Samantha Woll, the Detroit synagogue leader who was killed on Saturday, was known as a “bridge builder” between Muslims and Jewish communities, according to her loved ones and local advocacy groups.
Woll, 40, the board president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue (IADS) since 2022, was found stabbed to death Saturday morning outside her home in Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood, according to the Detroit Police Department and Michigan State Police (MSP).
“The Michigan State Police is on the ground and working with the Detroit Police Department as they continue to investigate the tragic death of Samantha Woll,” MSP Col. James F. Grady II said in a statement.
A motive for Woll’s slaying had not been determined at the time of publication. DPD Chief James E. White cautioned against drawing conclusions while urging people to be patient as the investigation continues, according to a statement by the department Saturday night.
The Detroit synagogue board president, 40-year-old Samantha Woll, was found stabbed to death on October 21 outside of her home, according to local authorities. Courtesy of Jewish Community Relations Council
Newsweek reached out via email and Facebook on Saturday to the DPD and the IADS for comment.
Woll was lauded for her professional accomplishments in the feature article “36 Under 36” by The Detroit Jewish News in 2017. The outlet noted that she had been “instrumental” in founding the Muslim-Jewish Forum of Detroit, which fosters positive relationships between those communities.
The “36 Under 36” feature said that the forum Woll co-founded has helped to “build and deepen” relationships that did not previously exist between the young Jewish and Muslim people in the area.
“By extending her hand and creating space for connection between Muslims and Jews, she has exemplified the values of healing the world,” The Detroit Jewish News wrote.
Newsweek reached out via Facebook to the Muslim-Jewish Forum of Detroit for comment.
Sam Dubin, a spokesperson for the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), told Newsweek on Saturday night that the advocacy group is “absolutely heartbroken” over Woll’s death and harkened her as “an incredible leader.”
Dubin said Woll, who was a JCRC member, was a “passionate Muslim-Jewish bridge builder.”
“We are grieving for her family and our community,” Dubin said. “She will forever be remembered as a ray of sunlight to all who knew her.”
Woll has led efforts to unite the two communities for years, including a 2015 event she hosted at Wayne State University to bring together “unconventional allies,” Woll told Detroit public radio station WDET. The public event was planned by the Greater Detroit Muslim Jewish Solidarity Counciland included artwork and essays from Muslim and Jewish high school students who participated in a program called “We Refuse to Be Enemies.”
During her role as board president of the IADS, a century-old institution that is the only free-standing synagogue in downtown Detroit, Woll recently led the renovation of the renovation of the historic building on Griswold Street.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, praised Woll’s efforts on the renovation and said that he was “devastated” by the loss of “one of Detroit’s great young leaders.”
“Just weeks ago, I shared a day of joy with Sam at the dedication of the newly renovated Downtown Synagogue,” he wrote. “It was a project she successfully led with great pride and enthusiasm.”
In a subsequent post, the mayor added: “Sam’s loss has left a huge hole in the Detroit community. This entire city joins with her family and friends in mourning her tragic death.”
Woll was also the co-chair of the American Jewish Committee’s ACCESS Detroit Young Leadership Program and a board member of the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan.
In addition to being active in the Jewish community, Woll also had political connections. She previously worked for U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin and on the campaigns of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and State Representative Stephanie Chang, all Democrats.
Chang said in a Facebook post that Woll was a “beautiful friend.”
“Sam Woll was an endlessly positive, brilliant, creative, supportive, beautiful friend with a big heart and wonderful smile,” Chang said in the post, adding that Woll was “passionate about social justice, Detroit, her faith, and bringing people together.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
The murders of two young women, killed months apart while riding their bikes along a canal in Phoenix, Arizona, went unsolved for more than two decades and would become known as the Phoenix canal murders.
Investigators got a break 21 years after the murders thanks to DNA and genetic genealogy. They zeroed in on Bryan Patrick Miller, 42, a divorced father raising his teenage daughter. Investigators soon discovered Miller had an alter ego. He was a local celebrity known for participating in parades and festivals as the Zombie Hunter.
A person of interest, detectives just needed a sample of Miller’s DNA to make the case or eliminate him as a suspect.
TWO YOUNG WOMEN VICIOUSLY MURDERED ALONG BIKE PATH
Clark Schwartzkopf: It’s one of those cases that you just don’t forget … you can’t unsee what happened to those girls, you just can’t.
Long before the man known as the Zombie Hunter became the prime suspect in the canal murders, Clark Schwartzkopf was a detective with the Phoenix Police Department’s cold case squad. His mission was simple but pointed: find the killer responsible for those vicious murders of two young women from the early 1990s.
Clark Schwartzkopf: To this day, I’m still not exactly sure about what … happened on those … bike paths.
The case began on Nov. 8, 1992. Angela Brosso, a tech worker who had recently moved to Phoenix, was taking advantage of beautiful weather to get in a little exercise, says Briana Whitney, the true crime reporter for the CBS affiliate KPHO in Phoenix.
Briana Whitney: Each night, she would go out for her evening bike ride just at golden hour at sunset, the best time to be riding out here.
Angela Brosso was viciously murdered on the eve of her 22nd birthday.
Cedar Cliff High School
Angela was only hours away from turning 22, and, like a lot of locals, she liked to bike on the paths that ran alongside the city’s distinctive canals, says Schwartzkopf, a “48 Hours” consultant.
Peter Van Sant: Are there places that are sort of natural ambush sites if somebody wants to attack someone?
Clark Schwartzkopf: Yeah, they are … there’s a lot of tunnels that go underneath the interstate.
That November evening in 1992, Angela left her apartment around 7 p.m., her boyfriend Joe later told police. He said he stayed home to bake Angela a birthday cake and didn’t expect her to be gone long.
Briana Whitney: Hours go by, and Joe grows concerned. Angela hasn’t come home. And that’s not like her.
Joe told police he took his bike out three times that night, frantically searching for Angela on the canal paths. He spoke to her friends — even her mother back in Pennsylvania. Finally, he reported Angela missing to police. The next morning, searchers came upon a horrific scene.
Detectives at the Angela Brosso crime scene.
KPHO
Briana Whitney: Angela Brosso’s torso was found in a field next to the trail that she had been riding her bike on.
Angela had been stabbed to death.
Approximately 10 days after Angela’s headless body was discovered, a man fishing along this section of the canal, spotted her head stuck on a grate.
Morgan Loew, an investigative reporter who also works at KPHO and is a “48 Hours” consultant, has been working on the canal killer case for more than a decade.
Morgan Loew: And from what we have heard from witnesses … the head was in amazingly good condition, especially considering this was days after the murder. … We’ve heard that the head looked like it had been preserved … Like it was a memento for the killer.
Angela’s purple mountain bike was also missing. There were no solid leads, and the case went quiet until September 1993—10 months after Angela’s murder—when the mother of 17-year-old Melanie Bernas returned from a dinner date to find her daughter had broken her curfew and was not home. She then noticed that Melanie’s bicycle was missing.
Melanie Bernas, 17, was a student at Arcadia High School. “My time and my life froze at that very moment the day we found out,” said friend Rachael Schepemaker. “I made a promise to myself … I just never stopped talking about her.”
Maricopa County Court
Morgan Loew: Melanie decides to go on a bike ride … by around 10:30 when Melanie did not return, her mother … started calling her friends. “Is Melanie there?”
Rachel Schepemaker: Well, my mom took the phone call … said that Melanie’s mom was frantic and like nervous …
Rachel Schepemaker was one of Melanie’s close friends in high school.
Peter Van Sant: So initially when you hear … that her mother’s looking for her … You’re not thinking something terrible has happened to your friend?
Rachel Schepemaker: Definitely not. I thought she was with a friend and just forgot to communicate with her mom where she was.
Early the next morning Charlotte Pottle, a local resident, happened to be riding along the canal with her young daughter in a bicycle seat. Just as they came out of one of those tunnels that ran under the interstate, she spotted a puddle.
Charlotte Pottle: There was just a big puddle of something. … Ended up riding right through it … and having it splash up over me.
Pottle says something about the puddle bothered her, so a few minutes later she doubled back. That’s when she made a horrible realization.
Charlotte Pottle: I could tell that it was a puddle of red, that it was a puddle of blood.
Charlotte Pottle (pointing to a tree): And all of a sudden, as I’m looking at it, I noticed that there are some drag marks that went along over here.
Peter Van Sant: Toward that tree.
Charlotte Pottle: Towards that tree. Yes. … And then went around the tree and was drugged back … you could see the drag marks right here to the canal.
Pottle went home and called police. Later that night, the local news reported that a woman’s body had been found in the canal, close to where Angela Brosso’s head had been located.
Rachel Schepemaker: They found the body in a teal bodysuit. I was told by some other friends that Melanie did not own that. It can’t be her.
Schepemaker went to sleep convinced the body in the canal was not Melanie. But the next day —
Rachel Schepemaker: I’m at school … my friends just come up to me crying and saying it was Melanie.
Detectives strongly suspected Melanie had been targeted and stabbed in the back by the same person who had killed Angela.
Morgan Loew: Police believe that somehow, the killer got her off of her bike, whether he knocked her off of her bike or whether he asked her a question.
Schwartzkopf says the evidence indicates the killer approached the women from behind.
Clark Schwartzkopf :Both the knife wounds were the exact same position.
Investigators say the killer dragged Melanie’s body off the canal path removed her clothes and dressed her in that teal bodysuit.
