-Becky loved being a mom
More than anything in the world,
But she knew as a nurse
That she would be able to make a difference.
She was a loving and generous, selfless person.
-An unimaginable discovery.
-Whoever killed becky
Stood over her and fired... [ gunshots ]
...Until there were no more bullets available.
-Finding your daughter in that situation,
I couldn't imagine the feeling.
-An intense search to find a killer.
-We couldn't believe it.
Someone that we loved
Who had this beautiful family
Was just gone.
-A shadowy suspect emerges.
-It seemed like someone was coming for becky.
-Is it a love gone bad?
-Becky was involved in a relationship with someone,
And that boyfriend might be involved.
-Over the course of the divorce,
He became a very hateful person.
-Turning into... -A million questions
Were racing through my mind.
-...A killer relationship.
-I think we're all still in shock.
♪♪
-It's a Thursday afternoon on a cold February day
When bill postle rushes to his daughter's house
In quincy, illinois.
41-year-old becky bliefnick
Has been home recovering from abdominal surgery,
But when she's late to pick up her children from school,
Bill fears something is wrong.
And when he enters becky's house,
That fear is realized.
♪♪
-We were coming towards the end of the day,
And we get a notification from our watch commander
That a person is shot.
[ siren wails ]
-Quincy is a small, rural town.
We have a fairly low crime rate when it comes to violence.
When we get on scene, bill postle was there,
His wife, bernie, becky's mom,
They were outside the house.
They were both distraught. They were both very upset.
Bill basically said that he had received a message
From his son-in-law, tim,
That he was not able to get a hold of becky.
So, bill took it upon himself to come to house,
Where he found the front door open.
-He went upstairs, called her name --
Nobody answered.
He went into the bedroom,
And then saw becky's body on the bathroom floor.
-We went into the house, and that's when we discovered
Becky bliefnick had been shot multiple times.
-Whoever killed becky stood over her
And emptied the clip,
Fired until there were no more bullets available.
It was a really, really horrible crime,
And we were going to work non-stop to catch the person
Who killed becky bliefnick.
♪♪
-Born November 19, 1981,
Becky is the youngest daughter of bernadette and bill postle.
Growing up on the outskirts of quincy,
In a close catholic family,
Becky's best friend is her older sister, sarah.
-We lived way out in the boonies,
Very rural, farm-town illinois.
We did a lot of outdoorsy stuff, climbing trees,
Catching toads, just rolling around in the dirt.
[ laughs ] it was great.
As the two of us got older,
Becky ended up going to quincy university
And played collegiate tennis, all four years.
She majored in biology
And ended up as a pharmaceutical sales rep.
And it turns out that she was pretty good at it.
-She was always, like, a great leader,
She always was the one that would help
Get everybody going in the right direction
When our manager asked us to do something.
She definitely was the smartest,
Probably out of our group.
Don't tell my other friends. [ laughs ]
-But becky isn't all work and no play.
In her mid-20s, she's single and dating
When she connects with tim bliefnick,
A football player from her alma mater.
Their attraction is undeniable.
-She liked athletes and that's not really much of a surprise,
Because she was an athlete.
Physical fitness was a big part of their daily routine
So they had a lot in common.
-They were so cute.
They were the first ones on the dance floor.
They were the life of the party.
Tim always knew how to hold a really great conversation.
He made really great jokes.
I mean, he was just the type of person
That you would want to hang out with.
-Becky's wedding was beautiful.
She was so happy.
Tim was a responsible guy.
He had a great job, they had a house.
She was over the moon.
-I just remember the first thing she said is,
"I can't wait to be a mom."
Not many couples say,
"I'm ready to have a baby right away," you know,
And they were that couple.
-A short time later, becky's dream comes true.
She gives birth to a baby boy in 2011,
And dedicates herself to being a stay-at-home mom.
-She was glowing.
She was definitely the perfect mom.
And tim, he was funny.
He would make jokes about dirty diapers
And being up late at night,
But he really enjoyed starting a family.
They were just so excited to be parents.
-Hi!
-By 2013, becky and tim have another baby boy.
But as the family grows,
So do the demands and pressures of parenting.
