00:00:00
[Music] there's definitely Mysteries involved in this case it was a cold Halloween morning
00:00:16
even had some snow on the ground that call came out at 5:37 in the morning my wife sh
00:00:30
kobat trickle had called our dispatch he met us on the porch exactly where's the house it's
00:00:39
right here it's this one with red and white did he seem upset I mean there were tears coming down and was hard to
00:00:48
understand was choked up we go up to the door start making announcements inside hey's Police
00:00:58
Department looking to my left is when I first see Kristen I kind of focused in on her jaw
00:01:05
moving I could see the movement of her jaw got a going to start CPR you have a PO yeah
00:01:12
y so she was still alive we were hopeful could she be saved no after you did your autopsy how did
00:01:25
you rule on Kristen trickle's death homicide or suicide suicide suicide y the victim's family in this right out
00:01:36
of the gate was just adamant that this was not a suicide the scene was kind of unusual we had a female with a large
00:01:48
weapon laying in bed and it's not common to see that you have a replica a very similar
00:01:57
type of gun can you show it to me sure how large oh it's pretty hefty as you can tell it's a hand I'm a little
00:02:05
surprised yeah it's awkward to maneuver not something you'd easily turn on yourself we had evidence that led us to
00:02:15
believe that Colby trickle had killed his wife I do not believe he did it I was Colby trickle's defense attorney
00:02:24
when he called 911 she was still showing signs of Life had he intended to murder
00:02:29
her it just seems odd that he would call immediately I think it's very possible that Kristen trickle picked up a gun
00:02:39
that night in great anguish and ended her life a professional came in and looked
00:02:44
at the life of Kristen dug into basically every aspect of her life got into who Kristen was prior to her
00:02:53
death so basically this is a psychological autopsy trying to figure out the State of Mind of a person who
00:03:01
died that's difficult to do isn't it yeah and had this ever been done in the state of Kansas before never in a
00:03:11
criminal case no [Music] [Music] go Sergeant Brandon halman of the Hayes Police Department vividly remembers the
00:04:07
dark cold Halloween morning as he arrived at Kristen trickle's home the bedroom shoes in was actually
00:04:16
this window on the left oh the bedroom's right there yeah that's the bedroom right there and the moment he found the
00:04:22
26-year-old near death in bed I could see the firearm from what I could tell initially a large caliber revolver
00:04:30
and laying across her abdomen about like this how was she dressed uh almost fully undressed she
00:04:36
was just wearing underwear after Kristen showed Signs of Life the sergeant quickly moved the revolver away from her
00:04:44
and carried Kristen into the living room for CPR the only injury that I could see at
00:04:51
that point was the the entrance wound and where was that entrance wound underneath her uh chin here there was
00:04:58
nothing the First Responders could do for Kristen I went out to Colby on the porch and told him that she had died
00:05:05
hello mother's brain and hman I'm the sergeant working today hopman's body camera was only recording audio that day
00:05:15
she died I'm so [Music] sorry are you sure are you Sergeant hman says he asked Kristen's husband Colby to
00:05:27
go to the police station so he could tell investigators what happened did he seem to be cooperative he was yep agreed
00:05:36
to go up we got him some shoes at the station Kobe said that hours earlier Kristen had come home from Walmart where
00:05:44
she worked in the gardening center and the couple had played video games he went to bed before his wife he said and
00:05:51
woke up to his ears ringing and then found Kristen lying next to him with a gunshot wound to to
00:05:59
her head ran up to her she was looking at me then what did you do I ran over to my phone and I called
00:06:16
911 Kobe told investigators that while he was on the phone with 911 he checked Kristen's PSE but felt nothing and then
00:06:25
picked the revolver off her body where was the gun at it was laying by your neck I P it back
00:06:34
what did you do with the guy for a moment he says he thought about taking his own life I started put my
00:06:45
head but I was on the phone they said they wereing saying People Help thought may
00:06:56
can help her while Kobe was still at the station Kristen's aunt delin and uncle Brandt
00:07:04
rice a local Pastor found out Kristen had died I got a call from my mom and the worst phone call ever to get
00:07:15
she said Kristen's dead she's been shot and it was just awful I said Mom that can't be right that can't be right that
00:07:23
doesn't even make sense but more baffling was that Kobe had said Kristen's death was a
00:07:30
suicide what did you tell investigators initially we just don't think she would do this oh 100% I said there's no way of
00:07:38
all the people I know in this world the last person that I would ever think would take their own life would be
00:07:43
Christen because of the joy she she has it's so out of character to Christen and
00:07:48
how she solves problems she's not a runner from problems delin and Brandt W say christen's family and her two dogs
00:07:55
meant the world to her the thought of her hurting herself in any way or anyone or anyone is so foreign she
00:08:03
would never take her life and not tie up loose ends with her family make sure her dogs
00:08:12
had somewhere to go and they believe they knew her better than just about anyone else they had watched her grow up
00:08:22
it is hard to find a photograph she is not smiling just fully she had had that smile even though
00:08:30
delin and bran say Kristen had a tough childhood her mother left her and her father when Kristen was 2 years old when
00:08:38
she was 17 Kristen moved in with her aunt and uncle and their three kids delin and brand say she thrived she
00:08:48
loved being with our family she loved the peace in our home Chloe is Brandt and dein's daughter Kristen was my older
00:08:56
sister figure in my life and I really looked up to her and she was just like always there to make me smile and feel
00:09:03
important the family remembers when Kristen met Colby they were both 18 years old Colby attended our church
00:09:11
Colby for a time was on the worship team at our church they are the band that plays the worship music during our
00:09:19
services he wowed her with his guitar playing abilities songs that he had written on
00:09:29
I quickly grew but just 5 years later Kristen was dead and Colby was saying she took her
00:09:37
own life coroner Lyall Nord hook examined the scene and looking at the wound he believed the revolver was in close range
00:09:47
to her chin when it was fired and in Nord Hook's experience that was not unusual for a self-inflicted gunshot
