Lies and Deceit | “48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

May 5th is the day that's going to stick with the men and women of this police department their entire careers.
A monster. I mean, monster comes to mind. Somebody with no no soul. This was a promising family, a great
family. I got the phone call from my neighbor Christopher Coleman probably around 10
to 7:00 in the morning. Told me that he was on his way home from the gym. He was crossing the JB Bridge.
He said, "I'm I'm calling Sherry. You know, nobody's answered the phone. She should be up." Tell him, "Hey, okay. You
know, I'll go over and check. I'll go get somebody over there." I'm He was concerned from the threats that
they've been [music] receiving that he reported to us. My name's Justin Barlow. I was a
detective sergeant for the Columbia, Illinois Police Department. I also happen to be a neighbor.
I went to the front door just looking in. I couldn't see anything. After that, I went from the front of the
house to the basement area. Uh this is the basement of the home where we found an open window.
Came in through through the hallway here, up the steps. And the steps basically led into the
kitchen. The first thing that I remember was smell of spray paint. We turned to the left here and saw the
message that was left. A lot of uh helter-skelter type of message. [music] Manson-style
spray paintings on the wall. Uh saying punished. It started with uh email threats.
Moved to written threats. Police were involved. >> When I read the letter, it was very
specific [music] about killing the family. I will kill your wife and children in their sleep.
Then we started going to the up the staircase to the uh bedroom, the second floor of the house. And then as you're
walking up the steps, this message here, "You have paid." This is leading to what you're going to find
upstairs. It wasn't going to have a good outcome. And at the top of the stairs, we found
the three bedrooms. To the left of the staircase was the master bedroom where we found Sherry Coleman.
To the right was a bedroom of Garrett where he was found in his bed. And Gavin. We found him in the the third bedroom.
All three deceased. It was a homicide scene. We have an active death investigation.
Who's responsible, why it happened, when it happened. >> If you don't believe in evil,
I hope you do now. A mother and her two sons had been strangled in their sleep. This touched [music] an entire
community. They took it very personal. And that's something that you'll [music] never
forget as a reporter. We're following leads. We have leads in this case. We thought with the prior threats that
was going to be a very good lead for us who had such hatred [music] for for Chris Coleman.
That's where our investigation was going to start. This is Columbia. >> [music] >> Innocent women and children don't get
murdered in their bed at night. I'm Maureen Maher. Tonight on 48 Hours, the writing on the wall.
On the morning of May 5th, 2009, Christopher Coleman returned home from the gym >> [music]
>> to a scene of chaos and unimaginable horror. Told him, "Hey, they they didn't make
it." Being the family. And I walked him outside to the garage. He sat down on the driveway and started
sobbing. Said he felt like he was going to throw up. And then kind of curled up in the fetal position.
Detective Justin Barlow of the Columbia Police Department had been the Coleman's
neighbor for 5 years and was the first to respond when Chris could not reach his wife.
>> [music] >> This crime scene it wasn't bloody, but that didn't mean it was less gruesome.
Were you at all prepared for what you were about to walk into? I don't think anybody could be prepared for that.
Upstairs, [music] where they should have been safe in their beds, were 31-year-old Sherry and the couple's two
young boys, 11-year-old Garrett [music] and 9-year-old Gavin. What is the lasting image you have in
your mind from that day? I would say the one that sticks out the most would probably be be Garrett just because he's
the one that that, you know, I I discovered. Is that a haunting image for you even as
a police officer? Yeah. A little bit. The killer had not only taken Garrett's life, but had desecrated the body by
leaving another disturbing message. The spray paint in his room was actually on the sheet that was over his body. It was
and there was some remnants of the spray paint on him as well. We knew that that this case was going to be probably
the biggest one of of our lives. Columbia, Illinois is a small, quiet suburb outside of St. Louis. A wonderful
place to to live and raise a family. And Chief Joe Edwards immediately recognized
that his two investigators were going [music] to need some help. So we called in a special unit. We're doing all we
can to find out what happened in this house. Major Jeff Connor and the Major [music] Case Squad, which brought in an
army of 25 seasoned cops. It's typically your smaller departments that need the resource, need the help.
Hours after the murders, the Major Case Squad swung into high gear. The CSI team started processing [music]
the house. Warrants were secured to go through the Coleman's phones and computers while a very distraught Chris
was taken to the police station to give his statement. [music] Want to do everything we can for this
man. Coleman told investigators that it had been a normal morning. What time did you
leave your house to go to the gym this morning? He got up and left for the gym around
5:40 a.m. and called Sherry numerous times to wake her up. Then you called her again at 6:35 a.m.,
6:43, 6:52 a.m. The bodies of Sherry Coleman and her sons Garrett As neighbors woke to the
news of the murders, and old were discovered shortly before 7:00 Tuesday morning.
>> They were both devastated and terrified. So as I got down the street, I had seen
that it was at the Coleman house. And I text her right away and said, "Is everything okay?"
And I didn't get a response. Vanessa Rigorex, [music] who lived down the street, said the
Colemans appeared to have a perfect life raising [music] their two beautiful sons.
I always thought of them as the American family. The perfect family. >> [music] >> Everybody would want their children like
these two boys, polite, always helpful. They had a heart of gold. The couple had
been married [music] for 12 years and met when they were both in the military training at the canine unit. Sherry
became [music] a stay-at-home mom. 32-year-old Chris, the son of a preacher, used his Marine and security
experience [music] to land a job for a well-known televangelist, Joyce Meyer. And the devil fills our minds with junk.
Joyce Meyer is now known throughout the country and known throughout the world as a leading voice in the evangelical
movement. >> Jesus died to set us free. >> [music] >> And pretty successful organization
financially? She's extremely successful financially. I've seen figures from [music] 50 to 100 million dollars a
year. Reporter Nick Pistor followed the case for 2 years and is a CBS [music] News
consultant. Don't ever let the devil steal from you. Joyce Meyer travels all throughout the
world, does conferences in countries that don't necessarily respond well to women who are preaching uh a Christian
message. And so she wanted some deeper security. >> [music] >> But being Joyce Meyer's head of security
apparently put a target on Chris [music] Coleman's back. In November 2008, Chris had begun
receiving death threats to his work email. Whenever Chris Coleman reported the first death threat, he came to us at
the police department. "Tell [music] Joyce to stop preaching the bull." It read. "If I can't get to Joyce, then I
will get to someone close to her." We give the Coleman family an extra patrol, which we just give it special
attention to make sure nobody's there. It was in January 2009 that a hand-delivered threat showed up in the
mailbox at the [music] Coleman family home. It read, "Deny your God publicly or else. No more opportunities. Time is
running out for you and your family." Did it concern you as a neighbor living so closely when you heard that
there were death threats being made to the guy who lived across the street? >> Absolutely. Each note seemed to escalate
the seriousness of the situation, and on April 27th, less than a week before the
murders, a final missive arrived with an ultimatum. [music] "Stop today or else. I know your
schedule. You can't hide from me forever. I'm always watching. I know when you're leaving in the morning, and
I know when you stay at home." You decided to ramp things up yourself to be proactive, and what did you do at your
house? We got one camera mounted up in my 5-year-old's bedroom and pointed it right at the the mailbox.
With the camera aimed directly at the Colemans' mailbox, the Coleman residence was located about 214 ft approximately.
They hoped to get a clear shot of whoever was leaving the notes. Be prepared for something [music] that was
going to happen and be as proactive about it as we could. Instead, days later, the killer somehow
[music] snuck into the Coleman home and strangled Sheri, Garrett, >> [music] >> and Gavin.
But if the murders were linked to the threats [music] and Joyce Meyer Ministries, that meant
the cops might now be on a global search for suspects. There was a lot of fear that there was somebody out there
killing families, >> [music] >> and who was going to be next. My prayer over this town is that there'd
be healing that would come. There'd be a heart for mercy that would come towards whoever that poor soul is
that went to this extreme, and that Columbia could begin to heal again. This touched [music] an entire
community. The neighbors were shocked. They saw the young boys playing touch football with their father on the front
lawn. >> [music] >> These were little boys that they knew. You could just see the pain on
everyone's face. It devastated [music] the community. The small town of Columbia, Illinois was
reeling with the sudden loss of Sheri, Garrett, and Gavin Coleman. Close friends [music] like Kathy LaPlant were
crushed. Sheri was a loving mother, loyal friend, and sister to me. My life's not the same. Put a hole in my
heart. If I would have known for 1 ms she was in danger, I would have been down there.
For Sheri's brother, Mario, and their mother, Angela, it was impossible to accept the reality of the brutal crime.
She grew up to be a beautiful person on the outside as well as the inside. They were her world. Those boys.
They were her world. You know, Garrett was more um quiet and more [music] of a thinker. He's all you
could tell by what looking at his in his eyes. He's only thinking. Mhm. And uh And Gavin was
>> Gavin was very He was He's outgoing. Outgoing. He was a very He's like a social butterfly.
His personality [music] was just like his mom's, just like his mother's. With Sheri,
Garrett, and Gavin, I mean, I think that just that that's what the motivation [music] was for everybody.
Hours into the investigation, the Major Case [music] Squad continued to pursue their best lead, finding whoever wrote
those threats. [music] We tracked down uh people across the country who didn't like Joyce Myers, and we interviewed
them to find out where they were at >> [music] >> on May the 4th and May the 5th. And that
morning, they were hoping Chris might be able to point them in the right direction.
Who do you suspect? I mean, out of all these emails and things you've been talking about at work, there's got to be
one person that stands out in your mind. I don't have any clue. I wish I knew. >> [snorts]
>> If I had just been there this morning. But as police [music] continued to talk
to Coleman, they were surprised by how he was acting. How do you think they died?
No idea. You guys haven't told me. Okay. Do you have any clues? Did he ever ask how his wife and children died?
He never asked. >> No. What else sticks out in your mind from those first few hours?
>> Just the lack of reaction. I mean, just the lack of curiosity of what's going
on. So, police kept probing. Was there a problem in your relationship? Was there
anything currently um that wasn't going so well in your relationship? Not really. Really? I mean, just the
communication thing. Had had you seen anyone else um outside of your wife? In a romantic way?
Um No. Chris was adamant that he was not having a relationship outside of his marriage. So, it seemed odd when he
offered a stunning piece of information about another woman. Tara in Florida that you guys were going to talk to.
