True Crime with Kendall Rae - Family Feud Contestant Murders His Wife!? The Case of Becky Bliefnick

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

Becky Bliefnick was a mother of three sons and a beloved nurse when she was fatally shot 14 times by her estranged husband, Tim. Tim was someone Becky was nervous about, and she had even texted her sister that if something should ever happen to her, to look to him first. The Daisy Foundation Donate to NCMEC through my campaign! https://give.missingkids.org/campaign...  Shop my Merch! https://kendallrae.shop This episode is sponsored by: +Dreamland Baby - promo code: TCKR +Nutrafol - promo code: KENDALLRAE +Smalls - For 50% off your first order, head to Smalls.com/KENDALLRAE and use code KENDALLRAE. +3 Day Blinds - For their buy 1 get 1 50% off deal, head to 3DayBlinds.com/KENDALLRAE. Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

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Hello everyone and welcome back to True Crime with Kendall Rae. Thanks so much for joining me today. And if you are new new then welcome. So happy to have you here. Today we're going to be talking about a case that I have wanted to cover for quite some time. I wanted to wait until there was more information and we have justice in this case which we do and that's great. It is one that I think got a lot of traction initially I was getting tagged in it all the time when this story first broke because of its connection to

Family feud this case has been so highly requested by so many of you, especially in my members only request form So I really wanted to get to it today especially because once I really started to look into the details of it and the details about the victim we're going to be speaking on today, I just had to share her story. She was an incredible woman and someone that I think more people should know about. Today we're going to be discussing the absolutely tragic murder of Becky Bliefnick. And if there's one thing that I want you to take away from this episode, it's that Becky to her core was a truly, truly wonderful human being. Really the world is just not the same without Becky in it, especially for her friends and family and so many other people who she touched while she was

alive. And she is not with us, and that's thanks to one person and one person only. But before we talk about her death, let's talk about her life. Rebecca Bernadette Postel was born on November 19th, 1981, in Quincy, Illinois to her parents, Bernadette and William. And she also had one sister named Sarah. Now, Quincy is located in West Illinois, right along the Illinois-Missouri state

line, and this is not only where she was born and raised, but it's where she lived her entire life. Rebecca, or Becky as she was called, attended Payson Seymour Elementary School, followed by Quincy Notre Dame High School, where she was actually named valedictorian. She then attended Quincy University, where she graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in biological science and a minor in chemistry. So it really goes without saying here that Becky was super, super smart and very driven. Now it was here in college where she met the man that she would eventually marry and start a family with. Which brings us to Tim Bliefnick.

He was a football player at Quincy University and he and Becky had become friends over the years, but friends were really all they were until about two years after graduating, at which point they did start dating. And really by all accounts, as far as we know, things were going pretty well. They decided to move in together,

they eventually got married, and then they started having children. Now before she became a mom, Becky actually worked as a very successful pharmaceutical sales rep, but after having her first son, the two of them decided that she would stay home and Tim would continue working. And for the first five years or so of their marriage, they seemed to be pretty happy. And I say seemed because we never truly know, right? But in that time, Becky and Tim had one son and then they had another son. And like I said, things seemed to be going pretty well.

That was up until Becky decided that she wanted to go back to school and become a nurse. This is the point where she said that things began to change in their marriage. And that's because Tim started to become more manipulative and controlling. But before I get into that, I wanna spend a little bit of time talking

about Becky's experience in nursing school and then actually becoming a nurse because it's really impressive and I think speaks a lot to her character. When Becky decided to go to nursing school, everyone in her life was super supportive of her, excited for her, knew that she was going to do an incredible job, everyone except for her husband Tim. Becky had really always wanted to do something in

the medical field that was more, you know, hands-on than pharmaceutical sales and her passion for helping people combined with her natural caretaking abilities made nursing make a lot of sense. Plus, she was just the type of person who was always helping others even before she became a nurse. She's described as someone who would drop in and help a sick friend, drop off a crib to a friend in need, and stick around to help assemble it. Oh, and this just really blew me away and really impressed me as someone who has been pregnant before and struggled quite a bit. Becky was such a badass when she was in nursing school she found out that she was

pregnant with her third son and she only missed one day of school during her pregnancy. That is so impressive but all of these qualities about her, her work ethic, her care for others, her passion for what she did, really made her such an incredible nurse. During the pandemic, she was a traveling nurse and that same year she was awarded the Daisy Award. Now, the Daisy Award comes from the Daisy Foundation, which is a nonprofit that honors nurses who excel in clinical care and compassion. And receiving this award means the honoree has made an impact in the lives of a patient,

a family, or even a colleague and can open a lot of doors and opportunities. This includes reduced tuition to nurses looking to further their education, the ability to apply for grants that only recipients of the award are eligible to apply for, and more. I think encouraging compassionate care and offering opportunities to nurses like Becky is extremely important and that's why I wanted to make a donation this week to the Daisy Foundation in her name and I think she would have really liked that. And I hope that at least in some small way we can honor Becky by giving back to nurses who are just like her. And so I will leave the link to the Daisy Foundation below if you're interested in making a contribution yourself.

