The Game Show and the Murder | Full Episode + Post Mortem | Forensic Files

[Music] this was different than any 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 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 uh she just kept saying Becky is 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 she 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 living in fear how big a story was this initially it was hug
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 owers 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 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 a Family Feud it's time to play family Fe 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 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 it was the second most popular answer on the board I
do it got attention to the case but it had nothing to do with it what's the first thing then 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 and this is the neighbor's driveway this is the neighbor's driveway you'll see
this person walk across looks like they have gloves on can't see a face 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 B Nick based on the video evidence alone absolutely not that's one piece of the puzzle he
had everything 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 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 kek have prosecuted hundreds of cases 11 and 10 seconds but
no case has troubled them quite like the murder of Becky bnck you put yourself in
in the mind of Becky bnck 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 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 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 in New York but was away on vacation with her husband Brett Riley when they got that
lifechanging 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 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 in screaming grief how would you both describe her
selfless that that really captures it she thought of everybody that was in her life as somebody important and somebody
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 with their father Tim bnck 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 a hold of her either I'm going to go over to the house
what happened to Becky should have never happened and it 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 open an upstairs window in one of the children's bedrooms this video shows
a police officer later reenacting how investigators believe the ass salance scaled the house the person had 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 PRI 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 uh because we know that at11 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 9mm 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 canvasing the neighborhood looking for surveillance video didn't have to go far
Becky's Nextdoor neighbors the highman 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 it records
movement so anytime it senses movement it will notify us on our phones the Hyman's 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 told her we
just saw somebody in the driveway and she responded not until 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 had been hearing voices in her backyard and
her motion like go on and she was very paranoid at the time the Hyman 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 neighbor 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 a same person seen in the driveway every time you see a person at the Heyman residence you see a person
riding a bike down the road just a few minutes before you see a person on that highman video and even though there was
no video from the highman residents on the morning Becky was killed there was video of a person on a bike riding in
the direction of 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 one big problem you can tell absolutely nothing
from the videos only that the bike did not appear to have reflectors on the wheels I mean you can't see whether it's
male female it's terrible the video is terrible authorities needed more leads and they would get one from Becky's
sister that would Point them in a very specific Direction [Music] when Becky 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 Tim BFF neck I told Brett it was Tim of course right away right away Tim and Becky 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 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 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 decideed 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 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 I've always been involved with the kids every day in January 2021 after 11 years of marriage Tim 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 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 turn 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 alleg Becky stocked and harassed him he also referenced an incident where he said
Becky had become combative during a disagreement at a parent teacher night asking the letter I'm asking you to stop
stop harassing me and stop I'm not harassing you I'm asking he offered this video of the incident as proof make a
copy for I don't want you to take me stop do this don't take me I don't I didn't ask you to take 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 schn was one of Tim's divorce
attorneys the judge didn't grant that order of protection not Grant 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 uh text was prompted by uh the murder of one of her um colleagues one of the the nurses
that she knew was murdered by um 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 ENT her her residence without permission she
also said that he repeatedly falsified 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 when exchanging their kids and
the judge also ordered Tim to return a 9mm handgun that Becky had gifted him when they were together he was into um
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 9mm handgun that was later used to kill her I have not seen that gun in 3 years I didn't
have it Becky was killed one 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 a bike with no reflectors on the wheels just like the on seen on those surveillance videos how