Um and I've talked to her um lately, but And what's what's with that? I mean, what Just a friend, someone you talk to.
Tara is Tara Lynn. A cocktail waitress and an old high school friend of Sheri's.
Okay, you said you had a good close friendship. But were were you actually um doing anything that that you felt
wouldn't be approved by your wife? Um some of the conversations. Probably. Coleman insisted they were just friends,
that he met Tara through Sheri when their family went to Florida on vacation. Did you guys potentially look
for that? No, I didn't want to do that to my kids. But during the interview, the Major Case
Squad contacted police in Tara's hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida to check out Chris's story.
Channel clear? Detective Shannon Holstead got the call. We went from the station um to go make
contact with her thinking it was going to be a quick 20-minute interview, um and it ended up being very different.
That's because the information Holstead [music] gained from Tara about the relationship was very different than
what Chris was telling police in Illinois. She provided the BlackBerry and the laptop computer obviously had
files um of videos and emails relating to the relationship. Did you immediately step out and call St. Louis? I did. And
what did you say to them? I said, "I'm not positive, but I think this is his girlfriend."
Armed with that information, Detective Barlow confronted Chris. Um the one thing that I did want to tell you right
now is the St. Petersburg Homicide Unit is talking to Tara right now, and she's showing us the pictures that you sent
her with you two. We know you guys have been having an affair. >> [music] >> So, was that a pretty big break for you
guys? It It was a >> [music] >> important piece. Investigators learned the couple had begun seeing each other
in the fall of 2008, 6 months before the murders. During the affair, Chris would fly Tara to meet him
at locations where he was working for Joyce Meyer. Are you with me so far? I know you guys went to Hawaii together.
We pulled the Enterprise Leasing cars where she where you guys went to different trips together, right? It was
an affair. And it didn't You didn't think it was an affair? Because she's It was when you're like living with him and
you're going to get married and everything. She had on her calendar um a scheduled
wedding to Chris Coleman, scheduled vacations, different accounts, credit card accounts that they held together,
um and I think she honest to God believed that he was going to leave his wife and two children.
Chris's parents, Pastor Ron Coleman and his wife, Connie, were stunned to learn their son [music] had had an affair. But
they insisted it had nothing to do with the murders. He's always been a real gentle person. Um
Kind of quiet. Is there any way that there's a part of Chris that you don't know that could have been capable of
this? Not in my view. You couldn't put something around your kids' throat unless you're a monster. It's not there.
It's just not there. While investigators believed Chris's affair with Tara Lynn was a strong
motive for murder, there still wasn't enough evidence to charge him. So, after 6 long hours, Chris Coleman walked out a
free man. It wasn't like we were wanting to believe that Chris is the one who did
this. It's just that the evidence kept pointing to him. The memorial in their subdivision
>> [music] >> is awesome. There's a bench and there's trees. Every day [music] friends and neighbors
are reminded of the beautiful lives that were stolen from them. The community got together and created
that. So, they wanted to do something positive. >> [music] >> Megan Turnbow says it's a fitting
tribute unlike the funeral service at Pastor Coleman's church. No friends, no family, no coaches,
nobody spoke about these three awesome people that were dead. In the days that followed the service,
any sympathy for Chris Coleman was stripped away as news spread about his affair with Sherry's high school friend
Tara Lens. Well, when the affair came out [music] and I had no idea and I heard about it
from someone else, I felt like every day I was just getting stabbed in the heart
by these little pieces of information. Did you think he was going to be arrested? Yes.
And I couldn't wait. I was nervous to be honest with you. I didn't even think about that.
>> The major case squad felt that pressure. Obviously, in any case, you you want to you want to
get the person responsible for it, but you want to get the right person. But right away, there were red flags.
Police were concerned when they found a basement window open and others unlocked. Here's a guy whose family is
being threatened. They're going to destroy his family while he's gone. But yet, that window was left unlocked
and it was obvious it was left unlocked cuz there was no forced entry. And remember that camera Detective
Barlow installed in his house? You saw no strangers walking up and down the street. You saw no strange vehicles. And
Chris had even installed his own surveillance cameras [music] in his house. What about the surveillance
equipment that was allegedly in the house? The recorder was missing. That's convenient. Yes.
An autopsy on Sherry revealed that she fought violently with her killer leaving her with two black eyes.
Sherry was involved in an altercation before she was murdered. Um those two boys weren't.
Which made scratches found on Chris Coleman's arms all the more suspicious. When did you first notice
the scratches on his arms? It was brought to my attention by people at the scene. How you doing? I mean,
is there anything I can get you? You're freezing. Yeah. Okay. Police say Coleman
tried to hide them during his interview. You can see on the video where he's asking for a blanket because he says
he's cold. The only part of his body he covers up are the, you know, suspected um marks on his arm. That'll work on it.
Yeah, as long as you can roll my arms up. Okay. I remember in the interview room it
being very warm in that. Did you think he was in shock? No. Chris later claimed he got those
scratches the day before when he was removing a satellite dish from his roof. Was there any DNA found at the scene
that would implicate him? Uh I'll I'll just say there wasn't any DNA found that didn't belong there. Uh
no bogeyman, no unidentified DNA, anything like that. There was incriminating evidence found
on Chris's phone and computers starting with X-rated snapshots and videos that Tara and Chris had sent each other. It
was a serious affair. Uh he had written down every her measurements, her favorite things, uh everything about her
he had stored so he could, you know, buy her things or do whatever for her. By November 5th of 2008, Chris had written
on his computer that that was the day Tara changed his life. For police, that date would set off
alarm bells. And how many days after that then did the threats start to show up?
>> About 9 days after that. 9 days. The Colemans insist it is all a coincidence. It's my understanding that
he had written down November 5th, the day Tara changed my life, that they had exchanged promise rings and that he had
even written down the name of their first child were to be a little girl. Is is that true? Honestly?
I cannot imagine him doing that. >> That's not Chris. >> With anybody. He just didn't really
operate in that in that arena of emotions. He just didn't. He was just very common logical sense.
Chris's parents believe their son is innocent and [music] that it was an intruder who killed his family and left
hateful messages. In fact, Chris even voluntarily provided samples of his own handwriting to
police. What was the most important piece of evidence at the crime scene? At the crime scene, probably the
handwriting on the walls. But those samples would later come back to haunt him. The crime scene lab come
back and saying that the handwriting found on the wall matches up to the handwriting exemplar
that Christopher Coleman gave at the Columbia Police Department. Finally, 2 weeks after the murders,
police felt they had enough to make their case. >> [crying] >> And Christopher Coleman was charged with
the first-degree murder of his wife and two sons. If it was another time, they would have
had pitchforks and lanterns in their hand. They were out for vengeance. They wanted
this case solved and they wanted it solved immediately and they wanted him to be found guilty immediately.
>> [screaming] >> Were you there when he was arrested? Yes. It was at night, the worst scenario.
We've lost three. We've lost Garrett and Gavin and Sherry and now Chris is gone.
Sherry's friends and neighbors were relieved but angry at the toll it had taken on them and their children. I've
talked to some of the moms and the children in the community wonder if their dad could do the same thing.
And investigators insist all this pain was caused by Chris Coleman's obsession. And all because of a woman. I believe
that had a major part of it. This crime was about greed, sex, selfishness, and [snorts] narcissism.
Chris Coleman decided he wanted a new life and his family was in the way. He was obviously a monster who carried
out a very sadistic plan. By the time Chris Coleman went on trial in April 2011,
prosecutor Ed Parkinson and his team had spent 2 years building their case. This
was a a huge case. This was like a 10,000 piece puzzle. The murders of Sherry Coleman and her two young boys He
and his expected three >> for local media as well. Chris Coleman murder trial All the
pre-trial publicity prompted the judge to bus in a jury from a county an hour and a half away. What was the biggest
challenge for you as a prosecutor in this case? People who turn out to be jurors have to accept the fact that
parents kill their kids. It's just hard to accept it. He just looked like a good
guy. How do you get that much hatred for a child? As unthinkable as it was, at every corner investigators had turned up
more evidence against Coleman. Some of it came from Sherry's own friends who were determined to have
their day in court. What was it like waiting for the 2 years for the trial? It was life-changing and not for the
better. How did you feel about testifying? I was scared to death. I was like, I'm going to do this for Sherry.
Coleman, sporting a new hairdo and a bulletproof vest at his trial, would hear those friends bolster the
prosecution's claim that he had lied about his marriage in his interrogation. talked about it a while back about
possibly maybe a split up or something if we start meeting with Actually, one of the pastors
from Joyce Meyer. Yeah, things have been going awesome. Coleman insisted that he and his wife
had merely hit a few bumps in the road and were helped by counseling. Sherry told her friends a different
story. She was in my room and she was crying and Chris wanted to leave her and then
he would start to say hurtful things like I never loved you. But Sherry wasn't willing to let him go.
And he would put on a face in front of the marriage counselor and Sherry said when he got back home, he'd yell at her
and, you know, it would just be hell to pay. Prosecutor Parkinson says there's a
reason Coleman wanted Sherry to be the one to divorce him. I believe he became so enraptured by Tara Lens, but he
couldn't get divorced in his own mind because then he'd lose his $100,000 job a year with Joyce Meyer Ministries. They
frown on divorce if it's your fault. Parkinson believes Coleman was hoping to make a clean break before anyone caught
on about the affair. In a videotape deposition, Joyce Meyer confirmed her ministry's zero tolerance
of adultery. If he would have been having an adulterous affair while he was still married,
then it could have definitely affected his job. But eventually, Sherry did find out her
husband was having an affair with her best friend from high school. Sherri opened up her computer one night with a
friend and said, "Do you want to see the woman who's having an affair with my husband?"
and showed images of Tara Lentz. But Sherri still refused to get divorced and something she said to her friend
Kathy LaPlant will haunt her forever. When he came home demanding a divorce, she told me that if anything [music]
happened to her, Chris did it. Several months later, Sherri and the boys were dead.
What do you think the trigger was that made it May 5th? I think Tara uh was pressing him. I think he just got
pushed into his own corner. They had wedding dates planned. Um Chris had told Tara that
he was serving Sherri with divorce papers on May the 5th, the day of the homicides. And had he ever filed divorce
divorce papers? >> No. No. Did he ever speak to an attorney? No. After hearing all about this other
woman, the jury would finally get to meet her. It was the most anticipated moment of the trial.