00:09:56
wound how would you believe the revolver was being held close to the chin and parallel to the body like this yeah but
00:10:05
detective JB Burkholder had also been called to the house we respond to suicides they happen several times a
00:10:12
year and to him this didn't seem like suicide having a female with a gunshot wound especially to the Head uh was uh
00:10:21
was unusual for us why why is that more unusual for women you think for women they're a little bit more concerned
00:10:28
about looks even after after death and so they think about that and there was something else when I
00:10:34
got there I remember alarm going off Kristen's cell phone alarm is heard repeatedly on audio recorded by First
00:10:45
Responders I think I actually silenced it she had set an alarm to get up to get ready for work and had plans for that
00:10:53
day a lot of times individuals who are thinking about suicide they're not setting alarms doesn't matter when they
00:11:00
get up there was candy set out in the kitchen area she and Colby had planned for Halloween to go on as it normally
00:11:09
would with trick-or-treating and nothing troubled him more than that weapon found
00:11:14
at the scene detective Burkholder wasn't sure Kristen was the one who fired it the gun was a full-size 357 revolver a
00:11:23
large caliber weapon approximately 11 to 12 Ines it can be hard to handle and so
00:11:27
being able to place that gun under your chin and discharge that firearm just didn't seem very likely for a smaller
00:11:36
female in what was described as a dark bedroom this wasn't an open and shut suicide case there was questions
00:12:01
after his wife Kristen died in the early morning hours on Halloween Kobe trickle
00:12:06
spoke with investigators for more than 11 hours what's your namee Kobe yes ma'am I'm so
00:12:16
sorry he was asked over and over again to recount the events of the night before do you guys have any fights
00:12:25
anything like that yesterday no Kobe also told him investigators about his job with the US military as part of
00:12:33
human intelligence there's some interesting places they send you with being Intel but they sent me to Middle East
00:12:42
and they sent me down into Central America so some movie stuff right there first impressions of kobby trickle it's
00:12:49
that he was a guy who was in the military he had a I guess a decorated past of overseas tours and
00:12:58
then also Kobe trickle was a guy who loved his wife but detective JB Burkholder says he had questions about
00:13:06
Kobe's account of the morning Kristen died after finding Kristen kobby says he called 911 and as he later told police
00:13:16
he picked up the gun and thought about ending his life what trouble Burkholder is where Kobe put the gun after he
00:13:24
changed his mind back on Kristen's stomach I put it back down and ran outside just very odd it doesn't seem as
00:13:32
though if I'm calling 911 if my wife's dying um on on the bed that I would place the gun back down on her body Kobe
00:13:42
was asked if there was any life insurance on Kristen I have some on me from military but that's it no
00:13:52
insurance on Christen he said and then was asked if he had anything to do with Kristen's death uh did you in fact kill
00:14:00
her [Music] no Kobe left the police station that day but first responder Sergeant hman was
00:14:10
increasingly suspicious about Kobe's actions at the scene he wondered why Colby didn't demand to be by Kristen's
00:14:18
side as they tried to save her life your wife's inside and here she is you know Bleeding Out dying and you're on the
00:14:27
porch well First Responders were administering CPR Colby was chatting with officers about video games that
00:14:36
conversation was recorded by a police body cam what kind of games do you guys like to play Counter Strike everything
00:14:44
from Call of Duty to Minecraft that day as investigators got a search warrant for Colby's cell phone
00:14:52
an autopsy for Christen trickle was underway at the scene coroner Lyall Nord hook who suspected suicide had looked
00:15:02
for any evidence that someone else was involved like signs of a struggle were there any signs of defensive wounds or
00:15:11
any signs that she had fought with anyone before she died no there coroner Nord hook says he also examined
00:15:18
Kristen's body for signs of past physical abuse typically if there's a series of progressive injuries over a
00:15:25
period of time so you can tell that they've been beating on each other in this case I wasn't really seeing that so
00:15:33
I'm going well I have to take the husband's statement at word value that he was there and the gun went off and
00:15:43
she is dead Nordo says 3 days after Kristen's death based on the information he had at
00:15:52
the time he determined that the manner of death was a suicide but Christen Uncle brand and
00:16:00
aunt delin say the more they learned about the facts of the case the more questions they had when I heard that it
00:16:09
was a Gun there's no way we knew Kristen was scared of guns Kristen was also very
00:16:16
very private in her body very modest when I found out she was not dressed that was shocking to me
00:16:27
reflecting on Chris relationship with Colby brand and delin told authorities that for years they were bothered by
00:16:35
what they say was col's controlling Behavior if she didn't immediately respond to a text or wasn't able to
00:16:42
answer her phone he would get very frustrated with her he wanted her at his beckon
00:16:49
call at the time the Rices say they told Kristen they had serious concerns about
00:16:56
Colby we know that she was not happy with us I believe that he convinced her that we were against her and therefore
00:17:08
she separated herself somewhat Kristen decided to marry Colby and eventually moved almost 300 miles
00:17:18
away to Kansas City but life for the couple was difficult says brand Kobe enlisted with
00:17:25
the Army Reserve and did odd jobs Kristen worked at a vet clinic money was tight in early 2019 the couple moved
00:17:37
back to the haze area and the r to say Kristen was coming to their church again oh we were thrilled we were so thrilled
00:17:45
to reconnect with Kristen and it was just like it was when she lived in our home
00:17:51
yeah and in the months before her death they say she was making plans to launch her pet boarding business say she had
00:17:59
picked out a little house that's south of town and has a little Barn behind it and she wanted to turn the little Barn
00:18:06
into the the boarding area to the rice family Kristen seemed happy and excited for her future but after her death brand
00:18:16
and delim wondered about Colby was Colby capable of murder as investigators began digging into
00:18:40
Kobe's story they poured over the data in his cell phone there's several I guess two big aha moments they
00:18:49
