Caleb Flynn Found GUILTY... Deep Diving The Ashley Flynn Murder Trial

In February 2026, 37-year-old Ashley Flynn was found shot to death inside her home in Tipp City, Ohio, after her husband, Caleb, called 911 claiming an intruder had broken in. But months later, Caleb was standing trial for Ashley’s murder. Over several days of testimony, jurors heard about a secret affair, thousands of text messages, a missing gun and evidence prosecutors said showed the supposed break-in had been staged. Now, a jury has found Caleb guilty of murdering his wife. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the evidence presented at trial, the arguments from both sides and the final verdict itself. If you’re unfamiliar with the case of Ashley Flynn, please check the back catalogue for my original episode from July 9th, 2026. This episode is sponsored by: Quince: Find the fall pieces you’ll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com http://quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Freestyle: Get 30% off your first 3 months of a Freestyle diaper subscription at freestyle.world/TCKR http://freestyle.world/TCKR with code TCKR. That's a full month of premium diapers delivered to your door for just $49/month for your first 3 months. Nutrafol: Right now, Nutrafol is offering my listeners $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you visit nutrafol.com http://nutrafol.com and enter promo code KENDALLRAE. Hiya Health: I’ve worked out a special deal with Hiya. Receive 50% off your first order on any of their products. To claim this deal you must go to hiyahealth.com/TCKR http://hiyahealth.com/TCKR. This deal is not available on their regular website. SKIMS: Shop my favorite loungewear and pajamas at SKIMS.com http://skims.com. After you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you! Select "podcast" in the survey and be sure to select our show in the dropdown menu that follows. Check out my foundation: Higher Hope Foundation: https://www.higherhope.org/ Watch my documentaries: 530 Days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjUWkmOjNLk Apartment 801: https://bit.ly/2RJ9XXr True Crime with Kendall Rae podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3rks84o Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jC66pr Shop my Merch! https://kendallrae.shop https://kendallrae.shop/ Check out my other podcasts: Mile Higher (True Crime) @milehigherpod YouTube: https://bit.ly/2ROzJcw Instagram: http://instagram.com/milehigherpod The Sesh (Current events, a little true crime, pop culture, and commentary) https://bit.ly/3Mtoz4X @the_seshpodcast Instagram: https://bit.ly/3a9t6Xr *Follow My Social!* @KendallRaeOnyt Instagram: http://instagram.com/kendallraeonyt Facebook: https://bit.ly/3kar4NK True Crime TikTok: https://bit.ly/3VDbc77 Personal TikTok: https://bit.ly/41hmRKg REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://zfrmz.com/yg9cuiWjUe2QY3hSC2V0 Form for people directly related/close to the victim: https://zfrmz.com/HGu2hZso42aHxARt1i67 Join my discord to chat with other viewers about this video, it’s free! https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN C O N T A C T: For Business Inquiries - [email protected] Send me mail: Kendall Rae 8547 E Arapahoe Rd Ste J #233 Greenwood Village, CO 80112

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• 0:00Kendall Rae?

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• 1:39Kendall Rae?

  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to True Crime with Kendall Raya. Thank you so much for joining me today. And if you're new to the show, then welcome. So happy to have you. And make sure to click Subscribe or Follow or whatever it is on whatever platform you are consuming this episode on. Uh, today, you guys, I am really looking forward to this episode because I, like probably so many of you, have been experiencing an increased level of feminine rage lately. And so seeing this Sid from Ice Age looking ass freak, absolute loser, go down, be found guilty, has just given me a little bit of peace, a little joy.

• 2:23Kendall Rae?

  And I am so excited to be telling you about how that happened. Today, if you haven't already been able to tell from the title, we are going to be revisiting a case that I covered in July of this year, 2026. And we're going to be talking about the entire trial of Caleb Flynn. It's going to be a little different format as we're going to be going through this trial day by day and pretty in-depth. For those of you who are interested in the trial but didn't have time to, you know, sit down and watch an entire trial, that's what this episode is going to be. And there is quite a bit of information to go over. Ashley Flynn's murder in February of 2026 was a horrific tragedy.

• 3:05Kendall Rae?

  And on top of that, the story that her spineless husband, Caleb Flynn, tried to tell to get away with her murder is absolutely fucking pathetic, if you ask me. Ashley deserved so much more out of life. She seemed to be a fantastic, very warm, wonderful person, wonderful mother, and her girls deserved to grow up with their mother who absolutely cherished them. Listening to some of the testimony from her loved ones just wrecked me. I mean, it's really hard. And the details of what was actually going on behind Ashley's back just left me feeling speechless at times and so, so angry.

• 3:49Kendall Rae?

  Now, if you have not watched my original episode on this case, I highly recommend watching that first, unless you have consumed some other, you know, coverage on the case because it's going to be important that you're familiar with it going into this episode because we will not be going over the entire case. Again, this is solely focusing on the trial. I will have that linked below. And I am going to start with a quick summary today, but this will, again, not be a repeated breakdown of the case. Before getting into this episode, I just wanted to thank you all for listening to and supporting my show and also any of the Mile Higher Media shows. Your support makes it possible for us to continue funding grants through my foundation, Higher Hope, which supports victims of violent crimes, their families, and like-minded nonprofits.

