he wanted a divorce? I have to assume that happens thousands of times a day around the world. NBC reported that when Tracy asked him why he wanted a divorce, he just said, oh, things aren't the way they were. She asked when he would tell Randy and he said he'd do it over Christmas. Just a few weeks later, Brian said that they were working things out. Again, conversations that probably happen in offices many times a day all over the world. I know. I've been part of those conversations at, you know, the old office.

Yes. I mean, people do like to talk about their family lives, some more than others, some divulge what you would consider personal information. Some people don't. Tracy told NBC what she told Detective Doherty, who came to the office to interview Brian's coworkers. She said, I think Brian did it. You know, so she's not.

shy about voicing her opinion. Now holding back. And she came to that opinion in a way that, you know, there didn't seem to be a lot of him hauling around about it. I mean, she was very sure. She also said, and you know what? No, I think Brian was too weak to do it. But he had hired someone to do it.

I think Blaine did it. Oh, well, she's playing detective well, right? She's thinking about what she's seen in the office. about their relationship, and she's throwing out what she believes to be true. Yeah. Now, what happens if you're wrong? Yeah, that could be a problem depending on who you told and how you said that. Yeah.

I can imagine it. It could. Doherty and investigators agreed with Tracy's story, but they still didn't have enough evidence to bring to a DA or a grand jury. The investigation made slow progress because of the lack of forensic evidence and the lack of eyewitnesses in the weeks after Randy's murder, the police focused on Brian. But by then, they didn't think he acted alone. Number one, he's got a really solid alibi.

He does have a good alibi. So if you believe he was involved, then that means, by extension, somebody else had to be involved as well. Because he couldn't have physically murdered his wife if he was 40 to 45 minutes away. It can't be in two places at the same time. The police examined Brian's computer, and they discovered a link to a website with instructions on murder. And it was reported that Brian sent the link to Blaine Norris eight days before the murder. Doherty saw that there were similarities between this manual on this website and the crime scene.

And we've said it many times, these murderers, these people that murder, right, they're not always, Is that smart? If you're going to do a bunch of web searching about instructions on murder, if you're going to send that electronically, you don't realize there's going to be a trail there. You don't realize you're going to be looked at as the spouse. And just because you go to dinner 40 to 45 minutes away, you think everything's going to be okay. Yeah. I think these criminals just aren't as smart as they think they are. No. No, I agree with you. Absolutely. But the police still had a major problem. They needed stronger evidence. They had to counteract Brian's strong alibi. Then they also needed to establish a motive. Investigators learned that Brian had transferred

thousands of dollars from his and Randy's savings in that he was very eager to claim Randy's life insurance, which was worth about $100,000. Well, that's always another red flag, right? That you're constantly asking everybody, can I get that money now? Can I get that money now? Can I get that money now. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there are people who need the money and they try to get it as soon as possible, but you're also grieving. You should be grieving. Right. And so are those some of the first questions that you're going to ask? Probably for most people not. Eventually, they're going to get around to it. Weeks after Randy's murder, Doherty told Brian, they needed to film another walkthrough of the crime scene. Brian spoke with an investigator about

discovering Randy's body. In his previous interviews, he said he didn't touch Randy's body. But this time, he said he did touch her to see if she would wake up. Okay. So now you've got inconsistencies and your testimony or your statements. And that's never good. No, that's definitely a problem. And this is not, you know, I said I had eggs for breakfast and I really had cream of wheat. Yeah. This is concerning whether or not. you touched your wife's body. See, the problem is when you lie, it's hard to remember all the lies. It is. And you're constantly telling new things because you don't remember what you said and you think I probably said this or that, but. Well, when it's fresh, okay, maybe you're good. Yeah. But then they come back four days later. They come back two weeks later and they're asking the same questions,

but they're not getting the same answers because the more time that goes by, the hard. it is to remember what you said. Investigator started calling Brian every day and showing up at his work and his house unannounced. According to the Lancaster new era, the police started tapping Brian's phone in March and a county grand jury also subpoenaed Blaine Norris, who was described as increasingly concerned. By May, investigators could tell. Brian was at his breaking point.