discovered Kobe had been exchanging flirtatious Snapchat messages with another woman he um had conversations
00:18:58
with her which would be described as a SE conversation also on that cell phone according to detective JB Burkholder was
00:19:06
evidence that contradicted what Kobe had first told investigators when asked about life insurance on his wife I have
00:19:14
some on me from military but that's it cell phone data revealed that Not only was
00:19:22
Kobe aware Kristen was covered by a life insurance policy called sgli for bces of
00:19:29
military members in the days before her death they say he Googled the amount the
00:19:35
policy would pay out detective Ridgeway was able to find a well I believe it was
00:19:41
a screenshot of a search that he had conducted uh 10 days prior to Kristen's death um asking what his spouse's life
00:19:49
insurance would be on November 4th 2019 investigators asked kobby to return for more questions name appro 10 days
00:20:01
ago you looked up a life insurance issue when when I I never did you did I never
00:20:13
did if if I if I would die well if your spouse died Colby who agreed to talk without a lawyer
00:20:21
suggested that Kristen might have done the search herself on his phone we always gave each other access to each
00:20:29
other's funds and stuff investigators also asked kby about his online relationship kby admitted that it had
00:20:37
started a few months prior to his wife's death after he met the woman on a group
00:20:42
chat while playing video games did Kristen find out about that relationship I know Hobie told them the
00:20:52
relationship was a virtual one that he had never actually met the woman but invest instigators discovered he had
00:21:00
been texting with her just hours after Kristen's death while he was still at the police station I guess to his credit
00:21:08
he said that he was busy and couldn't talk right now uh but then he said I wish I could Aaron Cunningham is
00:21:17
assistant Ellis County attorney which is probably the last thing that you should
00:21:22
say to a woman you're having an online affair with when you're being investigated about your wife's death
00:21:28
when Kobe trickle left the police station after his second interview detective Burkholder checked out his
00:21:35
claim that Kristen had used his phone to research life insurance policies we were
00:21:42
able to uh get video surveillance video from the Walmart store what they discovered was that Kristen was at work
00:21:49
at Walmart at the time the cell phone search was made we were able to see that she didn't have access to a phone the
00:21:57
inconsistent IES in Kobe's statements kept piling up says Burk holder like this one she keeps the revolver on her
00:22:06
side Kobe had said Kristen had kept the 357 revolver by her side of the bed but that didn't seem to line up with what
00:22:15
Burk holders saw at the scene when we looked at the scene we saw multiple firearms on what was described as col's
00:22:23
side of the bed there were also photos of the couple's bedroom found on col's phone
00:22:29
so this picture was taken I believe um a month prior to Kristen's death um you see a large framed revolver on the bed
00:22:38
where Colby trickles uh described as being his and do you think that's the 357 that's the only 357 in the house
00:22:46
that we found that tells me that this was col's gun still the investigation stalled you
00:22:54
have all these investigators who are un covering more and more evidence that there's something really wrong with this
00:23:02
case and you've got the coroner who calls this a suicide I mean that's a problem isn't it uh it it is and it
00:23:10
isn't and it was initially wasn't it sure it was certainly as far as their ability to investigate as efficiently as
00:23:18
they normally would Cunningham says that the Corner's determination that Christen
00:23:23
had died by Suicide limited the investigator's ability to obtain search warrants there was still elements of the
00:23:32
investigation law enforcement wanted to follow up on in the winter of 2020 kby began collecting payouts from two
00:23:41
insurance policies 23,000 from Walmart and $100,000 from the US military meanwhile
00:23:51
investigators contined to learn more about his time in the military he was a Reserve officer in the milit milary um
00:23:59
that was never deployed wait so wait a minute so he was never deployed to Central America he had no overseas
00:24:07
deployments that were told to us by the United States military and he had no experience talking to informs as part of
00:24:15
his job as an intelligence analyst right but even with what looked like blatant lies and an apparent motive to kill his
00:24:23
wife police didn't arrest Colby so in the year after Kristen death authorities watched as Kobe trickle went on with his
00:24:33
life foolish is very frustrating to me I would run into him in public playing music at a restaurant in
00:24:46
town being my skin crawl so whatever storm you're in keep pushing forward posting Facebook selfhelp videos get to
00:24:54
the outside where you're free and enjoy life but then nearly 2 years after Kristen's
00:25:02
death a newly elected County attorney decided to try something very new that he thought could put Kobe away for
00:25:14
[Music] Life County attorney Robert Anderson was just days into his new job in January of
00:25:27
2021 when assistant County attorney Aaron Cunningham and detective JB Burkholder
00:25:34
pulled him aside JB and I both cornered him and said this is something that's clearly homicide help us to get the
00:25:42
nails put in this coffin after reviewing the file Anderson believed that the coroner got it wrong and that this was a
00:25:51
homicide on July 14 2021 he charged Kobe trickle with the murder of his wife certainly the insurance money provides
00:26:01
motive in addition being in bed next to your husband naked shooting on in the face after having set alarms uh to get
00:26:10
up the next day for work after setting out candy for Howen these circumstances don't point to a woman who was planning
00:26:19
a suicide hey uh you you step out of the car and come to the back of the car with
00:26:23
me when police arrested Kobe he didn't seem surprised uh detectives I have some questions for you put you under arrest
00:26:32
you turn around put your hands behind your back sure and Deni killing Kristen I didn't do it and I know you I
00:26:39
know many people don't believe that and I respect that I believe him you don't believe that he would shoot his wife I
00:26:48
do not Cassie Ziggler is one of kobby trickle's defense attorneys he cares about his spiritual life he's a devoted
00:26:55
Christian I don't see that in him this ability to connive and plan all of this instead she says Kristen had suffered
00:27:05
from depression since childhood I think that Kristen dealt with a lot more pain in her life than people acknowledged I