Tara Lentz [music] making her entrance under police escort. She arrived at the courthouse almost
like a Hollywood star arriving somewhere. It was a packed courtroom gallery. Tara testified that she and Coleman
talked or texted, quote, "all the time, constantly" and that they often professed their love for each other.
>> [music] >> When asked whether she and Coleman had plans to marry, her short answer spoke
volumes, quote, "the divorce had to happen first." Do you think that Tara had anything to do with the murders? No,
I don't. And you don't think she had any idea that something was about to happen?
No, not from any of the evidence, I don't believe that. But the prosecutor does believe
Coleman's lust for Tara had everything to do with it and to drive [music] his point home, he showed the court the
sexually explicit videos and photos the two sent to each other. We said, "Lord, please help us. We don't have to look at
this, but please help us sit here for his sake that he doesn't feel that we're ashamed of him." Now, instead of
embarking on an exciting new life and keeping his six-figure income, Chris Coleman was facing the death
penalty. Did you kill your wife and your children? No, absolutely not. Chris Coleman had a prominent local
defense team at his side when he went on trial for his life. Another double-edged
sword in trying to use the fingerprint on But John O'Gara and Bill Margolis had to admit they faced an uphill battle.
The evidence was although all circumstantial, it was very overwhelming. And at trial, one of the most critical
pieces of evidence would be time of death. The prosecution maintains the three victims were killed hours before Coleman
left the house to go to the gym. The bodies were stiff. They had rigor mortis that uh everything pointed that they
were dead by at least 3:00 in the morning. It could have been the whole case, quite frankly.
The defense insists that Sherri, Garrett and Gavin could have been killed that morning during the hour and 10 minutes
that Coleman was gone. You know, you can use various formulas. You know, the time of death is not an
exact science. As investigators kept building their case, something was troubling them about that
trail of threatening letters and emails. [music] It read, "If I can't get to Joyce, then
I will get to someone close to her." We didn't find anybody else who had received
messages that were threatening to their family. The prosecution's computer experts discovered there was a good
reason for that. Those threats were typed on his laptop. The email threats that came to him
>> Yeah. originated from his own laptop. >> laptop. Those threats were sent from an
account [music] called destroychris@gmail.com. Defense attorney Bill Margolis insists
someone else could have sent them. Anybody that had access to his computer, whether it was a co-worker or anybody
else, could have created that account. Investigators still had no so-called smoking gun.
No DNA, no murder weapon and no eyewitness. But after [music] analyzing the blood
red paint in those frightening messages on the walls, they believe they just might have something close to it. One
can of that exact spray paint was purchased at a at a local hardware store and the computerized signature said
Christopher Coleman. You cannot paint that much without paint being somewhere on you. They literally
cut him to the quick. He pulled his own hair out for them. There was not a trace of paint.
But if Coleman was the killer, he'd made this scene on the surveillance video recorded [music]
the afternoon before the bodies were discovered all the more chilling. >> [music]
>> It's a perfect suburban scene. He played catch with his son at the house and then [music] the next morning
they're dead. It's unexplainable. Chris Coleman did not take the [music] stand. I didn't want to believe that he could
do that. I cried myself to sleep. In a case that was gut-wrenching [music] for everyone involved, it turns out the
jury was no exception. Absolutely unimaginable. I mean, there's just so much hate.
It's just hatred spread everywhere. The first vote inside that jury room was seven to five, not guilty. But not
because they believed Coleman was innocent. We all thought [music] he did it. Who Who else would have done it? But
many of the jurors were troubled by the circumstantial nature of the case. [music] You wanted factual, tangible
evidence that said [music] he did it. Make him prove it. As the deliberations entered a second
day, crowds began to gather outside the courthouse, the tension mounting. But Sherri's mother remained optimistic.
We will get justice for my daughter and for my grandsons. I have what they call the mother
instinct. I'm very confident. >> you. Incredibly, it was the jurors' own detective work that they say pushed them
over the top. When they looked at the back of this picture of Chris Coleman and Tara Lentz
kissing, they noticed it was taken [music] on October 21st, 2008. I think actually what I said was, "Oh my
god." And I said, "What was the date that he said the affair started?" Yeah, the dates didn't
>> until Novem- November. >> November. And the picture was created in October. Way before they said they had been
seeing each other. And what did that say to you? That was something black and white in
front of my face that said, "If he could lie about this, he's lying about everything."
After 15 hours of deliberations, there is a verdict. in the Chris Coleman triple murder trial. The verdict
was guilty. Chris Coleman in this case, guilty on all three of these counts. And the crowd
outside the courthouse erupted in applause and cheers. >> [cheering] >> I had never seen anything like what
happened on the lawn of the courthouse that night. The verdict was handed down on May 5th,
2011. Two years to the day that Sherri, Garrett [music] and Gavin were found murdered.
I walked out of the courtroom and first words out of my mouth, "Yes, we did it. [music] We got justice."
The judge sentenced Coleman to life in prison in part because the state of Illinois' repeal of the death [music]
penalty was just months away from taking effect. Did you kill your wife and your
children? No, absolutely not. We spoke to Chris Coleman by phone because our cameras were not allowed inside the
prison. I absolutely love my wife and my kids and this, you know, is not is not me.
How do you love your wife and be having an affair with one of her best friends? Maybe I wasn't, you know, selfishly
getting what I thought I might should be getting at home as far as with my wife, you know, from the
uh physical side of things, but I still absolutely loved her. Coleman denies he was planning to divorce Sherri to marry
his mistress Tara. So, why does Tara say that? Um it was discussed on several different
things and, you know, it was a conversation, but there was no specific plans or no dates or nobody asked each
other to be married or anything like that. She also says that you had told her that you were serving divorce papers
to Sherri. You know, unfortunately, and I feel horrible about it. You know, if I ever
talked to to Tara again, that would be something that I would apologize to her about that it that was a lie. I lied to
Tara about that. So, if he didn't murder his family, who did? I have absolutely no clue.
Believe me, I have racked my brain for for 2 and 1/2 years trying to figure that part out.
I just had to stop and give it to God. Just release that and do my best to forgive that forgive that person and
move on. Forgiving and moving on has been [music] difficult for Sherry's friends.
Still struggling to understand this incomprehensible crime. As a Christian, I feel like it's
imperative that I forgive because Jesus forgave me. And I want to forgive with my whole heart.
What makes it so hard to do that? Because they were so innocent. Sherry's friends and family want [music]
to ensure that she, Garrett, and Gavin are never forgotten. So, they've been raising money to help
victims [music] of domestic violence. And they hope to build a new Little League field and name it after those two
[music] young boys who loved to play ball. The boys had their whole life ahead of
them. They didn't deserve it. This should have never [music] happened. Should have never happened.
>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> This was different than any a homicide we've ever really had.
This was a homicide that occurred in someone's bathroom. From the the first moment when we walked
in and saw Becky's [music] body, it was different. She was shot 14 times and there was one
miss. So, there were 15 rounds fired. My mom called my phone. She was understandably hysterical and she just
kept saying Becky's dead. You never expect to get a phone call saying your sister's dead.
It doesn't seem possible. She was an incredible nurse, but she was made to be a mom.
I can't imagine someone looking at someone so beautiful and kind and still thinking
that you should take her life from her. She must have been so scared. This brutal crime has had the Quincy
community on edge and our residents [music] living in fear. How big a story was this initially? It was huge.
Were people scared that there was a killer loose? Definitely. How is this happening in our small town?
Make sure you lock your doors. Turn on exterior lights. There were prowlers in the area right
next door within a week of of her being murdered. They're breaking into cars. They're trying to break into houses.
It wasn't a random prowler. It was an execution. You don't kick down a door, chase them into a bathroom, shoot them
once, and then shoot them that many more times in a random act. This was somebody
who was there with a purpose. Did you think you'd probably be a suspect? I mean, you're the estranged
husband in the middle of a very contentious divorce. I had to kind of make an assumption that
yeah, I probably was going to be a suspect. We learned that he was on Family Feud. It's time to play
Family Feud. He gave a silly answer to a silly question. The question was, what is the number one
regret that people have from their wedding day? What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding?
Honey, I love you, BUT SAID I DO. >> [screaming] >> NOT MY MISTAKE. NOT MY MISTAKE. I love
my wife. It wasn't said with any malice or or or bad intentions. It was supposed to be
funny. Well, it was the second most popular answer on the board. I do. >> [cheering]
>> It got attention to the case, but it had nothing to do with it. What's the first thing then [music] you
did looking for evidence? We had the detectives go around to all the neighbors to see if they had any video.
That's her house over there? >> Yep. That's Becky's house. >> And this is [music] the neighbor's
driveway? >> the neighbor's driveway. You'll see this person walk across Looks like they have
gloves on. Can't see a face [music] at all. Can't see a face. He can't see hair. He can't
really see anything else. That's not Tim in that video. You can't tell who it is. Can you absolutely say
with certainty that that is Tim Bliefnick? Based on the video evidence alone, absolutely not. That's one piece
of the puzzle. He had everything [music] to lose if that's him and nothing to gain. I wholeheartedly do not believe he
had anything to do with the death of Becky. Did you kill your wife, Becky? >> No, I did not murder Becky. [music] The
idea of of murdering someone, let alone the mother of my kids, is not any part of who I am.
>> [music] [music] >> Josh Jones and Laura Eack have prosecuted hundreds of cases. 11 and 10
seconds. But no case has troubled them quite [music] like the murder of Becky Bliefnick. You put yourself in in the
mind of Becky Bliefnick in the last moments of her life, the fear that she had to be feeling. You can't walk out of
that house and not be affected by it. Becky was just 41 years old when on the afternoon of February 23rd, 2023,
her own father discovered her lifeless on the bathroom floor of her Quincy, Illinois home.
She'd been dead [music] for hours, shot a total of 14 times. None of the wounds were immediately fatal. It took her
minutes to die. It was an emotional response for both of us to to realize not just that she had been executed, but
that her last minutes were lying on a floor alone in the dark, in extreme pain, waiting to
die. Quincy is a quiet town along the Mississippi River where violent [music] crimes are rare and unsettling.
She was a nurse who had three children. I think people were just horrified that a mother of three young boys could be
shot and killed in her own home. Sarah Riley is Becky's older sister and her only sibling. She lives in New York, but
was away on vacation with her husband, Brett Riley, when they got that life-changing call. You just want to
wake up and have it not be real. It's a living nightmare. How fast can we get to the [music] airport,
fly back to New York, unpack our swimsuits, and pack funeral clothes, and get out to Quincy, Illinois,
and just holding each other up [music] in screaming grief. How would you [music] both describe her?
