True Crime All The Time - Timothy Bliefnick

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

On the afternoon of February 23rd, 2023, 41-year-old Becky Bliefnick was found dead on her bathroom floor. Becky had three boys with her husband, Tim. But at the time of her death, the two were estranged and going through a contentious divorce. Becky had started dating someone new, and it didn't take the police long to zero in on Tim. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Tim Bliefnick. As you would imagine, the police considered Tim a possible suspect because he was the estranged husband. But they had trouble finding evidence tying him to the crime. They didn't have a murder weapon, and when they searched Tim's home, they found little evidence that put him at the crime scene. The police would have to put bits of information together to charge Tim, but would it be enough for a jury to convict him?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 411 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. How are you? Yeah, I'm doing good, man. How about you? Yeah, I was just waiting to see if you would ask me or sometimes you forget. Sometimes you forget. No, I'm doing great. We just talked about it on our little weekly Patreon thing, but we got our first snow today. We did.

Which is a little strange because it was 75. degrees last week. I know. And now it's snow. I was like, where's my snow suit at? But the, the puppy ivy, that's her first snow. So she's a little, you know, in all of it, trying to figure it out. She liked it. Looking at her footprints in the snow. Yeah. Eating the snow. Probably make turn the snow yellow too. At some point. Yeah. She definitely will. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Chloe Durham. Hey, Chloe. Adam Fisher. I appreciate that, Adam. Margaret. Gifford. Hey, Margaret. Darla McComis. Ah, there's Darla. Lee Hughes. Hey, Lee. Lane. Appreciate that, Lane. Matthew. Matthew. The Queen Beall. Oh, the Queen Beall.

Maria Rodriguez. Hey, Maria. And last but not least, Kelsey Goodman. Hey, Kelsey. And then if we go into the ball. This week, we selected Donna Park. Thanks, Donna. Yeah, I appreciate the new Patreon support, the continued support. We also had a great page. PayPal donation from Annalise Margo. Oh, thanks, Annalise. Yeah, so thanks to everyone. Gibbs right now, we have an episode out on True Crime All the Time Unsolved where we're talking about William Dean and we're headed to New Hampshire.

You know, Dean was a guy who had no known enemies but was found murdered on his farm outside of town. This is an older case. It goes back over a hundred years. Yeah, but it's a good case. It's got some twist to it. It does. But it remains unsolved.

Check it out. Yeah, definitely check that out. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I am ready. We're talking about Timothy Bleafnick when Becky Bleafnick was murdered inside her home. The police quickly focused on her estranged husband, Tim. The two were in the process of finalizing a contentious divorce. And we're supposed to go to trial days after the murder.

So no surprise, right, that they would look at the estranged husband. Kind of normal. Yeah, very normal. And then you add in the fact that they're going through a contentious divorce and there's supposed to be this trial. And she just happens to be found murdered days before the trial. Yeah. You're going to be on the radar.

You're going to make some questions. Becky Bleafnick was 41 years old at the time of her death. she was a mother who lived in Quincy, Illinois and worked as an ER nurse. Becky's sister Sarah Riley told 48 hours that she was a selfless person and her kids were her whole world. And we do hear that quite a bit about victims, especially women, mothers. Right. You know, when they're on their own or even married. When people start talking about their kids, it often comes up that their kids are their whole world. Because to a lot of people they are, to most people, I should say.

Sure, there's a lot of sacrifice. Yeah. But you do it because the love you have for your kids. Becky met her husband, Tim, while studying at Quincy University. However, they didn't start dating until two years after graduation. Yeah, that's the way to do it. Don't get into any serious relationship until you graduate. Concentrate on getting your diploma.

Oh, okay. I thought you were going to say play the field, you're only young ones. I thought you were going in a different direction there. You read between the lines, which is, but you know, a little strange in that they meet, they know each other, but they don't start dating until two years after they graduate. They got married on September 18th, 2009. And the couple had three boys who were 12, 10, and five. when Becky was murdered. Becky quit her job in pharmaceutical sales to become a stay-at-home mom, and Tim continued working in the recycling industry, according to 48 hours. Normally, those pharmaceutical jobs are pretty good job. That's what I was thinking. From what I understand, I know some people that do that, you can make quite a bit of money. But it sounds to me like she wanted to focus on raising the kids.

according to Becky's sister Sarah, she was happy for the first five years of the marriage, but things changed after their second son was born. Sarah Riley told 48 hours that Tim became manipulative and controlling and didn't help around the house. That's all bad stuff right there. But how many times do we hear it? Those words especially, manipulative and controlling. Yeah.

And when does that ever really bode well? Now, obviously, it never does for us because we're talking about someone who's murdered. Sure. But even when murder is not involved, that is not a good recipe for a healthy marriage. No, it's not. And then on top of that, that he's too lazy to help around the house, too. I mean, you got three boys, you're pretty busy. you know, can you not help out a little bit?

Maybe run the vacuum, maybe dust something off, maybe clean those toilets that you and the boys have done some damage to that she really just doesn't want to have to clean. Because of poor aim. Yes. But let's face it, right? Not all men help out around the house or at least do their part. It might do some, but they certainly, many people don't do the same amount. as their wives or their partners. And I'm not calling all men lazy.

I'm just saying from experience, I would put myself in that category. There is no way that I ever, in the 28 years I've been married, did as much as my wife did. First of all, I don't think I could physically do as much as she does. She's got a battery that just won't stop.