00:27:15
don't think there's any worse rejection in life than to be rejected by your biological mother at an early age that's
00:27:21
exactly what happened CO's attorney felt confident going into the trial the coroner was standing by his assessment
00:27:29
that Kristen's death was a suicide you had the ability you had the power to change this
00:27:36
determination if you wanted to prior to trial yes you could have but you didn't if I've made a
00:27:46
determination am I going to change it to homicide based on an accusation before court
00:27:52
proceeding no so County attorney Anderson knew he had to do something to convince a jury
00:28:00
that Kristen didn't die by Suicide and that's when he pursued a different type of autopsy a psychological one an
00:28:10
autopsy of the mind and to conduct it Anderson hired a forensic psychologist Dr Ashley Christensen her job to
00:28:21
determine Christen state of mind leading up to her death being unable to speak with them because because they're of
00:28:28
course no longer here they have to speak with their family their friends their co-workers they review any social media
00:28:34
Diaries journals um anything that they can christenson's conclusions would eventually take center stage at Kobe
00:28:42
trickle's trial it was September 2023 never of the jury and prosecutor Cunningham began by telling the jury
00:28:51
that christon trickle was murdered for the oldest reasons in the world this case is a simp as a b c a an affair b a
00:29:05
breakdown control and C Cold Hard Cash Kobe's attorney disputed that you may proceed whenever you're ready Z
00:29:16
thank you your honor Cassie Ziggler says Kobe's alleged Affair was really just an
00:29:22
online flirtation I don't think there was a plan to have this long long-term intimate affair she also denies that
00:29:31
Kobe plotted to kill Kristen for cash and about that Google search into the life insurance payout Zigler says Kobe
00:29:40
doesn't remember doing that search but she acknowledges he had been filling out paperwork around that time for his own
00:29:49
military life insurance and if he did do it maybe that's why it's just a coincidence that this is happening days
00:29:57
before unfortunately so yeah bad timing at trial the jury learned that Kobe trickle had not only collected more
00:30:09
than $120,000 from two life insurance policies on his wife he had already gone through it I think he had spent all of
00:30:20
the money in approximately 8 months what did he spend the money on when detective JB Burkholder took the
00:30:29
stand he was asked to describe one expenditure in particular a $1,942 payment to true touch dolls were
00:30:39
you able to determine what that was this is a company that made manufactur and distributes life-size sex
00:30:47
dos Kobe's attorney says Kobe was having trouble sleeping alone and was quite open about the purchase he went and
00:30:56
talked to his mother about it if you're going to buy yeah if you're going to buy
00:31:00
a sex toy a grown man's not going to go talk to his mother about this sex doll he's going to buy what was your reaction
00:31:05
to that disgusted just disgusted it was described at trial that he needed this doll for comfort for comfort and warmth
00:31:15
we have electric blankets that we use for that when Brandt rice took the stand he told the jury that his niece had
00:31:23
become more assertive in her relationship with her husband in the months before her death I feel that she
00:31:29
had really begun to stand up for herself we were proud of her for that and there
00:31:34
were texts as Cunningham that seemed to support that Kobe feared he was losing control over Kristen on April 8th 2019
00:31:44
when Kobe texted that Kristen seemed different and pushy with things she responded I'm just deciding to stick up
00:31:52
for myself just like you I'm taking control of the situation and then prosecutors called their star
00:32:00
witness Dr Ashley Christensen around the time of her death there was a lot of data suggesting that
00:32:07
she had a lot of Hope Dr Christensen testified that Kristen talked to family members about future plans and seemed
00:32:16
optimistic she wanted to open her own either CET boarding or or dog grooming business and had discussed his goal for
00:32:23
opening her business but Christensen also testified that She interviewed Colby for her report and he offered what
00:32:31
sounded like a reason why Kristen might have been stressed he told the doctor Kristen knew about his online
00:32:39
relationship with that other woman he reported that they had lost discussed that relationship the week of her dad
00:32:46
but remember in his police interview Kobe had told investigators that he didn't think Kristen knew did Kristen
00:32:54
find out about that relationship I so which is it did she know or she didn't know I believe she
00:33:03
knew whether or not Christen knew Dr Christensen told the jury she believed that at the time of her death Kristen
00:33:12
was at a low risk for suicide it is my opinion that it is relatively less likely that her death
00:33:20
was the result of suicide I love those words relatively less likely that doesn't tell me
00:33:27
anything we can't know the mind of someone who's going to end their life defense attorney Ziggler does not think
00:33:34
the report should have been allowed in as evidence she points out that Dr Christensen who never met Kristen
00:33:41
trickle did interviews and prepared her report nearly two years after Kristen's death and Ziggler believes people's
00:33:50
memories change over time that is a long time to go back and talk to people about
00:33:56
Kristen but prosecutors thought there was another piece of evidence that could bring them a guilty
00:34:07
verdict what do you think is the most powerful evidence against Colby trickle chat now with the 48 Hours team on
00:34:14
Facebook and [Music] X nearly four years have passed since Kristen trickle died from a gunshot
00:34:29
wound to her head how would you describe the last 4 years hellish on September 22nd
00:34:43
2023 it was Kobe trickles last chance to convince a jury that he had nothing to do with his wife's death he decided not
00:34:52
to testify but his attorney Cassie Ziggler called his mother Tina C her to the stand is it fair to say that chist
00:35:01
was pretty reserved at first when you met her yeah very to herself Chrysler described her daughter-in-law as a woman
00:35:09
who rarely revealed her feelings couldn't read her very um emotionless it's a drastically different
00:35:19
Kristen says attorney Ziggler than the one her family describes by their explanation just the happiest most
00:35:26
joyful person never stops smiling she almost is walking on water I mean when the reality is we have no idea how she's
00:35:34
really feeling now you find out he's having an emotional relationship with someone else online I just I can imagine
00:35:41