Peter Van Sant: Along with the stabbing and the dismemberment, there was another component to these murders, wasn’t there?
Briana Whitney: Yeah, both women were sexually assaulted.
And that meant investigators had a crucial piece of evidence: DNA.
Clark Schwartzkopf: when the DNA from Melanie’s scene was finally tested later, it … matched to Angela’s scene. So, we knew for sure that we were dealing with the same perpetrator.
Investigators noted that the initial stab wounds to the backs of each woman were fatal and so precise that detectives suspected the killer might be a surgeon.
Morgan Loew: The details about what happened … were the kinds of things that kept parents from letting their kids out when the sun went down.
THE TRAIL LEADING TO THE “CANAL KILLER” BEGINS WITH DNA FROM THE CRIME SCENE
The murders of Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas in the early 1990s created fear in Phoenix that lasted for a generation.
Morgan Loew: They watched the news and read the newspaper every day, hoping that police would make an arrest. And it just kept going on and — nothing and nothing and nothing.
Investigators had collected matching male DNA from both the victims. But more than two decades passed and the canal murder cases went cold. Then, science finally caught up with the calendar.
Briana Whitney: It’s in 2014, Phoenix police detectives are at a DNA conference. … and a forensic genealogist from California is also at the conference.
Colleen Fitzpatrick, founder of Identifinders International, was there to meet with law enforcement.
Briana Whitney: And she goes up to these detectives, and says, hey, I can take Y chromosomes and create these DNA profiles and try to match … with genealogy to help solve criminal cases.
Fitzpatrick’s company had developed software that could mine public genealogy databases, searching for matches to crime scene DNA. The detectives heard her out.
Colleen Fitzpatrick: And then several weeks later, they sent me the Y-DNA profile … from the crime scene for the Phoenix canal murders.
Fitzpatrick’s company started crunching the data, hoping to provide Phoenix detectives with a name.
Colleen Fitzpatrick: We entered the numbers from the forensic profile into our software. … That’s where I came up with six matches to the name Miller.
While the genetic genealogy search produced the name Miller, it is also one of the most common last names. Detective Schwartzkopf started digging.
Peter Van Sant: You check your files and what do you find?
Clark Schwartzkopf: I think there were a total of six Millers that were on what I called my master list. … And I went down through the list … got to Bryan Patrick Miller.
Bryan Patrick Miller
LinkedIn
But who was Bryan Patrick Miller? Records showed he was 42 years old with a Phoenix address. That name was just one of more than 600 persons of interest who had lived in those case files for years, placed there by a tip. Police at the time seemingly did not pursue Miller.
Clark Schwartzkopf: We discovered his file downstairs.
Police learned Bryan Miller had a record dating back to before the canal murders. In May 1989, when he was just 16 years old, Miller crossed paths with Celeste Bentley.
Celeste Bentley: I was 24, and I was going to work. … I had … just noticed … a young boy on the bus.
Bentley says she and the boy got off at the same stop. Moments later, she felt something in her back.
Celeste Bentley: He had ran by me, I thought he had just hit me. … I just yelled at him. I was like … “why — why’d you do that,” you know? And then, I reached back and touched my back and realized that it was blood … I had been stabbed.
With a single knife wound to her upper back, Bentley screamed and managed to make it to the store where she worked. A coworker called for help. About 30 minutes later, when Bentley was in the back of an ambulance —
Celeste Bentley: The police came and said they found him, and they wanted to bring him to the ambulance to show him to me.
Bentley identified her assailant. Bryan Miller was charged with aggravated assault.
Celeste Bentley: They said that if he had held the blade the other way, he would’ve gone straight through my ribs, and I could have died.
Miller pleaded guilty and was sentenced to juvenile detention until he turned 18. It was a far cry from where Miller’s life had begun.
Briana Whitney: He was living in Hawaii for a while as a kid with his mom and his dad. But his dad died early on in a motorcycle accident.
Years later, Miller and his mother Ellen moved to Phoenix.
Briana Whitney: So, for most of his life and early years, it was Bryan Miller and his mom.
While Miller was in juvenile detention, his mother made a disturbing discovery.
Morgan Loew: Bryan Miller’s mom was looking through his stuff, and she found a note that he wrote.
A disturbing note written by a teenage Bryan Patrick Miller that his mother found while he was in juvenile detention. It spelled out how he wanted to find, abduct, rape, murder and dismember a young woman.
Phoenix Police Department
The pages detailed a sinister plan: kidnap the girl, tie her up in the truck and cut her clothes off.
Morgan Loew: This note spelled out how he wanted to find, abduct, rape, murder and dismember a young woman. And Bryan’s mom was so disturbed by this piece of paper that she took it to Phoenix police.
It was Miller’s 18th birthday and he had just been released as an adult.
Clark Schwartzkopf: She flat out told police at the time that she was really scared for her safety. … And that she was not going to allow him to come home.
So, after his release, Miller ended up at a Phoenix halfway house. When Schwartzkopf read that note in 2014, he was struck by something.
Clark Schwartzkopf: There was a lot of things in there that were close or similar to what happened specifically to Angela.
Including a description of decapitating a victim and preserving the head. Phoenix police wanted to locate Miller. Luckily, he was very easy to find.
INVESTIGATORS MEET BRYAN MILLER BUT DISCOVER HE IS THE ZOMBIE HUNTER
In December 2014, Phoenix police continued digging into potential suspect Bryan Miller who they discovered was actually a local celebrity.
Briana Whitney: Everybody at the time in the Phoenix area knew Bryan Patrick Miller as this character called the Zombie Hunter.
Peter Van Sant: The Zombie Hunter. … Like a comic book character?
Briana Whitney: Yeah, like a comic book character. Like a … good guy fighting the bad guys.
Miller’s alter ego was a costumed figure who participated in parades and festivals around town.
Briana Whitney: He wore this long trench coat with these goggles and helmet and had this large Gatling gun.
Bryan Patrick Miller in costume as the Zombie Hunter.
Ben Garcia
And if you’re going to hunt zombies, you need a way to get around.
Briana Whitney: He bought … an old police car and tricked it out … wrote “Zombie Hunter” on it.
Morgan Loew: And it had a full-size zombie mannequin in the back and blood on the side.
Friend Eric Braverman says Miller’s zombie hunter persona attracted a big fan base — including law enforcement officers who lined up to pose with him.
Eric Braverman: Collected pictures of himself with the cops like trophies. … They’re all smiling big with him leaning on the car.
Bryan Patrick Miller
Maricopa County Court
Braverman says Miller’s superhero character was the opposite of what Miller was like when he wasn’t in costume.
Eric Braverman: He seemed like a harmless marshmallow that was immersed in this goofy lifestyle. … He’s just that unassuming guy.
But could Miller be the canal killer? The only way to find out was to get his DNA. Investigators began to surveil Miller, who worked at an Amazon warehouse. Every day when he got there, Miller parked the zombie mobile in the same spot.
Clark Schwartzkopf: He would come out for his 15-minute break, blast his music really loud. … Lunchtime came out to the car, same thing. … Blast this God-awful music.
Schwartzkopf came up with an elaborate plan to get his DNA.
Clark Schwartzkopf: I went up and introduced myself to Miller. He was in his car.
Peter Van Sant: What did you introduce yourself as?
Clark Schwartzkopf: I introduced myself as a security consultant.
Schwartzkopf told Miller that thieves had been stealing goods from a warehouse across the way.
Clark Schwartzkopf: I said, “would you be interested in working for me as a security officer watching the building while you’re outside?”
Peter Van Sant: Did his eyes light up?
Clark Schwartzkopf: Yeah, because it was a good paying job. I said, look—”I’ll pay you 20 bucks an hour.”
On Jan. 2, 2015, Schwartzkopf met Miller at a Chili’s restaurant to fill out a job application. The cold case unit was behind the scenes ready to bag anything that had Miller’s DNA on it, such as utensils or a glass.
Clark Schwartzkopf: They set a table for me and Mr. Miller away from everybody else in a part of the restaurant where nobody else is at.
Miller arrived with a surprise guest — his 15-year-old daughter, Sarah. Miller was a divorced, single dad.
Eric Braverman: He was very gentle in caring about his daughter. He often brought his daughter … where he would be going.
The trio sat down and ordered hamburgers. When the food arrived —
Clark Schwartzkopf: He swallows his hamburger, in like, five bites. … Won’t take a drink of his water. And I’m sitting there going, “Are you sure you … don’t want … something else to drink? You just got water.” “No, no, I’m good, I’m good, I’m good.”
Schwartzkopf started to worry this operation would be a bust.
Peter Van Sant: And what does he finally do that makes this mission accomplished?
Clark Schwartzkopf: He finally took a drink from the water glass … That’s when I knew that, OK, now we’ve at least got his DNA.
The mug Bryan Patrick Miller drank from during the sting.
Maricopa County Court
Despite knowing about Miller’s juvenile record, as their meal ended, the veteran detective’s gut told him Miller was nottheir man.
Clark Schwartzkopf: Seeing him with his daughter. … I just don’t see this guy as being the monster in 1992 and ’93 that would do this to these women.
Miller gave Schwartzkopf a quick tour of his Zombie Hunter mobile, and the two parted ways with the detective saying he’d be in touch. The cold case unit sent Miller’s water glass off to the crime lab.
Eleven days later, Schwartzkopf says there was a call from the lab.
Clark Schwartzkopf: And we’re sitting there and we’re like, “what is this all about?”