Right. And then the second thing is she doesn't like the way that I do certain things. Exactly. You probably don't do it the way she wants you to do it. Yeah. So if I start to do something, she'll just come in and be like, hey, just let me do that. But you said, you know, from the beginning, the 28 years, I've never did everything that she does. No.

But if you came into the relationship and you were doing all this stuff to impress her, then you got married and all of a sudden, then you stopped. You know, that's not. That's not fair. No, but let's be honest, it goes the other way, too. It can. I know. I'm talking about my own marriage. Okay.

You know, before the marriage, I used to get a lot of backrubs. You know how many backrubs I get now? Zero. I don't know if that's the same or not. I'm just saying. Yeah. I'll tell her she needs to step it up. Becky told her friend Shannon Zanger that she was shouldering most of the look.

And I was kind of talking about myself there. I don't want to make it sound like I didn't help out because I did. I just, there was no way I ever did as much as my wife did. Their marriage became even more strained when Becky decided to go back to school to become a nurse. According to Sarah Riley, Tim didn't support her and didn't increase his time with the kids.

So, you know, in the beginning, she's a stay at home mom, right? Now, was his thing? thinking, hey, I'm working all day. You're at home. I shouldn't have to come home and then do all this

work. I'm not saying that's accurate thinking. I'm just saying, I'm just positing that maybe that's what his thinking was. But now you have a situation where she's going back to work and he doesn't step up. Yeah. I've, I've had friends that had that logic. You know, hey, I'm working all day during the day. She's at home. She's got it easy with the kids. So why should I get home and have to help? And I'm like, you've never really spent a full day with the kids by yourself, have you?

Yeah, because any, I think any stay-at-home mom would tell you, it ain't no cakewalk here, Bub. No. And it's not, you know. And everybody's different. I remember getting off work. I wanted to get home and be with my kids because I missed them. And I wanted to spend some time with them.

But some people, you know, they just want to be able to say, check in. Like, hey, how you doing? And do their own thing, watch a ball game, drink a beer. Yeah, everybody's a little different. When speaking to 48 hours, Tim acknowledged that he wasn't in favor of Becky becoming a nurse, but that was because he was worried about her being too stressed. He said he had always been involved with his kids and wasn't concerned about having to do more caretaking. Well, what's he going to say?

Yeah, I was a POS. I did nothing. No. Most guys aren't going to admit. admit that, especially on a national television program. Becky went on to graduate nursing school. She was a certified trauma nurse, sexual assault nurse examiner, and worked as a travel nurse during the pandemic. Wow. That's impressive. Yeah, it is. And I know nurses were paid quite a bit of money because they needed nurses to travel all over the place. She was nominated for a Daisy Award in 2020, which honors nurses who give exceptional care.

So Becky was doing really well in her new career, but her marriage problems continued. She started opening up about her marriage problems after the pandemic started in March 2020. She told her friend Christy Krause that Tim didn't want to be married anymore. This was surprising because Krause, like many who knew Tim and Becky, thought they were a perfect couple. We've talked about that many times.

Yeah. And it does crop up in a lot of cases. You know, until you share or confide in in your friends or people you know, they most likely have no knowledge of any of the bad things that are going on in your marriage. Right. You know, they look at you and see, you know, you got a nice house. You got great kids. everything's perfect, but a lot of times it's not.

What happens behind closed doors would probably shock many. Yeah. Yeah, it probably would. Tim filed for divorce in January, 2021. He didn't tell 48 hours exactly why, but he suggested Becky changed after she became a nurse saying she struggled with patience and stress a lot, especially when it came to the kids. and it created some conflict. Now Becky's sister Sarah told 48 hours,

she believed Tim filed for divorce because he couldn't control Becky. Becky tried to save her marriage and wanted to go to counseling, but Tim allegedly refused. And I do think this is a very interesting concept. You know, if a person is very manipulative and controlling, let's, you know, look at this example of Becky and Tim, Becky's at home most of the time, right? She's a stay-at-home mom.

Does that give Tim a sense of control? As opposed to later on in the relationship, you know, she's going to school. Right. She's going to work. He feels like he has less control over her, which is probably a reality. Well, yeah, because she's making her own money, right? She doesn't need him for money. So that's got to be a point that he's not happy about if he wants control.

And he doesn't know who she's with. Yeah. Or talking to or you name it. Yeah. There's a lot of different things that open up. Yeah. It was a contentious divorce. And the two fought over money, their home and custody of the kids.

And even the custody of the kids, a lot of that is circled around money, right? if you have the kids more than the other parent, they're going to have to pay you more in most cases. It can be or it can just be about the kids themselves. It can be, yeah. But I think you're right. Oftentimes, the money factors in as well. Becky expressed her concerns about Tim over text

and in conversation with friends. She texted one friend per 48 hours. He has screamed in my face. He shoved me in front of the kids. and he's thrown things across the room. She messaged another friend, I truly believe Tim has serious mental health problems and he's becoming more vengeful and unpredictable.

Okay, I think if you're a friend and you're getting these types of text messages, you're worried. This does not seem like a safe and healthy environment. No, it doesn't. It's concerning. However, Tim told 48 hours, she told people I had an affair.

which is untrue. She tried to tell people that I was an alcoholic, which is untrue. She was telling people these things because she was angry about the divorce. Well, she's not here to argue those statements. Well, yeah, so I was going to say this at some point becomes kind of a he said, she said thing. Now, what I will say is, you know, her text messages are before. What he's telling 48 hours is after. Right.