that being the last straw but in his final argument to the jurors prosecutor Aaron Cunningham shows them the weapon
00:35:49
that killed Kristen and says she couldn't have fired it members of the jury this doesn't add up state is going
00:35:58
to demonstrate it to you prosecutor Cunningham showed us with a similar gun if you look at the autopsy photos you
00:36:06
see a little divot at the 3:00 Mark which is believed by the coroner to be the sight imprint of the gun that and I
00:36:15
knew Kristen was right-handed the Natural Way a right-handed person would hold a gun to their head for suicide
00:36:22
would be something like this or maybe something like this putting the sight Mark somewhere between 9:00 and 6:00 so
00:36:30
for the sight Mark to have wound up over at the 3:00 angle would be very unnatural Cunningham showed us how he
00:36:39
believes Kobe trickles shot his wife while she slept next to him it would be consistent with the placement of the
00:36:46
site Mark that he would have grabbed the gun from his nightstand rolled over in bed and place the gun just underneath
00:36:54
her chin and pull the trigger so if you keep it here than this then would explain appears on her neck here as the
00:37:03
case went to the jury seigler had hoped that they would still have too many doubts how significant is it the fact
00:37:11
that the coroner went to trial still saying it was a suicide when the the prosecutors are saying it's a homicide
00:37:20
yeah it's huge we have to show doubt that's reasonable and I think there's plenty of that do you that's what
00:37:27
Kristen's family feared as well all they have to do is convince one of those 12 that they have a reasonable doubt
00:37:40
what are we going to do if he walks out a free man they don't have to wait long less than 2 hours later there was a
00:37:49
verdict count one we the jury find the defendant guilty of premeditated murder in the first degree of chrisen triple
00:37:57
Colby trickle was found guilty for first-degree premeditated murder and interference with law enforcement
00:38:06
falsely reporting information what do you remember of the verdict what did you hear just feeling
00:38:14
like I could breathe yeah just feeling of breath the relief for safety for our family I feel like we got our life back
00:38:24
yeah after the verdict we spoke with coron Lyall Nord hook who said he planned to amend Kristen trickle's death
00:38:32
certificate to Now read homicide he admitted he had decided on suicide before talking to anyone in
00:38:41
Kristen's family or seeing the weapon used to kill her but I'm a little surprised wouldn't that have been
00:38:48
important for you to make to know the size of the weapon to be able to make your death investigation
00:38:55
determination the police should have all that information and it's usually correlated with the pathologist but it
00:39:00
wasn't in this case the fact that he had done research on insurance were you aware of that no were you aware that
00:39:08
they found evidence that he was having an online Affair no they didn't share that with me either if you had known
00:39:14
that would you have left that as suicide no investigators acknowledge they should
00:39:20
have done a better job keeping him informed on November 20th 2023 Kobe trickle returned to court for
00:39:31
sentencing admitting only that he could have been a better husband something that I cannot apologize for is harming
00:39:40
Chris that morning because I cannot apologize for what I didn't do regardless of that fact I still take
00:39:46
partial blame for that morning I always wonder if she would still be here out that her husband judge Glenn braa senten
00:39:55
Kobe Trickle the court will sentence you to life in prison with no possibility of
00:40:01
parole for 50 years with k trickle in prison the risers say their family is finally
00:40:09
beginning to grieve the young woman gone way too soon Kristen's Cousin Chloe who grew up
00:40:20
with Kristen wrote a song for [Music] her goodbye how often do you think about Kristen all
00:40:30
the time every day every day you know we drive by that little house the house where Kristen one day
00:40:41
hoped to start her dream business you call it Kristen's house don't you yeah she had a
00:40:50
future she had found her faith again when you were with her you felt loved a beautiful heart a gentle gentle
00:41:02
spirit and she was just an amazing girl now [Music] a well-known respected detective his
00:41:33
wife is shot dead everyone was in a State of Shock he's a suspect but the prosecution has a problem the family of
00:41:40
a victim sticking up for the accused murder of their loved one he couldn't have killed her could he 48 hours
00:41:46
Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus [Music] welcome to postmortem I'm your host
00:42:05
anarie green today we're talking about the murder of Kristen trickle a 26-year-old woman who died from a
00:42:12
gunshot wound to the head but did Kristen pull the trigger or was her husband Colby trickle capable of murder
00:42:20
with me to discuss the case is correspondent Aon morard producer asena bassek and field producer Iris Carreras
00:42:27
welcome guys thank you so much hi hi andry hello we always love to talk about cases that have some very unusual
00:42:34
aspects and so if you have not listened or watched this episode I urge you to go
00:42:41
back uh the episode is Kristen trickle autopsy of the mind you're going to find it just below this podcast in your feed
00:42:49
so check it out and listen and then come back but if you have let's get started something a little unusual Aaron what
00:42:56
sets this hour apart from others this season I think the main reason why we did this story was that we encountered
00:43:04
something we had never ever encountered in a case before and it was something that was called a psychological
00:43:10
evaluation essentially an autopsy of the Mind where the prosecution hired a forensic psychologist to talk to
00:43:20
everyone in the victim's life um to try to determine what was her State of Mind leading up to her death the psychologist
00:43:29
Dr Christensen talked to kby and members of his family and talk to christen's friends and family she interviews many
00:43:37
people in christen's life she also looks at Medical Records journals Diaries um her legal past if she had any
00:43:44
convictions she just tries to review everything that's possible out there to review uh that'll give her any idea
00:43:51
about who Kristen was um leading up to her death yeah and Erin you have the document this Psych olcal assessment and
00:43:58
it's pretty thorough oh absolutely and what she does is she kind of weighs against the risk factors what makes you
00:44:05
more likely to be depressed or maybe consider taking your life against the protective factors the things that would
00:44:14
keep you from taking actions like that so I'd said to you that I was a little suspicious of this and I was surprised