he was invited to speak to them. So, you know, they had been on him pretty heavy, questioning him, showing up at his work, at his house, sometimes on a daily basis. That's going to be tough for anyone. Yeah. But now they're seeing the pressure working. Well, especially if you have something to hide, it's going to be real tough. If you don't have anything to hide, then it's just kind of a nuisance.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. But if you've done something really. bad and you're trying to not let that come out, that is going to be so stressful on you that the police are wanting to talk to you on a daily basis. On May 9th, 2003, the Cumberland County DA announced that 27-year-old Brian Trimble was being held without bail on charges of criminal homicide, criminal solicitation to commit homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, insurance fraud, and criminal attempted insurance fraud.

That's a lot of charges. It is a lot of charges. The Sentinel reported that district attorney Skip Ebert said that they believed Brian was responsible from the beginning of the investigation. Ebert said at a press conference, sadly once again, this case has boiled down to another horrific domestic violence killing. Brian Trimble was arrested after he confessed on May 8th. that he planned to have Randy killed for her life insurance money.

So it took him a while, but eventually he broke and confessed to what he had done. Detective Doherty was in the room when Brian spoke with another investigator. According to NBC, the investigator asked Brian, you didn't kill your wife, did you? Brian said no. The investigator asked, but you know who did, don't you? And Brian said yes, he said the killer was Blaine Norris. Brian confessed that he was planning to pay Blaine about $20,000 to commit the murder. And that amount is important because it's essentially about the same amount of debt that Blaine had acquired during the production of his movie.

Sure, for Blaine, I do this. My debt's wiped out. I get out from under this massive, you know, debt that I have. News outlets at the time reported that Brian agreed to pay an unidentified hitman, a substantial amount of money for their help in killing Randy. They were to be paid with her life insurance money. So I think that tells you why he was in such a hurry to try to collect the $100,000 because he needed to pay Blaine 20,000.

Yeah, I'm sure. blame was kind of restless on wanting that money too. Well, let's face it, if you're a person who's hired someone to kill another person and the actual killer says, hey, man, where's my money? You better be getting that person that money. You might be next. Well, you could be next or that person's going to more easily roll over on you. Right. If questioned or or something like that, according to court documents, Brian said that he let the hitman into the house and helped remove a diamond ring,

gold jewelry, and cash from the home to help stage a burglary. He also hoped to get additional money from their homeowner's insurance policy for the missing jewelry and cash. So, you know, that's pretty conniving,

pretty calculated. Not only are you paying for the murder of your wife to collect. insurance money, but you're also staging a burglary and you're going to try to collect on your homeowner's insurance policy for that stuff that's missing. A lot of fraud going on here. Yeah, a lot of fraud, but it also seems, you know, just so callous because I'm not saying that $100,000 is not a lot of money because it is.

And let's say it was another, I don't know, $10,000 worth of jewelry. Yeah. But in the grand scheme of things, as you and I have said many times, when you weigh that against a human being's life, it's ridiculous. I don't know what other word to use. They don't compare at all. I mean, no amount of money compares to the taking of a human life. The Sentinel reported that at this time, the police were still after this unknown hitman.

But D.A. Ebert said, I want all the citizens of. East Pensborough Township, Hamden Township and Camp Hill to know that there is no random killer out there stalking their neighborhoods. So I think that is important in, you know, smaller towns when there's a murder, you don't want the residents believing that there's some serial killer on the loose and that they could possibly be next. Oh, you're exactly right. You want to stay calm, you know, because, especially when you know, that. And especially when you know that, that this was a domestic type of murder. Yes.