• 4:31Kendall Rae?

  Okay, guys, we have a lot to go through, so let's just jump in. Okay, so on February 16th, 2026, Ashley Flynn, a beloved mother, daughter, friend, volleyball coach, and substitute teacher, was shot twice at close range in her head while she slept in her bed in her Tipp City, Ohio, home. Ashley's husband, Caleb Flynn, called 911 at 2:31 a.m., sounding panicked, saying that an intruder broke in and shot his wife while he was sleeping in their two daughters' bedroom. And in that roughly seven-minute call, he explained that she was shot twice, and there was a significant amount of blood. And very notably, he mentioned multiple times

• 5:14Kendall Rae?

  that the side door leading into the garage was open. Caleb would later tell police that the intruder came in through that door. And when first responders arrived, Ashley was found deceased in her bed, and they quickly began to process the scene. And soon upon their entry, deputies confirmed that the side door from inside the garage leading outside was open and that a refrigerator, which had previously blocked the door, had been pushed back. And we went over this a lot in my first episode, how this makes no goddamn sense. And just to clarify, this was not the main garage door. This was just a regular personal entry door. They also discovered that the center console to Caleb's Ford truck was open

• 5:57Kendall Rae?

  and that the handgun he says he kept in there was missing. Now, at first glance, this may have looked like a home invasion gone wrong, but evidence quickly showed that this had been staged. And as I talked about in my original episode on this case, it seemed very obvious that investigators knew something was up right away. And as you'll hear, the evidence absolutely did not support Caleb's intruder story. And thankfully, his arrest came swiftly. On February 19th, 2026, Caleb Flynn was arrested, and he soon pleaded not guilty and had his bond set at $2 million. Then on March 18th, a grand jury indicted him on 11 counts, and his bond was raised to $3.5 million.

• 6:41Kendall Rae?

  And then, for the next several weeks, Caleb was in and out of court in preparation for his trial where he ultimately faced the charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, and tampering with evidence. And despite some delays, his trial finally began with jury selection on Thursday, September 17th. Now, in my last episode, I had to be very careful about what I said. And I mentioned that there were allegations that Caleb was having an affair with a woman from his church. And at the time, it hadn't been confirmed legally, although it seemed pretty damn obvious. So, yeah, I had to be careful about what I said, but today I can say it plainly.

• 7:25Kendall Rae?

  He was having an affair, and her name is Aaliyah Botner. And let me also remind you that Caleb was a music pastor whose life with Ashley revolved around their church. And this was a man who gushed about his wife during his Road to Hollywood interview when he was a contestant on American Idol. But years later, the truth has come to light. And of course, his affair was one of the most damning revelations that came out of this trial. And it was really the heart of the prosecution's motive. So that's where I'm going to start. In opening statements on September 18th, the prosecution said that there are two competing explanations for what happened here. The first explanation is, of course, Caleb's story,

• 8:09Kendall Rae?

  that an intruder broke in, happened to find his gun in his truck in the center console, stole it, and then shot Ashley, and killed her, and left without ever being seen. Now, that theory, of course, and as they argued in court, has absolutely no supporting evidence whatsoever, aside from Caleb's word. And then there's the second explanation for what happened, which is that Caleb staged the break-in and killed his wife himself. Which, according to prosecuting attorney Paul Watkins, Caleb had done so in order to: A. be with his mistress, Aaliyah Botner; B. maintain his lucrative job working for Ashley's dad's company, which, in my last episode, we hadn't confirmed that this was a family business, but now we have;

• 8:54Kendall Rae?

  C. because he wanted to keep his standing and position in the church; and D. to not lose custody of his children. And to support this, Watkins said that they planned to show a trail of digital evidence, and boy, did they. And that evidence would outline an affair, messages he sent to his mistress discussing his desires to murder his wife, Caleb's attempt to delete information leading up to and even hours before Ashley's murder, like the moron he is, as well as all his movements and activity on his devices prior to the shooting, which go against his version of events. He also said they planned to show evidence that the side garage door had not been broken into the way Caleb suggested.

• 9:36Kendall Rae?

  And ultimately, this explanation, he argued, was the only one that could be backed by evidence.

• 9:44Speaker 04

  I was up until 4 a.m. last night crying, literally trying to think of ways to kill her and not go to jail. If I could literally kill her and not go to hell, I would do it in a heartbeat. That is how dark and how hateful I feel. Those two messages are Caleb Flynn's own words. The words about his wife, Ashley. Words communicated to his mistress. Those messages were sent months apart and before Ashley's murder. Those words tell you what this case is about.

• 10:24Speaker 04

  Motive, intent, and the truth behind the lies Caleb told after his wife and the mother of his two young daughters.