close was that bike that you found to Tim's house less than half a block they then executed a search
warrant on Tim's house and car as Tim looked on and on March 13th 2023 just over two weeks after Becky's
death Tim bnck 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 schn 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 bik 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 talk to 100 married people 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 two 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 cancer 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
um Becky's friends who said that she Express great fear of Tim mhm yeah that's a lot of girl talk I've never
seen any any pictures of her with bruises of marks any allegations of him beating on her nothing but Adams County
Prosecutors Josh Jones and Laura kek say even though there may not have been physical abuse there was emotional abuse
evident in Tim's text 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 K 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 um that are possible entrance points and you just happen to get lucky that it's a little
boy's room that's not there that night but schn 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 shoes they weren't
able to match them to that partial shoe print found 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 Breakin 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
his 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 kek say they did find evidence tying Tim to that bike we were able to download
information off his phone and we found that Mr bnck 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 Schwin with no reflectors on the wheels just like that bike that was found 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 gets a 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 kex 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 bnck but despite their confidence they
soon faced 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 90 days of Tim's arrest we were going to be
ready come hell or high water but did they have a 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 bla Nick's answer on Family Feud take a look at the
case evidence at 48 hours.com on May 23rd 2023 exactly 3 months after Becky bnck was gunned down
in her home Tim bnck 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 Lura 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'd fired through an Aldi bag either in an attempt to muffle the sound
or to catch his showcasing 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 couldn't 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
driving Reasonable Doubt but defense attorney Casey schn says that evidence is far from definitive everybody in town
has Al the bags that they're hoarding they could have came from Becky's house with DNA from him well because they
transferred stuff back and forth for the boys in Aldi bags there was DNA found under Becky's fingernails yeah and it
was just as likely to be Tims 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 left on the
window that was pred open at Becky's while there were microscopic consistencies she couldn't say with
scientific certainty that that crowbar made those marks the experts 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 accepts 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 one 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 UNS supervised they didn't tell the jury why but we
uncovered these court documents that reveal Becky had gathered Witnesses who she said plan to testify about Tim's
Father Ray bnck and would allege that he had a history of perversion and abuse abing minor children many years earlier
the alleged victims were not Becky and Tim's children Becky sought an order of protection against Rey 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 kid's
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 I why not because the boys weren't restricted from seeing Ray to begin with they just couldn't see him
without supervision so and schn says those allegations were old news so 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 mindboggling it was mindboggling yeah and remember that person caught on camera in Becky's
neighbor driveway on Valentine's Day about a week before the murder well prosecutors say that right after 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 timman says 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 lawyers 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 that's not 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 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 bnck that fired the shell casings that were found in Tim bnck 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 life on the line and he didn't want us to do
that 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 hold out sometimes you just need one when the jury began deliberating
after a Six-Day trial Tim bck was on edge it was miserable because I was essentially waiting for them to decide
my fate inside that jury room one Jer was undecided our stomachs were in nuts we were Beyond
stressed but 4 hours later a verdict when they passed the paper from the jury box to the clerk to the 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 bnck 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 not lost both parents it's not a celebration
when we sat down with Tim bnck it was just over a month after his conviction he was still awaiting
sentencing did you ever imagine you would be 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 because if not tell me what you're thinking right now
my kids I just want him to know that I love them and I miss him 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 statement right before he
was sentenced on August 11th 2023 you're 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 Bin numbers judge Robert Adrien had the option of sentencing Tim to anywhere between 45
years to life Mr bnck you research this murder you plann this 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 kek say the punish 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 her three boys who are now living with her parents we will all work together to make sure those boys have