00:44:21
that they allowed it this report to be entered in as evidence and part of it had to do with you don't know what's in
00:44:28
other people's minds we often present ourselves differently in public than you know maybe the way we feel inside and I
00:44:36
just thought we don't know what happened in those Final hours of her life with her with her relationship with her
00:44:43
husband yeah nobody knows the last 48 hours of Kristen's life except for Colby except for Colby right um so her family
00:44:52
um saw her three days before her death so they're not really sure what was there a huge fight uh we don't know any
00:44:59
details about the night before other than what Colby had had told investigators so there's a bit of a
00:45:05
information Gap there um in the report and complicating it is that this psychologist didn't start interviewing
00:45:13
people till nearly two years after Kristen died um so the defense in this case as you can imagine um Kobe trickle
00:45:22
uh defense as you know people's memory they're changed they're degraded after two years so or something stays in their
00:45:32
head that may not be accurate also they're going through a grieving process so that makes it harder for people I
00:45:38
think um to give a fair assessment two years later ultimately do we know why the judge determined that this report
00:45:47
was valuable was essential I think what made this so controversial was the fact that um the defense objected to allowing
00:45:57
in a report when this psychologist never got to talk to Kristen herself I mean it's often done with defendants and they
00:46:04
are alive and they're able to talk to psychologists it's rare for someone to be hired to try to figure out what was
00:46:12
in the State of Mind of the victim uh you can't talk to the victim and in this case what the defense really objected to
00:46:19
was that she didn't interview anyone until almost two years later it's almost like putting together a puzzle with with
00:46:27
a piece missing in the middle the most important piece yeah the psychologist does not say suicide or homicide I guess
00:46:35
the conclusion of the report was that it is relatively less likely that Miz trickle's death was the result of
00:46:44
suicide so I think the Judge felt that this was not a determination of homicide or suicide the big question I think was
00:46:52
how much did it influence the jury you know even if they only hear it's relatively less likely do they then take
00:46:59
the word of a PHD psychologist who had interviewed people on both sides and do they take that as a determination but I
00:47:09
think I I have to say I know you have your questions about it I found the report so helpful I'm taking this report
00:47:16
with me um as a reporter to analyze every case that I run into when there's a question between homicide and suicide
00:47:25
I found it very helpful of according to Kristen's family they don't believe that
00:47:29
she killed herself because she was planning for her future she was excited about a business that she wanted to
00:47:35
start boarding animals she was looking at at that cute little house was there any evidence at all any warning signs
00:47:42
that she had consider taking her own life not that it seemed to be clear to the prosecution or or really even the
00:47:48
defense couldn't there was evidence that Kobe trickle had at times talked about I
00:47:55
had suicide I mediations but not with Kristen and in fact there were all these signs that she was thinking about the
00:48:03
future she was plan to go to her grandmother's house and decorate a Christmas tree the next day she didn't
00:48:09
plan to have someone take the dogs the only big question was did she know about the online relationship I I think their
00:48:17
marriage was less than perfect they had a lot of financial issues and they had just gotten back from Kansas City so
00:48:24
they were living in Kansas City and was a little bit isolated uh living about 300 miles away from Hayes Kansas where
00:48:32
um Kristen's family was after Kristen came back to Hayes she was reconnecting with her family she was back at her
00:48:40
church she had future plans long-term and short term so those are the things that Dr Christensen looked at to see if
00:48:47
she would be suicidal uh towards the end of her life and she decided was less likely looking at all of that yeah there
00:48:54
was a lot made of the fact that she had planned yes and her you know one of the things that cops noticed right away when
00:49:00
they got to the house is they heard her alarm going off that really struck me yes very eerie and that's that was
00:49:07
actually recorded on the police body cam you hear it it's very so would she if she thought she was taking her life that
00:49:14
night set her alarm why would you set your alarm and it wasn't just once she had multiple alarms set you're right
00:49:21
here's the big here's the big question we can't answer the investigators can't answer so Kobe was having some kind of
00:49:30
online virtual relationship did Kristen know about it at one point he tells the psychologist she did know uh that she
00:49:39
had known that week but he told the police she didn't know and col's a liar anybody who watches the show knows that
00:49:47
Colby doesn't always tell the truth and so that's the big mystery here so I imagine they must have searched through
00:49:54
her phone looked for text messages any indication that maybe she shared this concern with family or friends no huh no
00:50:03
as you mentioned in the hour the death certificate listed Kristen's death as a suicide and this actually really limited
00:50:10
investigators ability to obtain warrant which was new to me I didn't realize that that could happen was there any
00:50:16
evidence that Colby was I don't know like a violent person or that he abused Kristen the coroner actually at the
00:50:23
scene looked for signs of abuse or signs that something had happened that night any kind of marks on her body and he did
00:50:33
not see any he took Kobe's word that Kobe woke up uh with his ears ringing and found his wife dying next to him um
00:50:43
with a single gunshot wound the gun had not been held right up against her chin but close enough that it was consistent
00:50:51
in the Corner's mind with suicide so he went with that what we learned from speaking with him was that he never did
00:51:00
see the weapon because the weapon had been taken um he did not get to talk to Kristen's family um and the
00:51:08
investigators did not share everything they could have with him so three days after he's at the scene the corner rules
00:51:16
suicide so something that was not in the hour was this essay that Colby wrote and
00:51:20
he gave it to Kristen's Uncle Brent rice and in the essay you know he talks about
00:51:25