Does that make a difference? In some people's eyes, yes. Doesn't mean one is more true than the other, but I think a lot of people would look at that and say, more likely than not. Her statements are more true than his because he can say whatever he wants. He can control his narrative, right? Becky's no longer around to,

contradict him. Tim saw it a protective order against Becky claiming she stalked and harassed him. His order referenced an incident where she allegedly became combative during a disagreement at a parent-teacher night. And I've said it

many times, but my wife's a teacher. She is actually at parent-teacher conferences at this very moment while you and I are recording this episode. She'd probably get an earful right now from a parent. Maybe. I don't remember her in all her years of teaching ever saying that there was a, you know,

a combat that broke out during one of these. But apparently Tim took a video of this confrontation. In the video, Becky asked for a letter. And Tim tells her to stop harassing and following him. She asked him to stop filming her. Casey Schneck, Tim's divorce attorney and defense attorney, told him. 48 hours, she didn't think anyone was trying to harm anyone. In this video, it was just two parents having a disagreement. Ultimately, the judge didn't grant Tim's order of protection. And to be

honest with you, in the way it is described, I would agree with that. Yeah. It doesn't seem like something that you would call stalking or harassment to the point where Tim would need a protection order against Beck. It's interesting that his divorce attorney was also his defense attorney. It is. Now, I've never had either one of them. But I always kind of thought a lot of divorce attorneys kind of specialized in that area. Right.

Not that they couldn't defend somebody in a criminal trial, but it seems strange to have a divorce attorney defend you in a murder trial. It's a little scary for me. But, you know, then again, maybe there was limitations on the attorneys available. I don't know. Or maybe he just really felt good about her representing him. Days after Tim filed for his protective order, Becky texted her sister. If something ever happens to me, please make sure the number one person of interest is Tim.

And I always go to you, Gibbs, because I'm, you know, I'm an only child. But if you got a text like this from one of your brothers, I mean, what would go through your mind? Yeah, be alarmed. I mean, what is happening? What is going on? To the point where somebody feels the need to say, if something happens to me, it's most likely this person. Yeah. This is not somebody just having a bad day, want to pick on somebody.

if you're going to send that to somebody in your family, there's something serious going on. Yeah, you've got real concerns about your safety. Yeah. 48 hours posted a screenshot of a longer message from Becky that said, if something ever happens to me, please make sure the number one person of interest is Tim as that is who would do something to me. I'm putting this in writing that I'm fearful he will somehow harm me,

come after me, or will try to do something. to me that takes me away from the kids or the kids away from me. He's already lied multiple times to paint himself as a victim and me as the perpetrator. When it is absolutely the other way around, no, I have not sent this to mom or dad because I don't want them to be out of their mind with work. Well, that says even more, right? I mean, it really would make you pretty concerned if you're her sister. Well, and I'm thinking as a dad, if I get this information from one of my daughters, I'm in full John Wick mode. Yeah.

I mean, I'm digging up the garage floor and, you know, getting all my kits out and stuff. Because the, you know what is about ready to hit the fan. As it should. But there was something in there that really kind of struck me. And it was Becky saying that Tim has lied multiple times and painted himself as a victim. Not shocking. Well, I just wonder, you know, how much of that goes back to the manipulator, the controlling aspect. You not only want to control the person, but I think you would want to control the narrative.

And doesn't that all kind of go together anyway, right? Yes. Yes. Because in controlling the narrative, then you're also controlling the person. You're painting the person out to be something they may not be, but something you want others to see them as. We've done enough cases and we've heard from enough listeners about how people think that their ex-spouse was the nicest person ever. But in reality, at home, they were terrible, terrible to their spouse and dangerous. but people that worked with the individuals thought,

well, that's just a super nice person. I can't imagine that they would ever hurt anybody. Yeah. They did. Yeah, we've heard that many, many times. Tim told 48 hours that he didn't understand where Becky's fears came from. He acknowledged that he and Becky did argue, and those arguments sometimes got loud, but that was all.

And for me, Gibbs, if there's a married couple out there that's been married for any length of time who can honestly say they've never had an argument. I would be shocked. I would be surprised as well. You know, when you're married and you're spending every day with a person, there are going to be arguments. Yeah. Now, sometimes those arguments might get loud.

They should never get physical, although sometimes, unfortunately, they do with certain people, but arguments are going to happen. Human nature. But you wonder how much of what Tim is saying is true. Because again, at the point where he's making all of these statements, Becky's not around. She's no longer a lot. Becky filed for a protective order against Tim, alleging that he entered her home without permission and falsified interactions between them.

But her order was not granted. So they both filed protective orders against the other. Neither one of them was granted. A judge ordered Becky and Tim to stay away from each other's homes unless they were exchanging the kids. And the judge ordered Tim to return a nine millimeter handgun. Becky gave him during the marriage, but she never got this gun back. And I'm always curious as to who follows up on these mandates by these judges. Right.

Because you see it time and time again in. cases where a judge orders something, but it never happens. Hey, I'm ordering you to give this handgun back to her. Who follows up on that to make sure that it happened? I'm guessing it's probably the responsibility of the attorneys, meaning her attorney, say, hey, did you get it back? And then file something with the court saying that he's in violation of a court order. But I don't know.

By the spring of 2022, Becky was starting to date again and was in a relationship with a man named Ted Johnson. She was still stressed about the divorce and fearful of Tim. On January 5th, 2003, Becky ran into her friend Melissa Young. At T.J. Max, she appeared mentally exhausted. According to Young, they talked about the divorce and Becky said she felt like Tim could snap at any moment. She claimed Tim told her, you'll be dead before you get any of my money. Wow. Okay. And these are important revelations, right? People who interacted with Becky before her death. Okay, what did she say? How did she appear? And Melissa is saying she appeared mentally exhausted. And according to her, Becky told her that Tim threatened her life.