the life they deserved and we started a GoFundMe to um support the boys and Becky's 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 we need to believe them and make an active effort to make sure
they're safe [Music] CBS next Saturday 48 Hours brings you backtack episodes all summer long next
week Survivor stories I was the only one that could walk out of there still alive
someone want to be dead 48 Hours Crime Time double feature next Saturday 98 Central on CBS and streaming on
Paramount Plus [Music] I'm anmarie green and welcome to 48 Hours postmortem this week we're talking
to the team behind the 48 Hours episode called the game show and the murder joining me today our 48 Hours
correspondent Aon Mor arti and producer Stephanie slier thank you so much for joining us thank you for having us yeah
and we love talking about this case because we've spent uh last few months talking about this case we should get
into it listen if you are a true crime uh junkie or if you have any interest in True Crime you'll remember when this
case came out because it was a headline built for the tabloids just in case people can't remember here's a quick
recap Tim bik was arrested and charged in March 2023 with murdering his estranged wife Becky bnck the nurse and
mother of three was found shot multiple times in her Quincy Illinois home after the arrest an answer he gave on the game
show Family Feud years earlier got people talking the question was what is the number one regret that people have
from their wedding day and you said I said uh saying I do it was supposed to be funny prosecutors Josh Jones and
Laura kex say it wasn't the game show it was other evidence that led them to Tim
bnck the couple had been going through a contentious divorce and Becky had told family and friends that she feared Tim
Might harm her the idea of of murdering someone let alone the mother of my kids is not any part of who I am and there
was this surveillance video of a person riding a bike in the direction of Becky's house right before the murder
and in the opposite direction right after prosecutors believe it's Tim bnck but there's one big problem I mean you can't
see whether it's male female it's terrible the video is terrible that's not Tim in that video you can't tell who
it is Casey schnock is Tim bik's defense attorney there were Prowlers in the area
it wasn't a random Prowler it was an execution so this small town case gained national attention in large part due to
an answer Tim gave on an episode a Family Feud and while there's no connection between the murder and the
show is this how the case first got on your radar is this what pequ your interest well I think we were like
everybody else um when you realize that three years earlier before his wife is killed he's making this off-handed
remark about the regret he had on his wedding day was saying I do but of course he was picking a very good answer
for Family Feud so it was a good answer right it was it turned out to be like it
was number two on the board no yes so I mean he really was playing the game right um but but really I think the
reason why I wanted to do it is that this was the perfect family when you looked at it from the outside this
beautiful couple with these three adorable kids living in Quincy Illinois you know just the heart of of the
Midwest and they seem to have it all so when I go into these kind of stories I think do they really have it right would
would this man really throw his entire life away um it didn't make sense because these kids would lose both their
mom and their dad it didn't make sense so that's what drew me to it yeah what about you Stephanie absolutely I agree
with what Aaron said I mean of course it came on our radar because of the Family
Feud connection that's what brought it to the top of the headlines but we very quickly realized it was about a lot more
and in fact when we went and met with the prosecutors they even told us it has nothing to do with the case it never
factored into the prosecution they never had plans to bring it up in court in fact the prosecutor said to us he felt
it would have been denigrating to the case that they were putting together so it was an unfortunate coincidence but it
had happened many years earlier and you know most people at the time even thought it was just a joke Becky sister
told us she wasn't really bothered by it at the time um I think one of the things
that kind of bothered me me watching this is precisely what you said Aaron that this looked like a perfect family
but you know what perfect families fall apart uh you know marriages don't always
work out he says that she was under too much pressure she was taking on too much
she says he was controlling it wasn't working out he left he was getting everything that he wanted and it would
seem like it should not have ended like this it it didn't make sense um people get divorced all the time and it doesn't
end in murder and Aaron asked Tim in the interview you know you filed for divorce
why not just end it why have this drag out and he didn't really want to get into the details of that for whatever
reason so how did you manage to get this interview with Tim it took a lot of patience and perseverance we started by
sending Tim um a letter and we did not hear anything back after that and then we went to town for the trial and to
begin conducting interviews we developed a relationship with his defense attorney
and you know we had mentioned to her repeatedly that we were interested in talking to Tim we always are interested
in talking to all sides and every story that we cover and she indicated to us that she didn't think it was going to
happen he wasn't really up for speaking and while we were in town you know the jail is right across the street
stre from her office and I said to her do you mind if we just try to go visit him and she said sure go try so Aaron
and I and our field producer Gabby walked across to the jail we went in we met with the sheriff who runs the jail I
thought usually have to make appointments ahead of time or requests this is Quincy Illinois which is a
wonderful but small town just a wonderful town but uh we got lucky though because they weren't even
allowing in-person visits it was all video visits that they were doing at the jail but we met with the sheriff and he