This person's not likely or not going to be able to go on and, and kill somebody else. They would have no reason to. Ebert felt like they still didn't have enough evidence against Blaine Norris. He told Dateline, I was still looking for every fact that I could get to support every word that Brian Trimble had told us. I had to prove through other methods that that's what he told us.

So I always think this is important. Yeah, it's great that Brian Trimble rolled over on Blaine Norris. But I think as an investigator, you want to have facts that back up the words. Because the words can change. All the time. How many people say, I lied. Right. I didn't really do that.

I just said that to get the police off my back. So, you know, that type of confess. while great, it's not always enough. You need more evidence that backs up the confession. I guess that's what I'm saying. But the one thing that investigators were worried about was obtaining this additional evidence before Blaine caught on to them. At the time, Blaine was editing his movie cast member Sean Gaston visited his apartment one day. And Blaine told him that the police were questioning him because he was friends with Brian.

Blaine told his friend Dan Bartash that he had just given a blood sample to the authorities at a clinic and he followed the truck that was carrying his sample. He wanted to run it off the road. Bartash told him that the truck should have been his salvation and was confused why he would want to run it off the road. Well, I think we know why. Yeah. I mean, it was not going to be his salvation.

It was going to be his downfall. Exactly. Authorities executed a search warrant after Brian confessed. When the police searched Blaine's apartment, they found a collection of books on forensics. They also found a collection of handguns, rifles, and hunting knives, but none of them were the murder weapon. Okay. Could somebody have a large number of books on forensics? Sure, they could. Yeah. There's a lot of people that have handguns, rifles, hunting knives. None of that in and of itself makes you a killer, especially because none of those guns would prove out to be the actual murder weapon. But I think depends when you get all these books on forensics too, right? You mean being a lifelong scholar versus you just went and picked them up two weeks before the murder? Yeah. You bought 10 different books. Yeah. I would agree with that. But is it going to be the lynchpin to the prosecution's case? No, I don't think so. It'll be part of their

circumstantial evidence. But in Blaine's car, they found a Kmart receipt for a box of surgical gloves, work gloves, and a hooded sweatshirt and pants purchased on January 9th, 2003. This was according to the Patriot News. Doherty approached the store manager and asked if the same credit card purchased anything else. And they learned that Blaine also purchased a six inch fillet knife. The forensic pathologist believed that the knife used to stab Randy was at least six inches long. So things are coming together. Yeah, they are. Right. It's like more and more pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. I'm also assuming that they thought this guy was trying to be sneaky. So he bought the knife separate from the other purchases.

Why? Because he thought it would shield him in some way. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. Seems strange. Yeah, obviously it didn't. And maybe it's because, you know, when you buy surgical gloves, work gloves,

a hooded sweatshirt and pants, okay? The cashier just thinks that you've got some big cleanup thing going on. but when you throw in the knife looks a little more dextery. Nice. Yeah. Dextery. Yeah. The Patriot News also reported that preliminary tests

for blood inside Blaine's car were positive. Unfortunately, the police would never find the murder weapon. And like Brian, it seemed as though Blaine had a strong alibi. Blaine's friend Dan Bartash told the police that he and another friend,

saw Blaine outside his apartment on January 10th, 2003, between 7.15 and 7.30 p.m. the time when Randy was killed. Blaine told them he was going to York. Bartash and his friend were heading to Philadelphia. And they stopped to get gas after they said goodbye to Blaine. So I will say the same thing that I said about Brian. I think you said you can't be in two places at the same time. Right. So if he really was at, you know, this apartment at the time that Randy was killed, that's a pretty good alibi.

Yeah, like he said, it's a really good alibi. But the police checked the surveillance footage at the gas station and they realized that Bartash was off by an hour. He purchased gas around 8.30 p.m. on January 10th, not 7.30, which meant he saw a at 8.15, not 7.15. It changes things. But changes things a lot because it meant that Blaine could have killed Randy and been back from the crime scene by that point in time. And I think once investigators got past this alibi,

that was what the prosecution needed. on August 26, 2003, Brian Trimble pleaded not guilty during his formal arraignment. On September 18th, 25-year-old Blaine Norris was charged with first-degree murder. Skip Ebert alleged that Blaine entered the Trimble's home and waited for Randy to get back from work. He then strangled and stabbed her to death. Both men were charged with first-degree murder, attempted insurance fraud, in criminal conspiracy to commit murder.

