Ghost Rider
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A true crime story never really ends, even when a case is closed. The journey for those left behind is just beginning. Since our dateline story aired, trace has harness her outrage into a mission.

I had no other option. I had to do something.

catch up with families, friends and investigators on our bonus series after the verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

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to after the verdict subscribed a deadline premium on apple podcast spotify or a deadline premium dot com. They called IT the happiest place on the high desert, home to a tight IT group of thirty somethings who, like the party IT, starts as a playboy channel fantasy. But this is real life where passion leads to murder and a killer seeks god's help with the cover up.

I'm judge magots, and this is deadly. March on the all new podcast from deadline, listen for free each week or unlock new episodes early and enjoy add free listening by subscribing the deadline premium on apple podcast spotify or decline premium dot com. Tonight, on date line.

SHE was panicking. SHE said, Becky's dad, Becky's dad.

when somebody shot fourteen times that significant.

this was a cold blood red execution.

The entire city was shaken.

terrifying, absolutely terrifying.

She's going through a divorce.

They both, by all accounts. We are looking forward to getting the divorce behind them.

We learned that he had a boyfriend.

It's a big deal to look at any possible surveilLance cameras.

And this is the of the murder.

Yes, it's a person on a bike. In the middle of february.

there was a flip print by the window. There is a person in the driveway multiple times.

That was the first time I really registered with her that he or her children could be in danger.

Everybody had a theory. Nobody would had any evidence to back any of that up.

There is no possibility of recovering. And from something like this, it's a whole that will always be. There is a percent ory a valentine's .

visitor in the dark, a bike writer in the cold and murder in the hard lamp. I'm letter hold, and this is deadline.

Here's denis Murphy with ghost rider.

A winters night. A cyclist peddles down deserted streets the clickity crack of gears grinding. The word of a tyran pavement.

The only sounds appears the silence in this small town. Security cameras, lovely senators in the dark of night capture fleet images of this ghostly rider. Who was IT? Where were they going on that february night and to what end?

Here are on a bluff above the mississippi river, mark twin country. It's quinzy illinoi, an apple pay slm midwestern americana. So this is a cool old house, yes, a small, safe town where folks like Taylor and Taylor or haymond you up there. Both name Taylor played the roots and state for the long hall, like the house.

also like neigh's od. No neighbor ard.

Nothing good things about the neighborhood that I was. One of the safe est inquiry .

actually in the world across the way is Becky. Yes, yes, Becky. Beef lick. There are next door neighbor, a mother of three Young boys, and the nurses blessing hospital here in quench y single model, three kids. Yeah.

the kids came over and play with her dog sometimes, and he would .

even know our front yard. Yeah.

friendly neighbors, living in nice houses on a quiet, safe street until IT wasn't one morning the hand and say they woke up to find their car had been broken into react so they installed security cameras so the ideas, if there's a prole around this thing, i'll tell you, yeah, the camera send them an alert every time they're trigger, which is what happened in the medal the night on february for teen th twenty twenty three, valentine's day, one of the cameras captured a figure walking between the hymen's house.

And Becky, could you recognize? And Taylor, someone showed you a picture. The next say, that's the guy, my camera.

Now I could not. So was just a figure moving in the dark. Taher said. SHE tested backy right away as if she'd seen anything.

And he responded back about seven in the morning saying SHE didn't that night. But about a month ago, he thought he heard voices in her backyard and that she's been very paranoid.

The hymens posted a message on neighborhood's facebook page beyond the lookout, and then the security camera alerted again, very, very twenty .

seven person coming in. So when you say.

come in, they're going and coming in.

coming down our dry, away from the road. And then about fifty three minutes later, we saw a person leaving.

What was the prouder up to? And what, if anything, did he or SHE have to do with what happened the very next day that unambigous .

able thing about five cop cars start rolling up with EMS? So wonder what was going on? I didn't know until the cop came over and and let us know that she's best.

She's best. They told he was gone. Becky f. Nick was dead.