It's really not a surprise to me at all that Becky received this award after everything I've learned about her, which is probably only a fraction of all the things there is to know about her, but also everything I know about the award now. I mean, it just makes total sense. But here's the thing about Becky,

despite her being incredibly deserving of that recognition, it didn't matter that much to her at the end of the day. She was not someone who demanded the spotlight. In fact, she was always trying to honor and uplift others. She was always highlighting other people's achievements and not belittling her own, but I don't think recognition really mattered that much to her at the end of the day. And while I'm just naming her accomplishments, I also wanted to share that she was not only a registered nurse,

but she was also a certified trauma nurse specialist, a sexual assault nurse examiner, and a longtime volunteer for a local school administration, and an animal rescue group. I mean, to me, Becky just seemed like a superhuman. And at the end of the day, despite all of those other achievements and wonderful things she was doing, she was also an incredibly dedicated mother and so many people describe her as the quintessential boy mom. I really love that description of

her and I love learning this too. People say that one year she created these homemade transformers Halloween costumes for the boys which I thought was so fun and I would never have the skill to actually make a Halloween costume for my kids so I've got a long way to go there but anyway she was always down to you know get dirty with them, go frog hunting and fishing and was involved in all things sports no matter what the kids wanted to play, she always showed up for them. Her kindness to others, compassion to her patients, commitment to her kids, and devotion to God were all things that really shined through in everything that she did. And that's really how her loved ones want her to be remembered.

But like I just mentioned, things really started to go downhill in her marriage with Tim after she started nursing school. Becky's sister Sarah said that Tim just stopped supporting her during this time and, quite frankly, didn't help with the boys, even though she was busier than ever. What's wild is Tim even admitted that he did not support the idea of her going to nursing school, however he said it's because he was concerned for her well-being, which call me crazy, but I think it would make a lot of sense. If you're that worried about her well-being to support her more than ever, especially when it comes to helping with the kids that she can focus,

why not go above and beyond in your duties as a father and as a husband to make sure that her wellbeing was taken care of. And I'm sure you all agree. But what we think he should have done and what he actually did were two very different things. Sarah also says that around this time, Becky had tried to get Tim to go to marriage counseling with her and he refused.

And in January of 2021, after 11 years of marriage, Tim actually was the one who filed for divorce, which kicked off a very bitter and contentious divorce battle. And the three big things that they fought over, which are pretty typical in divorce proceedings, were money, the house, and the kids. And from what I can tell,

neither were willing to give in to the other. And things escalated pretty quickly. Just a few months after the divorce papers were filed, Becky started confiding in her friends about Tim's behavior. And it was not good. She talked about how he was acting abusive, that he would scream in her face, that he had shoved her in front of the kids and threw things at her. In one text she wrote, Tim has serious mental health problems and he is becoming more vengeful and unpredictable.

And then in another text, and this one was to her sister and by far the most serious, she wrote, 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 am 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 has already lied multiple times to paint himself as the victim and me as the perpetrator when it is absolutely the other way around. No, I have not sent this to mom or dad as I don't want them to be out of their minds with worry."

And I am so glad that she sent this message and I do want to provide some context because it is important. Becky had sent this text to her sister not long after a coworker of hers was murdered by their partner and this was obviously a massive eye-opener to her. She realized that violence like this is possible and I'm so glad that she chose to send this text message. It is so important to let someone know when you are experiencing this type of abuse

and fear from a partner or an ex-partner. The loss of her coworker really got the wheels turning for her. She knew that she needed to say something to somebody, God forbid something happened to her. And it's very eerie once you know what I'm about to get into. Today's episode is brought to you by Dreamland Baby. Now, Dreamland Baby has been a huge help in our house. It's a brand that we love.

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when her six month old wouldn't sleep. So if you would like to check out Dreamland Baby for yourself, go to dreamlandbabyco.com and enter my code TCKR at checkout to receive 20% off site wide and free shipping. That's such a great deal. And this offers for new and existing customers. So definitely take advantage if you're already a customer, but maybe you need a size up. Now, as far as we know, there wasn't a specific incident or threat made against her that made her want to send this text.

I think it was just a combination of the way he had been acting, the abuse, and just what had happened to her coworker that made her send this text. And when she said in that text that he was trying to paint himself as the victim, she was referencing the fact that Tim had filed a petition for an order of protection against her. That's right people on September 1st 2021 Tim had filed for an order of protection against Becky citing that she had been harassing him and stalking him. Now the only real proof that Tim had as far as I know was this video which I'm not sure if I'm able to play it. It may be copyrighted.

I'll just explain it to you though. It's a video of them at a parent teacher conference. He is recording her and nothing about it is extreme. In my opinion, it's clearly just a typical argument, but they are clearly fighting. I mean, as people commonly do when going through a divorce battle. But he claimed that she was being combative. Now luckily, the judge had some common sense here and did not grant the order of protection. However, shortly after this, Becky filed her own order of protection against him.

In her petition, she accused him of repeatedly entering her home without permission, using their children to gain access to the house, and more. However, once again, the judge did not grant this order of protection either. And her loved ones believe that that's because the court saw her application as sort of gamesmanship rather than a legitimate attempt to get protection from someone that she was growing increasingly scared of, which is very unfortunate. Now, Vicki Smith, who is the CEO and president of the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, has since spoken out about this case, and she said that the allegations of Tim entering her home without permission should have been a red flag for the courts, and I could not agree more, and I'm sure most of you feel the same way as well.