Blaine Norris was also charged with criminal conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Brian was charged with insurance fraud and criminal solicitation to commit murder. So like you said earlier, right, there's a lot of charges. And they do try to stack up as many as they can't. Yeah, but a lot of these seem justified, right? Oh, yeah. There's no doubt. I mean, it was to the point where prosecutors were willing to,

to pursue the death penalty for Brian. Wow. Because, and I didn't see the reasonings behind it. My theory is that, you know, in these types of murder for higher situations, yes, you're not the person who pulled the trigger or committed the physical act. Right. Of murder, but it never would have happened without you. You're the kickoff. Yeah. According to a probable cause affidavit, Brian let Blaine into the house and then left to establish his alibi. He came home and found Randy's body in the garage. Brian helped Blaine take a diamond ring, gold jewelry, and cash out of the house to stage a burglary. Trimble told investigators that Blaine said he tried to strangle Randy and then stabbed her.

Ebert said that the authorities were investigating whether or not an online manual for murder was used in the crime. we talked about that earlier. An affidavit for a search warrant states that Brian sent Blaine the link to a website called Hitman Online, eight days before the murder. Hitman Online. Yeah. And I mentioned it, right? There were some similarities between what was in this manual and the crime scene.

But it was described as not being a roadmap. I mean, it wasn't verbatim, you know, how the crime went down versus this manual. On September 26, 2003, Brian Trimble testified at Blaine's preliminary hearing. Brian testified that Randy's insurance policy was estimated to be between $100,000 and $200,000. Brian said that Randy was working two jobs and trying to save up for a child. They were only married two and a half years. But Brian said he had considered divorce several times and had discussed his marriage. with his father and coworkers.

The Sentinel reported that Brian testified that Blaine responded to his discussions of marital issues by saying, you know, I could take care of that for you. Okay. Wow. Just that simple, huh? You know, I've had a lot of discussions with a lot of people in the years that I've been on this earth. Right.

Some people that I consider to be very, very close friends. And sometimes those are about, you know, personal. personal issues that I'm going through never once. Not even you have said, you know, I could take care of that for you. And I'm trying to think of how I would react if somebody did. I would have to think, you know, it would be something along the lines of, you know, get out of here. You know, that's not what I'm talking about. Don't ever say that to me again. We're no longer friends. I don't know what it would be. But it wouldn't be, yeah, let me think about that. Yeah, let me get back to you on that. Yeah. We kind of dwell that over. Maybe you're right. Maybe that would solve all my problems.

Are we talking cash or how we work it out? Just so I know. Eventually, Brian stopped considering divorce and decided to have Randy killed. So he and Blaine spent the next two months planning the murder at work, during breakfast and lunch breaks. Do you think they got excited about getting together and planning this out? I don't know if excited is the right word, but I can picture it. And it's kind of sickening to think that, you know, they're microwaving up leftovers or whatever they're eating. Right.

And as they're eating, they're talking about the best way to kill Brian's wife. Yeah, I mean, we've worked in a big place before when you go into those break rooms and people are sitting around sharing meals or like playing cards or, but you don't ever see them sketching out the murder plan. No, no, now I don't know what people are always talking about, but I can't imagine too many people are talking about this. You know, the one thing that really gets me, because we've done a number of cases like this where people kill for money, insurance money, kill their spouse.