-Life with kids is challenging.
And there was a distinct shift in their relationship
In the years after their second child was born.
I don't think becky wanted to believe
That her marriage was deteriorating.
She tried very hard to make it work.
And becky loved being a mom more than anything in the world,
But she wanted to excel as a person herself, too.
She wanted have her own career again.
And that became a point of contention
From that time forward.
She went to nursing school, and about a month and a half
Before she graduated,
She gave birth to her third baby
And she still graduated with top honors.
She knew, as a nurse,
That she would be able to make a difference.
And I think that that profession really captures who she was.
You know, a loving and generous and selfless person.
-As an er nurse, becky was very caring,
But she was always busy.
I don't think I ever saw her sit for more than 10 minutes.
She was involved in everything.
Classroom, after school activities, sports,
She just did it all.
I was like, "how do you have time?
When do you sleep?"
-Becky was working her butt off trying to make it work
Between her nursing schedule and trying to raise her boys,
And she was very frustrated
Because tim only acted in his own selfish interests.
He was not contributing, he was not supportive,
He chastised her about the house not being clean.
He never said, "can I help you clean the house?"
It was always her job.
We called her the single-married mother.
Because she was not getting much,
If any, help from tim.
And that was the point
Where she truly believed the marriage was in danger
Of falling apart.
-Four years later, becky bliefnick is lying dead
In a bathroom in her own home.
-Thankfully her three sons were not there with her
The previous night.
-She was supposed to have the boys that night.
Originally, tim bliefnick, her separated husband,
Was only supposed to have the boys two nights.
She had actually messaged him and said,
"can you keep the boys another night?
I need to still heal a little bit more from the surgery
Before I have the boys."
-Knowing the children are safe,
The detectives remain focused on the crime scene.
-We believe the person left through the front door,
And the reason why we believe that is because
We determined that the point of entry
Was the upstairs boys bedroom,
Which had a window that was shattered from the outside,
And there was a partial shoe print on the carpet
Directly inside that window.
-Examining the exterior of the house,
They discover how the intruder made their way
To the second floor window.
-We saw there was a metal patio chair
That had been pushed over to the side of the house
So a person could stand on the chair
To shimmy themselves from the pergola to the roof.
It wouldn't be the easiest task to do.
-We had a detective try to climb up to the side of the house
And it took a certain amount of physical strength,
A certain amount of athleticism.
It wasn't something just anyone could do.
-So now we're thinking that the person who did this
Has to fit that description --
Athletic, strong upper-body, fit person.
-2020 was a very difficult year.
During covid, it was a really stressful time
For becky as a nurse, and also as a parent.
She was burning the candle at both ends.
-Becky shared with me that they were going
Through some difficulties with their marriage.
She told me that tim just didn't want to be married anymore.
I thought, "wow!" you know?
They were like the perfect couple,
And she, you know, she really wanted to work on that marriage.
She didn't want to get divorced.
She wanted to have a family for her kids.
-While becky tries to work on the marriage,
Tim spends his spare time performing in local theater.
He even takes a trip to appear on "family feud"
With his father, mother, and brothers.
It's supposed to be all fun and games,
But a flippant answer from tim on the show,
Seems to signal the imminent end of his 10-year marriage.
-What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding?
-Honey, I love you, but... "said I do!"
[ laughter ]
Not my mistake, not my mistake!
I love my wife.
-In January 2021, nearly a year after his television appearance,
Tim petitions for divorce.
-He came home and said,
"we're going to get a divorce. I'm moving out."
It was kind of, I think, a surprise to becky.
-As divorce proceedings get underway,
Becky and tim begin to untangle their lives from one another.
It's a long and painful process,
But there's a bright spot for becky.
In the spring of 2022,
She starts dating a fellow healthcare professional
Named ted johnson.
-Their relationship was still kind of quiet
Because becky's divorce wasn't final.
They both have children,
They were both going through a divorce.
-She told me that nobody else knew, and it wasn't public,
And I did not know him.
But it just seemed like the light came back in her life.
-But now, as csis blanket becky's house,
Only darkness descends.
-Quincy police remain on the scene tonight
Investigating a death at a home.