Briana Whitney: And in this meeting, these Phoenix detectives say, as a joke, “Huh, they must have solved the canal murders.”
But Detective Schwartzkopf says it was no joke when the head of the lab arrived.
Clark Schwartzkopf: She leans down to me, she goes, “It’s him.” I go “What?” She goes, “Bryan Miller, it’s him.” … Well, the blood rushed from my head. … I kind of sat back and I went, “You’ve gotta be kidding.”
Bryan Miller’s DNA from that water glass matched the DNA recovered from Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas more than 20 years before. Miller was arrested within hours. During a police interview shortly after, Miller was told why he’d been taken into custody in connection with the canal murders.
DETECTIVE: We have DNA that links you to those two ladies.
BRYAN MILLER: I don’t see how that’s possible.
Clark Schwartzkopf: He just kind of … went through it in his dopey kind of, I don’t know what you’re kind of talking about.
DETECTIVE: Would help you get it off your chest if you did something like that.
BRYAN MILLER: I didn’t kill anyone.
DETECTIVE: You didn’t kill anybody?
BRYAN MILLER: No.
Investigators got a search warrant for Miller’s house, the home he shared with his teenage daughter and just about everything he’d ever collected in his life.
Bryan Patrick Miller’s kitchen.
Phoenix Police Department
Clark Schwartzkopf: I can remember like it was yesterday walking up to the front door and everybody going, “you can’t get in that way” … “It’s full of crap.”
Morgan Loew: Bryan Miller’s house was like it came from the show “Hoarders.”
Clark Schwartzkopf: There was a little pass where you could get to a bathroom and the kitchen and where the TV was, and that’s it. Everything else is just stacked to the roof with garbage.
Peter Van Sant: Did you look around and go, “This is madness?”
Clark Schwartzkopf: Not only madness, I go, “This is a nightmare.”
Schwartzkopf and his investigators would have to sift through all of it looking for other possible evidence. Detective Schwartzkopf also focused on a new source — someone Miller himself had ominously singled out in his interview.
BRYAN MILLER (to detective): It’s the one person on the face of the earth I could probably honestly say I hate.
Miller’s ex-wife Amy, who would end up revealing gruesome details from Miller’s violent past.
Clark Schwartzkopf: He had told her about the murder of a young girl who had come to his door accidentally.
BRYAN MILLER’S VIOLENT PAST REVEALED
In January 2015, more than 21 years after the canal murders, Bryan Miller was charged with first-degree murder in both Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas’ deaths. Melanie’s friend Rachel Schepemaker says she felt a wave of relief.
Rachel Schepemaker: A very joyous moment of “Oh my gosh, this is what we’ve been waiting for, for decades upon decades.”
Detective Schwartzkopf wanted to talk to the one person who probably knew Miller best, his ex-wife Amy.
Clark Schwartzkopf: They had been married for eight years. There was a divorce.
Amy told Schwartzkopf that she was just 19 when she met Bryan Miller in 1996. They married less than a year later and moved to Everett, Washington. Amy had a shocking revelation for the detective. She told Schwartzkopf Miller had revealed a gruesome secret to her: that he had killed a young girl in Phoenix years earlier, before he’d ever met Amy. Schwartzkopf says Amy never reported it to police before for a number of reasons; she didn’t know if it was true, she was afraid of Miller and she said she wanted to be a good wife.
Clark Schwartzkopf: You support your man no matter what.
Detective Schwartzkopf says Amy told him what Miller had said.
Clark Schwartzkopf: That a young girl had come to his door. … That he had grabbed this young female, pulled her in, killed her immediately.
Amy said Miller told her he dismembered the girl and disposed of her remains in trash left on the curb. Although Amy claimed Miller never told her the child’s name, investigators used the information Amy provided to piece together who Miller may have been talking about.
Briana Whitney: Thirteen-year-old Brandy Myers was a little girl collecting money for a school book-a-thon in her north Phoenix neighborhood, going door to door.
Kristin Dennis: I was a tomboy, and she was a girlie girl.
Brandy Myers
Phoenix Police Department
Brandy’s sister, Kristin Dennis.
Kristin Dennis: So, she would try to learn how to climb trees or jump fences because she wanted to play with me. She was my best friend.
It was May 26, 1992, six months prior to the murder of Angela Brosso. Miller was living in the halfway house following his time in juvenile detention for the aggravated assault of Celeste Bentley.
Kristin Dennis: This is one block from our school, his home, and then three blocks is our house. So, every single day, we walked right by here.
Dennis says Brandy left home alone that evening, never to return.
Kristin Dennis: She was last seen two doors down from Bryan’s … walking in the direction of his house.
Despite an extensive search, Brandy’s body was never found. Schwartzkopf says even though Amy couldn’t provide a name, the clues in her account add up to just one conclusion.
Clark Schwartzkopf: I believe that person is in fact, Brandy Myers.
Her sister believes that as well.
Kristin Dennis: Brandy went to the landfill … like something of no importance.
Even with Amy’s account, investigators did not have enough evidence to charge Miller in Brandy’s disappearance.
Clark Schwartzkopf: So, the fact that she was disposed of … there’s nothing physical, nothing forensically to grab onto.
Melissa Ruiz-Ramirez
Clark Schwartzkopf
“48 Hours” contacted Miller who said he had no involvement in Brandy’s disappearance and never confessed to Amy that he had killed a young girl. But there isanother case in Miller’s past.
Morgan Loew: In 2002, a woman named Melissa Ruiz-Ramirez is walking down the street in Everett at night … Somebody pulls over.
It was Bryan Miller. Ruiz-Ramirez would later tell police she’d seen him before, talking to a friend of hers. Ruiz-Ramirez said she got in Miller’s car and told him she needed to make a call and he drove her to his workplace so she could use the phone.
Morgan Loew: She tells police she’s on the phone and from out of the clear blue, Bryan Miller comes running out with a 12-inch serrated kitchen knife and stabs her in the back. They fight over … the weapon.
Ruiz-Ramirez said she escaped and contacted police. They picked up Miller shortly after. He didn’t deny stabbing Ruiz-Ramirez, but claimed it was self-defense. He said he was at work when Ruiz-Ramirez walked in off the street and asked to make a call.
Clark Schwartzkopf: He said … she goes to use a phone. And then … all of a sudden out of the clear blue … she tries to rob him with a knife.
Miller was arrested and charged with first degree assault with a deadly weapon. He was jailed from May 2002 until his December trial.
Clark Schwartzkopf: The jury just didn’t buy Melissa’s story. … It was a “he said, she said” … and they acquitted him of the charge.
Amy says a chilling change followed Miller’s return home. She said it began with the letters she’d received from her jailed husband while he awaited trial.
Clark Schwartzkopf: They first started out as … professing his innocence, and then it would turn into sexual deviance. Like, here’s what I’m going to do when I get out to you.
Amy told Schwarzkopf that Miller followed up his words with action.
Clark Schwartzkopf: She said he came back with an unbelievable, ugly, dark sexual deviant side that she’d never seen before.
Clark Schwartzkopf: There were times where there was sex between them where he held a knife to her throat.
Amy told Schwartzkopf that Miller claimed something happened to him as a child — something that would become the cornerstone of his defense for murdering Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas. His unique defense? His mother had created a monster.
THE TRIAL OF THE ZOMBIE HUNTER
At the start of Bryan Miller’s trial for the murders of Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas in October 2022, his attorneys opened with a startling defense—they admitted their client was the canal killer.
Morgan Loew: They had to concede right off the bat that he is the actual killer, but that he was not guilty by reason of insanity.
His defense attorneys say Miller was tortured by his mother Ellen as a child, and that led to his violent sexual behavior. She died in 2010.
Morgan Loew: If you imagine the making of a monster, this is kind of the household … that story begins in.
Miller told investigators after his arrest that the beatings began when he was just 5 years old.
Morgan Loew: She was a detention officer. Discipline in their house was mental as well as physical.
BRYAN MILLER (to detective): She used her security belt, and it was like a law enforcement belt, and usually I got hit by the buckle.
Ellen and Bryan Miller.
Clark Schwartzkopf
The defense opted for a bench trial, which meant there would be no jury. His lawyers told Judge Suzanne Cohen that Miller’s mother also exposed her young son to violent sexual content.
Morgan Loew: He was exposed to her interests in pornography and extremely violent films.
Miller’s lawyers said his mother’s abuse caused Miller to develop severe mental health problems.
Bethany Brand: He feels like there are different TVs playing in his head.
Psychologist Bethany Brand testified that Miller developed a condition known as dissociative amnesia — an inability to remember some traumatic events. Morgan Loew summed up the defense argument.
Morgan Loew: There were two Bryans. There’s the one you see over there at the defense table, who’s a fairly normal person who has friends, who had a job, who was a dad, who was a husband. … And then there’s the killer. There’s bad Bryan.
And Miller, claimed his attorneys, had no memory—none—of the two murders he was charged with.
Prosecutors undermine the defense claim that Miller has no memory of the killings. They point out that he remembers details related to other stabbings.
Remember, Miller admitted stabbing Celeste Bentley when he was 16 years old, and in 2002 he had also testified about the stabbing of Melissa Ruiz-Ramirez in Washington.
To show Miller’s deviant side, prosecutors called the only person in the world Miller said he despised: his ex-wife Amy. The judge did not allow cameras to record her face. Under questioning by prosecutor Elizabeth Reamer, Amy testified that later in their marriage, Miller grew increasingly violent during sex.