And a lot of times it seems to me as though when a man decides to kill his wife, it's in lieu of getting a divorce. Yeah. Because they've done some calculation in their head and decided that it's much more beneficial financially to kill their wife than to go through a divorce. But they had to have had those thoughts and weighed all of that out, made the calculation, and come to the decision. And that's the part that, you know, really gets me that somebody's able to do that

and justify that, yes, this seems to be the better course of action. I'm not going to pay her that much. I'll just go ahead and take her life. At 4.15 p.m. on the day of the murder, Blaine parked two blocks away from the house. He had a duffel bag with clothing, gloves, a knife, and a gun. Blaine put on an extra layer of clothes. clothing wore two layers of gloves and strapped weapons to his body. Brian and Blaine started tossing the house to stage a burglary.

Brian pointed out valuable items and Blaine took jewelry and cash. He left the window and the doors unlocked. Brian agreed to pay Blaine the $20,000 plus expenses to kill Randy. Do you like turn in the expense report at the end or something? What are the expenses? What he bought? the knife and the gloves that he bought at Kmart? And what's the protocol there?

Gas? Yeah. Do you like turn in? You have to have the receipts. But think about, you know, what they did and then go back to them planning the murder at their, uh, on their lunch break. Yeah. This is what they were talking about.

Exactly. You know, Blaine probably said, I'll go buy this stuff. Let's, this is what we'll wear. We'll toss the house. We'll make it look like a burglary. We'll sell the, you know, the, you know, the valuables. The Sentinel reported that Brian testified that he got home at 8.15 p.m.

on January 10th and waited 15 minutes to call 911. Now, he said he waited because he was emotionally trying to get himself ready to see his wife. And maybe that is true. Could be. Maybe he, some type of feelings. I don't know how you couldn't have some type of feeling. Now, you could make the argument that if you had any type of feelings. that if you had any type of feelings, you wouldn't have gone through it.

That's what I was thinking. So I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Brian testified that three weeks after Randy was killed, he met with Blaine and he told me how he had done it until the point where I could no longer listen. Blaine said that he tried to strangle Randy with an electric cord as she came through the door. But Randy managed to get her hand between the cord and her neck. so he ended up stabbing her. Blaine said that Randy had scratched him or grabbed hold of him.

So he checked her hand to make sure she didn't pull any hair out. Blaine killed Randy as he was dragging her backwards, attempting to strangle her. Randy was later pulled into the garage from the dining room. Brian testified that after Randy was killed, he spent between $17,000 and $24,000 on a TV entertainment system in Xbox, Xbox games, and new furniture. I can't believe this guy went on a shopping spree. So we talked about it up front, right? This guy wanted to buy things. And, you know, according to him, his wife talked him out of it or wouldn't let him,

depending on how the situation really went down. But now she's gone. And so he goes out on a spending spree. But here's my thought. If your wife was murdered and you had nothing to do with it, wouldn't that be the last thing on your mind is that, you know, I need to get out to the Best Buy or the furniture store. I need a whole new setup. Wouldn't you think it's going to make you look suspicious? You know, over a certain period of time, here comes the new furniture.

Here comes the new TV. I mean, I just think if you don't want to be caught, why wouldn't you stay out of the limelight? Stay low, right? Yeah, I mean, suspicion is one thing. I think the other thing is you're not acting, and maybe it's part of suspicion, but you're not acting as a grieving husband would.

Exactly. And you know the other problem with this is? You didn't get a PlayStation. Well, I'm an Xbox guy, but. And that is where we differ. It's just one of the many places. that we differ. Coroner Michael Norris testified that Randy died of multiple stab wounds and strangulations.

We mentioned it. She was stabbed 27 times. Blaine's defense attorney, Michael Rinchler, asked Brian about his karate training because he wanted to prove Brian was capable of doing things. Rinchler said he didn't believe his client had anything to do with anything. My client has nothing to do with nothing. that seemed like such a strange statement. So,

you know, we, we talked about the fact that Brian had MS. He had limitations. So Blaine's attorney is trying to, I think, put forth the notion that he wasn't as limited as he claimed to be, meaning that he could have carried out the murder himself.