This is in the 2400 block of kentucky road
They tell us there is still a lot to process at the scene.
-Outside becky's bedroom,
We found a shell casing on the floor.
Inside the bedroom,
There was more shell casings --
9 millimeter shell casings.
-I noticed that the door had appeared to be kicked in,
Or broken in violently.
The door frame was shattered.
Looked like there was a piece of the door
That was across the room.
At that point, there was a violent murderer on the loose
And we need to get them off the street as quickly as possible.
-There wasn't a whole lot of direction
That the scene gave us.
So we started thinking, "who could have done this?"
Someone close to becky?
Did she have stalkers?
Or is there some sort of violent home invasion suspect out there?
We had no idea. Our suspect list is the world.
-The neighbor had surveillance footage
Of an unknown person walking between becky's house
And the neighbors.
-With ted, there was no alibi the night of the murder.
-Or o we have some random person breaking into houses
And killing women living by themselves?
-What person would be silly enough to keep shell casings
From a gun where they committed a homicide?
-When becky bliefnick, a popular nurse and a devoted mother,
Is found shot to death in her large family home,
It's all hands on deck
For the quincy, illinois police department.
So far, the evidence points to a nightmarish scenario.
Becky is taken by surprise,
And in her weakened state, tries to lock herself in her bathroom.
But the gun-toting killer takes her down
Before she can close the door.
-I'm thinking things happened very fast,
That she was running and that she fell where she fell,
And ultimately was shot multiple times.
Her hands were in an upward position,
It looked like she was pleading.
We found a cellphone behind the door.
We determined that cellphone was more than likely becky's.
We didn't have a passcode, so we weren't able to get into it.
We felt like maybe the phone would tell us something.
At this point, I had started talking to bill, becky's dad,
And we're trying to get access to her phone...
But he was distraught.
♪♪
I, um... Couldn't imagine,
Ah, the feeling of, uh...
Of, uh, finding your daughter in that -- in that situation.
I have kids my own,
And, uh, that'd be tough.
-Becky's sister sarah
Is on vacation with her family in florida
When she gets the devastating phone call from her mother.
-All she could say was, "becky's dead.
We don't know anything, but becky's dead."
How do you react to something like that?
Reality is suspended.
It's so impossible to process your sister's murder.
I mean, it's just pure hell.
♪♪
-Becky's father-in-law, ray bliefnick,
Who lives just a few houses away,
Arrives around the same time becky's body is removed
From her home and sent for an autopsy.
He lets his son, tim, know what happened.
The detectives want to talk to tim,
And they ask ray to go with them to his house.
-One of the people who's going to have a motive
Is always going to be the ex-spouse or the spouse
That's going through the divorce.
-Tim was a possible suspect,
And that's the situation in any homicide.
-As we approached the front door of the house, tim comes out.
I need to ask him some questions
About where he was last night and what he was doing,
And kind of situation it was between him and becky,
But tim tells me that he doesn't want to talk to me
Until he talks to his attorney.
-I mean, let's face it,
If the police came to me and said,
"josh, your ex-wife's been killed, we want to talk to you."
I'm probably going to want my lawyer, too.
-While tim stays mum,
The detectives decide to focus
On the other man in becky's life.
-We got a phone call from becky's sister, sarah,
And her sister told us that becky had a man
That she was seeing by the name of ted johnson.
Well, at that point we start looking at him, obviously.
Becky was involved in a relationship with someone,
You're going to look at that person.
And so, some detectives met with ted johnson.
-Ted johnson came to the interview in scrubs,
Like you would see somebody in the medical profession wear.
Definitely physically fit.
He spoke well of his interactions with becky.
He said he was at home the night of the murder.
So there was no alibi.
He would have bouts where he would begin to cry
And definitely showed emotions
That would lead you to believe were genuine.
We did have ted show me his phone,
And after I started reading the conversations through,
It was typical boyfriend, girlfriend conversations.
We also asked him if we could search his home
For any guns or ammunition,
And any shoes that he may have had
That might match up to the shoe impression from the scene.
-He did a four-hour interview with the police.