IT was her fatherhood founder, lying face up and bloody on her bathroom floor. He called nine one one. What's IT? Perhaps the suicide when .

the authors got there IT was gradually apparent that that was not the case.

quinsy police chief adam ates heard his watch commander on the phone with the responding officers.

and that conversation included the words, this is clearly not a suicide.

Other phone calls were being made, including to Becky's husband, tim. Becky and tim were separated, and the boys were with him that night. He would have to break the news to the children. Becky sister Sarah a.

got a call from their mother. He was piana SHE, said Becky's dad, but he's dead. We don't know anything but beck's dead. And she's that I gotta a go. I'll call you later, which, you know is terrifying, absolutely terrifying.

the terrifying unknown what happened?

We're trying to figure this out because he was healthy. Forty one year old mom, there is no logical explanation for why SHE would be found dead in her home. I guess you're .

thinking the usual things as a botch robbery that goes wrong.

I didn't even think a robbery. I I didn't even cross my mind, but a butch robbery .

was very much on the mind of the fake length of law enforcement that had descended on Becky's home, including assistant states attorney josh Jones. He and fellow homicide prosecute Laura cat were assigned the case.

I've actually in boor's office and I got a phone call that there was homicide and theyve said, gave me the address and my first response where, because that was not in address.

that nice house as nice lives.

good cars in the drive, what you would expect. So and drove out there, took about five minutes, and couple detectives met me at the door.

The prosecutor was LED at the stairs, hand into Becky y's bedroom.

You can see that that door to the bedroom was shut, and person was trying to shut IT. And somebody kicked in that door, broke up in that door with their shoulder. And then you found her in the bathroom with her hands above her head, and there were bullet .

holes in her hands.

This victim is flowing in terror. You could sense the fear .

that he must have felt who had pursued becking in our own home and shot her dead.

It's always a puzzle. IT may be a puzzle that you buy for a two year old that has four pieces to IT. Or in certain investigations, that could be a two thousand peace sell puzzle where twenty five percent of the pieces are missing. And, you know, have the box to look at the picture to see what supposed to be when you're finished. Anyway.

this one was shaping up to be one of those puzzles with plenty of missing pieces, but maybe something at the scene would help reveal the picture.

There wasn't just a murder. This was a cold blood and execution.

Forty one year old mother of three Becky beef ic was dead. Her sister sera consumed by grief. How do you get through .

those for a few days? You know, in between the moments of totally breaking down IT was logistics that got us through being able to focus on small tasks, we had to fly quenching .

investigators inquiry y were focused on the immense task of processing. Back is home.

Been a lot of crime scene before this one was different. You could see that there was concerted effort to be violent. In this case.

the violence occurred in the bathroom of beckley's bedroom. SHE was found there on her back.

We later learned to a shot fourteen times.

Fourteen times.

IT was fourteen times.

This is somebody delivering a message .

to shoot fourteen times is not. You're just losing your cool. This is you wanted that person dead.

What are the crime saying?

Tax fine. We found eight shell casing around the body that apple, we knew that that was going to be important. We found lots of little pieces of plastic around the body. IT seem like there were parts of a plastic bag was IT an attempt to silence the weapon was in an attempt to catch the shell casings.

Cn, the play, honestly.

at that point there was an a whole lot more.

Investigators did find a footprint next to a broken second floor window that appeared to have been forced open the colors, likely point inventory. Rest of the houses have been told, josh, any sign of valuables missing?

No, there is no evidence of anything missing from their house didn't appear that the house had been ransacked. IT really appeared from the very beginning that whoever broke into the house broke into the house with the express purpose of executing Becky beliefs.

And execution. Someone hated Becky enough to want her dead, but to her family and friends, that idea just didn't compute. IT wasn't possible to hate Becky.

Becky just naturally could get along with everybody that he met.

Although Sarah was sixteen months older than her sister admits, there was a time SHE may have been the exception.

We lived in a one bathroom house, and that caused a lot of conflict. You two teenage girls trying to share one bathroom is not a pleasant site.

Joking aside, services people were drawn to.

Becky SHE was just a likeable, kind, funny person. He was really corky.