Yeah. Blaine insisted he was innocent until the last minute. on April 19th, 2004, Blaine pleaded guilty to first degree murder to avoid the death penalty. So it wasn't just Brian. They went after Blaine as well. Blaine was sentenced to life in prison without parole in order to pay $9,886 in restitution. I wonder if that dollar amount was for. Well, I was, I'm assuming that maybe court costs.

Maybe. I don't know who the restitution was to. Yeah. The family back to the courts. I don't know. Blaine said in court, I realize no words can take away the grief I caused you. I wish I could give you more than an apology. I wish I could give you your daughter back. And I always like to analyze what people say when everything is kind of said and done, right? You've confessed. You've been convicted. You've been sentenced. Now you have a chance to talk. You're. You have a chance to talk. to the family. What he's saying is fine. Yes. But the thought I always have is why didn't you think about it ahead of time? Yeah. I even do what you did. Yeah, you're being contrite now and you're saying, I wish I hadn't done this. I wish I could, you know, give you your daughter back. You could have. Just get the hell out of it from the get go. I mean, you owed $18,000. Big whoop. You'll figure. it out. I mean, yeah, it's a lot of money. Get an extra job at Long John Silver's or something.

Worst case, file bankruptcy. Who cares? Move on. Don't kill somebody over it. Blaine's attorney said that his client wanted the death penalty. During his statement, Blaine claimed that he had found religion and hoped Randy's family could forgive him. See, I have a hard time believing that he wanted the death penalty. Why did he wait to the last minute then? Why didn't he continue to act like he didn't do it? maybe he would have got off. Or maybe he would have got what he wanted then. Yeah, I don't have as hard a time believing it as you do because I do think there are people who start to think about what the rest of their life in prison is going to entail and what

that's going to be like and just exactly how long that's going to be. And maybe they think, I think I'd just rather be put to death until that day comes. Right. And then they think, oh, what have I done? Right. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't do it.

It's appealed this. On May 6th, 2004, Brian Trimble pleaded guilty to first degree murder. He was sentenced to life without parole. So neither one of these guys got the death penalty. But it sounds like they possibly could have if they had not pleaded guilty. The Sentinel reported that Nancy Chavez said in court that Brian was plotting murder. even when Randy was trying for nine months to get pregnant with his child, Brian spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with their family while planning to kill his wife.

How could he even look at her? How could he even sleep in the same bed with her? My only hope is that he will die a similar death. Okay, as a parent, you're going to be very upset. Oh. And you're going to say things that, you know, I think a lot of people would, would view as kind of brutal. But in the wake of that grief, that stuff is going to come out.

Of course it will. You know, you killed my daughter. You know, I hope they get you in prison. You hear people say things like that all the time. It'd be hard not to say things like that. Brian said in court that he was desperate and angry for a very long time. It was wrong to place the blame on Randy. She was a wonderful person.

I loved her very much. As a parent, I wouldn't want to hear some. buddy that killed my daughter, say, I know I killed her, but I loved her. And she was a wonderful person. Yeah. Then why'd you have her killed? Exactly. Why'd you even start down that path?

Don't even say those things around me. According to NBC, after Brian made his confession, Detective Doherty asked Brian why he had Randy killed, he answered, well, we weren't getting along well. She was controlling me. Then he said something disturbing. I couldn't put her through the pain of a divorce. he couldn't put her through the pain, huh? But he could put her family, friends, and everybody through the pain of her being murdered.

Yeah. By him. I mean, I think as far as the BS meter goes, that just broke it. It did. And it just leapt off, completely off the meter.

Oh yeah. I can hear the springs bouncing around from being broken. Yeah. I mean, that to me is just one of the dumbest things that I, that I've heard. Now, Blaine never fully explained. why he did it.