He told us exactly where he had been when,
Provided lots of information,
And he provided people that we could talk to.
-Ted's willingness to talk to the police
May be an indicator of his innocence,
But ted also fits the description of the killer
Who is athletic enough to climb the pergola at becky's house.
-He's absolutely still going to be under consideration
Because we haven't excluded anyone out at this point,
But we're going to follow the evidence and see
Where that takes us.
-One of the things that you're trying to do,
Is you're trying to piece together the timeline.
What time do we think becky was murdered?
-We were able to figure out the passcode for becky's phone.
We then started looking to see
If she communicated with anyone about issues.
-We learned that at 1:10 in the morning,
Becky dialed the number 91126.
And had tried to hit send.
We think she had tried to dial 911.
But 91126 is not a number,
And so that call went unanswered.
[ buttons dialing ]
So that told us that becky was murdered
Around 1:10 in the morning.
-So now that we know the timeframe,
We can start looking for things that can confirm that time,
Such as surveillance video.
We learned that the neighbor right next door
To becky bliefnick's house
Had surveillance footage of an unknown person
Walking between becky's house and the neighbors
Within that timeline.
So we were ecstatic, thinking that we just caught
The potential murder suspect.
Unfortunately, the footage was grainy.
You couldn't tell if it was male, female, white, black.
It was not good footage.
And it turned out that that footage,
Instead of being on the 23rd,
Turns out that that footage was on the 22nd,
The day before.
But it was still significant to us
Because the time was similar
To when we believe becky was murdered on the 23rd.
-Could the man in the video be becky's killer?
-So we worked backwards from there,
And we found a couple of videos from them
Where there was someone
Walking back and forth in the driveway
At a time when somebody shouldn't be in that driveway.
It seemed like someone was casing becky's house.
We watched that video multiple times to try to see
If we could figure anything out.
And honestly,
All you could tell is that it was a person.
-By the end of the day, the autopsy report is back,
And it reveals disturbing new details about becky's murder.
-She had been shot 14 times
With a 9 millimeter semi-automatic handgun.
And that was significant
Because why would you shoot someone 14 times
When you could've shot them twice and killed them?
-According to the pathologist, none of those 14 bullet wounds
Were instantly fatal.
She didn't die right away.
Her death was incredibly traumatic and painful to her.
Lying on that bathroom floor in the dark bleeding to death,
Paralyzed from the waist down, not able to breathe.
Nobody should have to experience that.
-To shoot somebody 14 times indicates just absolute rage.
-That's not a burglar.
This wasn't a situation where somebody broke into the home
And was surprised to find the homeowner there.
It seemed like someone was coming for becky.
-Tonight, the quincy police department
Releasing their latest statement
About the homicide investigation.
-Officials say a family member found
41-year-old rebecca bliefnick dead in a home
In the 2500 block of kentucky road.
-It's been 24 hours since the body of becky bliefnick
Was found inside her quincy, illinois home.
Thanks to a neighbor's security camera,
The investigators now have footage
Of a shadowy figure lurking near becky's backyard
On the night before the murder.
And while the detectives work behind the scenes,
News of becky's devastating death
Leaves her close friends in shock.
-We couldn't believe it.
We couldn't believe that someone that we loved,
Who had this beautiful family, was just gone.
And she was murdered.
It's horrible.
-Who would want to hurt this strong,
Beautiful, awesome woman that has it all together.
I mean, why would you hurt somebody that helps people?
-We're talking to a lot of different people --
We are talking to her family, we're talking to her co-workers,
Talking to her friends.
And what was clear to us was that the major issue
In becky's life, more than anything else was the divorce.
-Tim's appearance was disintegrating
Over the course of the divorce.
He said at the beginning of covid that he was going to
Grow his hair out until the end of the pandemic.
He didn't even look like the same person that she married.
He became even more vindictive, he became a very hateful person.
She was convinced that he was willing to do
Just about anything to prevent her from
"winning" the divorce.
-We learned that during the course of the divorce,
Tim bliefnick was asking for,
If not sole custody, majority of the custody time.
At one point, I think he asked for 60% of custody,
And that becky would get 40% custody of the boys.