Add to that determination, compassion at a White, smart brain. And you have all of beck's qualities that good friend shands anker do.

So well, we met really in first grade. We would hold hands and walk up the giant steps and spend a lot of time together in those those early day is just kind of navigating school and being away from our parents and to body. Yeah, that is.

Best buddies growing up in a small farm town outside quercy pals all the way through high school where Becky was the valid Victorian. And then college were Becky play tennis and met her future husband tim leafing, a standout on the football team who would later be entrant in the schools hall of fame. Becky in shanon were still tight.

As Becky started her career as a pharmacology sales rep. Shannon became a labor and delivery babies. Those had always been part of Becky's life plan. According to her sister.

Becky always dreamed of a family, and being a mother was her number one priority.

And when IT came time for Becky and tim to have children, her friend shannon, the labor and delivery nurse, was there you, the first grade mates, holding hands, go on up and starting life in school. And now that you're delivering her child, yeah how .

important is that to be able to be there and hold the hand of your friend as SHE meets one of her children in this? It's not something, it's not something that you can put into words added to leave.

But those happy times had a dark cloud shon had a child born six weeks before beck's first sun who became .

gravely ill so she's first learning motherhood and um I was dealing with you know my fourth baby being sick .

in and becket .

would be there for you absolutely SHE .

most definitely was tragically shan's child passed away. But the experience of watching what shannon and her family went through, the care her son received and his spirit through at all, inspired Becky to change careers and become a nurse. Beck, he graduated from nursing school at the top of her class. Again.

I eat because I to know how much he and I have effect of me. Insider may to be a nurse, and china may be a Better person.

Becky was born for this role. SHE hasn't innate quality that you can't teach in a nurse.

He was not good at testing.

No, absolutely not. SHE did the important part.

the caring part, IT really was her calling .

SHE d really, really provided comfort to people in their greatest time of need.

But sadly. Nobody had been there for Becky at hergert time of need. SHE was dead, and what was left now was for the police to find her killer. They were speaking with the neighbors couple .

hours after the body was found that when they came over and asked questions.

the hymens told them about their security camera footage. Investigators, we're eager to take a look.

obviously, with any investigation is a big deal to look at .

any possible .

surveilLance cameras. absolutely. I was.

I'm pete Morrison. This story is about the end of the world of frostbitten pet and zombies. This is a story about a woman linked forever to the awful things that happened to her children. IT has to be heard to be believed.

Think, you know, every deadline story again, listen to mummy I dome's day and a does another riveting series when you follow the day line original podcast i'm kiss Morrison from deadline abc, if you're not already hooked on p ox dark comedy called based on a true story, now is the perfect time to dive in the new season is out now and it's an unbelievable unpredictable ride based on a true story starts Kelly, coco and Christmas now is new parents and Nathan. We are eager to be done with the world of true crime and their friendly neighborhood, real killer. But when new body start turning up, IT seems the world of true crime isn't done with them based on a true story is dreaming now, oh, my Younger gog.

The murder of Becky bef nic had left her, her neighbors like the hymens right next door reading I was .

just a nervous to be around in general, with something happening so close to your home.

The heights hope their surveilLance camp video of the power outside their home could help police catch Becky's killer, so that prosecutors just Jones and moroccan.

Initially we thought we had surveilLance video the night of the murder.

so we were good. My attention, tell me more. You could be a soul for your case.

right? absolutely. I was like, this could be awesome and then IT turns out one, the camera angle was not good.

And to IT was not the day the murder IT was the night before. And you couldn't tell who I was. I would be hard dressed to even say if I was a man or a woman.

The same is true of the image of the hymen's camera captured about a week earlier. Still, IT was a potential lead, so detectives hit the pavement looking for more video.

It's kind like finding middle in a stack of needles a lot of times, because a lot of folks have videos surveyed now on their houses.

The detectives work their way out from Becky's house, knocking on doors of homes and businesses, asking the same question over and over again.

Do you have video cameras? And did you capture anything, you know, around this particular time this to see if there's any additional events maybe of someone driving to and from or walking to or from or something like that?