ELIZABETH REAMER: Did you ever say anything to him about wanting it to stop because it was scary?
AMY MILLER: No.
ELIZABETH REAMER: Why not?
AMY MILLER: I was avoiding any confrontation with him at all at that point and (sighs) wanted to be as compliant as possible so that I would say, will he love me enough not to kill me?
ELIZABETH REAMER: Did he ask permission prior to using needles on you?
AMY MILLER: No.
ELIZABETH REAMER: Did he ask permission prior to tying you up?
AMY MILLER: No.
ELIZABETH REAMER: What percentage of your sex life after he got out of jail in Washington included bondage, the pins or other things that were not the normal sex you’d been having early in your marriage?
AMY MILLER: Probably at least 95 percent.
The trial continued and after 6 months and 36 witnesses, the judge delivered her verdict.
JUDGE COHEN: As to count one, first-degree murder Angela Brosso is as follows: guilty. … As to count two, first-degree murder victim Melanie Bernas as follows: guilty.
Bryan Patrick Miller during his murder trial.
Pool
Peter Van Sant: How did Bryan Miller react to the guilty verdict?
Morgan Loew: He didn’t react. … He didn’t give any real emotion.
But Angela’s mother, who addressed the court remotely, was emotional.
LINDA BROSSO STROCK: The defendant broke my heart … took all hope and light from me and my family. The hole in my heart is so big and empty.
Melanie’s older sister Jill Bernas also spoke remotely about how painful it was that Melanie’s life ended violently at the age of 17.
JILL BERNAS CANETTA: For 30 years now, we’ve had to live without Melanie because the defendant murdered her … Words cannot even begin to describe the level of excruciating pain we experienced with the news of her horrific death.
Miller—who didn’t take the stand during his trial—was allowed to give a statement before he was sentenced.
BRYAN MILLER: I am not looking for sympathy today. This time is for the family and friends of the victims. I cannot imagine what pain they have endured for all these years. … I know I am different. … I thought it had to do with what my mother did to me.
Defense counsel RJ Parker urged Judge Cohen to show mercy before she delivered her judgement on Miller’s sentence, life in prison or death.
RJ PARKER: You do not have to kill Bryan in order to see justice done.
Judge Cohen agreed with the centerpiece of the defense case.
JUDGE COHEN: The defendant’s abuse as a child was proven.
But eight months after the trial began, Miller’s abuse at the hands of his mother did not dissuade Judge Cohen from handing down the ultimate sentence.
JUDGE COHEN: There is no question that what the defendant did deserves the death penalty.
JUDGE COHEN: Mr. Miller, anything you wish to say to the court?
BRYAN MILLER:I guess, thanks for, uh, listening to everything that was said and giving us at least the opportunity to try and convince you otherwise.
Det. Clark Schwartzkopf: Justice was carried out in this case.
Melanie Bernas and Angela Brosso
Arcadia High School/Phoenix Police Department
Detective Schwartzkopf hopes family and friends of Angela and Melanie might finally find some peace — people like Melanie’s friend Rachael Schepemaker.
Rachel Schepemaker: Just knowing that justice was served … it doesn’t make anything easier.
Peter Van Sant: How do you want your good friend to be remembered?
Rachel Schepemaker: Just that she’s the all-American good kid.
Rachel Schepemaker: I want her family to know that we haven’t forgotten her … She changed us all for the better … She was a gift.
Under Arizona law, Bryan Miller’s death sentence will be automatically appealed.
Produced by Paul LaRosa, Susan Mallie and Kat Teurfs. Cindy Cesare is the development producer. Anthony Venditti is the content research manager. Morgan Canty and Cameron Rubner are the associate producers. Michelle Harris, Marcus Balsam, Phil Tangel and Mike Baluzy are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior producer.Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
An SUV belonging to a man suspected in the shooting death of a Maryland judge outside his home was found Saturday, but the suspect remains at large. The shooting happened just hours after the judge presided over a hearing in the suspect’s divorce trial.
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The stabbing death of a Detroit synagogue board president on Saturday has ignited a wave of criticism of Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has been under mounting scrutiny after blaming Israel for a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital.
Samantha Woll, 40, who led the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue since 2022, was found stabbed multiple times early Saturday morning outside of her home in Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood, according to local media reports.
Woll was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Detroit Police Department (DPD). A motive has not been determined, nor had a suspect been made public as of Saturday evening, the department said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
Despite the unclear motive, the news of Woll’s slaying sparked fresh backlash against Tlaib on social media, with people blasting the Michigan Democrat over a post she shared last week on X, formerly Twitter.
Newsweek reached out to the representatives for Tlaib and the DPD via email and Facebook on Saturday night for comment.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (left) speaks at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol Building on September 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. The Detroit synagogue board president, 40-year-old Samantha Woll (right), was found stabbed to death this morning outside her home, according to local reports. Woll’s death ignited a wave of criticism directed at Talib over the Michigan Democrat’s recent social media posts. Anna Moneymaker,/Getty, COURTESY OF JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL
In the controversial social media post, Tlaib blamed Israel for the deadly blast at the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday that claimed nearly 500 lives, according to Palestinian officials.
“Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,” Tlaib said in the post. “@POTUS this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate. Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslims Americans like me. We will remember where you stood.”
Israel, Hamas and militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad have all denied responsibility for the devastating strike.
While it is unclear if Woll’s death has anything to do with the conflict in the Middle East, social media users accused Tlaib of inciting violence.
Laura Loomer, a far-right political activist and supporter of former President Donald Trump, lashed out at the Democratic lawmaker, saying that Woll’s death was “likely incited” by Tlaib’s comments.
“Michigan Jewish synagogue president Samantha Woll found dead outside Detroit home with multiple stab wounds in @rashidatlaib‘s district,” Loomer said in a post on X. “This is a hate crime. Likely Incited by Rashida’s calls for violence against Jews and her support for HAMAS.”
Michigan Jewish synagogue president Samantha Woll found dead outside Detroit home with multiple stab wounds in @rashidatlaib’s district.
This is a hate crime. Likely Incited by Rashida’s calls for violence against Jews and her support for HAMAS. https://t.co/SlWK1lvRKH
Ellie Cohanim, a former Deputy Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism under the Trump administration, blamed Tlaib for “spreading a blood libel” in a post on X.
“‘I point my finger at @RepRashida Tlaib for spreading a blood libel against Israel & Jews’” I told @FoxFriendsFirst,” Cohanim said in the social media post. “Now, Jewish member of Tlaib’s district—the president of a synagogue—Samantha Woll was found stabbed to death.”
Avraham Berkowitz also took to X to call out Tlaib.
“Samantha Woll, 40 years old, President of Jewish Synagogue in Detroit, stabbed to death outside her home,” Berkowitz said. “If Samantha was Muslim @RashidaTlaib@RepRashida would have already accused and blamed Jews of her murder. Samantha was also the founder of the Muslim-Jewish Forum of Detroit, a grassroots organization aimed to build relationships between young adults of both faiths. She previously worked for @RepSlotkin Details on who is responsible and if it is related to the war in Israel, is not yet known.”
Samantha Woll, 40 years old, President of Jewish Synagogue in Detroit, stabbed to death outside her home.
If Samantha was Muslim @RashidaTlaib@RepRashida would have already accused and blamed Jews of her murder.
Sam Dubin, a spokesperson for the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), told Newsweek on Saturday night that the advocacy group is “absolutely heartbroken” over Woll’s death.
Dubin said Woll, who was a JCRC member as well as a board member of the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan, was an “incredible leader” and a “passionate Muslim-Jewish bridge builder.”
Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, has been under increasing scrutiny since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, with fellow lawmakers demanding she condemn the militant group’s actions. The Michigan Democrat previously released a statement mourning the loss of life on both Israeli and Palestinian sides, but she has not directly condemned Hamas’ attack.
As of Saturday, more than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed and an estimated 4,000 Palestinians in Gaza have died, the Associated Press reported
Shortly after the attack on Southern Israel earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is “at war” and cut off food, fuel, electricity, and medicine supplies into Gaza, home to an estimated around 2.3 million people, including roughly 600 Palestinian-Americans.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Samantha Woll, the president of a Detroit synagogue, was found stabbed to death Saturday outside her home, officials said.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a social media post that Woll was murdered.
Nessel wrote she was, “shocked, saddened and horrified to learn of Sam’s brutal murder. Sam was as kind a person as I’ve ever known.”
The Detroit Police Department said in a statement to CBS News that officers responded to a 911 call in downtown Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood Saturday morning, where they found a victim dead at the scene from multiple stab wounds.
Police said officers “observed a trail of blood” from the body which led them to the victim’s home in the 1300 block of Joliet Place, where the slaying is believed to have occurred.
A motive for the killing is not yet known, police said.
Although police did not identify the victim, the Detroit Free Press reported that the body was found outside the home of Woll.
“It is important that no conclusions be drawn until all of the available facts are reviewed,” the police department wrote on social media Saturday night. Police said it would provide an update on the investigation Sunday.
Issac Agree Downtown Synagogue, where Woll was board president, said in a statement that they were “shocked and saddened to learn of the unexpected death,” and they “do not have more information,” but will share it when it becomes available.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said he was “devastated today to learn of the loss of one of Detroit’s great young leaders,” and that the entire city, “joins with her family and friends in mourning her tragic death.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement that she had been briefed on the killing, adding that she had directed Michigan State Police to assist in the investigation into “this vicious crime.”