And that's some pretty important information for the investigators to know down the road. And you know it's all going to come out, right, after Becky is murdered. On February 10, 2023, Tim called the Quincy police and asked if they could return a gun to Becky because he didn't want to give it to her face to face, but the police denied his request. according to the new site W-A-N-D. Tim asked if the police could return a 9-millimeter handgun. However, the person who spoke to Tim on the phone said at trial that Tim didn't specify what type of gun he wanted to return. Yeah, but wouldn't you ask?

Unless they weren't going to do it either way. So it didn't matter what type of gun it was. That's true. Like that wasn't within their purview and they weren't going to do it. it. Yeah. Tim told 48 hours he hadn't seen the 9mm gun Becky requested for three years. On the afternoon of February 23rd, 2003, Becky Bleafnick was found dead on her bathroom floor. Shortly before noon that day, Tim called the boy's school and told them not to let the kids walk home to Becky's house. He showed up a couple hours later for pickup. And you know that's going to come up. Later on, right? You're

going to have to explain. Why did you call the kid's school? Why did you not want them to walk home? Yeah. What was the reason behind that? Was it because you knew there was a gruesome scene and you didn't that you didn't want your kids to walk into? Around 3 p.m. Tim texted Becky's dad, asking if he could call her to find out when she would pick up the kids. He claimed the school called him and said no one picked them up. the boys had been staying with him at Becky's request because she was recovering from surgery. So this is strange because Tim called the school earlier around noon saying he was going to pick up the kids, but now he's texting Becky's dad saying, hey, the school's reaching out to me. No one's picked up the kids.

Can you check with Becky to see if she's going to pick them up? Well, let's be honest, Gibbs. You can see, right? He is setting a scene, a timeline. he's setting the dominoes up in a way that he would like for them to fall that's going to, you know, paint a picture. I'm assuming in the hopes that any suspicion in regards to Becky's death would be pushed away from him. Now, I don't know how he thinks he's going to ultimately get away with it. Are police not going to check with the school? You know, are they not going to

to find out that Tim called and said, hey, don't let the kids walk home. Are they not going to find out that he picked the kids up? But this text of Becky's dad resulted in him going over to her house to check on her. And that was when he found her body. Becky had been shot 14 times. And it was said that none of the wounds were immediately fatal, meaning it took several minutes for her to die. and she most likely suffered extreme pain from her injuries. Becky had been dead for several hours when she was fat. 14 times. That's a lot.

That is a lot of gunshots. We talk about stab wounds a lot. It doesn't take 14 shots to kill someone. And most of the time, like let's say in a movie or a television show, when someone fires that many shots. shots at close range. They're empty in the magazine, and they're doing so because they're in a fit of rage. So I think very similar to a high number of stab wounds.

This amount of gunshots kind of screams out, hey, the killer had something against this person. They were really pissed off at the time. Specifically at the victim. And this thought that, you know, she suffered. because none of these 14 shots caused her to die immediately. So done on purpose? Possibly.

And then there's also the fact that her dad found her this way. I mean, that is heartbreaking for any parent to think about. The police determined that the killer broke into the home by climbing onto the roof and prying open one of the boys' bedroom windows. the killer then forced open Becky's bedroom door. She ran into the bathroom where she was shot. The police felt sure that the killer broke into the home just before 11.m. Because Becky attempted to dial 9-1-1 at that time, but she dialed 9-1-2-6.

And her phone was knocked out of her hand before she could complete the call. Nothing was stolen from Becky's home and neighbors didn't hear her. see anything suspicious that night. So you know Gibbs in these cases, everything kind of tells you something. Now, whether it's correct or not, assumptions are made. Nothing is stolen from the home, which kind of rules out that this was a burglary gone wrong. The number of shots fired indicates a little bit of rage, possibly that the killer had knowledge of the victim. And this was personal, which kind of goes along with the fact that nothing was stolen. Right. Just surprise that no neighbors heard any noises. 14 shots. Yeah, I get you. You would think unless he was using something

to muffle the noise, that these shots would have been pretty loud. But again, one, two in the morning, most people are sleeping. You know, do you kind of hear something and think, I don't know what that is. I'm not bothering with it. I'm half asleep. Investigators found a partial shoe print near the point of entry, eight spent nine millimeter shell casings and small pieces of plastic on the floor around Becky's body. The plastic was later identified as pieces of an Aldi grocery bag. Becky's next door neighbors. had a motion-activated camera on the side of their house that pointed at their driveway, which ran alongside Becky's house.

The camera didn't pick up anything on the night of the murder, but at 105 a.m. the day before, a person walked down the driveway towards the back of Becky's house. The same person was seen again, 48 minutes later, walking in the opposite direction. The camera captured a similar incident on February 14. So what do you make of that? I mean, is this someone doing a dry run, a pre-murder run of how things might go? Maybe. According to W-A-N-D, Becky's boyfriend Ted Johnson, arrived at her home close to midnight on February 13th and spent the night with her.

After midnight, Becky's neighbor received an alert that someone was detected in her driveway. the video captured a person walking up and down the driveway. Becky's neighbor texted her right away, but she didn't respond for several hours and said she hadn't seen anything, but she thought she had been hearing voices in her backyard. And her motion detector light went off. I mean, my first thought is, is that this is possibly a jealous and estranged husband upset that his wife is with someone new. and maybe, you know, checking things out or doing whatever.