The search paid off because something like that was exactly what they uncovered. Lord, there is a figure scene on somebody y's video of a guy on a bicycle. Yes, this is the of the murder.

the of the murder. Yes and you see the person riding the bike and then turn towards the direction of beki believed this house. And I will also say it's a person on a bike in the middle of february, which is very cold .

in quantities.

yes, and it's the middle of the night, so that, I mean, that part is very strange.

The bike didn't appear to have reflectors, which made IT hard to see, but a few blocks away, also on the night of the murder, another cAndra picked up what appeared to be the same cyclist peddling toward Becky's nights, or hood, at a short time later, getting back. How much information to the video give you? Could you tell, short, tall.

none of that. All you could tell is there's a person writing in a icicle.

Each video by itself is not super a helpful. But each video, when IT becomes part of the video before, the video after, is how these videos s become that much more important.

The videos s fit together to form an important piece of that puzzle. Investigators had a suspicious cyclist in the area on the night of the murder, and as they kept digging, they came across that same bike, moving along the same route on two other nights. And those sightings matter right up date and time with the powler in the driveway videos turned over by the hymens. Given the timing, police now believe that the cyclist and the powler were the same person and in all likelihood, the person who killed Becky, but they wouldn't be able to get an ID from the videos alone. I didn't even know if they were looking for a man or a woman, so they turned to Becky inner circle.

They were actually reaching out to us, giving us information. You know, you may want to to talk to this person. You may want to talk to that person.

They started to learn more about Becky, and soon to be exhuming. two. They'd once come across as the perfect couple. He was a big personality. He remembers bekka friend channon, kind of a named in town.

He was a star, for sure. Yeah, very athletic, good looking, charismatic guy, and he was pretty proud of him. And you could tell that in the beginning.

I think they naturally gravitated to each other, and they complimented each other at the time. In their life.

they married after college. Tim was a successful salesman man, and the couple owned a trailer park and part of across fit gym. Or tim worked out bt regularly. IT made IT easier for this salesman to pitch his favorite product himself.

He relished the spotlight, literally taking centre stage at charity events and appearing with his parents and brothers on the TV game show family feud he best in the life sea got for one of his answers to what, honey, I love you, but said I do, saying I do was the bigger regret. Yeah, i'm going to get in trouble for that. And the audience seats up, they go crazy. But back home, back back, not so much. That said, there was some truth and what he said, you're done.

I think SHE felt IT at that point.

And you think that's the beginning .

in the end from my perspective? Yes.

yes. Sera says the marriage had been unravelling, in part because tim wasn't pulling his weight.

Tim was very much absent in whole life, and we used to say, kind of in a joking manner, but certainly not in a funny manner, that Becky was a single married mother.

IT was tim, who filed for divorce in twenty twenty one, moved out of the house. The boys had been with him the night Becky was killed. Police, of course, would have to check out him, but there was another man in Becky's life for the authorities to consider a new guy named ted Johnson.

Our detectives became aware of the fact that mr. Johnson, and is believe they had a relationship, and they reached out to mister Johnson.

had told detectives that he had stayed overnight ted becking thousand on valentine's day every fourteen. You'll want to remember that, and he was also there on the twenty first two days before her body was found, making him possibly the last person known to have seen her alive. As for the night of Becky's murder, ten said he stayed home, hadn't seen her that would have to be verified.

So we certainly explore that and we follow that path.

But that wasn't the only path they followed. You must have known instinctively your guy was in trouble.

Absolutely suspect. Number one.

The quinzy community was mourning the loss of Becky beefing loving mother and nurse extraordinary. There was a memorial service at the hospital where he worked a ceremony, the quinsy nursing on her dark.

They present her Becky with White roses and ring bell and say her name three times. And then the in nurses in the room stand up, and we really serve duty officially. And IT was a beautiful, beautiful thing, and he deserves to be remembered that way.

SHE certainly does not deserve to be remembered as the victim of a terrible crime. When the authorities were working double time to solve, they knew Becky had that new man in her life had Johnson. He had agreed to speak with the police.