“My heart breaks for her family, her friends, her synagogue, and all those who were lucky enough to know her,” Whitmer wrote. “She was a source of light, a beacon in her community who worked hard to make Michigan a better place.”
A spokesperson for the FBI told CBS News it was aware of the incident, and would be available to assist Detroit police with the investigation.
A manhunt is underway for a man suspected in the shooting death of Maryland Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson in the driveway of his home Thursday night in what authorities are calling a targeted attack. The shooting occurred hours after the suspect lost custody of his children in a divorce proceeding Wilkinson was presiding over. Jeff Pegues has the latest.
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Joran van der Sloot admitted to killing 18-year-old Natalee Holloway in Aruba back in 2005. The confession came as part of a deal in which he pleaded guilty to fraud and extortion charges. Janet Shamlian reports.
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A 71-year-old Chicago-area landlord, Joseph Czuba, is charged with the murder of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume after allegedly stabbing him 26 times and seriously injuring his mother. Authorities say the two victims were “targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.” CBS News’ Catherine Herridge reports.
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A Chicago-area landlord has been arrested and charged with murder and hate crimes after authorities said he stabbed and killed a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounded his mother, allegedly because the tenants are Muslim.
According to the Will County Sheriff’s Office, Joseph M. Czuba, 71, has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Authorities say they were called to the residence in unincorporated Plainfield Township, Illinois, approximately 40 miles outside Chicago, just before noon on Saturday after a woman called 911 saying her landlord had attacked her.
When deputies arrived, they found Czuba sitting outside and the victims in a bedroom. The boy had been stabbed 26 times, and his mother had been stabbed over a dozen times, the sheriff’s office said.
The victims were taken to the hospital, but the boy later died from his injuries, authorities said. His mother is recovering in a local hospital and expected to survive.
The sheriff’s office said Czuba did not make a statement to detectives after being brought to the Will County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Complex, but investigators were able to determine the victims were “targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”
The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a news release identifying the victims as Hanaan Shahin, 32, and her son, Wadea Al-Fayoume.
CAIR said they had lived on the ground floor of the house for two years without trouble with Czuba, but in texts to the boy’s father from the hospital after the attack, Shahin said he “knocked on their door, and when she opened, he tried to choke her and proceeded to attack her with a knife, yelling, ‘You Muslims must die!’” according to the CAIR statement.
On Saturday, Israel’s military said its forces are readying for the next stages of the war in response to the unprecedented October 7 attacks by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza. At least 1,400 people were killed during Hamas’ rampage, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN on Sunday.
Nearly 1 million Gazans have been forced from their homes in the week since the Hamas attack and the ensuing Israeli retaliation, UNRWA, the UN agency that assists Palestinians, said Saturday.
Czuba was transported to the Will County Adult Detention Facility and is awaiting his initial court appearance, according to the sheriff’s office. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
A woman discovers explicit photos of herself on her stepfather’s computer. Soon after, he’s found dead. Jade is a likely suspect, but did she do it? “48 Hours” correspondent Tracy Smith reports.
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Police have arrested a 17-year-old in connection with the mass shooting at Morgan State University in Baltimore on October 3 that injured five people, the Baltimore Police Department said in a news release Friday.
He was taken into custody without incident Thursday, and faces charges of multiple counts of attempted murder, police said.
Police said a warrant has been issued for another suspect, Jovan Williams, 18, in connection to the shooting. He remains at large and should be considered armed and dangerous, police said.
The shooters were identified from surveillance video obtained from the shooting, police said.
“BPD has been working tirelessly on the investigation into this incident and are grateful for the many partners that assisted us in identifying and capturing one of our suspects,” said Commissioner Richard Worley said in the release. “We will not rest until Williams is in custody. While this arrest cannot undo the damage and trauma caused that day, it is my hope that it can bring some peace and justice to the victims, the Morgan community and our city.”
The shooting happened as a popular homecoming week event was letting out. It was among at least 543 mass shootings with at least four victims so far this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and one of at least 17 shootings this year at a US college or university, including in North Carolina, Oklahoma and Michigan.
Students and teachers were ordered to shelter in place for hours as a SWAT team combed the campus dormitories at the school where 9,000 students enrolled last fall.
The mayor has said he does not believe the shooting was racially motivated, noting the investigation is ongoing.
A woman awaiting trial in the killing of professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson tried to run from officers escorting her to a doctor appointment Wednesday, authorities said.
Two corrections officers had taken Kaitlin Armstrong to the appointment and were escorting her back to a patrol vehicle “when she ran,” Travis County Sheriff spokeswoman Kristen Dark said.
Armstrong ran more than a block into a neighborhood, but she could be seen by deputies the entire time before she was caught, Dark said.
Photo of Kaitlin Armstrong.
U.S. Marshals
Dark would not disclose whether Armstrong was wearing shackles on her arms or legs, or what medical treatment prompted the appointment outside of the jail clinic.
The corrections officers did not draw their firearms, but more details on how she was apprehended would not be disclosed, Dark said. Armstrong and the two officers were taken to a hospital for a brief examination after the incident, and Armstrong was later returned to jail.
Armstrong’s attorney, Rick Cofer, did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
Wilson, a 25-year-old competitive gravel and mountain bike racer from Vermont, was in Austin for a race she was among the favorites to win in May 2022 when she was found shot to death.
At the time, U.S. Marshals said police found Wilson bleeding and unconscious from multiple gunshot wounds. They performed CPR on her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Armstrong, 34, fled the country after her initial interviews with investigators, prompting a 43-day manhunt that ended with her arrest at a beachside hostel in Costa Rica. The U.S. Marshals and an anonymous donor was offered $20,000 in reward money for information leading to her arrest.
Armstrong was charged with murder. She faces up to 99 years in prison if convicted. Armstrong has pleaded not guilty.
Authorities have said Armstrong tried to change her appearance and used several aliases as she moved around Costa Rica while attempting to establish herself up as a yoga instructor in that country.
A witness told Inside Edition that Armstrong had left behind a $6,350 receipt for cosmetic surgery, adding that it appeared that something happened to her face.
“[She had] a bandage on her nose and she had blood in her nostrils,” Zachary Paulsen told the outlet.
Police have said Wilson had previously dated Armstrong’s boyfriend, cyclist Colin Strickland, who they say has cooperated with investigators and is not a suspect.
Dark said she didn’t know if Armstrong would face additional charges for the attempted escape.
Near Sderot, Israel — Israeli emergency responders with years of experience doing the grim work of recovering bodies broke down in tears Wednesday as they told CBS News what they’d witnessed in the aftermath of Hamas’ brutal terror attack on Israel. The depth of the horror unleashed by Hamas Saturday on Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip was still emerging five days later.
After finally wresting back control of the small farming community of the Kfar Aza kibbutz, Israeli security forces discovered the aftermath of what a military spokesperson said could only be described as “a massacre.”
Residents were murdered wherever the Hamas gunmen found them on the kibbutz, a type of communal living enclave unique to Israel, witnesses have said.
“We see blood spread out in homes. We’ve found bodies of people who have been butchered,” said Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Maj. Libby Weiss. “The depravity of it is haunting.”
IDF soldiers remove the body of a civilian killed days earlier in an attack by Hamas militants on the Kafr Azah kibbutz near the border with Gaza, Oct. 10, 2023.
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty
Weiss told CBS News that more than one of the Israeli soldiers who first reached Kfar Aza reported finding “beheaded children of varying ages, ranging from babies to slightly older children,” along with adults who had also been dismembered.
Yossi Landau, the head of operations for the southern region of Zaka, Israel’s volunteer civilian emergency response organization, told CBS News he saw with his own eyes children and babies who had been beheaded.
“I saw a lot more that cannot be described for now, because it’s very hard to describe,” he said, speaking of parents and children found with their hands bound and clear signs of torture.
Israel is accustomed to living in close proximity to its enemies, but the last four days have shocked the nation and shaken its sense of security.
Yehuda Gottlieb, a dual U.S.-Israeli national who works as a first responder, was outside the Be’eri kibbutz, another small farming community, as Israel’s security forces battled the militants over the weekend. Security camera video shows the gunmen breaking into the compound and opening fire on its defenseless residents. Israel says more than 100 people were killed in that community alone.
Gottlieb said he’d never seen anything like it as he recalled driving into the town, carefully avoiding bodies that littered the road.
For many — both in Israel and the Gaza Strip, the small Palestinian territory run by Hamas and used as a launch pad for its terror attack — the question on Wednesday, five days after the brutal assault, was how Israel would respond.
It was raining down deadly airstrikes on the blockaded strip of land Wednesday for a fifth consecutive day, perhaps trying to soften Hamas’ defenses ahead of a widely expected ground invasion.
Palestinian officials said the strikes had killed at least 950 people as of Wednesday morning, with some 5,000 more wounded — most of them purportedly women and children.
“We do whatever we can, whatever is operationally feasible, to minimize the impact on the civilians within the Gaza Strip,” the IDF’s Weiss told CBS News. “They are not our targets.”
“The loss of life here is tragic,” she said, but added that Israel “must make sure Hamas cannot launch massacres and slaughter civilians as they did this past weekend. It’s just a reality with which we cannot live anymore.”
A Kansas man has been arrested in the rape and killing of a 5-year-old girl, authorities said Tuesday.