• 10:36Speaker 04

  Were shot to death in their home. At the beginning of this investigation, there was a single question. What happened inside the Flynn residence on February 16th, 2026? As this investigation progressed, two competing explanations emerged. You, as the jury, are tasked with applying the evidence to those two competing explanations. The first explanation was Caleb Flynn's reported account. An intruder entered the residence, made their way through the home to the primary bedroom, shot Ashley, and escaped without being identified. The second explanation was not supplied by a witness. It was reconstructed from the evidence collected during this investigation.

• 11:19Speaker 04

  You're going to hear about evidence that was and was not collected. Investigators did not discover any evidence of someone approaching the home, of an unknown person entering the home, of an unknown person's movement through the residence, of an unknown person's access to the firearm, of an unknown person's departure from the residence. The problem for that explanation is that evidence does not independently reconstruct the intruder's presence. Evidence-based construction developed differently. It began with events that could be independently documented. It documents Caleb's years-long relationship with his mistress. It documented Caleb's efforts to delete information up to and including just hours

• 12:04Speaker 04

  before Ashley's murder. It documented Caleb's words that major life changes were imminent. It documented that Caleb was discussing the end of his marriage. It documents movement and activity on Caleb's devices in the hours leading up to Ashley's murder. People lie. Evidence doesn't. Those two messages I first told you about, those are just two of over 100,000 messages Caleb exchanged with his mistress in just one year prior to Ashley's death. You're going to hear about many others. For example, in the late hours of February 15th, just hours before Ashley was executed, Caleb is saying these things to his mistress.

• 12:49Speaker 04

  I choose you. I'm free. Actions will come tomorrow. February 16th, day I'll never forget. Thanks to Caleb Flynn, February 16th is now the day his two daughters and Ashley's family will never forget too.

• 13:08Kendall Rae?

  Now, as for the defense's opening statement, attorney Emily Smith definitely did not deny some of the remarks made by the prosecution. I mean, they just admitted it. Caleb was having an affair, and this was not disputed. The disputed part that she and fellow defense attorney Patrick Mulligan would argue was the allegation that an affair made her client a murderer. Instead, she argued that a man can fail as a husband without being a killer. And Smith leaned heavily on the tragedy of Ashley's murder, really trying to appeal to the emotion of the jury, saying that she deserved better than the rush to judgment case that was being presented by the state.

• 13:51Kendall Rae?

  It was the defense's position that investigators failed to consider other possibilities and that their theory, the state's, was pure speculation rooted in hollow circumstantial evidence and convenience. She also went line by line, calling out the evidence the state didn't have, and reminded the jury that this was not a decision about whether they liked Caleb, but a decision on whether he murdered his wife, which I had to have a little laugh at that one because it just shows how she knows damn well how unlikable Caleb is just as a human being.

• 14:24Speaker 05

  By all accounts, Ashley was a woman who saw the beauty and light in others. She loved her children, her family, and was deeply loved in return by those who knew her. And she was taken from them. There is no argument as to the degree of tragedy that this is, but a woman's life is worth more than mere speculation alone. Ashley Flynn deserves justice, and a tragedy deserves more than a theory. True justice can only be built on a firm foundation of evidence, not speculation, assumptions, hollow circumstantial evidence, convenience, or a rush to a conclusion.

• 15:09Speaker 05

  The evidence in this case will establish above all else that the only thing that we know is that Caleb had an affair. The state of Ohio has pinned its entire case on the flawed claim that simply because Caleb Flynn had motive to leave his wife, that he instead murdered her and manipulated the scene. The evidence will show text messages between Caleb and his mistress. At times, Caleb said ugly, hurtful, selfish things about his wife Ashley to appease his mistress. We're not going to stand here and excuse Caleb for this. Stated plainly, Caleb betrayed Ashley as a husband. Caleb is not on trial for being a bad husband. He's not on trial for cheating.

• 15:52Speaker 05

  You're not here to deliberate on whether or not you like Caleb. You certainly are not here to render a verdict on whether or not you approve or condone of his actions. This is an aggravated murder trial. What you'll find, ladies and gentlemen, is that this investigation was plagued with errors from the start, and that bias, convenience, lack of integrity, and a rush to judgment manifested the case before us, and that is the very definition of reasonable doubt. The state found their story when they found the affair. Caleb was the most convenient scapegoat for them, and they worked backwards. They reached their conclusion first and shoehorned the evidence in after. And who is this theory convenient for if not the state? It's not convenient for Ashley.

• 16:37Speaker 05

  It's not convenient for the family, and it's not convenient for you or Caleb. The state just told you, they admitted to you, that they observed this case through only two possibilities, Caleb's version and their version, and they want you to do the same. And through the presentation of their evidence, you'll see that there are more than two possibilities here. Let's think about what the charges of the indictment are for a second. Accretive murder, murder with a firearm, and tampering with a firearm, among others. The prosecution has already admitted to you that they intended to convict Caleb of these charges without proving that the firearm even exists. They can't show you whose gun killed Ashley. They can't show you if Caleb had a gun in his hand that night.