But instead of seeing it for the threat it truly was, they viewed it as Becky trying to get a, you know, tactical advantage over Tim in the midst of a contentious divorce proceeding. So in the end, neither of them were granted it. However, the judge did order for the two of them to stay away from each other's residences unless they were dropping off the kids.

The judge also ordered that Tim return a nine millimeter gun that Becky had given him. However, spoiler alert, that gun was never returned. So for the next year and a half, Becky and Tim continued to argue over the things that I mentioned earlier, the money, the house, and the kids. As 2023 approached though, things seemed like they were eventually going to come to an end because there was a divorce trial scheduled for early March. And this would hopefully be the end of a two and a half year battle, which can be so, so hard to go through, and would hopefully be the start of moving forward

and putting an end to this chapter of their lives. But that trial never ended up happening and Becky never got the opportunity for closure because on February 23rd, 2023, Becky was senselessly murdered inside her own home. That day after Becky's dad received a text from Tim saying that he hadn't been able to get a hold of her, Becky's dad received a text from Tim saying that he hadn't been able to get a hold of her, Becky's dad drove over to her house to see if she was there. And she was there, but not at all how he expected to find her.

Because Becky had been shot to death in her bathroom, surrounded by an amount of blood that no person, let alone a father, should have to witness. As you can imagine, he called 911 immediately and officers with the Quincy Police Department as well as the Adam County State's Attorney's Office arrived on scene and they instantly started investigating. And it didn't take them long to realize that whoever had broken into the house and killed Becky had done so by prying

open a window on the second floor. It looked like they had climbed up on a patio chair to gain access and tool marks on the window showed that it had been pried open with what they eventually determined was a crowbar. And because there was nothing in the house to suggest that anything was stolen it was obvious that this was not a robbery gone wrong. Whoever had broke into Becky's house did so with the intention to kill her, and they succeeded. And this is really brutal to say, very heartbreaking, but she was shot a total of 14 times, and the medical examiner says that she was alive for each and every one of them.

It is so heartbreaking to even have to say this, but it took minutes before she succumbed to her injuries and I truly hate even having to say this, but there is no doubt that she suffered. And I say that specifically because I want it to be abundantly clear that her killer showed no mercy. And it's because of that, that many, including myself, believes he deserves no mercy. And the scene itself was proof of a violent struggle,

one where Becky's bedroom door was physically kicked in. And it's at this point during the struggle that investigators believe that Becky had tried to call 911 but she didn't have the chance, the killer stopped her from doing so and they believe this because her phone was found pushed behind the door with 91126 typed in as if this person grabbed it from her hands, accidentally typed those last two numbers before it fell to the ground. Then, like I said, her killer proceeded to shoot her 14 times. And that only indicates one thing, that this was a crime of passion.

That this was a crime fueled by hatred. To shoot someone 14 times is so deeply personal. This could not have been a stranger. This is someone who had deep rooted hate for Becky. And of course, investigators knew that as well. And as for the rest of the evidence collected at the scene, investigators found a partial shoe print, eight spent shell casings from a nine millimeter handgun, as well as a bunch of small pieces of plastic surrounding her body. Now, despite how loud you would expect this attack to be, I mean, 14 shots is no joke, none of her neighbors heard anything.

However, there was a neighbor who had a security camera and that footage ended up being incredibly useful. As soon as the investigation kicked off, officers with the Quincy Police Department canvassed the neighborhood and of course went around asking neighbors for any security footage they may have. I mean, so many people have just security cameras and ring doorbells, so they wanted to collect as much of that as they could. And it was in one of those conversations with the couple that lived directly next door to Becky that uncovered a lot. It turns out they had a security camera that recorded footage of their driveway, which ran right alongside Becky's driveway. And even though it didn't pick up anything from the night of the murder, it picked up something very interesting from

the night before. At 1 0 5 a.m. a person was seen walking down Becky's driveway towards the back of her house. Then 48 minutes later that same person is seen walking away in the direction that they had come from. And that wasn't the only instance. About a week earlier on February 14th, Valentine's Day, the security camera picked up almost the exact same thing. And what's interesting about this time is that the neighbor was actually awake when she got the notification that someone was detected by the camera. So she actually ended up texting Becky right away, explaining that someone had just walked

towards the back of her house, but she didn't get a response until the next morning. Now Becky said that she didn't actually see anything She did say that she heard voices coming from her backyard and that the motion light May have turned on but that was it the neighbor says she honestly figured it was someone looking to steal something But knowing what we know now that person was probably not a porch pirate it was most likely Becky's killer looking for an opportunity or, you know, staking out the scene to make a plan to carry out what they later would. So with this, investigators decided to conduct an even broader search of surveillance footage,

because if one camera captured this person on tape, there was bound to be more. And it turns out they were right. Today's episode is brought to you by Nutriful. Now, Nutriful is a product that I truly stand behind. It's something I love. It's become part of my daily routine now for about a year and a half. I've had such massive improvements when it comes to my hair and I've recommended it to other friends and family who are also struggling with hair thinning. And this is just my experience, but Nutri-ful truly transformed my hair. I have never felt more confident about my hair and that really is all thanks to Nutri-ful. I was skeptical at first. I was actually looking into treatments and possibly even surgery because I was so self-conscious about how much my hair had thinned out, especially after having my daughter. But I decided to give Neutrophil a shot and this was before they started sponsoring and it had transformed my hair.