Selfless. That that really captures it. She thought of everybody that was in her
life as somebody important and somebody [music] special. The kids were her world. Becky's three sons, ages 12, 10,
and 5, were not at home at the time of the murder. They were staying [music] with their father, Tim Bliefnick, about
a mile away. The couple was in the process of getting divorced. Tim says that when he couldn't reach Becky on the
23rd, he contacted her father. He said, "Hey, I haven't been able to get ahold of her either. I'm going to go over to
the house." What happened to Becky should have never happened. I did just it still doesn't at times it
still just doesn't feel real. Police quickly determined that the killer had broken into Becky's home by prying
[music] open an upstairs window in one of the children's bedrooms. This video shows a police officer later reenacting
[music] how investigators believe the assailant scaled the house. The person that
climbed up on there, there was a patio chair that was pulled over. They walked past
Becky's windows in her bedroom, and then they went to a room of one of the boys and they pried open, broke the window
open, went in. You could almost trace their path to Becky's room. They had kicked in
or broken in the door violently. Becky then ran into the bathroom, turned around, and got shot. What time do you
believe the intruder entered the house? So, it would have been around 1:11 in the morning because we know that at a
1:11 and 10 seconds Becky tried to call 911 on her cell phone. She dialed 91126 and the phone was
knocked out of her hand and it was found behind the door. Nothing appeared to be stolen and
neighbors didn't see or hear anything, but there was evidence left behind. A partial shoe print near the point of
entry, eight spent 9 mm shell casings, and small pieces of plastic on the floor around Becky's body. We thought it was
unusual when we saw that. It was like, okay, what is this? Detectives canvassing the neighborhood
looking for surveillance video didn't have to go far. Becky's next door neighbors, the Hymans, had installed a
camera on the side of their house after a car break-in more than a year earlier.
It pointed at their driveway, which ran alongside Becky's house. What does it record? They record
movement. So, anytime it senses movement it will notify us on our phones. The Hymans camera didn't capture anything on
the night of the murder, but it did capture something unusual about 24 hours earlier. We've slowed down some of the
videos so you can see them better. At 1:05 a.m. a person was seen walking down the driveway towards the back of Becky's
house. And what appeared to be that same person was seen again 48 minutes later.
This time walking in the opposite direction. The camera had also captured a similar
incident about a week earlier on February 14th, Valentine's Day. I saw that one in the middle of the night and
texted Becky immediately. I had told her we just saw somebody in the driveway and she responded not till
the next morning. And what did she say when she responded? >> That's when she told me that she hadn't
seen anything, but she thought she'd been hearing voices in her backyard and her motion light go on and she was very
paranoid. At the time the Hymans thought it was a neighborhood prowler looking for something to steal. But now with
Becky dead, they began to wonder and investigators did too. Officers went around the entire
neighborhood trying to find more video and we were able to find a video from a house
and we were able to find video from the Quincy bus barn. And those videos showed a person riding
a bike in the direction of Becky's house. After analyzing the recorded times of the videos, authorities began
to suspect that the person seen on the bike was the same person seen in the driveway. Every time you see a person at
the Hyman residence, you see a person riding a bike down the road just a few minutes before you see a person on that
Hyman video. And even though there was no video from the Hyman residence on the morning Becky
was killed there was video of a person on a bike riding in the direction of [music] Becky's house right before the
murder and in the opposite direction right after. And this is not a part of town that people ride bikes in the
middle of the night in winter. And so when you have this surveillance video and it exactly matches the timeline
that's suspicious. But there was [music] one big problem. You can tell absolutely nothing from the
videos. Only that the bike did not [music] appear to have reflectors on the wheels. I mean, you can't see whether
it's male, female. >> It's terrible. The video's terrible. Authorities needed more leads and they
would [music] get one from Becky's sister that would point them in a very specific direction.
When Becky's sister Sarah and brother-in-law Brett learned of her murder, they say one person came to mind
as the prime suspect, Becky's estranged husband [music] Tim Bliefnick. I told Brett it was Tim. Of course it
was Tim. >> right away. Right away. Tim and Becky [music] met when they were students at Quincy University, but it
wasn't until 2 years after graduating that they began dating. And how would you describe Becky back
then? Happy, fun, she was beautiful. The two eventually moved in together, married, and started a family. Becky
quit her job in pharmaceutical sales to become a stay-at-home mom while Tim continued his successful career in the
recycling industry. I thought this was it. You know, I'm going to be 85 and sitting on a porch in
a rocking chair with her talking about how good life was. But things didn't turn out that way.
She was very happy with their marriage for probably the first 5 years. Uh and then, you know, things started to
change. He got progressively more manipulative and controlling. And he didn't do any of the work ever at the
house. Shannon Zanger is Becky's close friend. Uh when she'd come over and we'd talk
husbands as wives do, she felt like she was shouldering most of the load. I thought, man, I really have a partner
here and she doesn't seem to have that partnership. Shannon and Sarah say the relationship only became more strained
when Becky decided to go back to school to become a nurse. He not only did not support her, he did not
increase his time with the boys. While Tim acknowledges that he wasn't in favor of Becky taking on a career in nursing,
he says it was out of concern [music] for her well-being. Because of the stress piece of it.
>> Were you worried you'd have to pick up more of the work with the kids? >> Not at all.
I have always been involved with the kids every day. In January 2021, after 11 years of
marriage, Tim [music] filed for divorce. Although he wouldn't discuss the specifics of why he filed, he hinted
that it had to do with what he saw [music] as a change in Becky's personality after she became a nurse.
She struggled with patience and stress a lot, especially when it came to the kids
and it it created some conflict. But Sarah says Tim is just making excuses and she believes the reason Tim
filed for divorce is because he couldn't control Becky. She says Becky was a loving mother and tried in vain to
salvage the marriage. She wanted to go to marriage counseling with him and he refused.
Whatever the reason for the divorce might have been, one thing is certain. Things between the two soon turned
contentious. According to divorce documents, they fought over just about everything. Money, the marital home, and
custody of the kids. I don't understand why it got so contentious if you were the one who
wanted to get out. Uh yeah, I was the one that wanted to get out and I tried on several occasions, but there are
details that I'm I'm not that are hard to talk about that happened in the divorce.
In the months after Tim filed for divorce, Becky began voicing concerns about Tim's behavior. She sent this text
to a friend. He has screamed in my face. He shoved me in front of the kids and has thrown things across the room. And
she texted another friend. I truly believe Tim has serious mental health problems and he is becoming more
vengeful and unpredictable. But Tim says it was Becky who was vengeful. 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. At one point Tim sought an order of protection against Becky. He alleged
Becky stalked and harassed [music] him. He also referenced an incident where he said Becky had become combative
during a disagreement at a parent-teacher night. Stop. I'm asking you to stop harassing
me and stop calling I'm not harassing you. I'm asking He offered this video of the incident as proof.
I don't want you to tape me. Then stop doing this. Don't tape me. I don't Then stop doing this. I didn't ask you to
tape me. Do you really think she was trying to hurt him in that video? >> I don't think anybody was trying to hurt
anybody. I think you have two parents that were having a disagreement and didn't know how to deal with it. Casey
Schnock was one of Tim's divorce attorneys. The judge didn't grant that order of protection.
>> it, no. Days after Tim filed for that order of protection and more than a year before
her death, Becky sent her sister Sarah this text, "If something ever happens to me, please make sure the number one
person of interest is Tim." She would later make similar statements to friends. I said, "What did he do?" And that text
was prompted by the murder of one of her colleagues. One of the the nurses that she knew of was
murdered by her partner. That scared her. She felt like this could happen. This is real. I
never understood where that came from. We would get into arguments, and sometimes we would get loud, but that's
all it amounted to. Sarah says she recommended Becky seek help from a domestic abuse organization.
And eventually, Becky filed for an order of protection against Tim. In her petition, she alleged that Tim entered
her residence without permission. She also said that he repeatedly falsified [music] interactions between the two.
That order of protection was not granted. But a judge did ultimately order Tim and Becky stay away from each
other's residences except [music] when exchanging their kids. And the judge also ordered Tim to return a 9-mm
handgun that Becky had gifted him when they were together. He was into you know, recreational shooting. She
wanted that particular gun back because the gun was in her name. But Becky never got it back, and it was
a 9-mm handgun that was later used to kill her. I've not seen that gun in 3 years. I
didn't have it. Becky was killed 1 week before the divorce case was set to go to trial.
When Sarah informed law enforcement of their history, Tim became a person of interest. Authorities kept digging, and
days later, they found [music] a bike with no reflectors on the wheels, just like the one seen on those surveillance
videos. How close was that bike that you found to Tim's house? Less than half a block.
They then [music] executed a search warrant on Tim's house and car as Tim looked on. And on March 13th, 2023,
just over 2 weeks after Becky's death, Tim Bliefnick was arrested and charged with her murder.
I can't even fathom the idea of considering murdering somebody. Like I can't. Tim's divorce attorney, Casey Schnock,
would become his defense attorney. And she says she's convinced police got it wrong.
He knew how much those kids meant to her and how much she meant to them. He wouldn't do this to them.
He wouldn't. When Tim Bliefnick was arrested, it made national news. He competed on Family
Feud as his whole town cheered him on, but his local hero status is over. Now that In large part because of that
appearance he made alongside his parents and brothers on the game show Family Feud. All right, Tim, we're going to
talk to 100 married people. [applause] What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding?
Honey, I love you, but said I do. The episode was filmed in 2019, nearly 2 years before Tim filed for
divorce. But because of the charges he now face, it had people talking. And there was also chatter about Tim's
appearance in his mug shot, although it was no surprise to Becky's family. We had seen through social media the
deterioration of his appearance. And that went hand in hand with the deterioration of his mental state over
the course of the divorce. But Tim says that's not the case, and that he had been growing out his hair for a
fundraiser for kids or research. I'm not a violent person. I'm not an angry person. I've never been that way.
Tim's attorney, Casey Schnock, was determined to prove his innocence. She says just because Tim and Becky were
going through a messy divorce, it doesn't mean he killed her. It wasn't pretty, but the things that
they were fighting over were not monumental things. >> You know, there were a number of
friends, Becky's friends, who said that she expressed great fear of Tim. Yeah. That's a lot of girl talk. I've
never seen any pictures of her with bruises, of marks, any allegations of him beating on her. Nothing.
