Former “Family Feud” contestant Timothy Bliefnick was found guilty of murder for fatally shooting his estranged wife during a bitter divorce and custody battle.
Timothy Bliefnick, 39, had been separated from his wife Rebecca “Becky” Postle Bliefnick, 41, when he broke into the second-story window of her Illinois home in February and shot her 14 times.
The trial lasted for just over a week before the jury returned the verdict on Wednesday.
Prosecutors alleged that Bliefnick used Google to research how to commit a murder before riding a bike to her house — which was about a mile away from where he was staying.
He pried open the second-story window with a crowbar and shot his wife.
Postle Bliefnick’s body was found by her father on Feb. 23 after she failed to pick her kids up from school.
Bliefnick’s internet search history included “How to open my door with a crowbar,” “How to make a homemade pistol silencer,” “Can you wash off gunpowder residue” and “What is the average Quincy police department response time,” Quincy Police Department detective Eric Cowick testified.
The couple married in 2009 but had been separated for several years and were going through divorce proceedings at the time of Rebecca’s death. They were also fighting for custody of their three children.
In 2020, Bliefnick appeared with his family on the popular TV game show “Family Feud.”
Bliefnick was arrested on March 13 — more than two weeks after police had executed a search warrant at his home. Investigators recovered a number of shell casings that matched those found at the scene.
The murder weapon was never recovered. Postle Bliefnick’s handgun was missing from her home. Her gun was one of several models that could have matched with the casings, according to Illinois State Police forensics experts.
During the trial, Postle Bliefnick’s sister, Sarah Reilly, testified that she received a text message that read, “If something ever happens to me, make sure the No. 1 person of interest is Tim.”
“I am putting this in writing that I’m fearful he will somehow harm me, come after me, or will try to [do] something to me that takes me away from the kids or the kids away from me,” Postle Bliefnick texted her sister, Reilly testified. “He already has lied multiple times to paint himself as a victim and me as the perpetrator when it is absolutely the other way around.”
Bliefnick’s attorney, Casey Schnack, argued that “the state has come up woefully short in their quest to prove Tim guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
She had previously told Fox News that she has evidence suggesting one or more individuals were stalking Postle Bliefnick’s neighborhood in the week before her murder.
Bliefnick declined to testify at the trial.
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