• 17:23Speaker 05

  They can't show you if Caleb pulled the trigger. They can't show you if Caleb damaged the door. They can't give you the date that the door was damaged. They are merely guessing, and they're asking you to do the exact same thing. There's no forensic evidence linking Caleb to these crimes. There is no eyewitness, as the state has already told you, that Caleb was the shooter. There's no surveillance footage of Caleb that night. There's no gunshot residue found on Caleb or his clothing. There's no sign of death from the coroner. The only fingerprints that the state has are those of Caleb in his own home where he's lived since 2021. The state has no direct evidence as to what happened, only a theory following an affair.

• 18:05Speaker 05

  A tragedy deserves more than a theory, and a woman's life is worth more than speculation.

• 18:14Kendall Rae?

  But those opening remarks really painted a strong picture of what we could expect, right? And the testimony that would follow was eye-opening, to say the least. And speaking of eye-opening, after opening statements, the jurors were actually brought right over to the Flynn's house. I'm so glad they did that, and they weren't there for very long, but I imagine being able to visualize that layout beyond just pictures and video was very important for them to understand. And when they got back, witness testimony hit the ground running. So let's start with day one. Beth Hall with the Miami County Communications Center was the first of seven to take the stand that day, and that's when Caleb's 911 call was played.

• 18:57Kendall Rae?

  And I did play all seven minutes of it in my last episode, which I rarely play an entire 911 call, but I felt like every single second of that call was really important. So if you haven't heard it, I suggest looking it up or going back to that old episode and taking a listen. But it was played again, and Caleb could be seen wincing and his chest pounding as that audio aired. Next to testify was Sergeant Corey Riss Miller, and he was the first officer with the Tipton City Police Department to actually arrive on scene, and he described the condition of Ashley's body, which was really intense, stating that it looked like she was asleep when she was shot. And of course, this is important because this suggests that she wasn't startled by her attacker.

• 19:39Kendall Rae?

  Now, on cross-examination, the defense pointed out that his body cam wasn't initially turned on, which they did to try and support their botched investigation argument, but I liked his response. Is there a reason why it wasn't on?

• 19:55Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 19:56Kendall Rae?

  Why?

• 19:57Speaker 06

  Because we got the new system, body camera system, and the way it's set up is when you turn your light bulb on, the body camera automatically turns on. Well, for some odd reason, mine didn't come on, malfunction in the system. And my thought, my biggest worry was the victim, the family, and looking for a shooter. At that time, the body camera was not, it was least of my worries.

• 20:20Kendall Rae?

  And we did still see plenty of body cam footage, though. I mean, I played a lot of that in the first episode. In fact, the jury saw about 24 minutes of Officer Alexandra Giampapa's footage, which captured her entry into the home, her initial conversations with Caleb, as well as the discovery of two major pieces of evidence, that open-side garage door and the opened truck console.

• 20:44Speaker 05

  Oh, that door is open over there. Back, that back door is open. Is that lit outside? Because I can't see. Is that a closet?

• 20:59Speaker 05

  The center console.

• 21:03Speaker 05

  It is.

• 21:05Speaker 05

  After you cleared the garage, what did you guys do? We walked back inside. And I almost immediately asked the defendant, are there any firearms in this house? What was the defendant's response? He immediately replied and said, he has a shotgun and a 22, an appellate gun. And then he said, I have a handgun in the glove compartment of my truck.

• 21:28Kendall Rae?

  We also saw her go into the girl's room to check on them. And we watched her ask Caleb if there was anyone he could call. And he made two phone calls, one to his mom and also one to Ashley's mom. In my last episode, I had played footage of Caleb in his front yard where he was seen talking to and being consoled by a woman. And we now know that this woman was Ashley's mom Jill. Another big moment in court was when she shared a more detailed account of Caleb's story, which still had a lot of gaps when I first covered this case.

• 21:59Speaker 05

  What did he say? That someone had broken in. He was in his daughter's room. He had been sick. His daughters were sick too. He went in his daughter's room because he heard the dogs moving around because of their collars. So he thought maybe the dogs had woken up because his daughters were coughing or something. I can't remember his exact words. And then while he was in the room, he fell asleep and he woke up at some point to someone breaking in and got shot.

• 22:31Kendall Rae?

  And I will say, we get an even more detailed version later on, so hold tight for more information to be revealed on all of that. But defense attorney Emily Smith then proceeded with her cross examination, which focused on the backyard. Officer G M Papa did not search it and couldn't say whether anyone had. Smith also drove home the fact that Caleb's story remained consistent across everyone he spoke to in those early morning hours. And as for the rest of the testimony that day, it was a lot more, you know, scene setting facts. The jury heard more about the injuries that Ashley sustained and also that a drone's thermal search found no one around the house. And also that a canine handler's dog consistently pulled towards the garage's interior rather

• 23:16Kendall Rae?

  than away from the house, both suggesting that no intruder was inside the home. So day one wrapped there and then more testimony picked back up on Monday, the 21st, which leads me to day two.