But Adams County prosecutors, Josh Jones and Laura Keck, say even though there may not have been physical abuse, there
was emotional abuse evident in Tim's texts to Becky. What do his text messages reveal? So, I
would say what they reveal is somebody who wants power and control. He wants to control the relationship. He wants to
control how people perceive him. Tim denies that. She wasn't the one that was emotionally abused. I tried to create
space. I tried to stay out of her life. And Tim says he has an alibi for the time of the murder. He says he was home
with their three kids. They were sleeping over that night because Becky had asked him to keep them an extra
night. She told him that she wasn't feeling well, and he said that's fine. That's
how you want to see two people in a divorcing situation act with kids. But Jones and Keck believe Tim saw an
opportunity. She showed weakness to a predator. That's what predators do. When they see
a weakness, they attack. And they also say that explains the intruder's point of entry, an upstairs
window in one of the kids' bedrooms. If you're a random intruder, why do you go to the second floor window? You go past
not just one window, but three windows that are possible entrance points. And he just happened to get lucky that it's
a little boy's room that's not there that night. But Schnock points to what she says is a
lack of physical evidence tying Tim to the crime. No murder weapon or bloody clothing was
found. And while police did seize pairs of Tim's shoes, they weren't able to match them to that partial shoe print
found [music] at the scene. They took every single pair of athletic shoes that they thought would be a
match. They didn't find any that that were a suitable match. Schnock also points out that Tim's DNA
wasn't found on that patio chair that investigators believe was used by the killer to climb onto Becky's roof.
Nothing on that was connected to Tim. They took every pair of gloves from Tim's car, house, and and that they
could find, and none of those gloves had any anything that linked him to this crime.
But if Tim didn't kill Becky, who did? If I knew that answer, I would have given that name or whoever it was a long
time ago. Tim's attorney says that she believes investigators should have given more
weight to the idea that it could have been a random prowler who killed Becky in a break-in gone wrong.
Remember, police found those videos of a person on a bike and a person walking down Becky's neighbor's driveway.
Tim insists it's not him in those videos. You cannot say with any degree of certainty who that person is on any of
those videos. All you see is a bike without reflectors. And even though a bike with no
reflectors on the wheels was found less than half a block from Tim's house, Schnock says that doesn't mean anything.
Cuz DNA was not found on that bike, and we don't even know that the bike that was found is the same bike that was in
the video. But prosecutors, Jones and Keck, say they did find evidence tying Tim to that bike. We were able to
download information off his phone, and we found that Mr. Bliefnick had a what I'll call burner or fake Facebook
account with the name John Smith. And they say that John Smith Facebook account appeared to have been looking at
this bike for sale. It's a blue Schwinn with no reflectors on the wheels, just like that bike that was found.
I mean, I have a fake Facebook account. I'm not proud of it, but people do it. >> It isn't it a bit of a problem though
that on his phone, he got some alert for that blue bike? >> Sure. Are there similarities? Sure, but
that's not the only abandoned bike that's been found around town. Jones and Keck say they're confident they got the
right guy. The detectives followed the evidence exactly where it took them, and there
was one inescapable conclusion. That it was Mr. Bliefnick. But despite their confidence, they soon face quite a
challenge. When Tim was arrested, he was ordered held without bond. He had a right to a speedy trial, which he took,
meaning prosecutors would be required to try the case within [music] 90 days of Tim's arrest. We were going to be ready,
come hell or high water. But did they have enough to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Juries expect a confession. They expect that DNA evidence that says one in 500 million.
We're going to have to show them that that's not what we have here. What do you make of Tim Bliefnick's
answer on Family Feud? Take a look at the case evidence at 48hours.com. On May 23rd, 2023, exactly 3 months
after Becky Bliefnick was gunned down in her home, Tim Bliefnick went on trial for her murder. The defendant looked
down at Becky and he pointed a gun at her and he pulled the trigger. Prosecutors Josh Jones and Laura Cat
began by methodically laying out the evidence they say points directly to Tim. Starting with those odd pieces of
plastic that were found around Becky's body. They say investigators determined that
they were shreds from an Aldi grocery store bag. And then in the defendant's house,
we found stacks of Aldi bags. He had fired through an Aldi bag either in an attempt to muffle the sound or to catch
his shell casings. >> [music] >> And prosecutors say that in the process, DNA was left behind on a piece of that
plastic. An expert testified that it was more likely than not that Tim was a contributor.
And Tim also could [music] be excluded from DNA that was found under Becky's fingernails.
That was three times more likely to have come from the defendant or a male relative uh from the lineage of the
defendant. And this case is drowning with reasonable doubt. But defense attorney Casey Schnack says that
evidence is far from definitive. Everybody in town has Aldi bags that they're hoarding. They could have came
from Becky's house. With DNA from him? Well, because they transferred stuff for the boys in Aldi bags. There was DNA
found under Becky's fingernails. And it was just as likely to be Tim's as any one of the boys.
Prosecutors also told the jury that police found this crowbar in Tim's basement. And they called an expert to
the stand who testified that she compared it to tool marks >> [music] >> left on the window that was pried open
at Becky's. While there were microscopic consistencies, she couldn't say with scientific
certainty that that crowbar made those marks. The expert said that that was inconclusive. Inconclusive leaves a jury
guessing and speculating which they are not allowed to do. The jury heard about the couple's acrimonious divorce and
from Becky's sister and several friends who testified about those fears Becky had raised about Tim. Several of them
acknowledged that they regretfully didn't take steps to help her. How could Tim do that? I've known Tim forever.
When she reached out to people, That's what they said. In hindsight, of course, like oh
we should have done more. There's only one person that believed it was true and that was Becky herself.
And the prosecution argued that the timing of the murder is significant. Remember, Becky was killed 1 week before
the couple's divorce case was set to go to trial. And prosecutors told the jury there was something even bigger than
money and custody that was going to come into play. Becky didn't want their three
children to be around the defendant's father unsupervised. They didn't tell the jury why, but we
uncovered these court documents that reveal Becky had gathered witnesses who she said planned to testify about Tim's
father, Ray Bliefnick, and would allege that he had a history of perversion and abusing minor children many years
earlier. The alleged victims were not Becky and Tim's children. Becky sought an order of
protection against Ray, but a judge denied her request. In a letter, Ray's lawyer wrote that Ray vehemently denies
the claims and that he has never been charged with any criminal offense stemming from the allegations.
Information was going to come out that he didn't want to come out and he started to feel like he was losing
control. The prosecution pointed out that on the day of Becky's murder, hours before
anyone except her killer knew that she was dead, Tim brought a kids basketball hoop to his father's house. He's doing
that because he knows Becky's not going to be a problem anymore. Becky didn't want those boys around Ray.
And in Tim's mind, that problem was solved because Becky was dead. I really don't buy that.
>> Why not? Because the boys weren't restricted from seeing Ray to begin with. They just
couldn't see him without supervision. So And Schnack says those allegations were
old news. >> All of those allegations were in pleadings that her attorneys had filed
and at that point were already a matter of public record. It doesn't make sense that he would throw his life away over a
divorce and keeping information out of the public eye that quite frankly was already out.
But the prosecution wasn't done. The jury was also shown numerous damaging searches found on Tim's phone like how
to open my door with a crowbar, how to make a homemade pistol silencer, and how to clean gunpowder off your hands.
It was mind-boggling. >> It was mind-boggling, yeah. And remember that person caught on
camera in Becky's neighbor's driveway on Valentine's Day, about a week before the
murder? Well, prosecutors say that right after [music] that sighting, Tim made more
than 200 searches online for a specific license plate and a car VIN number. It turns out that that license plate and
VIN number belonged to a man whom Becky was dating and his truck was parked in Becky's driveway at the time.
And for somebody with power and control issues, you realize that your prior significant other is now in a
relationship with somebody that they're spending the night on Valentine's Day, and then the minute you get back to your
home at 1:10 in the morning, you're searching their license plate number and their VIN number. That's somebody who's
lost control. Tim insists he had learned about Becky's new relationship months earlier. I
actually didn't care. It sounds like you were kind of obsessed cuz No. He declined to go into more detail
about specific trial evidence citing legal proceedings, but his lawyer spoke for him. I mean, if I'm going to be
checking out my husband's new girlfriend, I'm going to be doing it late at night after my kids are asleep.
>> So it's just a coincidence that the night you see that prowler at the next door neighbor's driveway and his truck
is there, it's just a coincidence that just minutes later Tim is doing research on the VIN number
and the license tag. >> Tim in that video. What about the searches that were found on Tim's phone?
>> There's no date or time as to when those searches were done. So we don't know if they were done
before the murder and we don't know if they were done after the murder. Before they rested the case, prosecutors
dropped one more piece of evidence. These spent shell casings that were found in Tim's home. An expert testified
that she compared them to the shell casings found at the crime scene and determined that 27 of them had been
fired from the exact [music] same gun used in the murder. Each firearm leaves its own fingerprint on every shell
casing that it fires. It was the same gun that killed Becky Bliefnick that fired these shell casings that were
found in Tim Bliefnick's residence. That's the expert's opinion. At the end of the day, it's subject to human error
like anything else. But when it was the defense's turn to call witnesses, it chose to call none.
You could have brought in your own expert to say those did not match. >> I guess we could have, but we were
strapped on time and funds. You've got a man's life on the line. >> And he didn't want us to do that.
>> [music] >> It was a risky move, but one that may have paid off for the defense because
when the jury began deliberating, they took a vote and there was a holdout. Sometimes you just need one.
When the jury began deliberating after a 6-day trial, Tim Bliefnick was on edge.
It was miserable because I was essentially waiting for them to decide my fate. Inside that jury room,
one juror was undecided. Our stomachs were in knots. We [music] were beyond stressed.
But 4 hours later, a verdict. And when they passed the paper from the jury box to
the clerk. To the clerk, that was very difficult to know that there's a possibility
that he could get away with it. Would the clerk read the verdicts, please? We, the jury, find the defendant, Timothy
Bliefnick, guilty of first-degree murder. Guilty. It was a sense of relief that they had
found him guilty, but it was also a sense of these three little boys have now lost both parents. It's not a
celebration. When we sat down with Tim Bliefnick, [music] it was just over a month after his
conviction. He was still awaiting sentencing. Did you ever imagine you would be [music] here? No.