agreed to let us meet with Tim in person that day so he had his Deputy lead us downstairs brought us into a room and
next thing you know we were face to face with Tim and but he wants to talk well wait a minute when surprised he was
surprised to see us when he walked out and saw all of us there I think he for a second thought oh what did I just get
into um but Stephanie stayed really in contact with him and and I think Stephanie was very successful and
explaining look um he did not speak at all during his trial this was an opportunity for him to say what he
wanted to say to the American public yeah I mean he was still hesitant at first even after we met with him he
didn't want to commit to anything then and there but I think it was that night when we got home from Illinois and I got
a text M message on my phone and it was him yes he can text from jail it was bizarre we had never seen that I had
never seen that before at least but in this jail he had access to some sort of a tablet and he could text anytime and
so I received a text saying hi Stephanie it's Tim and I was wow and we just we continued talking um from there and
ultimately he decided he did want to talk to us so during this interview Aaron I found myself
watching your face as much as I was watching him what did you think of him how did you feel about how that
interview went well one of the first things and I think you've run into this too whenever you interview somebody uh
who's in jail or prison um you want to keep them in the seat and it's a very difficult dance at times because you
have to ask the very tough questions you do um but you don't you want to do it in
a way that they they feel that they can answer and really um explain the evidence now in this case we were a
little hamstrung he told us in advance that he would not discuss any of the evidence and so we did get to ask these
questions of his lawyer but not him and that's a little frustrating but um I was
I was torn in two different ways one is I was very impressed with him um he was very well spoken he seemed very
emotional he said several times that he did not kill his wife and would not have
killed his wife but the problem was he was a very very controlled interview and that didn't quite match the evidence
that we know a trial was he able to explain how he ended up in this situation if it wasn't him then how did
things end up like this he doesn't have um you know we course ask whether then who would does he have another idea who
because you know this was a very violent Murder She was shot 14 times um close range in a period of a minute that part
I can't get over that somebody came in the house and then by the time she tried calling 911 and the time that person
left was around one minute wow she was shot 14 times that is anger and so I mean who else would have that kind of
anger and he did not have an answer for that so let's talk a little bit about about uh Tim and Becky's relationship in
the hour um you showed a video of Becky and Tim during one of their arguments uh
Tim said that Becky had become combative during a disagreement at a parent teacher night I want to play a little
sound the I'm asking you to stop harassing me and stop I'm not harassing you I'm asking he offered this video of
the incident as proof will make a copy for you I don't want you to take me stop doing this um do you guys sort of think
about how much of their relationship ship you want to show you want to be unbiased well I felt it was important to
show that particular snippet because he had actually filed for an order of protection in part based on that that
was his evidence and when I saw it I saw a woman who was upset that he was photographing her with his phone but I
didn't think I didn't get the feeling from looking at it that she was threatening him and here he was going to
court asking for an order protection so I thought it was only fair for viewers to make their own decision maybe
somebody else looking at it would feel differently than I did but I think it was more the way you described these are
two people going through a contentious divorce um but I didn't see uh I in my view but somebody else might see it
differently I didn't see her threatening him I saw a very frustrated woman um and
he was recording it yeah and you know when Becky had tried to get an order of protection against Tim she wrote in her
petition that he would often falsify interactions between the two so he was alleging in this parent teacher night
that she was combative now we have video let the viewer decide for themselves so
the other thing about this case is that there isn't really the clear bridge between this like toxic relationship
that they're in that's that has fallen apart um and a homicide it just you're like how how do you make
that leap but then there are some text messages that are presented by the prosecution um I want to play a little
sound from the episode days after Tim filed for that order of protection and more than a year
before her death Becky sent her sister Sarah this text if something ever happens to me please make sure the
number one person of interest is Tim she would later make similar statements to friends I said what did he do and that
uh text was prompted by uh the murder of one of her um colleagues one of the the
nurses that she knew was murdered by um her partner that scared her she felt like this could happen this is real you
know what when I um you know look at those texts um what I was most struck by uh was the prosecutor Laura who um said
to us that the the reason why this case had stayed with them so much is that sometimes abuse doesn't end up with
bruises and that they really believe that um Tim bnck was not just controlling but abusive in a way that
you only see behind closed doors and that those texts it wasn't just one or two um reflected the fact that um sadly
Becky was saying something that the her friend and the neighbors and people didn't see um and and that is what has
stayed with me m i mean that's the thing Becky was shouting from the rooftops pretty much that she was scared of Tim
she had a feeling something bad was going to happen at trial eight people testified that she had expressed fear to
them and one of the reasons why her sister wanted to speak about this is because she's hoping that something can