Officers responded just before 6 p.m. Monday to a medical call at a Topeka gas station and found a fire crew attempting to save Zoey Felix, police said in a news release. She was rushed to a hospital and later pronounced dead.
Investigators identified a 25-year-old man as a suspect and booked him into jail Tuesday morning on suspicion of first-degree murder and rape.
Mickel Cherry, of Topeka, was arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Jail around 4:15 a.m., CBS affiliate WIBW-TV reported. His bond is set at $2 million and no attorney is listed for him, said Timothy Phelps, deputy director of the Shawnee County Department of Corrections.
One man has been arrested for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old child who died in Southeast Topeka.
Booking records indicate that Cherry was listed as homeless, WIBW reported.
No formal charges were immediately filed, court records show.
The news release said that the man was known to Zoey, but police spokesperson Rosie Nichols said she couldn’t provide additional details on how.
She also declined to release information on the girl’s cause of death.
Neighbors told WIBW that Felix lived a life of instability. The house where she and her mother stayed had no water or electricity and the girl was sometimes left home alone, they told the station.
“Loving girl,” neighbor Desiree Myles told the station. “Love the children, all the kids play with her. They all looked out for everybody, looked out for Zoey. She was a Curious George with nowhere to go. Nowhere to go.”
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Michael Duane Zack III, who was convicted of the 1996 killings of two women he met at bars along the Florida panhandle, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison, according to the state’s Department of Corrections.
The US Supreme Court on Monday denied a request to halt the execution of the death row inmate after attorneys for Zack filed a stay of execution last week, court records show.
In the filing, Zack’s lawyers allege a lower court was wrong to “deny his claim that he is intellectually disabled.”
“At trial, Zack’s defense counsel argued that Zack suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and posttraumatic stress disorder which are classified as a brain dysfunction and a mental impairment respectively,” according to a state capital case summary.
On Thursday, attorneys for the state of Florida filed a response opposing the stay of execution, court records show.
The nation’s highest court denied the appeal Monday afternoon without comment, court records show.
In 1997, Zack was convicted and sentenced to death for the June 1996 murder of Ravonne Smith, whom he violently killed in her home after meeting at a bar near Pensacola, according to a state capital case summary. Zack received a life sentence for the murder of Laura Rosillo at an Okaloosa County, Florida, beach, whom he also met at a bar before killing, according to the case summary.
“After his arrest, Zack confessed to the murder of Ravonne Smith,” said the case summary.
Zack’s execution will be the eighth under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the sixth in the state this year, according to state death row data.
NYPD detectives are hunting for Lenue Moore after the Friday murder of Jacqueline Billini, 57, and Levaugh Harvin, 42, NBC 4 reported.
A wanted poster with Moore’s mugshot has been circulating around Washington Heights as cops continue to track the suspect down.
Police investigate after two people and a dog were fatally shot on W. 164th St. and Edgecombe Ave. in Washington Heights Friday. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
Billini and Harvin were walking their dogs past Highbridge Park along Edgecombe Ave. near W. 165th St. when a man clad in black stormed up and shot them both in the head about 6:30 p.m., police said.
Billini’s pit bull, Zeus, was also shot dead before the gunman ran off, cops said. Harvin’s dog wasn’t harmed.
Harvin’s two children were walking ahead of the dog walkers and witnessed the shooting, Luis Billini, Jacqueline’s nephew, told the Daily News.
“(Harvin’s) kids were walking in front and they heard the shots and saw them dropping,” Luis said.
Harvin and Billini died at the scene.
Lenue Moore (NYPD)
“She had a heart of gold and touched the lives of everyone she encountered,” Billini’s daughters Nathalie and Iliana wrote on a GoFundMe post seeking donations for the state court employee’s burial costs. “Jackie was always there for her friends and family, offering unwavering support and love. Her sudden departure has left a void in our family and community that can never be filled.”
Detectives quickly linked the double killing to Moore, a neighbor of Billini who was arrested following a harrowing incident April 11, when he kicked in the door of Billini’s apartment armed with a hammer and attacked her and her family.
“He lived next door. He had mental issues from what the DA said,” Luis Billini said. “He’s not even on that lease, it’s under his parents name.”
“The guy is a bad individual, he disrespects the elderly,” he added. “Elderly is someone you supposed to respect. You respect women, children, the elderly.”
Moore was upset over constant barking coming from Billini’s W. 163rd St. apartment, Billini’s relatives say. Besides Zeus, Billini had two other dogs — Blue, who is Zeus’ mom, and Zina.
Police investigate after two people and a dog were fatally shot on W. 164th St. and Edgecombe Ave. in Washington Heights Friday. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
The April attack was caught on video. According to court documents, when Moore kicked in Billini’s door it slammed into her so hard it broke her right arm.
Billini’s relatives rushed over to hold the door shut but the neighbor continued to kick the door in, swiping at them with a hammer when the door opened wide enough, the video shows.
“There was four people at the door and he was still able to muscle through,” Luis Billini said. “He’s a big guy, like 290 pounds. You can tell by the video he’s a strong man.”
Two of Billini’s relatives were struck with the hammer but weren’t seriously injured, prosecutors said.
Moore, 31, was arrested and released on $5,000 bail after arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
He was later indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on charges of burglary and assault with a weapon with intent to injure, among other charges. A judge authorized orders of protection for Billini and her family, forcing him to move out of the building, Luis said.
Moore moved in with a friend a few blocks away, relatives said.
Police investigate after two people and a dog were fatally shot on W. 164th St. and Edgecombe Ave. in Manhattan, on Friday, September 29, 2023. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
“The dogs didn’t even attack (Moore),” Luis added. “They’re friendly so like why would he get crazy about them?”
Months after the attack in her apartment, Jacqueline Billini still felt menaced, friends and relatives said.
During one recent nightly walk with Zeus, someone drove up to Billini and told her “You’re going to die,” Luis said.
A friend of Jacqueline Bellini said Harvin had been accompanying her on her walks for the past two or three weeks as an informal bodyguard.
Harvin “was like family to her,” said the friend, Janet Santana.
“She was a nice neighbor — she was the best neighbor. She had no problems with anyone.”
Billini worked as an analyst for the state court system in the Bronx and was close to retirement, her nephew said.
“She worked 25 to 30 years with the government and then this happens,” he said.
“It’s impossible for someone who served our country for 25 years to be done like this. A woman who was about to retire shouldn’t have to live that way, just constantly watching over her shoulder. It’s ridiculous.”
Josh Jones and Laura Keck have prosecuted hundreds of cases, but no case has troubled them quite like the murder of Becky Bliefnick.
Josh Jones: You put yourself in the mind of Becky Bliefnick in the last moments of her life, the fear that she had to be feeling … You can’t walk out of that house and not be affected by it.
Becky was just 41 years old when, on the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2023, her own father discovered her lifeless on the bathroom floor of her Quincy, Illinois, home. She had been dead for hours — shot a total of 14 times. None of the wounds were immediately fatal.
Josh Jones: It took her minutes to die. … It was an emotional response for both of us 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.
ILLINOIS MOM GUNNED DOWN IN HER HOME
Quincy is a quiet town along the Mississippi River where violent crimes are rare and unsettling.
Laura Keck: 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 Reilly is Becky’s older sister and her only sibling. She lives in New York, but was away on vacation with her husband, Bret Reilly, when they got that life-changing call.
Sarah Reilly: You just wanna wake up and have it not be real.
Bret Reilly: 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.
Erin Moriarty: How would you both describe her?
Bret Reilly: Selfless.
Sarah Reilly: That really captures it. … She thought of everybody that was in her life as somebody important and somebody special. … The kids were her world.
On the night of her murder, Becky Bliefnick was home alone. Her three boys were staying at their father, Tim Bliefnick’s house, about a mile away. Becky and Tim were in the process of getting divorced.
Laura Keane Photography
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 Bliefnick, about a mile away. The couple was in the process of getting divorced. Tim says that when he couldn’t reach Becky on the 23rd, he contacted her father.
Tim says that when he couldn’t reach Becky on the 23rd, he contacted her father.
Tim Bliefnick: He said, ‘Hey, I haven’t been able to get a hold of her either. I’m gonna 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. Video shows a police officer later reenacting how investigators believe the assailant scaled the house.
Josh Jones: 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 pried open, broke the window open, uh, 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.
Erin Moriarty: What time do you believe the intruder entered the house?
Josh Jones: So, it would’ve been around 1:11 in the morning, because we know that at 1:11 and 10 seconds, Becky tried to call 911 on her cell phone. She dialed 9-1-1-2-6. And the phone was knocked out of her hand, and it was found behind the door.
Nothing appeared to be stolen, and neighbors didn’t see or hear anything. But there was evidence left behind: a partial shoe print near the point of entry, eight spent 9-millimeter shell casings, and small pieces of plastic on the floor around Becky’s body.
Josh Jones: We thought it was unusual when we saw that. It was like, “OK, what is this?”
Detectives canvassing the neighborhood looking for surveillance video didn’t have to go far. Becky’s next door neighbors, the Heimanns, 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.
Erin Moriarty: What does it record?
Taylor Heimann: It records movement. So anytime it senses movement, it will notify us on our phones.
When police began investigating the murder, they spoke to Becky Bliefnick’s next-door neighbors. They had a security camera set up in their driveway, which ran alongside Becky’s house. Their camera didn’t capture anything on the night of the murder, but it did capture something unusual about 24 hours earlier. 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.