• 23:34Kendall Rae?

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• 25:42Kendall Rae?

  For the prosecution, that day really focused on the staging of the scene. And the defense's focus was really on the absence of the murder weapon and also a continued emphasis on the scene being poorly investigated. Five witnesses testified and among them was Ohio BCI Special Agent David Hammond, whose testimony about the side garage door was pivotal to the prosecution's case. And again, that's the door that Caleb claimed an intruder used to get inside. And ultimately Hammond's big picture was that the damage on that door was not consistent with the damage to the other doors that he has seen in the hundreds of burglaries that he's investigated.

• 26:24Kendall Rae?

  He stated that the door didn't sustain damage by a tool that would be consistent with prying a door open, maybe other tools, but not a tool for prying. And he believes that the damage was done while the door was open and that it was his professional opinion that this was staged.

• 26:43Speaker 06

  The one thing that was fairly unusual was that in this area right here, this soft wood of the door frame, I didn't notice any tool marks.

• 26:55Speaker 04

  Why is that important?

• 26:56Speaker 06

  If you're going to force a door open, typically what you do is you take a pry tool and you insert it between the door and the frame. The idea is to create leverage to pull the locking mechanisms, the throw and the latch out of the frame to force it in. Typically what we see with, you know, burglary is we see those receivers displaced or moved out. And then we see a tool mark impression in this area. And oftentimes we see like a paint exchange from the tool onto the door itself. This is a photograph, it's a close up of the edge of the door, the same door that we've been talking about.

• 27:40Speaker 06

  And it just shows the condition of the deadbolt itself, the throw, and then the latch bolt of the handle and what's going down to you there. Again, I couldn't find any damage with that latch bolt. I couldn't find any damage with the deadbolt itself. Both of those locks were unlocked when I examined them. That was really curious. There was no evidence that I could see where a pry tool had been inserted in the door and the door frame to force it open.

• 28:16Speaker 04

  And when you examined them, were you locking and unlocking those mechanisms? Or else, how did they function?

• 28:23Speaker 04

  And when you observed them in the locked position or where the bolt is out, what did you observe?

• 28:28Speaker 06

  I didn't observe the damage to those. The typical burglary, you see damage to that latch bolt of the handle. Typically it's pushed outward because the door is being forced open and pushed through that frame. Typically we see the deadbolt throw being pushed towards the outside as the door is being pushed inward. The damage on the inside of the frame around that locking, that deadbolt lock receiver, there was pieces of wood that was chipped away, but there was no corresponding damage on the frame. There was no corresponding damage on the door itself.

• 29:09Speaker 06

  As I stood there inside of the garage, it looked to me like the damage had happened with the door open.

• 29:16Speaker 04

  What'd you notice about the exterior surface of the north garage door?

• 29:21Speaker 06

  There was no evidence or there was nothing that we could see or that I could see to indicate that the door had been kept open or forced open. By examining that exterior of that door, there was nothing that I could see to indicate that force had been applied to the outside of that door. Aside from the handle. The handle being broken off. I couldn't find anything to indicate that that door had been forced open.

• 29:48Kendall Rae?

  They also showed photos of the crime scene itself during the testimony during which Caleb can be seen having what appears to be an emotional reaction, which I've just got to say, all of his emotional reaction seemed like such a bad performance to me. It seemed so fake. There wasn't a moment where I thought, hmm, maybe he has some real emotion going on here. But again, that's just my opinion. But anyway, the big takeaway here was the fact that it appeared that there was no indication of a struggle. And also because of the nature of her wounds and the position that her body was in, Special Agent Hammond said that he wasn't able to tell what type of wound she sustained. And the medical examiner, Dr. Brian

• 30:30Kendall Rae?

  Casto, essentially said the same thing. He testified that Ashley's cause of death was two gunshot wounds to the head, both entering the back right side of her skull, and that he could only count them after she'd been cleaned and her head shaved. And so many have or had, including myself, and I'm sure many of you, when we first looked at this case, wondered how Caleb knew that she had been shot twice when he called 911. How was he able to determine that enough to say that in the call? Later, we do get clarity on this, and we find out that Caleb said that he heard two gunshots, which is how he knew her number of injuries. So this was a confusing part that has been clarified now. But again,

• 31:15Kendall Rae?

  with his conviction now, I think it's fair to say that he knew about those two wounds because he was the one who inflicted them on his own wife, the mother of his children. Oh, God, this case pisses me off so much. But anyways, before I get too distracted by my anger here, during Hammond's cross-examination, defense attorney Patrick Mulligan was quite intense. His focus was the blood spatter analysis, and he got Hammond to reveal that although Caleb's clothing had been seized and some blood was found on one item, it wasn't sufficient enough for blood spatter reconstruction, suggesting that Caleb's clothing wasn't bloody enough for him to have been the shooter. Take a listen.