His friends believed that he blamed Randy for forcing Brian to abandon the movie. He was also desperate for money to pay off his credit card debt. And Brian was promising him pretty much the exact same amount that he needed to pay all of that off. You know, these guys can say whatever they want. To me, at the end of the day, it comes down to being greedy. Absolutely. in my mind, in my heart, that's what I see in this case. And truthfully, in a lot of cases.

I mean, Brian went out and bought a bunch of stuff right away. And we know that Blaine couldn't wait to get his hands on that check so he could pay off his debt. I couldn't put her through the pain of a divorce. Yeah. Dumber words have never been uttered in the history of a criminal. No, just anyone. Yeah. Just in general. Blaine told Dory. details about the murder, which Doherty then later told NBC, he said he had to stab and stab and strangle and strangle. And it didn't happen like on TV. And I remember him saying that towards the end, she started to pray. And that just sent chills down my spine. To hear him say that, there's very little doubt in my mind that Blaine would have killed again. I think he got a high off it. I think he enjoyed it somewhere somehow. We saved somebody for.

from the same fate. And there's a couple of things here that really makes sense to me. Number one, we've heard numerous killers say it doesn't happen the way you see it on TV. Yeah, as quick as it happens on TV. It takes a lot longer to strangle someone or, you know, people don't die the way that they die in movies, things like that. And then you have this detective saying, this guy would have killed again. Now, this may have been the first time he killed.

We have no idea, no way of knowing. But is it possible for a person to get the rush, the same type of rush that maybe we talk about with serial killers and then down the road think, I want that rush again. Yeah. And I think it's entirely possible. I do too. Brian wrote to Dateline and called himself a normal man who made a terrible mistake. Blaine wrote that media sensationalizes violent crimes and helps perpetuate them. So you're blaming what you did on the media because you killed a woman to help pay off your credit card debt.

Right. There's just another stupid thing somebody said. I think some of these killers just sit around all day in prison. Yeah. Thinking of things to say, the trouble is, don't you think they could think of better things? to say they end up saying the stupidest things. In June 2004, Skip Ebert,

first ADA, David Freed, police chief Dennis McMaster, and detective Richard Doherty received special commendations from township commissioners. Doherty was awarded the Cumberland County District Attorney's

Meritorious Service Medal. The medal was also given to East Pensborough Detective Joe Landis, the only certified wiretouch officer in the township. Because it does sound like that played a big role. Yeah, I think so.

You know, we didn't get into, you know, a lot of trial details. They pleaded guilty. But we did say they wire tapped, um, some phones. I'm assuming what was said on those calls would have come out at trial. Yeah. And was probably a big reason why, you know, these guys ended up pleading guilty. Back in 2003. D.A. Ebert noted that the East Pensboro Police and County detectives worked over 8600 investigative

hours on the case. He also said that investigators used interviews, surveillance, and electronic wiretapping to solve it. Well, you know, that's a lot of hours. It really is. In 2005, Nancy Chavez created Randy's race, a 5K run, walked for hope and courage. All the proceeds for Randy's race go towards counseling, emergency shelters, legal advocacy, and outreach programs. In 2007, Nancy formed Restoring Our Souls, which is a support group for mothers and families who have lost someone to domestic violence. And then in 2011, Randy's House of Angels was founded. Randy's House of Angels partners with four domestic violence programs in Pennsylvania. The organization offers support, therapy, and counseling to victims of domestic violence.

The mission statement reads, the board of directors for Randy's House of Angels is dedicated to helping all children of domestic violence and their loved ones who are exposed to and or are victims of domestic violence. the board is committed to making sure to protect the integrity of children and assuring an opportunity to grow up in a safe environment. That's a good thing. It's a great thing. You know, all three of these are amazing. And, you know, it is something that we see quite often. Something like this coming out in the wake of a tragedy, you know, family members trying to really do something amazing. in memory of their lost loved one.