Nosing around. Officers canvassed the entire neighborhood looking for more security footage. They found camera footage from the nearby Quincy Public School bus barn, which captured several instances of a person riding a bike in the direction of Becky's house. When looking at the timing of the videos, authority suspected the person on the bike. was the person in the neighbor's driveway. According to W.A.N.D., from 12 to 1 a.m. On February 14th, video surveillance detected a bike rider,

passing the bus barn towards Vacky's house, then passing again in the opposite direction. At 2.11 a.m. On February 21st, bus barn surveillance showed a.m. in the area three times. On the 22nd, video surveillance showed a bike rider going past the bus barn and then passing in the opposite direction. At 12.55 a.m. on February 23rd, a bike rider was again captured.

Riding south past the bus barn towards Becky's house, she attempted to call 911 less than 20 minutes later. So either gives you have someone who, you know, around midnight, one, two o'clock in the morning, just feels like going for a bike ride, or you have a person who is stalking, checking up on Becky, or kind of going through a dry run of sorts

of something bad that's going to happen later on. It has that feeling of being pre-planned. Yeah, very, very much so. Again, there was no surveillance footage from Becky's neighbor's home on the morning she was killed. The problem was that all of the surveillance footage was poor quality. All the police could tell about the bike was that it did not have reflectors. The footage was too grainy to make clear identification about who was riding the bike and walking in the driveway. And we talk about surveillance footage a lot, especially in some of these newer cases.

you know, these doorbell cameras and outdoor cameras are great. The doorbell cameras do take really good pictures when the person is standing up close to the camera. They do. They don't do great of capturing someone riding down the street. Becky's sister, Sarah Riley, told the police that they needed to look into Tim as a suspect. And I get it why she would say that. that, right? We go back to some of the text messages that Becky had sent to her sister and

others. I'm surprised that anyone needed to tell the police to look into Tim as a suspect. On February 27, an officer found a bike with no reflectors, less than a half a block from Tim's house. On March 1st, the police execute a search warrant on Tim's house and car. They seized his computer as part of the search. Records showed that Tim's computer was used to purchase a bike that matched the abandoned bike under a fake name via Facebook marketplace. Tim made a fake Facebook account with the name John Smith. And on October 10, 2002, the John Smith Facebook account inquired via Tim's phone about a blue 26-inch

Schwinn mountain bike with no reflectors exactly like the bike that was found. Here's another example of people not thinking that their computer and their phones contain a love of information and that information could potentially catch up with them down the road. Yeah, we see it time and time again. You know, this type of information

can contradict what someone says, but here it can also tie someone to a bike that is thought to have been ridden to the murder scene. And I'm sure Tim thought he was being super smart. You know, I'm going to use a fake Facebook account. Nobody will ever know it's me. On October 12th, Tim inquired via Facebook about a black mongoose bike for sale and he ended up purchasing the bike. Mongoose bike, man. Those used to be some pretty cool bikes. That was the bike to have.

When you and I were younger, between 110 and 1.30 a.m. On February 14th, someone used Tim's laptop to search license plate lookup, title registration lookup, VIN check lookup, vehicle records, and then a search for Ted Johnson's exact VIN and license plate. And let's not forget, this was around the. the time. The neighbor's camera picked up suspicious activity. On the night, Ted Johnson stayed with Becky. So again, just more computer information catching up with someone. Not too hard to put together that Tim was trying to figure out who this was at Becky's house. And then he went to go check it out.

At 1.32 a.m. A call was made to the Missouri Department of Revenue, which handles vehicle registrations. On March 13, 2023, Tim was arrested and charged with two counts of first degree murder and home invasion. The case made national news because in 2020, Tim appeared with his parents and brothers on an episode of Family Feud. And who hasn't watched Family Feud? Oh, man. I don't watch it nowadays. Yeah. But during the Richard Dawson era, my grandparents watched Family Feud a lot.

I was little. I watched it with them. It was a good show. I do remember Richard Dawson kissing every woman on that show, which I don't think would fly today. Not at all. It's had several hosts. I just can't remember them all. Yeah, it has Steve Harvey, right?

Is he the one does it now? I think he's the latest one, yeah. Louis Anderson, did he do it for a while? Maybe. I don't know. I just remember Richard Dawson. He did it for a long time. So on this episode, Tim was asked to answer a question about the most common wedding

mistakes and answered, honey, I love you, but said, I do. Okay. You're not going to win any points. You might win points on the show, but you're not going to. to win any points with your wife especially, but with others around you? Because that comes off pretty nasty, really. It does. Now, Tim later explained his joke to 48 hours saying it wasn't said with any mouths or bad intentions. It was supposed to be funny. And I get it. Some people do try to be funny, but don't think about how badly what they're saying is going to hurt someone.

In addition to the evidence found in his home and on his computer, prosecutor suspected Tim was the killer because the intruder entered the home through one of the boys' bedroom windows and they were away from home that night. So there's a couple of things here. You know, this family feud aspect is a case going to get more media attention when it comes out that the suspected killer was on an episode of family feud. Sure. Yeah. You and I talk a lot about why do some cases receive more attention than others? Well, here's a reason why one would. There's a connection between the alleged killer and a pretty famous television show.

But then secondly, you know, let's talk about the killer entering through one of the boys' bedroom windows. Does a person do that when they're not sure whether or not someone is in that bedroom sleeping? Well, less likely to do it. They might, but less likely. I think you're right. Now, would someone who has definite knowledge that the boys are not sleeping in that bedroom do it? Absolutely. Yeah, and I think that's what the police are looking at.