He gives us appropriate answers. He's CoOperated with the police. There is no evidence that he was involved. There is no evidence of motive. And so we start looking at a different path and focusing our efforts in in a different path.

down a different path and on a different man. Becky's stranger husband, tim beef, nic, tim, handsome, charisma tic gregorius.

I can't say I blame the police for him being a suspect.

Casey sneck was tim's divorce at touring at the time, but he also handles her share of criminal defense cases. You must have known instinctively your guy was in trouble.

Absolutely suspect.

Number one, could you tell us going to be bad?

I told them you need to keep your mouth shot. And under no circumstances do you talk to anybody. I spoke with one of the investigators that was on the scene that night, and I told her that, you know, tim wants to be helpful to the investigation, but he needs to focus on .

his kids right now. Tim's kids were also his alii. He says he was home with them on the night of the murder, according to casey.

And IT was tim, who alerted Becky's father that something was off when he told him Becky wasn't responding to his text about the boys. Becky and tim had been separated two years. By then, could they be civil with one another?

They could be. They had gotten a lot of the ugly ss out of their system by the time february rolled around. And they both by all accounts, we are looking forward to getting the divorce behind them.

But investigators had pulled those divorce records and didn't like what they saw.

It's not only that she's going through this divorce, but it's actually scheduled to go to court a after the murder. So IT hasn't .

been settled in now. In fact.

there were multiple issues that were contentious at that point.

They were fighting over the big two issues, money and custody. Shanna noticed IT was taking a toll on her friend bucky divorce.

SHE just looked sort of beaten down by the whole process.

The process has taken a particularly nasty turn when tim filed for a protective order against Becky SHE followed soup with one her own the doling petitions layed bear a marriage in its death rose accusations flew back and forth a poor parenting, verbal assaults, harassment and rage, field destruction property there were also accusations of pushing and grabbing, but no documented physical injuries, tims attorney says. IT was all a lot of smoke, no fire.

very common game play in a divorce and Adams county on and why? But there is no evidence in any court filings that i've ever seen that would suggest that he was abusive. They both said things that they shouldn't have said during the divorce. They both probably did things during the divorce that they could take back if they could.

Beck, he also filed for a protective order against tim's father. Ray SHE accused him in court filings of inappropriate sexual behavior with female members of tims extended family, including minders, accusations that have been floating around tim's family for years.

He did not want ray belief that to be around her children alone, and that was a very contentious issue in the didn't want him anywhere around the kids unsupervised.

Tim fiercely defended his father, and ray unequipped denies the allegations, allegations that nobody in the family ever brought to the attention of the authorities. The protective order against ray was denied. Same thing for the protective orders against Becky and tim, but the puzzle of beck's murdered was starting to reveal itself to investigators.

The bitter divorce had given them a string to poll, a lead to follow. And they began to think this former football star was hiding something behind his mega smile. Time to go back to those fuzzy pictures from the security camera. Another look at that biker on a cold winters night.

Tim believe I was used to being the center of attention, from his college days as a hero on the football field to parties organized around that appearance on family few. And the comment that made some people wonder, honey, I love you, but said, I do. But there were different sets of eyes on tim now, and they weren't looking to heat lighter in prays. Investigators were hearing that in the privacy of his own home, the outward charming beef nic was a started different man. Domestic violence doesn't always manifest itself as the way .

for the black eye. Doesn't IT doesn't your tim can put on a show, and that show did not play out in their household. He was very emotionally are abusive to Becky. He was very, very controlling.

China remembers when beckley's third sun was born as both nurse and friend SHE employed by he distained extra night in the hospital to heal.

And her immediate reaction was, I can't. He won't let me.

We have to go home. He won't let me. We have to go home. yes. And after they separated, friends and colleagues say Becky became increasingly worried about what tim might be capable of love.

SHE had made lots of statements to people about being scared of him, that SHE thought tim might do .

something to her. According to Sarah, Becky started telling her how scared you was after a nurse colleague of hers was murdered by her x partner.

I think that was the the first time I really registered with her that he or her children could be in danger.