So Gibbs, as we wrap up this case, absolutely tragic. Randy Trimble was a hardworking woman who was loved by many people. We said it. She worked two jobs to help take care of her husband, to save up for them to have a child. Yeah. She was doing all the right things. She was. And then she was brutally murdered by two selfish people who valued money more

than her life. One of those being her husband. Thankfully, the police worked hard to build a case against both Brian and Blaine. And both of these men will spend the rest of their lives in prison. And they should. Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind. They have to pay for the decisions they made. You know, in the case of Blaine, I'm going back to what that detective said in thinking, this guy would probably do it again. The detective said he thought he got a taste for it. Yeah, I think he was, I think he jumped on this one pretty easily. And from the description of the encounter, it does sound like he could do it again. Well, if you remember, it wasn't Brian who went to Blaine and said, hey, will you help me kill my wife? Right. It was Blaine after listening to Brian

talk about his marital issues who said, hey, I can help you take care of that. Now, that doesn't excuse Brian. That doesn't make it any better for him. I'm simply talking about Blaine and his mindset. And I agree with you. He jumped on this thing very, very quickly. Makes you wonder if there wasn't something in his past.

Or something bubbling up under the surface. You know, I do think that there are some people. who could potentially be murderers or serial killers and maybe they're keeping something at bay until something like this arises, right? An opportunity to offer his services to his friend, to do something that maybe he had been wanting to do for a long time. We don't know. I'm speculating. But a lot of it's based on Detective Dordy's statement. and what he saw in this guy. But that's it for our episode on Brian Trimble and the murder of Randy Trimble.

I do really have a lot of admiration for Randy's mother, Nancy Chavez. Sounds like she's doing a lot of great work. It does sound like it. In the wake of this tragedy, she's doing it in Randy's honor. And a lot of parents of murdered children do that. And maybe that's a way to channel the grief. and also, you know, give back, do good. Help somebody out.

Yeah, but I really do admire her greatly. We got some voicemails. You want to check those out? Yeah, serum. Hi, Mike and Gibby. My name is Ray Daly. I was listening to the Cynthia Mueller case, and I got to the part where you guys were talking about how she was looking in to Dr.

Jack Cvorkean, and it got me wondering if you guys had thought about doing a case on him. I believe he was found guilty of second degree murder, if I'm not mistaken. But that was pretty much it. I was just wondering, you guys have a good day and keep your own time ticking. Yeah, I've thought about it. I think Kvorkian would be a very interesting episode. I think you'd have a lot of people split. Sure.

On, you know, whether he was a murderer or he was helping people out. Because I think online a lot of people are split. Hi Mike and Gibby. My name is Genevieve's Cooper. I just listened to your episode on Nathan Miles Gale. I was a funeral director and bomber who worked at Moore Funeral Home in Arlington who did the services for Dinebag Daryl. And I didn't work there at the time he was buried, but I wanted to let you know that his grave site is very impressive. His brother is buried next to him. And Dinebag was buried with a very famous guitar named Bumblebee that belonged to Eddie. Van Halen. So I thought I'd let you guys know that. Kind of a fun fact. Love the show. Keep your own time taken. Very interesting. Yeah. I will tell you, I've received more emails, informational type emails about that episode than we have in a long time. Really? Yeah, a lot of Pantera fans out there. Number one, appreciative of the episode, but really appreciative of dying back Daryl and really giving like more insight.

side on the band and things like that. But we appreciate the voicemails very much. We had some mailbag. Cynthia Thomas sent us a book that chronicles the tragedy of Olga Duncan. Okay. So this is in California. It involves the trial of an infamous person. I haven't read through the whole, I'm ready yet, obviously.

Yeah. I just got it. Jonice Eve's Roberts sent us in some zombie dessert coffee. Really? And I cannot wait to try. I know how much you love that stuff. Zom coffee. Yeah, well, zombie dessert.

How can you not want to try something like that? I think you're all in. I'm all in. All right, buddy, that's it. For another episode of True Crime All the Time. So for Mike and Gabi. Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.