change from this she's hoping that people will take get more seriously in the future many of the people that Becky
expressed fears to said oh you know Tim wouldn't do that he doesn't look like that type of guy wow watching that
interview it was really hard to make the connection for me between what he is in
prison for and this guy who looks like any guy that you know you'd see in Suburbia cutting his lawn and taking his
kids to soccer and can I just if in fact he did you know we know he was convicted
of it 14 times she was shot that reflects such anger yeah and I didn't see any of that
in Tim there is a lot we didn't see and he's accused of doing this too while his
kids are home sleeping in his house it's very hard to comprehend yeah when we get
back we are going to talk about the trial Stephanie you were in the courtroom so I want to hear about that
and we're also going to discuss an interesting piece of evidence that was not in the hour
which was actually a lack of evidence I'm going to explain what that means when we get
[Music] [Music] back welcome back this case really moved at lightning speed uh Becky was gunned
down killed in her own home on February 23rd 2023 Tim went on trial for her murder May 23rd
2023 exactly 3 months later exactly 3 months later a prosecution had 90 days to bring this to trial that is an
unusual timeline I think usually these things take years almost right I this is the first time for me actually I mean I
know that of course I'm familiar with the concept of speedy trial but here's what happened so they you know she is
shot um they then the evidence is pointing toward Tim they arrest him he has a right to a speedy trial which
means that they had to bring the case in 90 days why that just was so fascinating
to me because I thought can they can they develop a case in 90 days sometimes DNA tests take 90 days right and so one
of the reasons why I was so interested in doing this Cas is you know you only get one bite of the Apple they're going
to take him on trial they don't convict him it's done could they prepare a case in time yeah and they did a remarkable
job they pulled it off I mean the police work that went into this was amazing and
you mentioned you know something that did not make it into the hour that was a very interesting piece of evidence and
it dealt with a fitness tracker that Tim would wear around his wrist it's called
a whoop and when investigators executed a search warrant on Tim's house and car they noticed that he was wearing this
Fitness armband and so they were able to obtain it and retrieve data from it and
they realized that his whoop accounted for every second of every day except for the time at which that person was seen
on the driveway video and when that person was seen on the bike and that was big yeah and I mean I
spoke about the the police work that went into this they had to go through almost 1.5 million pieces of data from
that Fitness tracker to determine those gaps in the timeline wow and to them that meant that they had the right guy
right because it you know how it works is so it has to be connected to his phone and clearly he did not have his
phone with him at that moment so just during those times that otherwise so when he was near his phone the the whoop
was working uh except for the time when somebody is seen on the bike and you know somebody is seen outside Becky's
house yeah so the prosecutors believed actually that Tim thought he was being smart by leaving his phone behind when
he went on these bike rides when really it ended up helping to convict him because he didn't take the whoop off and
it wasn't connected to the phone and therefore there was no data during those time periods but it turns out because he
lived so close to her uh about a mile that if he carried the phone with him they they might not have been able to
tell anyway where he was because he was within that mile it you know he could have been hitting off the exact same um
cell tower anyway and so you know that that was interesting that is and that helped the prosecution um the other bit
that's fascinating is the surveillance footage that they use the only thing about the surveillance footage is that
it's super blurry like you can barely kind of make out who this is and it's absolutely true you can't tell gender
nothing the video is only good to show that some body was going back and forth from the direction of Tim's house to her
house then back um at certain times but you can't tell who's on the bike so Erin
you spoke to a juror which gave you guys some real insight as to what was going on during deliberations right and I mean
that's why we try to talk to jurors in every single you learn something that there's no other way you're going to
find this out yes so Aaron did interview a juror but we weren't able to include this in the hour we just didn't have
enough time to get to everything unfortunately but he did share with us that some members of the jury felt that
Tim had the same walk as the person seen in that surveillance video they were paying attention to the way that he
walked in and out of the courtroom wow and they felt that there was a similarity wow and it's actually not the
first time we heard that in our reporting either because Becky's brother-in-law said the same thing he
said when he saw that surveillance video Play in court he knew it was Tim's walk
so they did not deliberate for very long but one of the other things you learned
about the deliberations is that there was a hold out initially yeah that was surprising you know we wouldn't have
known that had we not spoken to that member of the jury and we're always kind of wondering when we're covering a trial
what's going on in that deliberation room you know we're hanging out around the courtroom waiting for the verdict to
come in and hour after hour passed and nothing and it turns out there was a hold out and they had to go over the
evidence multiple times before they were able to reach a unanimous verdict but think about it Amory there really wasn't
much direct evidence and in fact the juror said to us that what really convinced him was really the only bit of
direct evidence which we did have in our piece which was the spent shell casings
um the there were 27 spent shell casings found in his house that uh prosecution said matched I mean they had expert that