Tim's defense attorney noted that no murder weapon or bloody clothing. were found in his home. The police took several pairs of Tim shoes, but could not match them to the partial shoe print found at the crime scene. Now, you and I have done cases pretty recently where we were shocked that killers didn't get rid of certain evidence, clothing, murder weapons, things like that. I'm always surprised by that.

Yeah. Now, here we have an instance where it seems that, Tim Bleafnick, if he's the killer, got rid of everything. And that's what you would expect a killer to do, right? Get rid of everything they wore that night. Put the murder weapon somewhere where it would never be found. Those are the type of things you expect. The defense believed investigators should have given more weight to the idea that Becky

could have been killed in a break in gone wrong. And we talked about that, I think for me, and I'm sure for investigators, what kind of debunks that theory is that nothing is missing from the home. Now, I get it, it's a break in gone wrong, and you end up having to kill the homeowner. But you've already done that, Gibbs. Would you not at least take something? Or is the theory that the killer was so up? upset that they just left. I mean, I think that's probably how they're thinking that the killer was so upset they left. But if you're robbing in place, would you really shoot them 14 times?

It seems unrealistic. And then decide not to take anything after you've murdered someone in cold blood. Now, Tim has maintained that he was not the person captured on camera in the neighbor's driveway or the person riding the bike past the bus. bus barn, Tim's DNA was also not found on the bike that was found near his house. Because Tim was held without bond, he had a right to a speedy trial within 90 days. The trial started on May 23rd, 2023. And, you know, that's a right afforded to people.

Why do you think Gibbs that a person like Tim Bleafnick would want to go to trial as quickly as possible? Takes away the time that they're going to have to investigate more. Yeah, I think first of all, you want to spend the least amount of time in jail as possible, but also you probably don't want to give the prosecution any more time to put together evidence against you. The trial started on May 23, 2003. During opening statements, prosecutor Josh Jones told the jury about the contentious divorce, saying per WGEM, the only way the defendant had to, to make sure the three boys chose him over her was to eliminate her as a choice. And I don't think that's an incorrect statement for the most part. Jones told the jury that one of Tim's mistakes was leaving behind pieces of an Aldiback.

At the crime scene, investigators believed he used the bag as a homemade silencer. So that helps explain why the neighbors didn't hear any noises. Yeah, and we talked about it earlier, right? It's possible that, you know, he could have used something to lessen the noise of the gunshots. Tim did have a ton of Aldi bags inside his house and Becky's DNA was found on a bag in his home, according to WGEM. 48 hours reported that DNA was found on a piece of plastic at the crime scene. An expert would testify that more like, than not, Tim was the contributor of that DNA.

Tim also could not be excluded from DNA found under Becky's fingernails. It was three times more likely to have come from Tim or a male relative of his than anyone else. And, you know, in this day and age, Gibbs, that doesn't seem like bombshell evidence as far as the part about how likely it is to come to from him we're very used to hearing now with DNA you know one in you know 80 trillion or these numbers that are astronomical that's not what we're hearing here we're hearing more likely than not or three times more likely that's a far cry from some of the numbers that we're used to hearing about. Yeah, I mean, you feel kind of good with it, but you don't feel great about that number. No, I think when a jury hears that the odds of this DNA being from anyone other than

the defendant are one in 80 trillion, okay, you got me, you sold me. But more likely than not, that doesn't scream out that there's no possibility for reasonable doubt. defense attorney Casey Schnack noted that investigators took six pairs of shoes from Tim's house and none of them matched the footprint at the crime scene. But to be honest with you, I wouldn't expect any of them to match the crime scene. Because anyone with an ounce of smarts, especially when you are connected to the victim, as much as Tim Bleafnick was, would know, I've got to get rid of. rid of everything. Everything I wore that night, the murder weapon. It has to be completely gone.

He did pretty good with that. It seems as though he did. Yeah. The defense also argued that the surveillance video from the neighbor's house was not clear enough to identify the gender, age, or race of the individual captured on camera. And we mentioned it, right? It was grainy. It's not great footage. But that kind of puts it into perspective. If you, You can't identify the gender, the age, or the race. You do not have a very clear picture. Well, I'm not sure if these type of cameras are really designed to capture that type of detail that far out. Yeah, I don't think they are.

Tim's defense attorney told 48 hours that many people shop at Aldi and the bag could have come from Becky's house. the DNA could have transferred because Becky and Tim transported their children's things in Aldi bags and the DNA under Becky's nails could have come from one of his sons. And we know defense attorneys have to try to do this, but this is not going that far out on a limb. No, I think it's possible. I mean, it's much different than a suspect who, has said they have no idea who the victim is. That's not what we're talking about in this case.

This was a married couple who still had to, you know, exchange the kids for visitations. They had some contact. So anytime you have contact with a person, what are the chances that there could be some DNA transference? Pretty likely. Becky's divorce attorney. testified that Becky had asked for Tim to return the 9mm handgun she gave him, but he never did.

This handgun had not been located by the time of trial. The children's guardian ad litem, Rick Zimmerman, testified that there was animosity. On both sides during the divorce, Tim wanted to have more parenting time than Rebecca, and Rebecca opposed Tim's father, having unsupervised contact with the kids. However, Zimmerman said he saw no red flags and didn't believe there were any safety issues. Well, I don't doubt that. I mean, it would be pretty dumb for a guy like Tim Bleafnick to show uncontrolled outbursts in that situation, right? Those are going to get reported.

