Post Mortem | The Game Show and the Killer

0:00Erin Moriarty:Before we jump into today's episode, just a reminder, you can watch the video versions of 48 Hours Postmortem on YouTube and now streaming on Netflix. Go deeper with a behind-the-scenes perspective and in-depth conversations with the correspondents who were there. Watch on YouTube or stream on Netflix.

0:30Erin Moriarty:I'm Anne-Marie 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 are 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty and producer Stephanie Slifer. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having us. Yeah, and we love talking about this case because we've spent the last few months talking about this case. We should get into it. Listen, if you are a true crime 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.

1:11Erin Moriarty:Just in case people can't remember, here's a quick recap. Tim Blevenick was arrested and charged in March 2023 with murdering his estranged wife, Becky Blevenick. 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, saying I do. It was supposed to be funny. Prosecutors Josh Jones and Laura Keck say it wasn't the game show. It was other evidence that led them to Tim Blefnick.

1:55The couple had been going through a contentious divorce, and Becky had told family and friends that she feared Tim might harm her.

2:03Erin Moriarty:The idea 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 Bleefnik, but there's one big problem. I mean, you can't see whether it's male, female. It's terrible. The video's terrible. That's not Tim in that video. You can't tell who it is. Casey Schnock is Tim Blefnick's defense attorney. There were prowlers in the area. It wasn't a random prowler. It was an execution.

2:41Erin Moriarty:So this small town case gained national attention in large part due to an answer Tim gave on an episode of 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 piqued your interest? Well, I think we were like everybody else. When you realize that three years earlier before his wife is killed, he's making this offhanded remark about the regret he had on his wedding day with saying, I do. But of course, he was picking a very good answer for Family Feud. It was a good answer? Right. It was. It turned out to be like that.

3:19It was number two on the board. No. Yes. So, I mean, he really was playing the game right. 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 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 this man really throw his entire life away? It didn't make sense because these kids would lose both their mom and their dad. It didn't make sense.

4:02So 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.

4:33So 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's sister told us she wasn't really bothered by it at the time.

4:46Erin Moriarty:I think one of the things that kind of bothered me watching this is precisely what you said, Erin, that this looks like a perfect family. But you know what? Perfect families fall apart. 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 didn't make sense. People get divorced all the time and it doesn't end in murder. And Aaron asked him in the interview, you know, you filed for divorce.

5:28Why not just end it? Why I have this drag out. And he didn't really want to get into the details of that for whatever reason.

5:37Erin Moriarty:So how did you manage to get this interview with Tim? It took a lot of patience and perseverance. We started by sending Tim 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 in 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 from her office.

6:19And 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 you usually have to make appointments ahead of time or requests. This is Quincy, Illinois. OK, OK. It's a wonderful but small town. Just a wonderful town. But we got lucky, though, because they weren't even allowing in-person visits. It was all like 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.

6:57So he had his deputy lead us downstairs, brought us into a room. And next thing you know, we were face to face with Tim.

7:04Erin Moriarty:And he wants to talk. Well, wait a minute. 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? But Stephanie stayed really in contact with him. And I think Stephanie was very successful in explaining, look, 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 message on my phone and it was him.

7:51Yes, 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 from there. And ultimately, he decided he did want to talk to us.

8:15Erin Moriarty:So during this interview, Erin, 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 who's in jail or prison, 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.

8:56He 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. 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 at 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?

9:41He doesn't have, you know, we, of course, ask whether that who would. Does he have another idea? Because, you know, this was a very violent murder. She was shot 14 times, 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.

10:16Erin Moriarty:So let's talk a little bit about Tim and Becky's relationship. In the hour, you showed a video of Becky and Tim during one of their arguments. Tim said that Becky had become combative during a disagreement at a parent-teacher night. I want to play a little sound. I'm asking you to stop harassing me and stop following me. I'm not harassing you. I'm asking you. He offered this video of the incident as proof. I will make a copy for you. I don't want you to take me. Then stop doing this. Do you guys sort of think about how much of their relationship 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.

11:01That 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 of 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. But I didn't see, in my view, but somebody else might see it differently. I didn't see her threatening him.

11:41I saw a very frustrated woman 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.

12:06Erin Moriarty: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 has fallen apart and a homicide. It just you're like, how do you make that leap? But then there are some text messages that are presented by the prosecution. 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.

12:49I said, what did he do? And that text was prompted by the murder of one of her colleagues. one of the nurses that she knew was murdered by her partner. That scared her. She felt like this could happen. This is real. You know what? When I, you know, look at those texts, what I was most struck by was the prosecutor, Laura Keck, who said to us that 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 believed that Tim Blevnik 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, reflected the fact that, sadly, Becky was seeing something that her friends and the neighbors and people didn't see.

13:52And that is what has stayed with me. 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 it 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.

14:27Erin Moriarty: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, and 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. 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.

15:09Erin Moriarty: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 back.

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16:35Erin Moriarty:Welcome back. This case really moved at lightning speed. Becky was gunned down, killed in her own home on February 23rd, 2023. Tim went on trial for her murder May 23rd, 2023. Exactly three months later, exactly three 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. They then the evidence is pointing toward Tim. They arrest him.

17:18He 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. And so one of the reasons why I was so interested in doing this case 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.

18:01And 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. And I mean, I spoke about 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.

18:48Wow. And to them, that meant that they had the right guy. Right. Because, 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 whoop was working. 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.

19:33And therefore, there was no data during those time periods. But it turns out because he lives so close to her 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 cell tower anyway. And so, you know, that that was interesting. And that helped the prosecution.

20:03Erin Moriarty: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 somebody was going back and forth for the direction of tim's house to her house then back 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 jurors in every single.

20:41You learn something that there's no other way you're going to find this out. Yes. So Erin 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.

21:16He said when he saw that surveillance video play in court, he knew it was Tim's walk.

21:22Erin Moriarty:So they did not deliberate for very long. But one of the other things you learned about the deliberations is that there was a holdout 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 holdout and they had to go over the evidence multiple times before they were able to reach a unanimous verdict.

21:59But think about it, Anne-Marie, there really wasn't much direct evidence. And in fact, the jurors 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. there were 27 spent shell casings found in his house that prosecution said matched I mean they had expert that said matched the shell casings found at the crime scene I think that was probably the real problem with jurors there wasn't a lot of direct evidence and as we all see he just didn't

22:41Erin Moriarty: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, you know, there are her text messages. He would have been asked about why. Right. So, you know, the prosecution would have been able to bring up things. And I think 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, Becky had a boyfriend spend the night.