• 31:58Speaker 06

  Did you order the seizure of what Mr. Flynn was wearing on that particular morning? In discussions with the detectives, some of the conversations were to retrieve his clothing from him. And nothing was found on that clothing, was it? There was some blood found on one particular item, but it wasn't sufficient enough for us to do anything as far as a blood spatter reconstruction. Bottom line, there was no match. I'm talking about a match of blood splatter from Ashley onto his clothing from that particular incident. There's no way to say that. I'm not aware of that evidence existing. Thank you.

• 32:40Kendall Rae?

  Mulligan also pointed out the fact that his knowledge on the incident was not based on a conversation with Caleb.

• 32:47Speaker 06

  You did not interview Mr. Flynn. That's correct.

• 32:53Speaker 06

  So you accepted the wording and the briefing without interviewing the source of the information on that particular death, correct? My role at the scene was not. I don't care about your role. That would be a correct statement. That's a yes or no question. It's correct that I did. Thank you.

• 33:13Kendall Rae?

  Other things he called into question were the thoroughness of the BCI's examination of the fridge, specifically how much force it would take to move it, as well as the lack of murder weapon. Special Agent Hammond even agreed that the murder weapon can be the most important piece of evidence. Big emphasis on can there, because it's not necessarily required to get a conviction, at least not in this case, according to the prosecution, based on all of the other evidence. Other points the defense made included the fact that Special Agent Hammond couldn't say whether the door's lock had been picked or how long it had been unlocked for. He couldn't say when the damage to the door occurred, and that he didn't recall smelling any cleaning solution in the house by the time he got

• 33:58Kendall Rae?

  there. Mulligan also discussed the layout of the house, which was a big piece of confusion in my last episode. It was something we really didn't have any context on, and now we do. So what we learned was that the door leading from the garage into the house and the door leading into the primary bedroom were only a few feet apart, which was interesting to learn because I pictured this very differently. And the insinuation with that being that someone could have broken in and shot Ashley very quickly before fleeing. Now, later that day, the jury heard from BCI crime scene tech Holly Rizek, who focused a lot on the DNA swabs that she collected from the scene. And this included a sample from the bedroom light switch, which had a positive reaction to the chemical she used to test for blood.

• 34:43Kendall Rae?

  And I'm jumping briefly ahead here, but the following day in court, we learned that Caleb's DNA was the only match to the DNA found on that light switch. And his DNA was found in other spots, too, although, as the defense would point out, that would be all normal in your own home, of course. I think we can all agree, the peculiar part, the interesting part here, was what wasn't there, and that was a foreign DNA profile. Yes, of course, intruders can wear gloves and cover their tracks, but to leave nothing behind, I'm not convinced, especially if this was an intruder who didn't even bring their own weapon, just happened to find one on the scene. I don't assume that someone like that

• 35:25Kendall Rae?

  would be prepared enough to cover their tracks that well. On the flip of that, though, the defense did point out that there was some low-level DNA that was too weak to compare. Therefore, a third person couldn't be completely ruled out. Either way, though, if I'm even trying to entertain the defense's theory here, I find it very peculiar that there would be no major foreign DNA. Now, going back to Holly's testimony, the last key point I want to make was her stating that she couldn't find any damage to the outside of the door, only the inside. So as Monday continued, the jury heard testimony from Detective Adam Bernard, who talked about the efforts made to try and locate the murder weapon, as well as other potential evidence. Let's listen.

• 36:10Speaker 06

  Printed the tips out, gave them to the FBI. After that, I was advised that we were going, a group of us were going to go out and search the rear of the residence. So we went out and searched the backyard area. There's some woods back there, more tree areas. We searched that, some rock piles and things to make sure that had been done. We then went inside and searched the inside, some more specific concealment places, looking for any evidence or anything that was dropped. After that, we were waiting for Detective Elsas from Miami County Sheriff's Office to bring a high-powered magnet. We took that magnet and we contacted our street department, had them lift all of the storm drain crates off of the runoff areas. We took the magnet, and what we'd do is drop it in, make sure

• 36:53Speaker 06

  we've got that area, and we'd swing it so it'd go up and down each of the connecting pipes. And then after that, I got down physically into those pulp beds to make sure nothing was missed, or outside the reach of the magnet, the flashlight, to make sure nothing was in there.

• 37:06Speaker 04

  And then on these searches that you just mentioned, February 19th, did you find anything? No?

• 37:10Speaker 06

  No. On February 20th, again, Detective Klein had told me we were going to remove both vehicles from the garage. We wanted to make sure there was nothing hidden up underneath of them. So we put them on separate tow trucks. And at that point, we went to Warrior Racing, where they allowed us to use some of their vehicle lifts. We lifted the vehicles up so we could search under them and void spaces or areas that something may have been hidden or tucked.

• 37:36Speaker 04

  And anything valuable found in that search?

• 37:37Speaker 06

  No. Detective Klein again came to me and advised we were going to rent a machine to take the insulation out of the attic, make sure nothing had been thrown, tucked, or hidden in the attic. So we spent several hours that evening after the evidence, walking to take the insulation out of the attic.