Those are going to be held against you. And when you're fighting the custody fight, you want to put forward your. your best foot. Oh, of course. It's your best opportunity to win that. Yeah. A man named Michael Blasing testified that he sold the bike via Facebook in 2003. The buyer was a man of athletic build who was a little shorter than him. However, he did not recognize Tim Blefman and said he wouldn't recognize the buyer if he saw him again. Becky's sister and friends testified about the divorce and her fear of Tim. Again, it was mentioned that Becky didn't want the boys to be around Tim's father unsupervised.

So this has come up a couple of times now. Not only did Becky have a fear of Tim, but there was something going on, apparently, with Tim's father, to the point where Becky had told friends and family, she didn't want the boys around him unsupervised. Prosecutors didn't tell the jury why, but the 48 hours team found documents indicating Becky had witnesses who were going to testify at the divorce trial that Ray Bliefnick allegedly had a history of perversion

and abusing minor children years earlier. The alleged victims were not Becky and Tim's children. Well, that's some shattering. Well, and if true, it obviously explains why she wouldn't want her kids around Ray, especially unsupervised. But, you know, now you got to be thinking a little bit about Ray as well, don't you? Does he have a motive if he would have had any idea that this was going to come out during the divorce trial? Does that kind of put a motive on him to want her debt? Yeah.

Or to want to help his son in some former fashion. Becky saw in a protective order against Ray in December 2021, but her request was denied. Ray Bliefnick's lawyer wrote that he vehemently denies these claims and has never been charged with any criminal offense related to these allegations. According to WANDD on May 9, 2021, Becky texted a friend. He told me if I outed his dad that he would probably have to move, then kill himself. I absolutely think he will try to take the kids sometimes. Prosecutors pointed out that on the day of the murder,

Tim brought a children's basketball hoop to his father's house. They argued that he did this because he knew Becky wasn't going to be around, to stop his dad from visiting the kids. Gibbs, I'll tell you what, the one thing that I would say is that at this point in the story, Tim doesn't look great, obviously. He's got a ton of motive. Sure he does. But I can't sit here and say that the prosecution has a ton of evidence against this guy.

Doesn't appear so. Tim's defense attorney told 48 hours that the allegations were old news and were all the already public record, it didn't make sense that Tim would ruin his life by killing Becky to prevent the release of information that was already made public. The jury heard about suspicious searches on Tim's devices besides the searches for the license plate and VIN of the man Becky was dating. Tim's phone made searches such as how to open my door with a crowbar, how to make a homemade pistol silencer, How to clean gunpowder off your hands.

Lock picking tricks. Can you just wash off gun residue? Are shotgun rounds traceable? Okay. While not bombshells, they certainly don't make Tim look good at all. No. And these are not your everyday search items on Google, right?

Well, they might be yours. They're not most people. Most people. But there are a couple that jump out, right? the ones about cleaning gunpowder off your hands and especially the one about how to make a homemade pistol silencer. You know, when your searches kind of match the facts of the case, I don't think a jury is going to look favorably on those. The question is, are they going to say that all of it put together is enough to erase any reasonable doubt? Tim also. Tim also,

looked up how many officers worked for the Quincy Police Department and how to open a window from outside. The state police investigator testified that no latent prints were found on the window or window frame used to gain entry to Becky's home. No prints were found on any shell cases in the home. Additionally, no fingerprints were found on guns and ammunition magazines recovered from Tim's home. And, you know, to me, that's pretty strange. It makes it seem as though someone took a lot of care. They wore gloves. Not just when firing the rounds, you would have to wear gloves when you loaded the magazine.

Well, that's true. When you took the bullets out of the package or wherever you got them from, because if you think about loading a magazine. Most people do it by pressing their thumb on the bullet, pushing it down in. Leaving a fingerprint, right? Or a thumbprint, yeah. Yeah. But to have no prints whatsoever, okay. And then there's none on the guns or magazines found at the home. How can that be? Either they were wiped down or someone took special care to wear gloves anytime they handled. A crime lab DNA expert testified that the handlebars of the bike found near Tim's house contained a limited amount of DNA. Becky's boyfriend, Ted Johnson, was not a contributor.

So they're trying to rule Ted out because obviously we haven't talked about it, but he's got to be a person of interest as well. Not only the estranged husband, but the current boyfriend. Now, would he have a lot less motive to kill Becky? Yeah, obviously he would. But he's got to be looked at. Of course he has to. He has to be excluded. Another crime lab official testified that he compared all the bags found at Tim's home to the pieces from the crime scene.

There were strong similarities, but he couldn't make a conclusive determination because he couldn't compare the pieces to the bag used in the shooting. Then the expert testified about the crowbar. Her tests were inconclusive, but she couldn't eliminate the crowbar. An expert testified that she compared a crowbar found in Tim's basement to the marks left on the window at Becky's house. She said there were microscopic consistencies, but she couldn't say with certainty that Tim's crowbar made the marks. And I would say that would be a little tough. I mean, crowbars are fairly similar. They are.

of them. Now, do some have, you know, little nicks that maybe could be picked up microscopically? Potentially. Potentially. A firearm specialist compared eight shell casings from the crime scene to 27 shell casings found in Tim's basement and determined they were all fired from the same gun. Now, that's not good. Yes. I think as we're talking about evidence, that's the first thing that really jumps out at me. Because how do you explain that? The jury heard that the police found guns in Tim's home, but not a nine millimeter. But again, I am not surprised about that at all. No, he got rid of the gun. Yeah. Yeah. Up until this point so far, he's done a good job of getting rid of types of evidence. And covering his tracks pretty well, right? The surveillance video,

can't identify him. They don't find any bloody clothing at his house. They don't find the shoes that match the prince outside the house. They don't find the murder weapon. The defense didn't call any witnesses at trial. And I think there's a number of reasons for that. One being they thought that most likely the prosecution hadn't presented sufficient evidence for their client to be found guilty.

