At around 5 a.m. on Halloween in 2019, police in Kansas, USA, suddenly received a report that a man named Colby Trickle said that his 26-year-old wife, Kristen Trickle, shot herself at home.
However, this is not an ordinary suicide case, and a sex doll then uncovers the terrible truth......
(死者Kristen Trickle和她的丈夫Colby Trickle)
The police officer who answered the police that day, Brandon Hauptman, immediately rushed to the scene to check and found that Kristen still had some signs of life, and the first responders immediately performed CPR, but unfortunately, the person was not rescued in the end......
Around the same time, Brandon discovered that there were many inconsistencies at the scene of the death, such as Kristen wearing only underwear and suffering facial injuries, which is not common in normal suicide cases, as women tend to be more image-oriented.
Her phone's alarm clock also kept ringing, suggesting that she had planned to get up and go to work normally, and that there might be a lot more plans for the day. But usually people who want to commit suicide don't set an alarm because what time they wake up doesn't matter what time they wake up.
In addition, the gun she used when she "committed suicide" was not quite the right size, and experts confirmed that it was a large-caliber firearm that was not convenient to operate. For the petite Kristen, shooting herself to death with it in a dimly lit room is unlikely to be possible.
Brandon was a little skeptical that Kristen had actually committed suicide, and looked at Colby at the scene...... As a husband, when his wife's life was on the line and he was rescued, he didn't even stand by and talked to the police about computer games.
Afterwards, the police immediately brought him back to the bureau for questioning, and as a result, more suspicious things were exposed......
(Colby Trickle appears very sad during interrogation)
At first, Colby behaved like a husband who had just lost his wife, and she was so sad that she burst into tears.
He said that Kristen shot himself while he was asleep, and that he immediately called the police, during which time he moved the gun because for a moment he wanted to end his life, but he soon gave up the idea of suicide and put the gun back in his wife's abdomen.
He also gave details about his work, saying that he was an Army Reserve who worked on intelligence for the U.S. military and had been sent to the Middle East and Central America......
When asked if his wife Kristen had life insurance, he replied no, and when asked if he had killed his wife, he also replied "no".
After more than a dozen hours of interrogation, Colby may have thought that he had successfully established a character of "loving wife and strong work ability", but in fact, more suspicions were exposed, and the police verified with the military and learned that he had never been sent to work overseas at all, and his lies aggravated his suspicion of killing his wife.
Colby was acquitted, as the medical examiner ruled that Kristen had died by suicide three days later......
(死者Kristen Trickle)
Kristen's family and friends disagreed, agreeing that it was impossible for Kristen to commit suicide and that she never showed any signs of suicide.
Many investigators, including Brandon, also felt that the case was not so simple, so they continued to dig into the truth for the next two years, and sure enough, they found more clues, all pointing to Colby......
For example, Colby didn't love his wife as much as he said he would, and police investigation of his phone revealed that he had been having an affair with other women online, and that Kristen had been texting people at the police station hours after his death.
And he clearly knew that his wife had two life insurance policies with a total amount of more than 120,000 US dollars (about 868932 yuan), and he had searched the Internet for insurance money collection ten days before the "suicide case".
Later, he received his wife's insurance money and did something unexpected - only two days after receiving the compensation, he spent nearly 2,000 US dollars (about 14,482 yuan) on a life-size sex doll......
（Colby Trickle）
The move stunned both the police and Kristen's family.
Normally, his wife had just died, so how could a husband be in the mood to buy such a thing?
He then spent thousands of dollars on video game consoles, paying off debts, and buying music equipment, saying he wanted to become a performer...... He spent $120,000 in just eight months, and his wanton squandering further confirmed his suspicion of premeditating the murder of his wife and cheating on insurance.
Finally, in July 2021, Colby was charged with first-degree murder and assault on law enforcement and was taken to court.
(死者Kristen Trickle)
At the trial, which began in September 2023, prosecutors told jurors about Colby's purchase of a sex doll.
Colby's mother testified in court that after Kristen's death, her son had been having nightmares and sleepless sleep, saying that he had bought the sex doll to keep warm and comfort him, not for sexual purposes.
This is obviously not convincing, and Kristen's uncle calls it "very disgusting" and "you can buy an electric blanket if you want to warm up......
Colby's lawyer also tried to argue on his behalf, "If he really wanted to kill Kristen, he wouldn't have called the police until she was completely dead." But these were defeated by the testimony of Ashley Christiansen, a psychologist hired by the prosecution.
Ashley Christiansen conducted an analysis of Kristen, investigating her mental state before her death, and came to the conclusion that she was unlikely to commit suicide.
In the end, the jurors heard expert testimony and sentenced Colby to life in prison without parole for 50 years in November 2023. Four years after Kristen's murder, the truth is finally revealed.
Colby pretends to be clever and kills his wife in the guise of suicide, thinking that he can get away with it, but exposes the crime with his stupidity.
For the rest of his life, he could only atone for his sins in prison......