But remember, despite that very real fear becket felt, the judge denied her an order of protection against him. The bulk of her allegations were not physical in nature, and he had no injuries to show the law with .

regard to protective waters treats emotional and verbal abuse differently than physical abuse.

Detectives decided IT was time to take a look inside tims hole. They executed a search work.

One thing that we found was A A box of showcasing and .

spent showcasing .

investigators .

had eight shell casings from the scene, seemed unlikely this would be a match .

and in my mind was like, there's no way, there is no way that anybody would keep shell casings from a gun that he used to murder his wife.

The shell casings were sent to the lab for testing. You never know. Investigators also found plastic shopping bags that looks similar to the shards of plastic found near bache's body.

And we seize the computer, and we didn't know what we're going to find on that.

Something rather interesting.

IT turns out. So when we start looking at the laptop S R history, that is when we found the information where he was searching about ted Johnson, the boyfriend, the boyfriend.

So tim was researching his wife's new love interest. That wasn't terribly strange, but when he did, IT jumped out of investigators.

Ted Johnson had a misery license plate, and in the middle of the night, on february fourteen, that one ten in the morning, he started searching information about how do I look up missouri license plates.

valentine's day? Why was that important? Let's go back to those security videos and how investigators saw the picture finally coming together. February for teeth was one of the dates theyd spotted the suspicious cyclist going to and from Becky's neighborhood images that coincided with a prowler in the hymen's driveway just after twelve thirty A M and february fourteen th was a very same night. The boyfriend told police he had stayed over at beckers parties car. So was this team biking to his wife house up to no good, but then scared off by seeing a strange car with missouri plates, then biking home just before when I am, the timing was just too perfect. They thought had to be him.

Because you see a person and the drive, we see a person on the bike, you see the person writing back. And then at one ten A M, he goes down the rabbit hole into these google searches.

And if tim was the cyclist that night, the theory went, he had to be the cyclist the night of the murder as well. And when investigations we're poking around less than a block from tim's house, they found a .

bike ditched behind a garage and IT didn't have any reflective res on him.

No reflectors, just like the bike gun video. And there was that divorce court date coming up. Tim was not only going to square off against Becky, but also against members of his own extended family who were set to testify on beaches behav about those allegations against his father. Prosecutors believed he spoke to motive.

Ten's world was going to come crashing down in his mind.

The puzzle had finally taken shape. The picture, at least to prosecutors, was clear on much thirteen and two and hf. Weeks after Becky was shot to death in a bathroom, A A strange husson tibi.

f. Nic was arrested and charged with her murder. Where are you surprised?

No, no, because nobody else would ever do something like that to Becky.

But there would be plenty of surprises ahead as the case burl to our trial. Could the state put him in that house, breaking in, put the gun in his end being the killer?

No, they can. at.

Murder trials are complicated, time consuming affairs. IT can be years between an arrest and a jury. Hearing evidence in a case and preparing for one is no small feet.

So what prosecutors josh Jones and Laura cc, we're about to do was down right nuts. So what's your shot clock? What are you up against your ninety days? Ninety days? They wanted no bail for ten belief neck, and the judge agreed. But in illinois, if the defended his held without bond, the state is required to bring the case to trial within ninety days.

We get ninety days.

Take this to a jury. It's not evidence still to come back from the lab.

The defense could have asked for a delay, but tims attorney, casey snap, chose not to. Now you're both play in chicken against the clock.

Oh yeah, I dropped everything, all hands on deck.

You like to make an opening statement.

Remarkably, both sides were ready when the trial began in may twenty, twenty three.

The minute. We're not spent surrounded by friends. The opening statement I started writing in my mind, the moment you walked into the bedroom and you saw her lying on the floor, know the last of the beck's life were sent in fear, in pain and terror. The prosecutors .

presented all the evidence they dissembled in that compressed time period. They LED the jury through the steps they believe proved tim was the one riding the bike and lurking in the neighbor's yard on those security cameras. They even told the jury how they think he got the bike.

We ve found that he had A A make burner facebook profile at john smith. We also found that the john Smith was looking at this blue bike with no reflectors on facebook.