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when you go to nutriful.com and enter promo code Kendall Rae, that's nutriful.com, spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com, promo code Kendall Ray. That's once again, neutrophil.com, promo code Kendall Ray. Two additional cameras in the area captured what appeared to be an individual riding a bike in the direction of Becky's house just before the person from the neighbor's security camera

was seen walking down her driveway. Then the cameras captured the same biker riding away from Becky's house, shortly after that person was seen leaving her driveway. So every time someone was seen biking towards her house, someone was then seen walking down her driveway shortly after, and every time someone was seen leaving her driveway, someone was seen biking in the opposite direction shortly after and every time someone was seen leaving her driveway,

someone was seen biking in the opposite direction shortly after. So we're seeing quite a pattern here. Does that make sense? One was always happening alongside the other and it certainly doesn't feel like a coincidence now does it? I mean, especially considering this is a town where people don't just go on random bike rides in the middle of the night. However, for as useful as that footage seemed, there was one big problem. The footage

was very low quality and it is impossible to make out who this person is. You can't even really tell if it's a man or a woman. Of course, they can tell it is a person from the footage and they're obviously riding a bike, but they can't make out any identifiable features. The only detail they could really figure out was that the bike didn't have reflectors on the wheels, but that's it. But of course, they weren't entirely in the dark about who this person could be,

who the suspect in this case could be. Because Sarah, Becky's sister, immediately had her hunch about who could have done this, and she didn't hesitate to let investigators know. Sarah and her husband Brett were on vacation when they first got the call about Becky's murder and they flew to Illinois as soon as they could when they got the news. And like I said, they believed there was only one person who could have done this and that person was Tim, Becky's soon to be ex-husband. And of course, when I say soon, I mean very soon.

Their divorce trial was scheduled for the following week. Coincidence? I think not. And once investigators learned the details about their contentious divorce and the upcoming trial and the fact that Tim only lived one mile from her house, they felt strongly that he could have been involved in this. Plus, and I think it goes without saying, I mean especially if you consume a lot of true crime content, you know this, you are statistically more likely to be murdered by your spouse than anyone else, which I know is

a scary thought, but it's true. So if you take a spouse, soon to be ex-spouse, who is very angry, has been through this long divorce proceedings is one week away from potentially losing custody of the kids, money, you know, a bunch of other things. Sometimes the obvious answer is the answer. And of course I say sometimes because that's not always the case, but investigators really felt that that could be the case in this case. Tim certainly had the motive for wanting Becky gone and he had the means and opportunity. I mean the dude only lived a mile down the road from her house and he had a less than solid alibi. When investigators first spoke with him he said that he was at home that night with his sons who were asleep in their rooms.

He also mentioned that Becky had asked him to keep the boys an extra night, which he agreed to. Now, maybe if the boys were awake and had seen him that night, could testify that he was home at the time of the murder, things would be different, but he admitted that they were asleep. So yeah, I'd say he definitely had the opportunity. Then there's the means. As I mentioned earlier, the judge had ordered Tim to return a nine millimeter handgun that Becky had gifted him during their marriage. And he did not return it because he claimed he didn't know where it was. And like I also just stated,

Becky was killed with a nine millimeter gun. And people, that is not all. A search warrant was executed on Tim's house and among the items that were seized was a box full of shell casings that had been found in his basement and you might see where this is going but if not, let me explain. When you fire a gun the shell casing left behind basically gets this sort of unique stamp almost like a fingerprint that can be used to trace which gun it was fired from. Obviously that's a super basic explanation, but you get the point. The point that I'm trying to make here is that when the shell casings from Tim's basement

were tested and the shell casings from the scene were tested, investigators learned that 27 of the ones from the basement had been fired from the exact same gun. Hmm. So in total, there were 54 shell casings found in his basement, and 27 of them matched the 8 that were found at the crime scene. Oh, and then there's the bike. Before investigators even executed the search warrant, They found a bike with no reflectors on the wheels Abandoned in a bush less than a half block away from Tim's house

And if you remember the bike on the surveillance footage didn't have reflectors on the wheels And so they believed it was possible that this could have been that bike So, of course they collected this bike as evidence and started the process of trying to figure out where it came from and who it Belonged to but at this point there was enough evidence to make an arrest. On March 13th, 2023, just two weeks after Becky was killed, Tim Bliefnick was arrested in her murder and held without bond. And if you haven't heard about this case, I'm sure you're wondering about what I said earlier and how family feud could possibly play into this case, I'm sure you're wondering about what I said earlier and how family feud could possibly play into this case, which to be fair, it really doesn't play into the actual case.

I mean, it sort of does. It could be debated, but it's not like a crucial piece of evidence in the investigation, at least. But Tim's arrest hit the media quick and it started to gain a lot of traction. I remember seeing it everywhere. I was constantly tagged in at the time and this is the reason why. In 2019, just two years before the murder, Tim was actually a contestant on the very popular game show Family Feud with his side of the family. Now, if you haven't heard of Family Feud, and I'm sure most of you have, it's a very popular show. But maybe if you're outside of the US, you haven't heard of it.