• 37:56Speaker 04

  But eventually, did you participate in the grid search?

• 37:58Speaker 06

  We did. There was probably 10 to 15 other officers and detectives there assisting in the line search.

• 38:05Kendall Rae?

  I mean, those efforts do sound extensive, and during the cross-examination, that was a big point for the defense. How could Caleb have hidden the murder weapon in such a short amount of time? And I have to say, I do wonder that myself, but definitely not enough for my opinion to change on this case. But anyway, continuing with his cross-examination, Detective Bernard also testified about his efforts to trace the gun that Caleb said he kept in his truck's center console, and he ultimately couldn't find a purchase record for one.

• 38:36Speaker 04

  Involved in researching the defendant's firearm purchasing mystery?

• 38:40Speaker 06

  I was.

• 38:41Speaker 04

  Okay. And how are you involved with that?

• 38:42Speaker 06

  In one of the interviews, he stated he bought the firearm where he got his CCW. I was able to obtain his CCW permit application, so I knew it was in South Carolina. So I called several gun stores in the area, trying to find the 4473 that you have to fill out if you buy a firearm from a gun dealer.

• 39:03Speaker 04

  This is in South Carolina?

• 39:05Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 39:05Speaker 04

  And what firearm were you able to attribute to Ashley or Caleb Flynn?

• 39:08Speaker 06

  No.

• 39:09Kendall Rae?

  Another huge finding of his was the search warrant that was executed on Caleb's phone, specifically for the GroupMe messages that were on there. Now, if you have not heard of GroupMe, it's basically just a free mobile messaging app. And according to Detective Bernard, there were 107,655 lines of data.

• 39:31Speaker 04

  Did you write any search warrants as a result of being involved with this case?

• 39:36Speaker 06

  I did.

• 39:37Speaker 04

  And was one of those for GroupMe messages?

• 39:40Speaker 06

  It was.

• 39:41Speaker 04

  And whose information did you use, or did you request GroupMe messages from?

• 39:46Speaker 06

  The defendant's. I requested two email addresses and a phone number.

• 39:51Speaker 06

  As identifiers for the account. And where did you receive that information? It was found on his mobile devices that had been given to us from phone dialers and things. And what was contained in the data packet? There was 107,655 lines of data.

• 40:08Kendall Rae?

  Now that's a fuck ton of messages, right? And guess what? We found out in testimony later on that all of those messages were messages sent between Caleb and his mistress in a one-year span. And believe me, we're going to be going through a lot of it here soon, so just stick with me. But let's jump ahead to Tuesday, September 22nd, which was day three. Now, this day was a highly emotional day in court, and that's because we finally heard from Ashley's family members. There were 16 total witnesses, including Ashley's mom, Ashley's dad, her sister, and her brother-in-law. Ashley's mom Jill was the first among them to take the stand, and she provided some incredibly

• 40:53Kendall Rae?

  helpful context. For starters, and this should come as no surprise, but she spoke very lovingly about her daughter and what an amazing person Ashley was. You could truly sense her pain, but also her strength when speaking about her. And I just think testimony like this that reminded the jury that this is a human being at the end of the day who've lost their life, who was so loved, so needed by so many people in her life, and that she is the center, she is the core of this trial. That was really important. And she also provided some context into Caleb and Ashley's marriage, which she said had been good from what she knew, except for the last six months before Ashley was murdered.

• 41:36Kendall Rae?

  Jill couldn't say exactly what was going on, but she said that she could sense that there wasn't much peace, as she put it.

• 41:44Speaker 07

  In regards to the defendant, how long had you known him?

• 41:49Speaker 05

  About 16 and a half years.

• 41:51Speaker 07

  When did you first meet him?

• 41:53Speaker 05

  At Lee University.

• 41:54Speaker 07

  What was the reason for meeting him?

• 41:56Speaker 05

  He was starting to date our daughter.

• 41:59Speaker 07

  What was your first impression of him?

• 42:01Speaker 05

  We liked him.

• 42:03Speaker 07

  At the time of Ashley's death, how would you describe her relationship with Caleb that you're aware of?

• 42:10Speaker 05

  At the time of her death? Good.

• 42:14Speaker 05

  It was somewhat strained, I think, the last six months, but that I could tell. But other than that, good.

• 42:20Speaker 07

  Did Ashley ever confide any about her marriage?

• 42:24Speaker 05

  No, no, she always wanted us to think the best of Caleb.

• 42:29Speaker 07

  Did Caleb ever confide any about their marriage?

• 42:32Speaker 05

  No.

• 42:32Speaker 07

  Did you notice any changes in Ashley's behavior prior to her death?

• 42:36Speaker 05

  No, I have to say it was normal. She was a little strained, I think. Just you can tell there's not a lot of peace in their home, and I couldn't pinpoint why, and I don't think she could pinpoint why.

• 42:50Kendall Rae?

  She also talked about the last moments that they had seen and spoken to one another.