And he asked for a lot of other things
That were similar to that, that were in my view,
Extreme asks in a divorce case.
It was clear that it was a very contentious divorce,
And it had been going on for about two years.
-So at this point, we have tim bliefnick.
We have ted johnson who is the boyfriend.
And we're still keeping an open mind,
There could be this unknown person that murdered becky.
We still had to figure out who did it.
So we start collecting surveillance videos.
We already got the video from the neighbor next door
So we started working our way out.
The goal was, "what can we see
That would correlate with that timeframe
On the 23rd when becky tried to call 911?"
-We're looking to find any vehicles or people,
That were coming and going in the direction of becky's house.
-We ultimately found surveillance video
From the quincy public school bus barn
Almost a mile from becky's house.
And what that showed us kind of took things
In a different direction.
-The video shows a cyclist out for a late night ride.
-That was really weird, because it's cold in February in quincy.
And, that's just not an area where people ride a bicycle
In the middle of the night.
-You can't tell who that person is.
You can't tell what they look like,
If they're male or female.
We just know it's a person on the bicycle
Not too long before becky had called 911.
And it's going southbound,
Which would be in the direction of becky's house.
-When we're looking at the video,
And we're looking at all the details of this bicycle,
It's clear that it doesn't have any kind of reflectors on it.
-So we get more video from the bus barn,
And we learn that that bicycle that's going southbound
Towards becky's house, we see the person on the bicycle again
Going back northbound
Shortly after becky tried to call 911.
-It seemed to us that we're dealing with the same person
From the next-door neighbor's driveway.
-And there's something else
That catches the detectives attention.
-And one of the interesting things about the crime scene
Is that when you're looking at the back of the house,
The person who did this
Went past at least three windows
To get to the one that they ultimately made entry to.
Why would you go past all these windows just to go to this one?
Was there a reason why that window was chosen?
-That window that becky's killer used,
It was a window that went to a bedroom
Of one of becky's three kids who was not there that night.
Did someone just get lucky,
Or did someone know that her kids weren't there that night?
-February 27th --
Four days after an intruder
Broke into becky bliefnick's home
And shot her 14 times.
Investigators surmise the killer knew becky's sons
Weren't in the house that night,
And gained easy entry
Through one of the boys bedroom windows.
And who had that knowledge?
Tim bliefnick, becky's estranged husband.
But he's not talking.
So the investigators focus on what they do have --
Security video showing a mysterious cyclist
In the vicinity of becky's house
Around the time she was murdered.
-When we found the bus barn video
Of a person riding a bicycle that doesn't have reflectors
In the direction of becky's house,
Obviously we wanted to find the bike from the video.
-Maybe it was in the area, maybe it was ditched
So we sent out detectives
To just basically search the area,
To see if we could locate the bike.
And on February 27th we did locate a bike
Behind a garage, laid down in some vegetation.
It looked like the bicycle from the bus barn video,
And it has no reflectors.
-So we take off the handlebars, we send them off for dna.
We even collected debris from the tires.
However much you could comb over a bike,
We combed over that bike.
-Finding that bike, that was a big deal to us,
Because it was located roughly a mile from becky's house,
And that distance is very doable on a bicycle.
And what we found was interesting,
It was approximately half a block from tim's house.
♪♪
-Seven days into the investigation,
Tim won't talk to the detectives.
But the investigators are determined to get answers.
So they request -- and are granted --
A search warrant for tim bliefnick's home.
On March 1, 2023, the search begins.
-We seized ipads, computers, gaming systems, phones,
A lot of electronic evidence.
-We did find a gun safe empty in his bedroom,
It did not have a firearm in it, which I thought was interesting.
And then they found 54 shell casings
That had been fired from a gun.
-It's not uncommon to see spent shell casings
In someone's house, you know,
Sometimes people will reuse the shell casings.
But we collected those to see
If they matched the spent 9 mm shell casings
At the homicide scene.
-Every time a gun fires a bullet,
It leaves marks on the shell casing,
Kind of like a fingerprint.
If you're able to find shell casings,
You can determine if they're fired from the same gun.
I didn't hold out a whole lot of hope,
Because what person would be silly enough
To keep shell casings, uh, from a gun
Where they committed a homicide?