I don't know if there's other versions around the world, but it's it's a game show that's been on forever. I believe the current version is still hosted by Steve Harvey. There have been other hosts in the past. But the way that this game works is it's two families, I think, like five members from each family and they play against each other. That's why it's called Family Feud. They interview 100 people, they ask them for their answers

on a specific question, but I think it's like five, six, maybe even up to 10 answers, or maybe it depends on the question, doesn't really matter. But the whole point of the game is for the contestant to guess what people have answered in the question. And you've probably heard the term survey says, you know, people guess what people had answered for that question. And then if you get it right, it appears on the board.

And if it doesn't, then yeah, it's wrong. There are so many clips from Family Feud, so many viral moments, some really funny ones. You can actually, you know, look up like top funny viral moments from Family Feud and you can watch compilations and stuff. And there's a lot of great hilarious content from it. We asked a hundred married men, name something an ex-girlfriend was better at than your wife.

Sex. You so damn stupid. But one of the viral moments, even before all this was one of Tim's answers. In the episode that he's on during his question, he is asked, what is the biggest mistake that you made at your wedding? And he says, saying, I do. It was one of the top answers saying, I do. Unfortunately, you know, a lot of the people that were surveyed did answer that,

but it is certainly eerie considering what happened later on. What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding? Honey, I love you, but said I do. Oh! Oh! Oh! Not my mistake, not my mistake.

I love my wife. But as you can imagine, once this case broke, people found this clip and had an absolute heyday with it. I mean, it is the internet. And like I said, I understand why. It's super eerie. Ugh, it honestly creeps me out watching it now. I mean, for Tim to say that the biggest regret

on his wedding day was saying I do and then to later go on and kill his wife Pretty creepy at the time I would have watched something like that and not thought anything of it because it really is the whole point of the show to guess What other people are saying and it doesn't necessarily mean you believe that yourself So I probably wouldn't have judged him in the moment But now knowing what we know, it really makes you think. Of course, I do have to say investigators don't believe this has anything to do

with the case, but I can certainly see why people had a lot to say on it. Many people think it was some type of, you know, dark foreshadowing. And even if he didn't know at the time what he was eventually going to do, it does make you wonder how long he had been resenting Becky and how long he had harbored those feelings. So growing up, I always had cats. And as soon as I left home for college, I got a cat within six months of being away. I have 10 pets now, rabbits, dogs and cats. But really at my core, I am a cat person

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his appearance, specifically his hair. And that's because Tim, and I think we can all agree, looked pretty drastically different when he was arrested in 2023 compared to how he looked when he was on Family Feud in 2019. It hadn't been that long. If you're just listening to this episode, not able to see the pictures, Tim had pretty short dark brown hair and also no facial hair back in 2019. He looks way more clean cut and just, I don't know, he looks so, so different. And then his mugshot in 2023, his hair is gray, it's past his shoulder and he had grown a goatee as well. Now according to Tim, he says he grew his hair out for cancer research, which could

be true, but a lot of people believe that the reason he was doing this and changing his appearance over time was to look as unrecognizable as he could if he was planning to commit this murder. But that's just purely speculation and in my opinion doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. It's not like Tim was isolated off in the woods during all of this time. Plenty of people knew what he looked like, you know, friends and family had seen him and I don't think it really makes a whole lot of sense. But anyway, let's not waste any more time with random speculation and details that may not matter. Let's just get into the facts, which a lot came out during the trial. So Tim ended up accepting his right to a speedy trial, which meant that the

prosecutors had 90 days from the time of his arrest to present this case to a jury. And on May 23rd, 2023, exactly three months after the murder, his murder trial began. And for as obvious as it may seem to many of us, I assume most of us, that Tim is guilty, his defense attorney said that it was dripping in reasonable doubt. And my God, do I have a lot to say on his defense attorney, one of the worst I have seen. So let me walk you through the evidence from the trial and you can decide for yourself.

So let's talk about those tiny pieces of plastic that were found at the scene of the murder. So if you remember from earlier, I mentioned that when they found Becky's body, there were also tiny pieces of plastic found around her body. So What's up with that? Well, if you were confused about that, so were investigators. That is until they executed a search warrant of Tim's house and figured out exactly

What those pieces of plastic were. It turns out that they were fragments of reusable Aldi shopping bags Which Tim had actually kept stacks of inside his home. And if you don't know Aldi, I actually don't have one near me. I've never been, but I understand it's kind of like a discount grocery store. But anyway, the reason they believe they were ripped up and scattered around Becky's body is because according to prosecutors, Tim used the bags in an attempt to either one, try and trap the shell casings after firing the gun through it, or two, try to muffle the sounds of the gunshots. Either way though, they believe he placed the handgun inside of the bags and fired through them,

hence the plastic that had been blown off the bags. But according to Tim's lovely defense attorney, she argued that this wasn't a solid connection. Sure, they had found a stack of the same Aldi bags inside his house when they searched it, but she argued that every other household in Quincy had these same bags. In fact, she argued that these bags could have come from inside of Becky's house, but then there was the DNA on one of these pieces of plastic. An expert testified for the prosecution saying that it was more likely than not that Tim was a contributor to the DNA that was found

on those pieces of plastic, which sounds pretty damning. However, Tim's attorney would argue that he and Becky constantly use these bags to transport their kids' stuff back and forth. So she argued that his DNA on there didn't mean much. And the same goes for DNA that was found under Becky's fingernails. When they did the autopsy, they did find DNA under her fingernails and it was a match to Tim.