his life he talks about his childhood in detail it's pretty long he wrote this essay so that uh christen's Uncle can
00:51:33
get to know him a little more and he described a situation when he was younger um with his father he had a very
00:51:41
tumultuous relationship with his father and they were out hunting and um there was a moment when he thought that he
00:51:50
might shoot his father but then he backed out and he describes that and that was very alarm ing to BR rice kby
00:51:58
goes into more detail later on uh during that day he he goes back home and he thinks about uh killing himself he picks
00:52:06
up a gun he puts it in in his head and pulls the trigger and the bullet somehow gets stuck um so he doesn't end up
00:52:14
taking his own life but uh his suicide ideation was also mentioned in that essay he wrote that did not get into the
00:52:21
trial but of course as you can imagine it really worried Kristen's a uncle and they were very worried about her
00:52:29
marrying him after that um but she married him anyway and so of course even though her death occurs five years later
00:52:36
they keep thinking back when he had thought about he wrote down he gave it to her uncle so he wanted his her uncle
00:52:45
to see it where he' actually talked about thinking about killing his own dad and so you can imagine that that
00:52:51
definitely played a part in her family's view that this was a murder not a suicide um the investigators right away
00:53:00
are not kind of they're not buying suicide did they and I don't think this was in the hour did they check to see if
00:53:06
there was any residue on his hand anything to indicate that he had been holding the gun there was justr
00:53:13
everywhere so all over the room I mean they were in the bed together so um gunshot res gunshot residue uh from what
00:53:22
we found out from the prosecutors uh it just wasn't any reliable evidence uh to include in the trial because GSR was as
00:53:29
I said everywhere if he's lying that close to her even if she was holding the gun he would get gunshot residue on him
00:53:35
as well so that that wasn't admitted into evidence and I not to be morbid but it was 48 hours I assume like blood not
00:53:43
much blood there wasn't there wasn't an exit single just a single shot in fact when they first looked at her they were
00:53:51
uh surprised I mean she was fine except for that horrible wound below her yeah one of the officers said she looked
00:53:58
like she was sleeping peacefully with her arms on her side um 26 I don't know why that just breaks my heart when I
00:54:05
hear those details so young so much potential for both of them you know I mean I don't know what was happening in
00:54:12
their marriage but both of them could have called it quits and restarted because they were so young um so it's
00:54:19
such a shame it's say plus anyone who likes animals you know I got a soft spot for them because I'm an animal lover the
00:54:26
coroner testified at trial yes and he was steadfast yes it was still a suicide but um you know it wasn't that oh I know
00:54:37
it's a suicide he just said that is how I rule based on what I saw the scene he said um state of cancas requires you to
00:54:45
make a determination within 3 days on the death certificate but he had the option to keep that as pending as well
00:54:52
and he didn't do that he still checked the suicide box he could have checked it on the
00:55:06
termit welcome back at trial prosecutors show text messages from Colby and Christen alleging their relationship
00:55:14
could be both loving but also toxic in your reporting what else did you learn about those text messages it did appear
00:55:22
when you read those messages and I I think my colleagues will agree that she opened up more to him than to anybody
00:55:28
else yes she really she loved him but I also think they would agree and they can
00:55:34
speak more on this there was a real controlling tone on his part on those messages wouldn't you say yeah yeah like
00:55:42
he was asking her very intimate questions about her life before him but it was very obvious that she did love
00:55:49
him and Colby admits in those text messages that he likes control what made me really sad when I read through them
00:55:55
and that's what one of the hard parts of our job I think sometimes is that when someone dies you know all of a sudden
00:56:03
their private messages become public information and remember they're very young and he's questioning her about any
00:56:09
man she's been with in the past and she doesn't have much of an experience so it's kind of heartbreaking to read where
00:56:17
she's talking about really very little contact with other men and she may have had one really bad experience and he's
00:56:25
pushing her on it and that made me incredibly sad yeah actually I have at least part of the text message exchange
00:56:32
and Kristen says in this text message please tell me what I've been doing wrong I will be waiting and he says it's
00:56:39
about you being lovey-dovey with other people all right controlling Kristen later says I'm not talking with anyone
00:56:46
so I have nothing to hide I'm tired of hurting you so do what you need to do to feel better just don't shut me out he
00:56:54
says no I shouldn't have to monitor your actions connections and whereabouts just
00:57:00
to make myself feel better I have enough things to worry about without that on my
00:57:05
mind as well and it does sound a little condescending it does sound like a an adult talking to a child and you should
00:57:13
know better and that he thinks he has to to monitor her yeah so that is of course
00:57:18
an issue that came up at trial uh because the prosecution when they talk about the three motives they say for
00:57:26
murdering her um one of them was loss of control another one was Cash um and the
00:57:32
other one was his virtual relationship with another woman but control was part of it according to the prosecution he
00:57:39
felt that he was losing control of his wife that relationship was that anything really the online one the the the texts
00:57:47
are pretty pretty um explicit Kobe trickle was uh in an online relationship with this woman and she testified a
00:57:56
trial I would think this was very uncomfortable for her because all of these very private sexually explicit
00:58:04
conversations were now part of the trial and the jurors had access to them and uh
00:58:10
yeah I I would assume this wasn't um comfortable for her to talk about Ain one of my favorite parts of the hour was
00:58:17
when you actually held at 357 uh revolver well I mean I have shot many guns um most mostly 9mm I think a lot of
00:58:27
women would agree that 9mm it's an easier gun to use it doesn't have as much of a a kick um so and i' never held
00:58:36
a 357 and so I was actually a little surprised by the weight of it and the idea that she would choose a gun that
00:58:45