-And as for becky's new boyfriend?
-We definitely vetted ted johnson,
Making sure that we weren't missing something,
And we were able to determine that it was unlikely
That he would have anything to do with the crime.
-With ted johnson crossed off the list of suspects,
Becky's grieving family lays her to rest.
-There was a large group of us from the hospital that attended.
A lot of doctors, fellow nurses.
The place was just full.
I think we probably waited for almost an hour
Before we actually got to walk through the line
And see the family.
-We had so many people calling us,
Sending us emails, um,
Waiting for hours at the wake and the funeral.
She was a light to so many people.
It's, um... [ sniffles ]
It was very special.
-Meanwhile, the quincy police department's
Mounting suspicion of tim
Has them taking a deep look
Into becky's pending divorce documents.
And what they uncover shocks everyone.
-We learned that becky sought an order of protection
Against her estranged husband's father, ray bliefnick.
She did not want ray bliefnick
To be around her kids unsupervised.
And that was one of the issues in the divorce.
-I didn't ask too many questions,
But there had to be something that was of concern,
Because becky's not the type of person to do that out of spite.
-And shortly before her murder,
Becky was about to bring her concerns to court.
For her next divorce hearing,
She was planning on calling witnesses
Who allege ray bliefnick was sexually inappropriate
With some of his female family members, including a minor.
-Becky had witnesses that were going to testify in court
For her saying that ray should not be left alone
With the children.
It was a big deal
That she was about to bring these witnesses with her
To the final divorce hearing.
-So, that gave us, at least in our opinion,
A possible motive for someone to want to hurt becky.
-Oh, my gosh, how do we have that kind of fortune
To find a piece of evidence like that?
-That just shocked us.
-People, when they're desperate, they don't see any way out,
They kill everybody around them, and then they kill themself.
We cannot let that happen.
♪♪
-For more than two weeks, the quincy police department
Has been under intense pressure
To solve the shocking murder of becky bliefnick.
And now they know her estranged father-in-law,
Ray bliefnick, may have a motive.
Becky was planning to make
Ray's allegedly questionable past public
In her final divorce hearing,
And ask the court to keep him away from her kids.
-The final part of the divorce, the final hearing,
Was scheduled about a week after she was found murdered.
We don't know what the final result was going to be,
But we do know that becky had witnesses subpoenaed,
And she was going to argue
That ray shouldn't be around her kids.
-If becky had brought out these witnesses during the divorce,
It would be really hard on both ray and tim.
-We certainly looked at ray bliefnick
To determine if he was a possible suspect for the crime.
-The person who would have had to have
Climbed up onto that house,
Would have had to have been somebody
That was very physically fit.
And ray bliefnick was an older gentleman
And just not nearly in good enough shape,
So we did not believe that ray bliefnick
Could have climbed up there and done that.
-Ray bliefnick was never criminally charged
Or officially investigated for any alleged misdeeds,
But public accusations of sexual inappropriateness
Could cause distress to the entire bliefnick family,
Including tim.
Tim's still not talking,
So detectives team up to examine all of his digital devices.
-Digital evidence can be a digital footprint
Of a person's life, so we spent a lot of time
On tim's laptop and his cellphone.
-The detectives are also looking for any connection
With tim and that abandoned bicycle
They believe was seen on the bus barn video
The night becky was murdered.
-So, I searched for the brand of bike it was,
Which was a schwinn,
And lo and behold it popped up a facebook post
For the same bike.
Tim had used a bogus name
For facebook marketplace transactions.
-And what we find is that this person, john smith
Had been communicating with somebody
To buy a blue bike just like the bike
That we found abandoned half a block from his house.
-And it was just one of those "oh, my gosh,
How do we have that kind of fortune
To find a piece of evidence like that?"
Like, what are the chances of something like that happening?
-The other thing that we found on tim's phone
That was exceptionally relevant to us
Was his search history
And things that he was searching.
And we learned that he had searched several phrases
And terms that just shocked us.
He was searching, "how to pry open a door with a crowbar.
How to wash gunpowder off my hands."