But on May 31st, 2023, Tim Bleafnick was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of home invasion. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on August 11, 2023. Just a little bit more than a year ago. Yeah.

I mean, this is a pretty timely case. In October of this year, Tim's lawyers presented arguments to an appellation. to an appellate court, claiming he was denied a fair trial. They argued that the court admitted irrelevant evidence. The prosecutor was allowed to make representations during rebuttal that were not admitted into evidence or subject to cross-examination, and the case should be tried by a different judge with no relation to the prosecutor.

On November 8th, the appellate court of Illinois, fourth district affirmed Tim's conviction and sentencing. So, you know, as we wrap this one up, Gibbs, I mean, there's no doubt the murder of Becky Bleafnick is yet another example of how a contentious divorce can become dangerous, especially when the divorce involves finances, custody issues, and family conflicts. And let's face it, how many don't. I mean, most of them do contain at least one or more of those things. Sure, yeah. But what I really want to focus on.

on is the evidence against Tim. You know, we're not privy to all of it. We weren't on the jury. We didn't see all of it. I have to believe that the computer and phone evidence had to have been pretty powerful to them because really, you know, outside of some of that stuff, there wasn't much in the way of hard-hitting evidence. No, not really.

Now, you've got motive. You have opportunity and all of that, but to actually prove beyond a reasonable doubt that that Tim killed his wife. You know, the Aldi's bags, it, you know, all of it just kind of depends on how much the jury makes of each thing. But to me, what really stands out are these internet searches. Yeah, that was kind of like the nail. a coffin. I think so. Yeah. Because I think if you don't make those searches or the police don't find that,

I don't know if there's enough to find someone guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Just really tied everything together at that point. Unfortunately, you know, we've done a number of these where a man kills his wife, whether they're still married, estranged in the process of a divorce. And almost every time, what does it come down to at the heart of it? And I would say, you know, there's a few things. Money's always a thing, right? Custody can be. As you said, sometimes money can be tied into custody. But I want to go back to the control. Right? We talked about. Tim being manipulative, controlling.

I just wonder how much of that played into this one. Yeah. Because he had lost control. He did. He had control over Becky for many years. But that was gone. She had her own job. She was dating someone new.

That had to really piss him off. Yeah. For people who are very controlling, again, as we've said, a very dangerous period is where they lose the control, or they feel like it's gone and there's no way to get it back. And on top of that, he thought she was coming after everything that he had, his money, his kids. Yeah.

And you put it all together along with the messages and some of the evidence that was presented at trial. I mean, a lot of it didn't conclusively say, right? Yes, Tim did it. But there was some DNA that kind of said, you know, more likely than not or three times more likely than not. Okay. The jury had to weigh all of it.

They did and they found him guilty. Yeah. But that's it for our episode on Tim Bleafnick. We got some voicemails. You want to check those out? Let's hear them. Hi, Mike. Hi, I did me.

I just wanted to call. and say thank you, number one, for all you do. I've been a huge fan for many years now, and it's just listening to the most recent episode on Brianna Gaye, and just first wanted to say thank you for your support of the trans community and not trying away from speaking on this case. And, you know, as a mother of a trans woman, child hearing this case, I mean, all the cases where teenagers attack other teenagers or children

attacking other children is always so hard to hear and so scary. It's hard enough being a parent and just worrying about who your kids are hanging out with sometimes, especially when they meet new or make new friends. But this story, especially this whole angle of potentially being targeted for being trans, And, you know, I mean, as you both know being parents, it's just, it's, you'll never not fear for your kids when they go out the door. But then having this added layer of worrying that their, their identity is going to put an added target on their back is also just, yeah, just really hit home. So I just wanted to appreciate, you know, send my appreciation for you covering this case and just sort of drawing light on the fact that, you know, But the kids still, even in, you know, the recent years still are, you know, being bullied and targeted for just showing up and being who they authentically are.

So no need to air the voicemail. Just felt really compelled to call in and just say thank you. And I hope that you both have a wonderful leak. Well, I hope you're okay with me airing it. She didn't give her name, but I really wanted to put it on. Because I got a lot of voicemails like this. We got a lot of emails and messages like this. And to be honest with you, it was pretty touching, all of them.

That's not the reason why we did the episode. No. But obviously a lot of people appreciated it. And, you know, it was kind of touched us. Well received. Yeah. Yeah, very much so. So it was a longer voicemail, but I wanted to play it.

And so we only had one voicemail. I lied. I said we had voicemails. We had voicemail. You mean you made a mistake with the English language? I made a mistake. Huh. And I will admit it.

Interesting. We did have mail bag, though. Our great friend, Candace Cotton, sent us in some really cool stuff, uh, an Albert Fish psycho killer bobblehead for the collection. she also sent you a really cool knife with an inscription on the blade. Yeah, she did. And said T-Cat fan. There's a whole host of other stuff.

There was some trading cards that were kind of bad people trading cards and patches. And so thank you, Candice, very much. Appreciate it, Candice. All right, buddy, that is it for another episode of True Crime all the time. So for Mike and give me, stay safe and keep your own time ticking. Thank you.