No, never. At times it's felt like I'm watching somebody else's life from the outside. Like it it it it can't be me.
But the only thing I can do right now is what we are doing, filing an appeal. I have to I have to believe in that
process. Cuz if not Tell me what you're thinking right now. My kids. I just want them to know that I love
them, that I miss them. I'm innocent. I didn't kill Becky. But Becky's sister says Tim is right
where he belongs. He called my dad to set him up to find her. That alone shows how cruel he really is. As
agonizing as our pain is. I want him to understand his worst crime was against his children.
And that's the message Sarah delivered directly to Tim during her victim impact [music] statement right before he was
sentenced on August 11th, 2023. Your children's future will be forever impacted by your crime.
They are already suffering. Maybe you should have Googled childhood PTSD in between your internet searches for
homemade silencers and VIN numbers. Judge Robert Adrian had the option of sentencing Tim to anywhere
between 45 years to life. Mr. Bliefnick, you researched this murder. You planned this murder. You broke into
her house. And you shot her. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 times. The court believes that the appropriate
sentence would be natural life in prison. Life in prison without the possibility
of parole. Prosecutors Jones and Keck say the punishment fits the crime, but even they
don't consider it justice. If I had a magic wand, I would bring Becky back to life. Tim
can spend the rest of his life out of prison. That would be justice. But I can't. What we can do is we can hold her
killer accountable, and that's all we can do. Now Becky's family is left to focus on
all they have left of her, memories, and the loves of her life, [music] her three
boys who are now living with her parents. We will all work together to [music] make sure those boys
have the life they deserved. And we started a GoFundMe to um support the boys. And Becky's [music] family and friends
hope that Becky's mission in life will now become her legacy. Becky would have wanted
positive change to happen. She would want somebody else's life to be saved. If we can learn anything, if
somebody reaches out to you and says that they're scared, they believe that their partner or whoever it is
is capable of violence, need to believe them. And make an active effort to make sure they're safe.
CBS next Saturday, 48 Hours brings you back-to-back episodes all summer long. Next week, survivor stories. I was the
only one that could walk out of there still alive. Someone want to meet them. 48 Hours
crime time double feature next Saturday 9:00 8:00 Central on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.
>> [music] >> If you just look at this case and you go this is a man who killed his wife for
money. That doesn't tell you half the story. Paul Curry is a self-centered, devious
evildoer. I see him as a cold-blooded killer who's gotten away with it for almost 20 years.
This isn't an accident. This isn't an It's not a suicide. It's a homicide. She was being poisoned. She was ingesting
something that was making her ill. Is there something weird in her lipstick? Is he putting something in her
fingernail polish? She died from a massive nicotine poisoning, catastrophic levels of nicotine in her system.
[music] No, she's not a smoker. She doesn't smoke. Nicotine poisoning, how common is
that? Nicotine is one of the strongest poison ever. Linda was absolutely fun. We took our
high heels out, we dressed up, we fixed our hair and makeup, and we went dancing
on the weekends. She was a career woman, was making good money at that time. She did call me and tell me she'd met
this guy at work and that he was so so smart. >> [music] >> People describe them as a genius.
People describe them as knows everything about everything. This is Jeopardy. He was on Jeopardy? He was.
And he won he won like 26, 27,000 dollars back in the 80s. >> [music] >> Linda said, you know, Paul and I are
going to go and get married. Ends up getting in the car, going to Vegas. He wasn't the most handsome man.
He was very short. He didn't have a whole lot to work with. It wasn't looks. It wasn't money. It was
the idea that I am with somebody who's so brilliant. They'd been married maybe a month, and
she called me one night and says, you know, Mary, Paul wants to take out a million dollar life insurance policy on
me. What do you think? Are you crazy? Are you kidding me? Why would you do that?
You know what happened to Linda? She starts getting sick. Weak, fatigued, just looking bad. She was so thin. Bunch
of doctors had no idea why. He's being the loving husband to [music] his wife. Oh, honey, I'm sorry you're so sick. And
in the back of his mind, he's got to be thinking, how is she not dead? How much of this nicotine do I got to give her to
kill her, for crying out loud? Do you have any eyewitnesses ever seen him give her any kind of poison? No. Is
there any evidence he obtained nicotine? Direct evidence, no, there's no evidence. This is a hard case, but I
have no doubt whatsoever that he did it. And I believe I'm going to be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
>> [music] >> I'm Erin [music] Moriarty. Tonight on 48 Hours, to catch [music] a genius.
>> [music] >> She's not going to make it if she stays with him. I said, you got to get away
from him. He's trying to kill you. It's obvious. I said, believe. Get out of there. Linda, I got to get you out of
the house. To this day, friends like Mary Seabolt Just get out of that house. and Bill Sandretto I can't believe she
wants to stay there. can't understand why Linda Curry never left her husband Paul. There's no doubt in my mind that
she loved him. She died because she loved him. Orange County prosecutor Rahim Baig is taking on a case that's
been unsolved for nearly two decades. But he believes he'll be the one to prove Paul Curry poisoned Linda with
nicotine. Up to the moment she died, that few minutes before midnight on June 9th, 1994, in her mind, he's the loving
husband who's holding my hand, who loves me, who plays music for me, who tells me
all the nice stuff. So, she wasn't going to believe anything about him. She said,
oh, Paul such a good husband, he wouldn't do that. >> [music] >> Mary Seabolt was one of Linda's closest
friends. It was instant bonding. The two met in the 1960s when they both worked at Southern California Edison inside the
San Onofre nuclear power plant. She was tall, I was tall. She loved to eat, I loved to eat, and we could eat in those
days. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Linda? Fashionista. Fashionista.
>> Always a nice new outfit with shoes to match, purse to match, earrings to match, bracelets to match. The two
career women started at entry-level positions, but quickly moved up. We were go-getters and we wanted to get ahead.
As Linda advanced in her career, moving from secretary to management, she divorced two husbands and began dating
Bill Sandretto, a life insurance salesman. What was it that drew you to her? What was it about her? She had a
great personality, very loving. We went on trips together. We had a great time. Linda and Sandretto dated on and off for
8 years, but he didn't want to get married. The only thing that was bothering me is where she spent money.
And she would spend a lot of money? She would spend it, yeah. For every dollar she made, she spent two.
I used to go crazy. And Linda kept spending, buying herself a big house in San Clemente. I have
never seen a more beautiful house in my whole life. Frankie Thurber was a close friend and co-worker. Linda's house was
a dream house. It's where a princess would live. And Linda thought she had met her prince when she started dating
Paul Curry in 1989. He was 32 years old and she was 45. They would talk their little baby talk.
Oh, Linda Linda my you know, little and the little nicknames. It was a little bit sickening. Curry was hired as an
engineer to consult at Southern California Edison, teaching the power plant's nuclear engineers about safety
issues. Paul had a sterling reputation. He was extremely smart. Mike Flower was Curry's boss. The only real complaint
most people had with Paul was that he was too smart. Too smart? >> Too smart. But when people would say
he's too smart, was that because he's arrogant too or just because he showed everybody else up?
>> He He let people know, but in a playful way. I thought that he was very egotistical. He thought highly of
himself. There was no doubt about it. Curry bragged about winning all those thousands on Jeopardy and being a member
of Mensa, the International Society of people with high IQs. But that didn't bother Linda. The two got married on
September 12th, 1992, 3 years after they began dating. A passionate relationship? I don't think
passion played into this relationship. I think it was a comfort, but it wasn't passion. It wasn't passion. Linda
wondered why her much younger new husband seemed so uninterested. How did you know that they weren't
having any sex? She told me. >> [music] >> And then there were the money issues.
Paul and Linda had combined annual salaries of at least $140,000, but Linda noticed she had less money
than ever. The reason soon became clear. Curry was helping to support two ex-wives and three children, families
he'd kept hidden from Linda. It was just those little lies that just kept coming
up. Lies and suspicious behavior, like that $1 million life insurance policy Curry asked Linda to buy, making him the
beneficiary. He comes into this marriage with practically nothing and she's got a
beautiful house, beautiful furniture, beautiful clothes, wonderful circle of friends. And what is he bringing to the
table? And now he wants a life insurance policy on her for a million dollars. Red flag.
Linda never got that extra policy, but it hardly mattered because as Curry knew, Linda already had several life
insurance policies worth almost a million dollars and Curry was named the beneficiary on some of them. I said,
"Get him off. You need to change your life policy right away." That's when she told me, "So I'll give
it to you." And I said, "No, don't give it to me. Give it to your sister." But Linda, who had been married just
half a year at that point in 1993, was torn. So she asked Frankie, who was then looking for an apartment, to
temporarily move into the Curry house and spy on Paul. She was afraid that Paul didn't really love her and she
said, "Frankie, would you do me a favor? Would you watch Paul and see if you think he's genuine with me, that he
really cares about me?" And that's when I started watching every move that he made, basically.
Frankie didn't see anything wrong. In fact, quite the opposite. And I went back to her and I said, "Linda, I
I've watched everything. I I don't see it. He dotes over you. He loves you. He can't do enough for you. I don't know
why you would be questioning that." Even Mary, never a big fan of Paul's, was impressed by the way he pampered Linda.
He would prepare these exotic, wonderful new salad dressings as a test and then send her upstairs for a hot bath.
Every night he would draw her a bubble bath. I mean, huge bubbles. I said, "Linda, I would kill to have somebody
draw me a bubble bath. Of course he loves you." In July of 1993, just short of her first wedding
anniversary, Linda came down with a mysterious illness. She said, "I just don't feel well. I just don't feel like
myself." And she couldn't figure out why she all of a sudden she'd get sick. She
became so violently ill that she needed to be hospitalized. When I saw Linda in that bed,
>> [music] >> honest to God, she looked like an 80-year-old woman. Her organs were failing.
They said they didn't even know if she's going to make it that night. >> [music]
>> Linda Curry came in with gastrointestinal problems. It was July 1993. Linda Curry was rushed to Samaritan
Medical Center in San Clemente. I was assigned to take care of her that evening. Sherry Bundy is a registered
nurse. She was nauseated. She had some vomiting. I checked her IV. So she's connected to an IV at the time. Yes.