He was searching "quincy police department response time."
It just did not seem like the actions of an innocent person.
-Tim's digital footprint now makes him the only suspect
In becky bliefnick's murder.
And the case against him gets even stronger
When the investigators receive the final ballistics report
On the 9 millimeter shell casings
Seized from tim's basement.
-One gun had shot the shell casings
That were found in tim's basement.
And it had shot the 8 shell casings
That were found by becky's body on the night of her murder.
-That was the moment that we knew we had our guy.
-I couldn't believe that we got such a lucky break.
-Now, we really need to place him under arrest
Without incident.
-We were worried about
If tim was not in custody
Because sometimes people when they're desperate,
They don't see any way out, they kill everybody around them,
And then they kill themself.
We cannot let that happen.
-So on the day that we decided to conduct the arrest of tim,
We had several patrol officers get involved,
We had investigations involved.
-Ensuring the safety of the boys was the highest priority.
So we had set up a surveillance team to follow him,
To make sure basically that he dropped the boys off at school.
-But there was some confusion.
After tim took the kids to school,
It didn't go exactly as we planned.
We lost eyes on his vehicle.
He did not return to his home.
And then, other investigators saw a vehicle
That looked like tim's vehicle go down kentucky road,
So we went down kentucky road,
And we saw tim's vehicle parked behind becky's house.
Our emergency response team responded to the scene.
-So, we have to be very careful.
Tim was backed into a corner now.
And anyone could become very unpredictable
When in that particular type of situation.
-19 days after becky bliefnick's horrific murder
Rocks the small town of quincy, illinois,
Police are about to make an arrest.
Tim bliefnick, becky's estranged husband, is in their sights.
-As our emergency response team approached the house,
Tim came out of the back.
-It's a high-risk arrest.
Our emergency response team gave him commands.
He followed all commands, he was read his rights,
Placed in handcuffs without incident,
And taken to the adams county jail.
-He looked stoic.
He didn't have much of an expression on his face.
He didn't say anything to detective cowick,
Who was right there.
-Tim did not make any statements,
He exercised his constitutional right to remain silent.
-On March 13, 2023,
Tim bliefnick is formally charged with becky's murder.
-When tim was arrested, I think my heart sank.
I think we're all still in shock of what happened.
I wouldn't have thought in a million years
That he would do this to her.
-Tim bliefnick is behind bars, but he may not be for long.
That's because in illinois, defendants have the right
To a speedy trial if they're being detained.
That gives prosecutors only 90 days to prepare their case,
Or else the charges may be dropped.
Tim bliefnick makes the first move by pleading not guilty.
Will prosecutors be ready before the clock runs out?
-We have loads of circumstantial evidence that's piling up,
But we don't have the smoking gun.
So it was a lot of information
To piece together in a way that it would make sense in trial.
-Any one of those pieces of evidence,
In and of itself, doesn't make a case,
But you start to put that puzzle together,
And you can see what's really going on.
-On may 31, 2023,
A courtroom full of becky's loved ones awaits the verdict.
-So the jury comes back in,
I looked at becky's family,
And they're all just holding themselves, holding hands.
-I remember hearing "guilty"
And I remember looking over at becky's father, bill postle,
And he's just crying.
-The judge agreed natural life was the appropriate sentence,
So tim will be spending the rest of his life
In the custody of the illinois department of corrections.
-Hearing "guilty," it was a relief.
There's no happiness to it.
But it was over.
-I felt extreme sadness because her kids that she loved so much,
Lost both parents that day.
Forever.
-Tim orchestrated the worst possible horror for my father.
It wasn't enough for him to murder my father's daughter,
He had to have him find her,
And let that image be the last he had of her.
-Today, becky's beloved sons live with her parents,
Who are in the process of adopting them.
Becky bliefnick was a strong, independent nurse
Who cared deeply for her patients,
Friends, and family.
But even her closest confidantes had little idea
What this loving mother was dealing with
Behind closed doors.
As her long-time marriage fell apart,
She accepted divorce, fought for her children's safety,
And looked forward to a brighter future.
But just as she was regaining her power,
Her promising new life was cut short --
All because of a killer relationship.