However, the defense argued that it could have also been from the boys. So this is just another example of why the defense tried to argue that this case was dripping with reasonable doubt. And then there was the crowbar. When Tim's home was searched, investigators found a crowbar, which is the tool that they believe Becky's killer used to gain access to her through that upstairs window. And when it was tested, the crowbar from his basement was said to have consistencies with the mark left behind

on that second floor window. However, these consistencies were microscopic, which didn't make it a super solid piece of evidence. But the thing the prosecution was trying to explain was that it wasn't one small thing that was going to prove Tim did this, but rather a combination of things that pointed to his guilt. Take, for example, his cell phone search history. The prosecution presented to the jury several examples of searches that Tim had made on his phone. This includes how to open a door with a crowbar? Question mark. How to clean gunpowder off your hands? Question mark. How to make a homemade pistol silencer? Homelyville.com, how to open window from outside.

Yes. Google search, can I force open my door with a crowbar if I locked myself out? Yes. HomeEmergency.wonderhowto.com, how to open almost any door with easy lock picking trick yes phone was used to search how many cops in Quincy Illinois yes phone was used to search how to make a homemade pistol silencer that is correct Phone was used to search average 20 police department response time that's correct

How can I check if a gun is registered to me? That's correct Can you just wash off gunpowder residue? That's correct Can you identify if a shotgun shell was shot out of a specific gun? Yes, sir. I mean, bro, not even a little bit subtle. I mean, these really speak for themselves. But here's the thing about those searches and the main point that his defense attorney tried to drive home. For some reason, and I truly, I don't understand why, there was no time or date And I truly, I don't understand why there was no time or date of when these searches were made. And so the defense obviously argued that these could have been made after the murder.

I mean, personally, this goes back to my earlier point of sometimes the obvious answer just is the answer. But it is the defense's job to create reasonable doubt. And that's exactly what she tried to do. The searches on the cell phone do not tell you that Tim did those searches, correct? Correct. And they do not tell you who had possession of that device

the time those searches were made, correct? Correct. And in this case, you do not have any information of the location of the phone the time those searches were made, correct? Correct. And you don't know who initiated those searches, correct? That's correct. Simply that those searches were done on that device, correct? Yes. With the exception of

one visit to one website, there are no times and dates associated with any of these searches, correct? Yes, ma'am. So I am one of those people who has to sleep in complete darkness. And around the summertime, it gets harder to keep the light out of our room, especially because of the way that we're facing. And so it's this time of year that I feel truly grateful to have good blinds. And it's this time of year that I feel truly grateful to have good blinds and it's 2024 people and there is a better way to buy blinds and window treatments and it's called 3-Day Blinds.

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For a free no charge, no obligation consultation just head to 3dayblinds.com slash Kendall Ray. That's buy one get one 50% off when you head to 3dayblinds.com slash Kendall Rae. That's buy one, get one 50% off when you head to 3dayblinds.com slash Kendall Rae one last time, that's the number three, d-a-y-blinds.com slash Kendall Rae. But the searches don't end there. Earlier I mentioned that someone was seen on surveillance walking down Becky's driveway

about a week before the murder on February 14th. Well shortly after this person left the area of Becky's house, Tim made over 200 online searches for a very specific license plate and VIN number and these searches were date and time stamped. So they know for a fact that these were made as soon as that person was seen leaving Becky's house on the 14th. And I'm sure a lot of you understand why this matters but let me explain. Prosecutors say that they believe they can connect Tim to the person on surveillance because on the night of the 14th a truck was parked in her driveway and it was that trucks license plate and VIN number that Tim

was searching for more than 200 times. Come on. And this truck belonged to a man that Becky was dating. So prosecutors believe what's pretty obvious that he saw the truck and then he wrote down the license plate and VIN number and spent the next several hours trying to look it up online. I mean the sequence of events here just makes too much sense. But of course, the defense said otherwise. They tried to argue that it was just a coincidence that Tim was looking up that information that time of night. And it just so happened to be shortly

after someone was seen stalking around the house. In fact, Tim said that he had known that Becky was dating someone and was fine with it. And he says the reason he was looking it up so late that night just happened to be that same night was because it was the only time he could while the kids were sleeping and you know he had the time to do so whatever. But of course this doesn't answer the question as to why you were looking it up. Why are you spending that much time 200 searches looking up your soon-to-be ex-wife's current boyfriend's truck? Dude, especially if you were so fine with it, why would you care? Why would you spend that much time doing it?