The bike for sale was strikingly similar to the blue bike with no reflectors found abandoned near tim's house. And there was more evidence on tim's phone, more suspicious .

internet searches. This one ches the one how to open .

my door with the problem.

how to make a homemade fist since he is searching things .

like how to make a home made silence.

Er D. Prosecutors told the jury the plastic shards at the scene had perhaps when teams attempt to make a silencer using the shopping bags found in his home IT all added up to tim being the killer.

That was a good story that mr. Jones just told you .

a good story and a great theory, admitted tim's defensive tourney, except for one thing, could the state put him in that house, breaking in, put the gun in his end being the killer?

No, they can at, you know, they have somebody going into that house and killing backy. I don't think they gave you. Tam.

what about the bicycle videos?

Those were infuriating as an attorney because you don't know where that person is going. You don't know if it's the same person on each occasion. We don't know anything about that individual.

But IT tells the story of a round trip bicycle right to a gruzin murder.

Well, IT tells the story of somebody riding a bike late at night.

So what do you call evidence like that?

When is thrown up against you? circumcision? Al, at best.

And the mode of the tim was so angry over the way beck he was handling the divorced, her accusations and demands that he plotted at a murder is attorney told the jury.

That's just not true there. The boss was winding down. There was no reason that he had to do this. He wasn't that angry. He wasn't that mad.

Why was his life going to be Better as a prosecution? So with Becky dead on the bathroom floor, I don't know.

Things weren't terrible with her in the picture. And by all accounts, they were looking forward to moving on with their new lives.

But prosecutors had something they felt did tie him to the actual murder. Remember that box of shell casings found in tim's house.

the twenty seven shell casings in his house, exactly match the shell casings that were around, betting they were fired by the exact same guy.

So the shell sinks from the scene match showcases taken from tim's home. But that's not a smoking gun, according to his atterley, because no gun was ever found.

We didn't have a murder weapon, you know, they said IT was shot with the same gun, but we don't know what kind of gun they never had. You know, a gun in tems possession that they could link to this murder.

The puzzle finally assembled. But what picture do the jersey?

I think that was the most anxiety i've ever felt. What if they find him not guilty?

After four hours of deliberation, the verdict was in we.

the jury find the defendant, and they believe that guilty of first to be murder, IT was pure panic. And then at a relief.

tim livening was sentenced to life in prison. He told deadline he maintains his innocence and is appealing his diction. His future behind bars is a little comfort to sara.

There is no possibility of recovering from something like this. It's a hole that will always be. There is a percent ory.

But if Sarah and her family are condemned to a type of per gatti, SHE is determined to push so that other families don't join hers.

When we think of domestic abuse, domestic violence, we often think about our that happens to other people, that happens to women who date the bad boys, doesn't happen to, you know, with the quint essential american family. When we don't think that it's a possibility, IT becomes dangerous.

Sarah says that even though the judge followed the letter of the law in denied beck's order of protection, tim, the system failed her sister by not seeing what was really going on. The prosecutors in this case agree.

if there's not an act of physical violence where a judge can see a book or a broken bone, it's much harder to get an order protection.

And I think there is such a um stigma for people when they're going through a divorce that if they claim domestic violence, people assume it's just a divorce tactic. So I think all of us can learn that we need to believe people and be able to help refer them to the right resources.

Of course, all of that too late for Becky and IT won't change the fact that three Young boys have effectively lost both parent living now with relatives. And so sera hopes people remember her little sister, not for how SHE died, but for how he lived. As a mom who loved her boys, dedicated her life to making theirs and everyone else a little bit. Rider.

if anybody could know Becky, they would know what her generous spirit.

I think you're proud of her.

All .

IT. That's all for this edition of dateline. We'll see you again friday at nine eight central that of course i'll see you next week night for nbc nightly news. I'm lessor hope for all of us at nbc news. Good night.

Friday night on deadline, did you sexually assault anyone? Did you do fraud? Anyone, the international who own death friday at nine, eight, central only on N, B, C.