Adams County State’s Attorney’s Office
The Heimanns’ camera didn’t capture anything on the night of the murder, but it did capture something unusual about 24 hours earlier. We have 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 14, Valentine’s Day.
Taylor Heimann: 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 till the next morning—
Erin Moriarty: And what did she say when she responded?
Taylor Heimann: 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 light go on. And she was very paranoid.
At the time, the Heimanns thought it was a neighborhood prowler looking for something to steal. But now, with Becky dead, they began to wonder. And investigators did, too.
Josh Jones: Officers went around the entire neighborhood trying to find more video. … And we were able to find a video from a house … and we were able to find video from the Quincy bus barn. … And those videos showed a person … riding a bike in the direction of Becky’s house.
After analyzing the recorded times of the videos, authorities began to suspect that the person seen on the bike was the same person seen in the driveway.
Josh Jones: Every time you see a person at the Heimann residence, you see a person riding a bike down the road, just a few minutes before you see a person on that Heimann video.
And even though there was no video from the Heimann residence 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.
Laura Keck: 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.
Erin Moriarty: I mean, you can’t see —
Josh Jones: No.
Erin Moriarty: — whether it’s male, female.
Josh Jones: No. It’s terrible.
Laura Keck: 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.
“IF SOMETHING EVER HAPPENS TO ME …”
When Becky’s sister Sarah and brother-in-law Bret learned of her murder, they say one person came to mind as the prime suspect: Becky’s estranged husband Tim Bliefnick.
Sarah Reilly: I told Bret it was Tim.
Bret Reilly: Of course, it was Tim.
Sarah Reilly: I said —
Erin Moriarty: Right away?
Bret Reilly: Right away.
Tim and Becky met when they were students at Quincy University, but it wasn’t until two years after graduating that they began dating.
Erin Moriarty: And how would you describe Becky back then?
Tim Bliefnick: Happy, fun. … She was beautiful.
Becky and Tim Bliefnick met when they were students at Quincy University. They began dating two years after they graduated, and eventually, they got married and started a family.
Becky Bliefnick/Facebook
The two eventually moved in together, married, and started a family. Becky quit her job in pharmaceutical sales to become a stay-at-home mom, while Tim continued his successful career in the recycling industry.
Tim Bliefnick: I thought this was it. You know, I’m gonna 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.
Sarah Reilly: She was … very happy with their marriage for probably the first … five years. And then, you know, things started to change. … He got progressively … more manipulative and controlling … He didn’t do any of the work ever at the house.
Shannon Zanger is Becky’s close friend.
Shannon Zanger: When she’d come over and we’d talk husbands, as wives do … she felt like she was shouldering most of the load … I thought, man, I really have a partner here and she doesn’t seem to have that partnership.
Shannon and Sarah say the relationship only became more strained when Becky decided to go back to school to become a nurse.
Sarah Reilly: 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. He spoke exclusively with “48 Hours.”
Tim Bliefnick: Because of the stress piece of it …
Erin Moriarty: Were you worried you’d have to pick up more of the work with the kids?
Tim Bliefnick: Not at all. … 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.
Tim Bliefnick: She struggled with patience and stress a lot, especially when it came to the kids, and it — it created some conflict.
But Sarah Reilly 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.
Sarah Reilly: She wanted to go to marriage counseling with him and he refused.
Whatever the reason for the divorce might have been, one thing is certain: things between the two soon turned contentious. According to divorce documents, they fought over just about everything: money, the marital home and custody of the kids.
Erin Moriarty: I don’t understand why it got so contentious if you were the one who wanted to get out.
Tim Bliefnick: 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 a 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.
Tim Bliefnick: 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 (sighs) she was angry about the divorce.
At one point, Tim sought an order of protection against Becky. He alleged Becky “stalked” and “harassed” him. He also referenced an incident where he said Becky had become “combative” during a disagreement at a parent-teacher night.
BECKY BLIEFNICK (cellphone video): I’m asking for the letter.
TIM BLIEFNICK: Stop. I’m asking you to stop harassing me and stop following me.
BECKY BLIEFNICK: I’m not harassing you. I’m asking you …
He offered video of the incident as proof.
TIM BLIEFNICK: I will make a copy for you.
BECKY BLIEFNICK: I don’t want you to tape me. Don’t tape me.
TIM BLIEFNICK: Then stop doing this.
BECKY BLIEFNICK: Don’t tape me. I don’t –
TIM BLIEFNICK: Then stop doing this.
BECKY BLIEFNICK: I didn’t ask you to tape me.
Erin Moriarty: Do you really think she was trying to hurt him in that video?
Casey Schnack: 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 Schnack was one of Tim’s divorce attorneys.
Erin Moriarty: The judge didn’t grant that order of protection.
Casey Schnack: Did 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.
More than a year before Becky Bliefnicks death, she sent her sister this text expressing her fear.”That text was prompted by the murder of one of her colleagues … One of the nurses that she knew… was murdered by her partner,” Sarah Reilly told “48 Hours.”
Adams County State’s Attorney’s Office
Sarah Reilly: 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 nurses that she knew … was murdered by, um, her partner … That scared her. … She felt like, this could happen, this is real.
Tim Bliefnick: I never understood where that came from. … We would get into arguments, and sometimes, we would get loud, but … that’s all it amounted to.
Sarah says she recommended Becky seek help from a domestic abuse organization and, eventually, Becky filed for an order of protection against Tim. In her petition, she alleged that Tim “entered her residence without permission.” She also said that he “repeatedly falsified 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 9-millimeter handgun that Becky had gifted him when they were together.
Sarah Reilly: 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 9-millimeter handgun that was later used to kill her.
Tim Bliefnick: I have not seen that gun in three years. … I didn’t have it.
Becky was killed one week before the divorce case was set to go to trial. When Sarah Reilly 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 one seen on those surveillance videos.
Erin Moriarty: How close was that bike that you found to Tim’s house?
Josh Jones: Less than half a block.
They then executed a search warrant on Tim’s house and car as Tim looked on. And on March 13, 2023, just over two weeks after Becky’s death, Tim Bliefnick was arrested and charged with her murder.
On March 13, 2023, just over two weeks after Becky Bliefnick’s death, Tim Bliefnick, seen in his booking photo, was arrested and charged with her murder.
Adams County Sheriff’s Office
Tim Bliefnick: I can’t even fathom the idea of considering murdering somebody, like I can’t.
Tim’s divorce attorney Casey Schnack would become his defense attorney, and she says she’s convinced police got it wrong.
Casey Schnack: 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.
REVEALING TEXTS
When Tim Bliefnick was arrested, it made national news in large part because of an appearance he made alongside his parents and brothers on the game show “Family Feud.”
STEVE HARVEY | “Family Feud” host: Alright Tim, we talked to 100 married people. What’s the biggest mistake you made at your wedding?
TIM BLIEFNICK: 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 faced, 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.
Sarah Reilly: 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.
Tim Bliefnick: I’m not a violent person. I’m not an angry person. I’ve never been that way.
Tim’s attorney Casey Schnack 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.
Casey Schnack: It wasn’t pretty, but the things that they were fighting over were not monumental things.
Erin Moriarty: You know there were a number of friends—Becky’s friends, who said that she expressed great fear of Tim.
Casey Schnack: Mm-hmm. Yeah. … That’s a lot of girl talk. … I’ve never seen any pictures of her with bruises, or marks, any allegations of him beating on her … Nothing.
But Adams County prosecutors Josh Jones and Laura Keck say even though there may not have been physical abuse, there was emotional abuse — evident in Tim’s texts to Becky.
Erin Moriarty: What do his text messages reveal?
Laura Keck: 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.
Tim Bliefnick: No. 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.
Casey Schnack: She told him that she wasn’t feeling well … And he said, that’s fine… That’s how you want to see two people in a divorcing situation act with kids.
But Jones and Keck believe Tim saw an opportunity.
Josh Jones: She showed weakness to a predator. … And 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.
Josh Jones: If you’re a random intruder … why do you go to the second-floor window? … You go past not just one window, but … three windows that are possible entrance points. … And you just happen to get lucky that it’s a little boy’s room that’s not there that night.
But Schnack points to what she says is a lack of physical evidence tying Tim to the crime. No murder weapon or bloody clothing was found, and while police did seize pairs of Tim’s shoes, they weren’t able to match them to that partial shoeprint found at the scene.
Casey Schnack: 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.
Schnack 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.
Casey Schnack: 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?
Tim Bliefnick: If I knew that answer, I would’ve given that name or whoever it was a long time ago.
Authorities could not tell who was in the surveillance videos because the quality was so poor. The only detail they gathered was a person riding a bike without reflectors on the wheels.
Adams County State’s Attorney’s Office/CBS
Tim’s attorney says that she believes investigators should have given more weight to the idea that it could have been a random prowler who killed Becky in a break-in gone wrong. Remember, police found those videos of a person on a bike and a person walking down Becky’s neighbor’s driveway. Tim insists it’s not him in those videos.
Casey Schnack: 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, Schnack says that doesn’t mean anything.
Casey Schnack: 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 Keck say they did find evidence tying Tim to that bike.
Josh Jones: We were able to download information off his phone, and we found that Mr. Bliefnick had a, what I’ll call burner or fake Facebook account, for the name “John Smith.”
And they say that “John Smith” Facebook account appeared to have been looking at this bike for sale: a blue Schwinn with no reflectors on the wheels— just like that bike that was found.