I mean, dude, the math is not math-ing. But let me remind you what math did math and that's those shell casings. When investigators searched Tim's house they recovered 54 spend shell casings and let me remind you that 27 of them were a match to the eight shell casings found at the scene. Meaning the gun that was used to kill Becky was the same gun that was used to fire those 27 bullets out of the 54 that were found inside of Tim's house. Not to mention it was a nine millimeter handgun. And I'm sure you haven't forgotten at this point that Becky had gifted Tim a nine millimeter handgun

while they were married. The judge asked him to return it and he never did. So I think we can all agree, pretty solid evidence, right? But once again, Tim's defense attorney argued otherwise. She said that this was subject to human error, which yeah, girl, a lot of things in life are subject to human error, but 27 times, 27 times. That just sounds like a whole lot of human error if you ask me. And again, let's go back to the bike.

Another piece of evidence presented during the trial had to do with that bike I told you about, the one that was abandoned half a block from, who else? Tim's house. And if you remember, I mentioned the only defining characteristic of the bike from the surveillance footage was the fact that it didn't have reflectors on the wheels and that the abandoned bike also didn't have reflectors on the wheels. Well, investigators did a search of Tim's phone and found out that he had a secret Facebook account under the name John Smith. Super creative. And John Smith was looking for a bike, a bike with no reflectors on it that happened to be identical to the one found abandoned by his house. And in all honesty, Tim's DNA was not found on this bike,

but once again, it's one of those things that makes you wonder, is it all just a coincidence that all these small details all point back to Tim, like he and his attorney were trying to argue, or do all these small things that, when you put them together, paint a picture of a man who killed his wife? At the end of the day,

we know that his alibi was flimsy at best, that he had the opportunity to go and commit this murder while his sons slept peacefully at his house, which is just heartbreaking to think about these poor kids. But anyway, we also know that he had the means to do it, AKA the gun. So that just leaves us with the motive. As I mentioned earlier,

the prosecution strongly believes that Tim methodically planned out this murder and that his timing really speaks to his motive. Their divorce trial was literally only a week away when she was killed. And on top of the fear of losing custody, money and the marital home, prosecutors argued that Tim was partially motivated by a concern that Becky was going to

expose his father. And you're probably confused at this point, so let me explain. Two months after Becky tried to file a order of protection against Tim, she tried to file one against Tim's father. Tim's father's name is Ray and it turns out that Ray had previously been accused of sexually assaulting minors and despite the fact that he was never charged with anything, Becky was uncomfortable with the idea of her boys spending time with him. Now of course I have to say Ray denies these accusations and they only amounted to accusations but I absolutely understand why Becky felt uncomfortable with him being around her kids. And while she wasn't granted the order of protection, it was ruled that Ray wasn't allowed to spend time around

the kids unless another adult was present. Well, it turns out that Becky was actively gathering witnesses to testify about Tim's father and was going to present this information at the divorce trial to likely argue that the kids should be in her care full time. And this is what the prosecution argue was one of Tim's big motives that he didn't want this information getting out. Prosecutors even pointed out that the day of the murder after she had been killed, but before she had been found, Tim brought a

basketball hoop over to his father's house and they argued that this was proof that Tim knew that Becky wasn't going to be a problem anymore and that she wasn't going to be around to keep the kids away from their grandpa. However, Tim's lawyer adamantly denies this. She said that not only was the information about the allegations already public knowledge, but it wasn't like the kids were ever restricted from seeing their grandpa. There just had to be additional adult supervision. Which I guess makes this piece of information one more thing in this case that's up for interpretation. But what's for sure not up for interpretation was Becky's fear of her husband.

We cannot forget about that text that she sent her sister as well as the text that she sent her friends. She says she wanted to put it in writing that if something ever happened to her, we should first think of Tim. Shortly after, prosecutors in court say Becky began telling her close friends about his increasingly erratic behavior and what he might do if he lost custody of their children. He screamed in my face. He shoved me in front of the kids.

He's thrown things across the room where the kids and I were standing. He's punched a hole in the wall. If things really don't go his way, I feel he can be very unstable and unpredictable. And I just have to mention this because when I saw this man, I was truly blown away. I was so angry. And this is why I really, really, I don't know how to put it into words. I strongly dislike Tim's defense attorney on a deep level. I think she is a very bad person. There was an interview, I think it was 48 hours, maybe 2020. I'm not sure. I watched an interview and the interviewer is talking to the defense

attorney and she brings up these text messages. What do you think about the messages that Becky was sending her friends and her family talking about how she was fearful about Tim, talking about if anything happened to her, it was Tim, I mean, explains them in full. And this defense attorney has the nerve with a straight face. In fact, I think she had a smile to say that that is girl talk. Girl talk. Yeah, that's a lot of girl talk. I almost fell out of my seat when I saw this.

I can't put in the entire clip, but I at least wanted to put in that because I mean, I'm sorry. What? Sometimes I just truly do not have words. What about any of that is girl talk? This is damning evidence. This is extremely terrifying.