heavy that large looked bar the barrel according to um the prosecution and investigators was 11 to 12 Ines long uh
00:58:54
but yes I was surprised so that was a very honest reaction when he gave me the replica it's a very similar gun I didn't
00:59:03
actually hold the actual gun um it it was Heavy yeah and Kristen was a was small um and it was dark when she did
00:59:13
this and she would have had to position this very large gun under her chin in the dark it just yeah I have not shot
00:59:23
many guns uh the last one was for 4 hour shoot but one of the things that always
00:59:28
surprises me is the amount of pressure needed to pull the trigger because when you watch it on TV it looks like very
00:59:34
simple but it's it's a lot of pressure depending on the gun and then if you're holding it in an awkward manner then
00:59:41
it's not as easy it's not like uh it's something that could happen by accident you know also shooting yourself in bed
00:59:48
next to your husband that was also a red flag for the prosecutors usually people
00:59:54
are private you don't usually do that that next to someone else yeah so Colby is talking but he's kind of changing his
01:00:02
stories his lies are piling up he tells investigators that Kristen was researching life insurance policies on
01:00:08
his cell phone because they're they're asking why is this on your cell phone and he says oh she was doing it but then
01:00:13
they find Surveillance footage of the exact time they see that she's working at Walmart she's not on the phone when
01:00:19
these searches are being conducted but to me the lies that really stood out the most and perhaps the most troubling were
01:00:25
the lies about his military service yeah he sometimes would tell untruths that didn't need to be told even when he
01:00:33
didn't need to and why that's such a problem is that jurors are always reminded you know what's the credibility
01:00:40
of a witness and even though he never took the stand the idea that he would not tell the truth about things that
01:00:48
could be checked makes his credibility very problematic even his own brother testified that he didn't always tell the
01:00:55
truth truth what's the jury supposed to think he was really into video games so we we had this uh thought that maybe he
01:01:04
played so much you know the video games became his world so he was living in this fantasy world and perhaps that's
01:01:10
where the military lies came in from and that's where he had full control as well
01:01:15
fascinating um in the year after uh Kristen's death kby trickle went on with his life what did authori say he was up
01:01:23
to um well he cashed out two life insurance policies he got about 120,000 from two different policies so
01:01:34
he paid off his debts to his credit but he also he splurged one of the purchases
01:01:38
was a a LIF siiz sex doll oh yes um true touch doll which I had to look up because i' never actually seen one I
01:01:47
still have never seen one in real life but I did see it online I've seen it online too for research
01:01:52
purposes yeah and he told his mother he wanted something um because he was having trouble sleeping so he needed
01:02:00
something for comfort so that's whyg dogs yeah they're very com and that thing was $2,000 $2,000 yeah and he he
01:02:09
bought that two days after he got the money from Kristen's uh life insurance two days later did did they admit that
01:02:17
into evidence like do we know what that doll looked like I saw a picture well we
01:02:20
have the bank statement and it says the the the name model if you will yeah the the where he got it from and then we
01:02:28
we've seen yeah I saw seen photos does it look I mean it it's pretty disturbing um it to me it looked like a kid it
01:02:36
wasn't very tall 53 maybe and it had no hair um and uh I was told that hair cost
01:02:43
extra interesting um yeah it it was an oddl looking thing when I was doing research um you know we spend a lot of
01:02:51
time on Facebook and when I was on kby trickle's page I realized that he had a different page for his 3D printing
01:02:58
business he bought a 3D printing machine with some of the life insurance money and he was trying to I guess start his
01:03:06
business um of printing things and he also went on with his lives he went he was performing he was a musician so he
01:03:15
played around in town in restaurants he also had a podcast he was giving people self-help advice you know he talked
01:03:23
about uh grief some seemed very optimistic he talked about pulling through the storm and coming out
01:03:31
in the other hand and uh moving on with life things like that goodness um wow you never know who's giving you advice
01:03:39
in January of 2021 a new County attorney Robert Anderson he took a look at the evidence against kobby trickle he
01:03:46
believed that the coroner reached the wrong conclusion and that Kristen's death was indeed a homicide in July of
01:03:52
2021 Colby was charged with the murder of his wife why did County attorney Robert Anderson decide no we're going to
01:04:02
trial before you take a case to trial you have to believe that you have the evidence to convince a jury Beyond a
01:04:08
reasonable doubt that this person did in fact kill his wife and the first da may
01:04:13
not have felt it but what's different it by this time is that Robert Anderson who
01:04:19
is the county attorney had decided to do that psychological evaluation and so that was the new evidence of
01:04:27
trial uh that the first uh first prosecutor did not have and so that really was the only new evidence an
01:04:37
analysis of uh the factors in her life uh Pro and Comm whether she would take her life and and then a decision by a
01:04:46
psychologist Cole ble was found guilty of first-degree murder premeditated murder and interference with law
01:04:53
enforcement for reporting false information he is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50
01:05:01
years um any closing thoughts at all on this your biggest takeaway well my biggest takeaway is that I think other
01:05:08
jurisdictions will look at this idea of a psychological autopsy um and consider it because you would not believe well
01:05:16
actually you would Amory because you work with 48 Hours how many times we have these cases where where
01:05:22
investigators have to decide between homicide and suicide it's very difficult to determine at times I think there will
01:05:29
be other jurisdictions that at least try judges may not allow these evaluations in but I don't think this is the last
01:05:37
time we'll hear about a psychological autopsy well Ain asena Iris this has been great this is another 48 hours with
01:05:46
a Twist that I did not see coming I did not expect um so thank you so much ladies thank you thank you it was great
01:05:53
being here thank you [Music] so everyone join us next Tuesday for another postmortem watch 48 hours on
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