said matched um the shell casings found at the crime scene um I think that was probably the real problem with jurors
there wasn't a lot of direct evidence um and as we all see he just didn't look like the type to kill his wife I you
know just kind of going back to him and his demeanor I was surprised that he didn't take the stand I know typically
people don't but it seemed like he might have presented well for lack of a better
phrase he would have but there's no question that um you know there her text messages he would have been asked about
why I mean so you know the prosecution would have been able to bring up things and I think they that often happens with
trials that they just think the risks are too much the hardest question for him would be in my mind is the fact that
on Valentine's Day uh Becky had a boyfriend spend the night and so there is a scene of the person the prowler is
seen um on video and Tim says that's not him but later that morning after that he
is looking up the VIN number and the um license tag of the car that's sitting in
her driveway and so that's very damning evidence because how did he know that car was in if he wasn't that person
right on the driveway and now he says oh I knew Becky had started dating someone
I knew that for months but it's the timing of those searches and the obsessiveness of the searches I mean
we're talking about I think 200 searches in the middle of the night right after that person is seen on that driveway
camera he's trying to find the owner of you know who owns this car with this license plate number and this VIN number
he's calling the Department of Revenue in the middle of the middle of the night yeah it doesn't but that's what he would
have been asked by prosecution that that would have been that's what I really wanted to ask him so I think that was a
big reason why he couldn't have taken this how can you explain it it just the how many times he tried to do the
research tells you something about Tim that we just had not seen in the interview or saw at all in the courtroom
was it just the VIN number he looked up other phrases too right oh well you're talking about all the searches oh my
gosh I mean that that also was very incriminating so they found a number of searches um on his phone and now we
don't know and I'm not quite sure why they couldn't tell when he made these searches but they couldn't say when but
they were things like how do you wash gunpowder off your hands that's pretty typical Google search no um but also the
fact that she was shot um you know so that with a 9mm um you know can use a crowbar to get
into your house um you know there were a number of incriminating SE how does the
defense explain that well the defense points us to the fact that they can't say when those searches were made so
they could have been made after the murder maybe he was trying to understand what had happened he was doing research
that's what the defense says but you know there was even more searches than we were able to mention in the episode
another one that comes to mind was average Quincy Police Department response time what there was a lot of
searches that and the one that I thought was really the most interesting because
it was new for me was um how to make a homemade silencer for a gun oh my gosh you know who I mean I look people have
guns but why the silencer and the idea that um you know there were those little bits of plastic that uh were found
around her and they were trying to figure out what were those little pieces of plastic and now they believe that um
whoever killed uh Becky and they believe it was Tim was either using it as a silencer these plastic bags around or
some way to collect the casings which clearly they did not work CU there were casings left at the crime scene oh and
another thing he had searched for was does my whoop record the times I wear it there you have it but now that that
could be anything Stephanie just saying just saying um so your team was actually
at the trial um you guys were there I'm really curious about the mood in the courtroom um Stephanie I know you were
there for a lot of it right I mean this is really a family torn apart and of course Becky's family was there in the
courtroom each day and Tim's family was there during the trial as well his mother his father his two brothers were
there and I got the sense that this was the first time they were hearing all the evidence and they're
trying to comprehend it all as it's being presented in court and what this means and you know it was heartbreaking
because you're really just thinking about Becky and Tim's three kids during all of this too they've lost their
mother and now they're potentially losing their father too the juror said something and we see it every time we
cover these trials so you have this couple and their families came together for a marriage and then at this trial
it's a little like the same thing you have the bride's family on one side and the husband's family on the other but
this time now it's the state the prosecution and the defense and that's really heartbreaking and nobody ever
shares sides they're always sitting on opposite sides of the courtroom and that strikes me it it never seems old to me
it strikes me a new every time I see it and it struck the juror that we talk to as well mhm Tim was found guilty of
first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole without without the possibility of parole but I
want to talk about Becky's sister's um impact statement she delivered this directly to Tim before uh he was
sentenced you actually this interview to remind people that you were able to do Aaron happened before he was sentenced
found guilty but had not been sentenced so this is sort of fast forwarding in time and she's able to speak to him
directly I want to play some of that sound your children's future will be forever impacted by your
crime they're already suffering maybe you should have Googled childhood PTSD in between your internet searches
for homemade silencers and Bin numbers I'm really curious Stephanie about what it was like to be in the courtroom when
she was delivering this statement it was very emotional and many family members of Becky
actually gave Victim Impact statements that day her mom spoke her aunts and cousins her brother-in-law and there's