Casey Schnack: I mean, I have a fake Facebook account. … I’m not proud of it, but people do it.
Erin Moriarty: Isn’t it a bit of a problem though that on his phone, he gets an alert for that blue bike?
Casey Schnack: Sure. … Are there similarities? Sure, but … that’s not the only abandoned bike that’s been found around town.
Jones and Keck say they’re confident they got the right guy.
Josh Jones: The detectives followed the evidence exactly where it took them. And there was one inescapable conclusion, that it was Mr. Bliefnick.
But despite their confidence, they soon 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.
Josh Jones: We were gonna be ready come hell or high water.
But did they have enough to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt?
Laura Keck: Juries expect a confession. They expect that DNA evidence that says one in 500 million … We’re gonna have to show them that’s not what we have here.
THE CASE AGAINST TIM BLIEFNICK
On May 23, 2023, exactly three months after Becky Bliefnick was gunned down in her home, Tim Bliefnick went on trial for her murder.
JOSH JONES (trial opening statements): The defendant looked down at Becky and he pointed a gun at her. And he pulled the trigger.
These small shreds of plastic were found around Becky Bliefnick’s body. “We thought it was unusual when we saw that,” Adams County State’s Attorney Josh Jones told “48 Hours.” When the pieces were examined further, investigators determined that they were remnants of an ALDI grocery store bag.
Adams County State’s Attorney’s Office
Prosecutors Josh Jones and Laura Keck 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.
Josh Jones: And then in the defendant’s house, we found stacks of ALDI bags. He had fired through an ALDI bag, either in an attempt to muffle the sound or to catch his shell casings.
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.
Josh Jones: That was three times more likely to have come from the defendant or a male relative from the lineage of the defendant.
CASEY SCHNACK (trial opening statements): And this case, is dripping with reasonable doubt.
But defense attorney Casey Schnack says that evidence is far from definitive.
Casey Schnack: Everybody in town has ALDI bags that they’re hoarding. … They could have came from Becky’s house.
Erin Moriarty: With DNA from him?
Casey Schnack: Well, because they transferred stuff back and forth for the boys in ALDI bags.
Erin Moriarty: There was DNA found under Becky’s fingernails.
Casey Schnack: Yeah … And it was just as likely to be Tim’s as any one of the boys.
Prosecutors also told the jury that police found a 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 pried open at Becky’s. While there were microscopic consistencies, she couldn’t say with scientific certainty that that crowbar made those marks.
Casey Schnack: The expert said that that was inconclusive. … Inconclusive leaves a jury guessing and speculating, which they are not allowed to do.
The jury heard about the couple’s acrimonious divorce and from Becky’s sister—and several friends— who testified about those fears Becky had raised about Tim. Several of them acknowledged that they regretfully didn’t take steps to help her.
Sarah Reilly: “How could Tim do that? I’ve known Tim forever.” … When she reached out to people, that’s what they said.
Bret Reilly: In hindsight, of course, 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.
JOSH JONES (trial opening statements): Becky didn’t want their three children to be around the defendant’s father unsupervised.
They didn’t tell the jury why, but “48 Hours” uncovered court documents that reveal Becky had gathered witnesses who she said planned to testify about Tim’s father, Ray Bliefnick, and would allege that he had a “history of perversion and abusing minor children” many years earlier.
The alleged victims were not Becky and Tim’s children. Becky sought an order of protection against Ray, but a judge denied her request. In a letter, Ray’s lawyer wrote that Ray “vehemently denies the claims” and that he has “never been charged with any criminal offense” stemming from the allegations.
In January 2021, after 11 years of marriage, Tim Bliefnick filed for divorce from Becky and things quickly turned ugly between the two of them. Divorce documents revealed that the couple argued over almost everything, including money, their marital home and custody of their kids.
Tim Bliefnick
Josh Jones: Information was going to come out that he didn’t want to come out. … and he started to feel like he was losing control.
The prosecution pointed out that on the day of Becky’s murder, hours before anyone except her killer knew that she was dead, Tim brought a kids’ basketball hoop to his father’s house.
Josh Jones: He’s doing that because he knows Becky’s not gonna 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.
Casey Schnack: I really don’t buy that. I—
Erin Moriarty: Why not?
Casey Schnack: Because the boys weren’t restricted from seeing Ray to begin with. … They just couldn’t see him without supervision.
And Schnack says those allegations were old news.
Casey Schnack: 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.”
Laura Keck: It was mind-boggling.
Josh Jones: It was mind-boggling, yeah.
And remember that person caught on camera in Becky’s neighbor’s driveway on Valentine’s Day, about a week before the murder? Well, prosecutors say that right after 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.
Laura Keck: And for somebody with power and control issues, you realize that your prior significant other is now in a relationship with somebody, that they’re spending the night on Valentine’s Day. And then the minute you get back to your home at 1:10 in the morning, you’re searching their license plate number and their VIN number, that’s somebody who’s lost control.
Tim insists he had learned about Becky’s new relationship months earlier.
Tim Bliefnick: I actually didn’t care.
Erin Moriarty: It sounds like you were kind of obsessed ’cause —
Tim Bliefnick: No.
He declined to go into more detail about specific trial evidence, citing legal proceedings, but his lawyer spoke for him.
Casey Schnack: I mean, if I’m gonna be checking out my husband’s new girlfriend, I’m gonna be doing it late at night after my kids are asleep.
Erin Moriarty: So, it’s just a coincidence that the night you see that prowler … at the next door neighbor’s driveway —
Casey Schnack: Mm-hmm.
Erin Moriarty: — 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.
Casey Schnack: That’s not Tim in that video.
Erin Moriarty: What about the searches that were found on Tim’s phone?
Casey Schnack: 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.
The prosecution also presented these spent shell casings which were found in Tim Bliefnick’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.
Adams County State’s Attorney’s Office
Before they rested the case, prosecutors dropped one more piece of evidence: 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.
Josh Jones: Each firearm leaves its own fingerprint on every shell casing that it fires. … It was the same gun that killed Becky Bliefnick that fired these shell casings that were found in Tim Bliefnick’s residence.
Casey Schnack: 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.
Erin Moriarty: You could have brought in your own expert to say those did not match.
Casey Schnack: Hmm, I guess we could have, but we were strapped on time and funds.
Erin Moriarty: You’ve got a man’s life on the line.
Casey Schnack: Mm-hmm. 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 holdout.
Casey Schnack: Sometimes you just need one.
A VERDICT
When the jury began deliberating after a six-day trial, Tim Bliefnick was on edge.
Tim Bliefnick: it was miserable, because I was essentially waiting for them to decide my fate.
Inside that jury room, one juror was undecided.
Laura Keck: Our stomachs were in knots. We were beyond stressed.
But four hours later, a verdict.
Sarah Reilly: When they passed the paper from the jury box to the clerk … that was … very difficult to know that there’s a possibility that he could get away with it.
JUDGE ROBERT ADRIAN: Would the clerk read the verdicts, please?
CLERK: We the jury find the defendant Timothy Bliefnick guilty of first-degree murder.
Guilty.
Laura Keck: It was a sense of relief that they had found him guilty, but it was also a sense of these three little boys have now lost both parents … it’s not a celebration.
“Did you kill your wife, Becky?” “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty asked Bliefnick, pictured with his attorney Casey Schnack.”No, I did not murder Becky,” Bliefnick replied. “The idea of-of murdering someone, let alone the mother of my kids … is not any part of who I am.”
Adams County State’s Attorney’s Office
When we sat down with Tim Bliefnick, it was just over a month after his conviction. He was still awaiting sentencing.
Erin Moriarty: Did you ever imagine you would be here?
Tim Bliefnick: No, no, never. … At times, it’s felt like I’m watching somebody else’s life from the outside. Like 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 ’cause if not (emotional) —
Erin Moriarty: Tell me what you’re thinking right now.
Tim Bliefnick: My kids. … I just want them to know that I love them, and I miss them … I’m innocent. I didn’t kill Becky.
But Becky’s sister says Tim is right where he belongs.
Sarah Reilly: 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 that 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 Aug. 11, 2023.
Sarah Reilly: 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 VIN numbers.
Judge Robert Adrian had the option of sentencing Tim to anywhere between 45 years to life.
JUDGE ROBERT ADRIAN: Mr. Bliefnick, you researched this murder, you planned this murder … You broke into her house, and you shot her: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 times (raised voice). The court believes that the appropriate sentence … would be natural life in prison.
Life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors Jones and Keck say the punishment fits the crime, but even they don’t consider it justice.
Josh Jones: 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.
Sarah Reilly: We will all work together to make sure those boys have the life they deserved. … And we started a GoFundMe to support the boys.
“She thought of everybody that was in her life as somebody important,” Becky’s older sister Sarah Reilly told “48 Hours.” “The kids were her world.”
Sarah Reilly
And Becky’s family and friends hope that Becky’s mission in life will now become her legacy.
Sarah Reilly: 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 — that they’re scared, that they believe that their partner … or whoever it is, is capable of violence, you need to believe them and make an active effort to make sure they’re safe.
Tim Bliefnick has not been allowed any contact with his kids since his arrest.
Produced by Stephanie Slifer and Gabriella Demirdjian. Elena DiFiore and Marc Goldbaum are the development producers. Ken Blum, George Baluzy and Jason Schmidt are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer.Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
When Becky Bliefnick was murdered, an answer her husband gave on “Family Feud” years earlier raised eyebrows.”48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
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