>> Why? For hydration. As she was checking that IV drip, Bundy noticed something
odd. There was a [music] overhead light and I could see the IV bag was cloudy because of the light shining behind it,
which I knew was not right. How unusual is that? It's very unusual. Bundy reported the incident to hospital
brass and the bag was sent to the lab. Oh my God, Linda. Among Linda's visitors was Bill Sandretto, her former
boyfriend. She was just emaciated, you know. What was the cause of this? They didn't know at the hospital.
Poisoning was suspected. Linda was hospitalized for 21 days. She had a stroke and nearly died. And then lab
workers discovered lidocaine, a numbing agent, in the contaminated IV bag and reported the incident to the police.
They began an investigation that focused on one person, her husband, Paul. This is what's so fascinating about this
case. He was [snorts] a suspect in poisoning her before she died. Back then, prosecutor Brahim Baytieh was
still in law school, but eventually in 2006, the case landed on his desk at the Orange County District Attorney's
Office. He was surprised to find detectives at the time had audiotaped their interviews
with Linda. These are the old microcassettes that they used back in the early to mid-90s. Very unusual to
have a case where you had investigators ask the victim, who ends up getting killed, about the conduct of the person
who killed them. Paul is your husband? Uh-huh. And how long have you been married? Not
quite a year. Police investigators interviewed Linda in her hospital bed in August 1993
and zeroed in on the key question. If somebody were trying to do something to you, if they were trying to poison you,
any idea who would try to do that? Well, the only person I could think of that would have a motive to do it would be
Paul. Um and the only motive I can think of is money, but I don't want to really even
believe that or think that. Linda was candid with detectives, admitting that her new husband was sneaky about money
issues and had lied about his past marriages and children. Still, there was one very big but. Do you still love
Paul? Yeah, I love him very much. Do you believe he loves you? I want to believe that he does. He's
certainly very convincing. Her friends were telling her, "Run." Her co-workers were telling her, "Run."
You take all that and she's saying, "But he loves me and he takes care of me and I like how I'm feeling because of
what he's saying and I like how I'm feeling because of what he's doing." And she doesn't run away. She stays.
Linda stayed Paul and recovered. In the meantime, the police investigation went nowhere. But then, just 5 months later,
in December 1993, she was again hit with a mystery illness. This time, Paul took her [music] to a
different hospital, but the story was much the same. She looked like death warmed over. Linda's friend, Mary
Seibold, was very concerned. Something's happening to her. They don't figure out
what it is. I didn't know if she's even going to make it. And how was Paul acting through this? Caring and
involved. But Linda told Mary that her IV bag had been tampered with yet again. [music]
An alarm had gone off soon after a nurse reported seeing Paul leave Linda's room.
This time, the hospital staff put a clear sign on Linda's door. It would say, "Mr. Curry, your husband, is not
allowed unaccompanied into the hospital room." What did you think when you saw this sign on the door? Well, I knew that
other people had a suspicion that perhaps Paul was doing something to his wife. In fact, the police were again called
and [music] did a second audio-taped interview. Linda told cops that Paul was running up high credit card bills, but
she still remained fiercely loyal. He's a wonderful man. I love him. And he's always
good to me. >> [music] >> The next day, detectives interviewed Paul Curry, but he stuck to his story
that he had no idea why Linda was getting sick. I was completely befuddled when doctors couldn't solve the problem.
I couldn't solve the problem. With Linda still in the hospital, Mary found documents in the Curry house that fueled
her suspicions about Paul. On the highboy dresser, as I walk into the room, there's a bunch of papers. Well, I
just kind of glanced at them, but in big script writing, I saw the word life insurance in gold writing, and I went,
"Oh, life insurance." And then I went, "Oh, more life insurance policies. Oh, they're all here. They're all out on
this highboy dresser on the top of it." Now, all the red flags are adding up to crimson. I mean, it's really red now.
Mary questioned Linda after she was released from the hospital. I'm asking her, "Did Did you have those things out,
Linda? Is this something you're looking at?" Well, she hadn't been home. No, not
at all. I said, "Linda, Linda, put it together. Put it together, and let's let's talk about what's going on
there." Mary warned Linda that she believed Curry was getting ready to cash in by killing Linda. She said, "You're
right. There's something going on, and and I need to get out of here." The next day, it was like the door slammed on me,
and she said, "No, Mary, no. No, I I can't. I I can't leave Paul." Did she say the reason why she couldn't leave is
cuz she didn't believe that he would do this? You know, she was in such denial. 6 months went by, and then on June 9th,
1994, Mary received an email from Curry that said Linda was feeling worse than ever.
I said, "Linda Curry's going to die. Paul's going to finally get to poison her, and and she's going to die."
>> [music] >> That very evening, sometime around midnight, Curry says he awoke to find
Linda barely breathing. Linda did not respond. [music] He calls 911, gives her CPR.
Paramedics arrive. No heartbeat, no pulse. Take her to the hospital, she dies. Nurse Bundy heard the news the next day
when she reported to work at Samaritan Hospital. What did you think? My first thought was he finally did it.
And my second thought was somebody really dropped the ball. >> [music] [music] >> I received a phone call about 1:00 in
the morning on the night of her death. One of the first to hear of Linda Curry's death on that June night in 1994
was Paul Curry's good [music] friend and boss, Mike Flower. Can you come to the the home of Paul and Linda Curry? And I
said, "I'll be right there." What did you [music] think? Linda was dead. Like everyone who knew the couple, Flower was
aware that Linda had been sick. He rushed to the Curry home in San Clemente. Paul was very emotional. He cried on my
shoulder for hours. And what did he tell you had happened? I can't believe she's
gone. Her sister called me. The next day, word spread to Linda's good friends, Bill Sandretto,
I said, "Oh my [music] god." and Frankie Thurber. I said, "What?" She was like a sister to
me. She just was almost even like a mother to me. Mary Seibold heard the news from her
husband. I knew that all my premonitions were true. I knew that it was Paul, and
I knew that uh no one could save her. Linda's friends wondered if Paul had poisoned her by putting something in his
special salad dressings and all those bubble baths. He knew everyone was looking at him as a
suspect. Didn't you like think, "No way would this guy actually kill her when he
knew he'd be the first suspect?" >> You know, he was such a con man and and and such a narcissist and such a
psychopath, I just think he thought, "I am so much smarter than anybody. I can do this."
Paul Curry knew that there is no way he could murder his wife and not be a suspect. His objective was not to
eliminate himself as a suspect. His objective was to make sure he doesn't get charged with the crime.
During the autopsy, the medical examiner found an unusual mark behind Linda's right ear that could have been left by a
syringe. Then, toxicology reports revealed what Linda's friends had long suspected.
She had been poisoned. And now they knew the cause, nicotine. A lot of nicotine.
People say, "Well, maybe she's a smoker." No, she's not a smoker. She doesn't smoke. It's not possible she
could have gotten that amount of nicotine over a period of time building up in her system?
>> Absolutely not. The toxicology reports also revealed the presence of a large amount of the
generic form of Ambien, a sleeping medication, in Linda's [music] body. Her death was declared a homicide, but
there was no evidence to connect Paul Curry to the nicotine, the sleeping pills, or a syringe,
>> [music] >> so he could not be charged. The fact that he wasn't charged with the
crime wasn't because somebody dropped the ball. It's because he was able to cover his tracks.
Curry was about to get away with murder, free to start a new life, and to claim the money from Linda's estate.
He told people he's going to get a million dollars out of it. That was his plan. Not so fast.
>> [music] >> As it turns out, Linda had drafted this handwritten note giving her sister
approximately half her estate. [music] Curry was apoplectic. After he found out that things weren't
as easy to get all the money, and he called me, and and he said, "Did you know Did Did Did Did Did Did you know
anything about about Linda changing and and her and and and and and her sister Pat is going to get your" And he was
like stuttering. But incredibly, despite all of Linda's suspicions, she remained faithful to
Paul even in death. She left him her house and close to a half a million dollars, quote,
"so he'll be okay." If she thought he was killing her, why would she want to leave him money?
>> Because she never allowed herself to believe what was obvious to anybody and everybody.
And that's the power of the heart. >> [music] >> After Linda died, Paul Curry was
transferred from his old job at the nuclear power plant, and that's when a routine security check revealed a pack
of lies in his resume. He was not an engineer. He didn't even have a college degree. The brilliant Mensa member who
trained nuclear engineers was a complete fraud. So, I called Paul up at the end of the
day, and I said, "Paul, I'm coming in tomorrow morning at 8:00, and I'm going to fire you unless your
resignation is on my fax." And I came in the next morning, and his resignation was on my fax.
But thanks [music] to Linda, Paul Curry collected $419,000 from two of Linda's life insurance
policies and her retirement plan. He also began collecting her retirement benefit of $564
every month. But even with all that money, he let Linda's beloved house slip away.
He let the house go into foreclosure, and he got out of Dodge and went to Vegas. And I understand that he got a
job as a used car salesman, which I found quite intriguing because a con artist is a really good car
salesman. But it wasn't long before Curry conned his way into a new job, this time becoming a building inspector.
Years went by, and the police investigation into Linda Curry's murder came to a complete standstill.
The case badly needed a fresh set of eyes. It was 2002. I was working in our cold case unit. Sergeant Yvonne Schou of
the Orange County Sheriff's Department inherited Linda Curry's murder from a retiring detective. I would know what it
was. It was greatest thing. She immediately focused on those old audio taped interviews of Linda. If somebody
were trying to do something to you, if they were trying to poison you, any idea who would try to do that? Well,
the only person I could think of that would have a motive to do it would be Paul.
Schou began digging into Paul Curry's background. I started with who is Paul Curry?
Everywhere I looked about Paul Curry, it was false. It was fake. For 4 years, Schou re-examined the
entire case, re-interviewed witnesses, and then in 2006, she felt she had enough to take it to
Baytieh. She says, you know, I have this cold case that I've been working on. So,
I said, bring me the file. She comes back few hours later with about 25 binders.
Baytieh plunged in, studying the case for 3 years until 2009, when he reached out to the nicotine
expert who had been hired years before to analyze Linda Curry's blood. Dr. Neal Benowitz. And I said, do you remember
that case? It didn't take him long to remember, oh yeah, I remember that high level.
And what Dr. Benowitz had to say shocked Baytieh. He said, all that he needed to do
is to go into a grocery store and buy a pack of cigarettes. How often have you seen nicotine used
as a murder weapon? Never. I I've read about it, but I've never seen it. Until now? Until now, yes.
