"FAMILY FEUD" CONTESTANT CONVICTED OF MURDERING HIS ESTRANGED WIFE SPEAKS OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME, EXCLUSIVELY ON "48 HOURS: THE GAME SHOW AND THE MURDER"
Tim Bliefnick Tells Erin Moriarty: "I'm Innocent. I Didn't Kill Becky"
Tim Bliefnick, a former contestant on the game show "Family Feud," was arrested, charged and convicted for the February 2023 murder of his estranged wife, Becky Bliefnick. Now, in his first TV interview after a jury found him guilty, Bliefnick talks with 48 HOURS correspondent Erin Moriarty for 48 HOURS: "The Game Show and the Murder," to be broadcast Saturday, Sept. 30 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+.
Becky Bliefnick was found dead in her Quincy, Ill., home. She was shot multiple times. The case generated media attention when it was revealed that nearly two years before the couple separated, Tim Bliefnick appeared on "Family Feud." During the show, host Steve Harvey said to Bliefnick, "All right, Tim, we talked to 100 married people. What's the biggest mistake you made at your wedding?
Bliefnick responded, "Honey, I love you but, said 'I do.'"
Bliefnick now tells Moriarty he was just joking that day in 2019.
"It wasn't said with any malice or bad intentions," Bliefnick says of his "Family Feud" comment. "It was supposed to be funny."
Bliefnick also maintains he's innocent and plans to appeal his conviction.
"No, I did not murder Becky," Bliefnick tells Moriarty. "The idea of, of murdering someone, let alone the mother of my kids ... is not any part of who I am."
But prosecutors Josh Jones and Laura Keck say the evidence speaks for itself.
"The detectives followed the evidence exactly where it took them," says Jones. "And there was one inescapable conclusion, that it was Mr. Bliefnick."
Becky Bliefnick's sister, Sarah Reilly, says Tim Bliefnick is where he belongs.
"As agonizing as our pain is," Reilly says, "I want him to understand that his worst crime was against his children."
At one point while talking with Moriarty, Bliefnick gets emotional. Asked what he was thinking at that moment, he tells Moriarty his children.
"I just want them to know that I love them and I miss them," he says. "I'm innocent. I didn't kill Becky."
Plus, after a young mother is murdered, her son unknowingly hangs the killer's photo on his wall. A decades-long search for a Florida mom's killer ends with the arrest of her son's childhood football coach. The latest on the case in an encore of "The Betrayal of Linda Slaten" (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT), leading into the premiere of "The Game Show and the Murder." Watch a preview.
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