something that Becky's brother-in-law said while he was on the stand giving his impact statement that really stuck
out to me he said to Tim and he was looking directly at him you rode on that bike that night towards all of us and it
just really put in perspective the amount of victims in this case you know everyone who knew and and loved Becky
has been impacted by this and I think that that's really what they were trying to get across in the impact statements
and I was just really struck by how forcefully they all spoke and Becky's brother-in-law and sister in particular
looked directly at Tim the entire time and when Becky's sister actually walked off the stand she stared directly at
Tim's parents and his parents were sitting behind me his mom I think had sunglasses on so it was hard to tell
what their reaction was but it was certainly a tense moment in the courtroom any final words on this
episode in this case if this case has gotten uh natural attention because of Tim's answer on Family Feud that to go
beyond the humor of that and to recognize how serious there's a real serious message with a case like this um
about hidden abuse and be sister is fully aware that the reason why this case got the
attention that it did is because of Family Feud but she's made the decision to use that to their advantage they have
this platform and they want people to learn from Becky's story you know one of the things that Sarah told us in our
interview with her is that you know she's just hoping that in the future if anybody that's in a position like
Becky she wants them to be able to find a way to make themselves safe and you know whether that's having a working
alarm system or you know telling people repeatedly like Becky did but making sure that the person you're scared of
knows that you've told those people stay with someone else don't be alone don't let there be an opportunity for
something like this to happen yeah yeah that's a really good message this is a case where what you see on the surface
is not necessarily what's happening but you know beneath the surface um in that she doesn't come off as an abused woman
um he doesn't come off as an abuser um there were no bruises that I was aware of or talk of physical um physical abuse
and we have this sense that in order for something a situation to get to the point where someone is killed there must
be an escalation it must go from arguing toxic physically violent before we get to murder doesn't necessarily have to be
the case you can have abuse without bru that's what the prosecution said yeah but I should point out as we're you know
coming to an end on this that this may not be the end of the case um Tim made it very clear to us in the interview
that he is appealing this case and um I have run into this in the past remember what Stephanie had said that there were
eight Witnesses who at trial who talked about the fact that she had either texted or told them that she feared that
Tim was going to hurt her well the problem is Becky is dead and Tim could not confront the accuser and in some
cases in Wisconsin I've covered another case the trial was overturned because the judge allowed in that testimony
because this is is this haay would that be the judge did not view it as hearsay but it depends if he appeals so if if it
doesn't end I mean they he is appealing this case and it's based um in part on the fact that the judge allowed in these
witnesses to talk about what Becky said when Becky wasn't there to explain really fascinating so this may
not be the end of this be sure now to join us next Tuesday for another postmortem and if you're
liking the show please rate and review 48 Hours on the Apple podcast um watch 48 Hours as well Saturdays 109 Central
on CBS and streaming on Paramount plus and be sure to follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcast you can also listen
at free on the Amazon music or wry [Music] app before we leave we have a final note
uh we'd like to take a moment to remember longtime 48 Hours colleague John yakobian he died this week John was
the director of global news syndication and had an almost encyclopedic memory of
every 48 Hours episode ever made uh John was also one of the nicest guys in The Newsroom and will be forever known for
his good heart and his quiet kindness and he certainly will be missed by the 48 Hours family thank you John

An answer that Becky Bliefnick's husband gave on the "Family Feud" game show raised eyebrows years before she was murdered.

Watch "The Game Show and the Murder" and then catch up with "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty and producer Stephanie Slifer on "Post Mortem" as they discuss covering the case of former “Family Feud” contestant Tim Bliefnick, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his estranged wife, Becky Bliefnick. Hear never before told stories about how a fitness tracker helped investigators narrow in on their suspect and how the "48 Hours" team got their exclusive interview with the convicted killer.

00:00 The Game Show and the Murder 41:57 Listen to a post-mortem on the episode

Listen to "Post Mortem" wherever you get your podcasts: https://apple.co/4fzoASB

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

Becky Bnck was murdered by her estranged husband Tim, who was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Key points

A Sister's Grief. Sarah Riley describes the moment she learned of her sister's murder, a living nightmare.
The Estranged Husband. Tim Bnck becomes a person of interest in Becky's murder after their contentious divorce.
A Disturbing Text. Becky texted her sister to ensure Tim would be the prime suspect if anything happened to her.
The Arrest. Tim Bnck was arrested and charged with Becky's murder just over two weeks after her death.
Trial Begins. Tim's trial begins three months after Becky's murder, with prosecutors laying out evidence against him.
Verdict Delivered. After a tense deliberation, the jury finds Tim guilty of first-degree murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This was an execution, not a random act.

Describing the nature of Becky's murder.

1:41WatchNov 15, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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