And you as a woman to say that, you are disgusting. You are disgusting. And I don't wanna talk about you anymore. But in the end of this, luckily the jury saw through all of the bullshit. What? You are disgusting. You are disgusting. And I don't want to talk about you anymore. But in the end of this, luckily the jury saw through all of the bullshit. As I explained, there were tons of small pieces linking Tim to the murder and the jury ultimately found him guilty. After six days of trial, Tim Bliefnick was found guilty on two counts of first degree

murder and one count of home invasion. And this verdict, as you can imagine, came as a huge relief to Becky's poor family. But at the same time, it wasn't something they felt like they could truly celebrate. I mean, her boys who were only 12, 10, and 5 at the time of the murder had lost their mother, the person who loved them more than anyone else in the world, and now they had lost their father too. Obviously at the end of the day they want justice, they agreed with this sentence, they were happy about it, but just knowing that these kids lost both of them in two very different ways is, I mean it's just got to be beyond upsetting. How truly traumatic for these poor kids, I don't know, you know, how much they understand of it

all at this point. How do you even begin to explain all of it? It's just, it's heartbreaking thinking of what these kids will have to deal with the rest of their lives. It just makes me so angry. Tim abandoned those kids. The moment he decided to kill their mother. Oh, it's just so disgustingly selfish. It makes me sick. And we talked about this earlier, but you may not have really thought about it in the moment since the rest of this hadn't been unraveled yet. But the fact that he called her father and sent him over to Becky's house to find her in the condition he knew he had left her in.

That is evil. That is pure evil. Becky was a selfless mother. She was an amazing friend, daughter, sister, and nurse. And the fact that Tim stole her away from this world is beyond a loss. And that brings us to his sentencing. On August 11th, 2023, Tim returned to court

for his sentencing hearing, and many of Becky's loved ones read victim impact statements and there are a few clips I wanted to play for you, starting with Becky's mom, Bernadette. When you murdered Becky, you took from your boys the person who loved them the most on this earth. You replaced their mother's love with emotional scars and trauma that will last their lifetimes. Becky's family, friends, coworkers, and patients will never again see her smile, hear her laugh,

feel her embrace, or receive her love. We are left with emptiness that cannot be filled. We are only left with memories. Your soul is black with hate. Your heart has only love for itself. You should never be allowed to be free again." I also wanted to play a bit of her sister's Sarah's speech as well, because it's very powerful. Becky's only sister. Becky's death was gruesome, painful, and senseless. You wanted her to suffer. You probably wanted all who loved her to suffer.

And if that is the case, you succeeded. Losing Becky in any other way, infection, cancer, or a car accident would have been tragic, heartbreaking, and agonizing. But this, imagining her fear, imagining her begging for her life, begging for her children, imagining her there, lying on the floor of her bathroom, paralyzed, struggling to breathe, and bleeding from 14 bullet wounds, praying to God in her last moments of consciousness to keep Deacon, raised in an arlin, safe from you. It's all unbearable that Tim be sentenced to the furthest extent of the law, life in prison without parole.

Our lives will be forever lived with an emptiness that can never be filled due to his premeditated and gruesome crime against humanity. Knowing he will face a lifetime of isolation and emptiness behind bars Knowing he will face a lifetime of isolation and emptiness behind bars is only a small solace as we try to make sense of this inconceivable world. Stop that key. And every single person who spoke, spoke just as passionately as the two of them. You can just feel the anger, feel the emotion, feel the loss. And my heart truly goes out to everyone who has lost Becky. But it really does go to show you how loved Becky was and how loved she still is.

I also wanted to play a clip from the lead prosecutor because his words were very powerful and left me almost speechless. So I wanted you to hear that as well. The defense asked for a sentence of leniency, hope, and mercy. Your honor, I ask this court today show this defendant the same leniency that he showed Becky Bliefnick on February 23rd when he fired 14 bullets into her body, I asked that this court show him the same hope. He showed his wife when he stood over her and fired that gun again and again and again.

And on August 11th, 2023, I asked this court to show him the same mercy he showed Becky Bliefnick when he left her alone on that cold bathroom floor, paralyzed from the waist down, unable to breathe because a bullet had pierced her lung. Show him the same mercy he showed her on February 23rd when he left her to die completely and utterly alone. And thankfully, in the end, the judge sawed Tim as the monster that he is, and he sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mr. Bliefnick, you researched this murder, you planned this murder, you practiced this

murder, you broke into her her house and you shot her. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen times. I don't know how long it took you to do that. Some of those shots were fired while she was lying on the ground. And you did all of that while your children were upstairs at your house, lying snug in their beds. The court believes that the appropriate sentence for each of the two counts of first degree murder would be natural life in prison.

Court believes that the third count of home invasion, appropriate sentence, is life in prison. Those three sentences will merge together into one life sentence. Tim, of course, still says he's innocent. There was an interview of him before he was actually sentenced, just talking about what a nightmare this is and whatever, trying to plead his case. I just think he's a master manipulator and a liar, and maybe some people will disagree with me and think he actually didn't do this, but feel very confident he did and there's plenty of evidence

and he did say he was going to try and appeal whatever dude it's not gonna happen enjoy prison for the rest of your life where you belong I hope you rot and of course I just wanted to say that as much as it is a win, that there is justice for Becky and that, you know, he got the maximum sentence. At the end of the day, it doesn't bring Becky back and nothing will. So does anyone truly win at the end of the day? Not really. And you have to remember that this did not happen very long ago.

This is still very fresh for this family. So as always, I know my audience is going to fill the comment section with love for them and support. And I know that that will probably mean a lot. Also, I wanted to update you because I know a lot of you are probably wondering the boys are in good care. And I, I really hope they're doing okay, as okay as they could be in this circumstance. God, it is heartbreaking. That is gonna be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode

and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you wanna watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Rae. I will be back with another episode soon but until then stay safe out there.