Dr. Neal Benowitz, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, is one of the country's
preeminent experts on nicotine. This was beyond anything we've ever measured. The
levels four or five times higher than anything we'd ever seen before. Even after two decades, Benowitz
remembers the Linda Curry case because of the catastrophic levels of nicotine discovered in her body back in 1994.
How do you believe she had to have gotten that nicotine? Well, I think most likely it was by an intravenous
injection. It's the only possible explanation, [music] says Dr. Benowitz. And remember, the
medical examiner did find a puncture mark behind Linda's right ear. Can you say how soon she had to die
after she got that dose of nicotine? It was my thought that death must have been
within 20 or 30 minutes. Dr. Benowitz says he does not remember discussing that time frame with the
original investigators 20 years ago. But now, says Baytieh, that one fact turns the entire case.
The nicotine was introduced into Linda's system during this time frame, and the only other human being who had access to
her is Paul Curry. Curry's story has always [music] been that on the night Linda died, the two of
them were home alone for approximately 6 hours. Baytieh believes Curry injected Linda
>> [music] >> after knocking her out with a heavy dose of Ambien. I think she comes home, he introduces
Ambien into her system, whether it's by way of food or a drink or a salad or one
of his fancy dressings, um when she's out, when she's sedated, he takes that syringe that he had ready
with nicotine, he injects her with the nicotine, and he waits until he is sure that
she's not going to survive this one. But where would Paul Curry get so much nicotine?
The answer is frightening. Curry only needed to buy a pack of cigarettes. If you have a pack of
cigarettes, you can have 300 mg of nicotine. And that's way above the lethal dose for
a person. >> [music] >> The case was rounding into shape, but Baytieh wanted more.
Sergeant Yvonne Schou tracked Curry to Salina, Kansas, where he had a new wife, a new son, and a new job working as a
building inspector. Finally, Curry would have to answer some tough questioning, and Schou was ready
to take him on face to face. I was afraid that if we told him we were from Orange County that he wouldn't talk
to us. So, prosecutor Baytieh came up with a plan to trick Paul Curry into believing
he was being questioned by two local detectives who had no knowledge of the case. Sergeant Yvonne Schou would be
playing the part of Marie. Paul Curry, Hi, I'm Marie. Marie, Paul Curry, nice to meet you.
On November 9th, 2010, the Salina police chief tells Curry that Orange County investigators are just trying to close
out a death investigation, and so they requested Salina detectives to ask Curry a few questions. I'm going to shut this
so we can The chief of police said, oh, he's a building inspector, he's very smart, he's never going to talk to you.
What was your reaction when he said yes? Were you shocked? >> I couldn't believe it.
I I thought to myself, well, he's not as smart as he thinks he is. I guess this involves something with
um a woman named Melinda. That's my my ex-wife. We were married. She passed away. Okay,
how long were We go into the interview, and our plan was for the first part of it, let him think he is in complete
control. So, he's thinking, I'm going to absolutely run circles around them because they don't know anything about
the case, and they're from Kansas, I am smarter than they are. >> [sighs] >> But then, Schou takes over, and the
meandering interview becomes a targeted interrogation. The night that Linda passed away,
you and Linda were alone. Is that correct? That's right. Was there anybody else in the house?
Schou is locking Curry into the story that he's told all these years, leaving him no room to back away from it later.
So, nobody snuck into the house. There was no burglary at the house. There was no robbery at the house.
Nothing like that. It was just you and Linda. Mhm. He has now boxed himself in, and Schou
gives it to him straight. Paul, I believe that the cause of Linda's illness and the
cause of Linda's death are at your hands. And before I ask you any other questions, I feel like I need to read
you your rights. Are you arresting me? Not yet. But for such a smart guy, Paul Curry does not do
the smart thing. He keeps talking. [music] Were you slowly poisoning her? No. No.
Of course not. No. Despite the grilling, a detached Curry seems to have other things on his mind.
And when Schou leaves the room briefly, Curry shows his impatience. Should I presume that I'm not going to
make my 4:00 meeting today? Yes. Why is that? I don't know how long this is going to
take. Well, what what is this that is taking? Does this trump my obligation to my employer?
It's going to be awfully hard to explain professionally. That's the least of his worries.
At this point, Paul, you are not free to leave. I am placing you under arrest for the
murder of Linda Curry. My name is Yvonne Schou. My middle name is Marie. Finally, 16 years after
Linda's death, Paul Curry is called to account for her murder. What I need you to do is stand up and turn around. It
felt great to pull out my badge and ID and introduce myself to him. And tell him I was from Orange County
and I was there to arrest him. It felt great. Put both your hands behind your back.
But the arrest is just the beginning. Baytieh still has a case full of holes. Even up to today, there's no smoking
gun. Or smoking syringe. Or smoking anything. He was a monster. A monster who picked his prey, and that
was my best friend, Linda. >> [music] >> He is a liar. How can you live with yourself taking
this beautiful, beautiful woman and setting her up to die? >> [snorts] >> In this courtroom sits a vicious,
cold-blooded murderer. Make no mistake about that. It took 20 years, but in September 2014,
Assistant District Attorney Baytieh finally has Paul Curry right where he wants him. He thought he's smarter than
everybody else. In front of a jury on trial for the murder of his wife Linda. She died from nicotine poisoning.
Bayti admits the case is no slam dunk. My obligation is to prove it to you beyond a reasonable doubt.
You're never going to hear about how exactly Linda Curry died. Defense attorney Lisa Koppelman wastes no time
pointing out the lack of direct evidence connecting Paul Curry to the murder of his wife.
>> [music] >> You're never going to hear where the nicotine came from, how it got into her.
This is a case based on suspicion, innuendo, and conjecture. Curry is charged with first-degree murder for
financial gain, which carries a mandatory life sentence with no possibility of parole. This defendant is
as guilty as sin. No surprise, the defense sees things differently. He is an innocent man.
The prosecutor uses the word murderer, murderer, murderer. Koppelman belittles the case against Curry, questioning
those hospital IV bags that appeared to have been tampered with. Come on, this is baloney. There was no poison ever
found in any of those IV bags. There was no fingerprints on it. Instead, she tells the jury that Linda had a history
of stomach problems dating back to the late '60s, long before she met Paul. Throughout those years,
she'd gone to many, many doctors. All that history is not going to create nicotine in her
system out of nowhere. The defense argues that Linda was so desperate for a cure that she gave herself an unorthodox
remedy, a nicotine enema, and it wound up killing her. One way it got in there is this, through her colon,
from a nicotine enema. Bayti can barely contain himself. It's the enema defense.
It's the enema defense. There is no evidence Linda ever gave herself an enema, Bayti says, and even if there
was, it would not explain the undisputed toxic levels of Ambien in Linda's system. Where did the Ambien come from?
You know where it came from? Let me show you. Follow my finger. Right there. That
murderer sitting right there. Do you have any evidence he obtained Ambien? Did he have a prescription? Did
she have a prescription? The answer to your question is no, no, no, no. The only pertinent fact, Bayti says, is that
Linda died that June night within 30 minutes of getting that one lethal dose of nicotine, and that Paul Curry was the
only person who could have administered it. Nobody other than this defendant had
access to Linda in the 6 hours before her murder. Nobody. The defendant had all the motive in the
world to murder her. All of it. All of it. He had to cash that check. He had to cash the check.
She had to die. Paul Curry never takes the stand to explain himself, but Bayti has a
surprise in store. One of the better witnesses that I had is the one that I wasn't able to get to take the stand,
Paul Curry. Because the day after I signed that piece of paper to get him arrested, he
talks to his current wife then. He's on the phone telling her about what he thinks about our evidence. I'm in big
trouble. I I tell you, it it looks bad. I mean, other than the fact that there's
no physical evidence that I did it. I didn't do it. They could put me away to prison. They're serious about this. With
Paul's own words ringing in their ears, jurors get the case. For me, when a jury
starts deliberating, this is when I realize there is nothing else that I could do.
>> [music] >> Jurors deliberate for a day and a half before reaching a verdict. Sergeant
Yvonne Scholl, who brought the Curry case back to life in 2002, heads back to the courthouse. Either
guilty or not guilty. I didn't think it was going to hang. I watched the jury come in,
>> [music] >> and they wouldn't look at me. Where previously they would look at me. And so
I was afraid. I was holding one of Linda's earrings, and our other good friend was next to
me, and I gave her one of Linda's earrings, and we just held hands and held her earrings in our hands.
We, the jury in the above-entitled action, find the defendant, Paul Curry, guilty of the crime of murder, first
degree. Guilty of murder for financial gain. For those on Linda's side, the jury's
verdict brings sweet relief. What did you feel? Peace. I wish it was 20 years earlier,
cuz he got to enjoy 16 years of freedom. But even the guilty verdict does not answer the ultimate question,
why did Linda stay with Paul? She didn't want to admit failure. After you've waited that long, and
you've gone out with that many men, you don't want to admit that you chose the wrong guy.
>> [bell] [music] >> They're really hard to look at because they remind me of my best friend that I
lost. If you could go back, would you do something differently? Oh, if I could go
back, yeah. >> [snorts] >> I'd have to just bodily take her out of the house. I miss her so much.
I'll see her again. I'll see her again. 48 hours to miss it would be a crime. Were you [music] at all prepared for
what happened in this case? >> [music] [music] [music] [music]

“48 Hours" uncovers the truth in these true-crime stories. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "The Writing on the Wall," "The Game Show and the Murder" and "To Catch a Genius."

00:00 The Writing on the Wall 42:00 The Game Show and the Murder 1:23:59 To Catch a Genius

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Christopher Coleman was convicted of murdering his wife and two sons after an affair and death threats linked to his job.

Key points

The Coleman Family Tragedy. On May 5th, 2009, Christopher Coleman returned home to find his family murdered.
The Shocking Affair. Chris Coleman was revealed to have an affair, raising suspicions in the investigation.
Chris Coleman Charged with Murder. Christopher Coleman was charged with the first-degree murder of his wife and two sons.
The Jury's Verdict. After intense deliberation, the jury found Chris Coleman guilty on all counts.
The Murder of Becky Bliefnick. Becky was discovered lifeless in her home, shot 14 times. It took her minutes to die.
Chilling Texts. Becky sent a text to her sister warning about Tim if anything happened to her.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Put a hole in my heart.

13:06WatchDec 27, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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