• 42:55Speaker 07

  Ms. Smith, when was the last time you saw Ashley alive?

• 42:58Speaker 05

  It was February 13th, and we went to lunch with Todd and Caleb. He took us all, all the girls out for a Valentine's lunch.

• 43:08Speaker 07

  And on Friday, February 14th, did you speak with Ashley?

• 43:13Speaker 05

  Uh, yes, I said, oh, you know, we wanted to have the girls so she and Caleb could go on a date for Valentine's Day.

• 43:23Speaker 07

  And did that happen?

• 43:25Speaker 05

  That, I'm not exactly sure of. I know we had the girls. I don't know if they actually went on a date.

• 43:32Speaker 07

  And on Saturday, that would be February 15th, is that correct?

• 43:38Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 43:39Speaker 07

  Did you speak with Ashley then?

• 43:41Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 43:43Speaker 07

  And what did you speak with her about?

• 43:45Speaker 05

  She was getting ready for the Galentine's party with the girls, and she was just so super excited about that.

• 43:53Kendall Rae?

  And then came her absolutely devastating testimony about receiving the 3 a.m. call from Caleb that her daughter had been killed.

• 44:04Speaker 07

  Ms. Smith, when did you learn something had happened to Ashley?

• 44:09Speaker 05

  February 16th at 3:00 in the morning. I heard my phone ringing, and Todd had just left that morning, early that morning, to go on a snowmobile trip with his friends in Canada. So he was 17 hours away, and I thought it was him, because I thought, he's telling me that they got there safely. So I jumped up, and I had left my phone in the bathroom, so I went to get it, and I saw that it was Caleb, and I thought, what in the world? And so I answered it, and Caleb said, she's gone. I said, who? What do you mean, Caleb?

• 44:54Speaker 05

  What do you mean, who's gone? He said, Ashley, she's gone. And I said, what, what do you mean? He said, someone broke in and shot her. And I said, Caleb, I'll be right there. He said, you can't come, the police are here. And I said, Caleb, I'll be right there. And I hung up, and I started getting really dizzy. So I laid down on the bathroom floor. I can't remember that the tile was so cold, until I could get up. It seemed like forever, but I don't know, maybe it was five minutes. And so as soon as I got up, I called Todd, and thankfully, he answered.

• 45:36Speaker 05

  And I told him, I said, Caleb just called and said someone broke in and murdered Ashley.

• 45:43Kendall Rae?

  And hearing her relive this on the stand was just soul-crushing. You can tell how strong she wanted to be for Ashley, and she definitely was. But how can you not fall apart when talking about something like that? I mean, the strength that she was able to display just by getting up there and speaking and holding it together as well as she did, I think, is very, very impressive. And she wasn't even done after that. Jill then spoke about arriving at the scene and ultimately about the conversation she had with Caleb when he told her what happened. She also provided some additional context, so I thought it was important to play.

• 46:21Speaker 05

  He said, they went to bed, and he was golfing, so Ashley asked him to sleep on the couch. So he was sleeping on the couch.

• 46:36Speaker 05

  Then he said that he heard the dog's collars shaking, and that's what woke him up. And he thought, maybe one of the girls had got up to get a glass of water. And then he heard golfing, so he went in the girls' room, and he laid down with, and then he heard a gunshot, and he said, he froze. And then he went in to check on Ashley, and he shook her foot and said, Ashley, baby? And she didn't respond. Ashley, he kept shaking her foot, Ashley, baby? And she didn't respond.

• 47:16Speaker 05

  So then he turned on the light and saw that she had been shot and called 911.

• 47:22Kendall Rae?

  And then Jill testified that when she and Caleb were finally given permission to go inside the house and get the girls so that she could bring them over to her house, both girls, according to her, were completely out of it. Zonked was how she actually described one of them.

• 47:40Speaker 05

  I put the dogs in the car, and then I walked in to get the girls. So I walked in and I got.

• 47:46Speaker 07

  How did she appear at that time?

• 47:48Speaker 05

  She was zonked. I mean, both girls were absolutely, completely out of it, sleeping, tired. I mean, they had not, they hadn't woken up at all. Yeah, she was zonked.

• 47:59Speaker 07

  And did you take as well?

• 48:01Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 48:01Speaker 07

  Did you wake up?

• 48:03Speaker 05

  I did not.

• 48:03Speaker 07

  Who did?

• 48:04Speaker 05

  Caleb.

• 48:05Speaker 07

  How did it appear when she got in your car?

• 48:07Speaker 05

  Scared. Shook, scared.

• 48:11Speaker 07

  Did she appear as if she were sleeping?

• 48:13Speaker 05

  She was groggy, yes.

• 48:15Kendall Rae?

  Then, following this, Jill described how a few days after their mother's murder, Caleb took the girls for a walk, and she said that they came back from it acting nervous.

• 48:26Speaker 05

  It was 10 o'clock in the morning. I got a phone call from Kim Flynn, and she said Caleb wants to see the girls right away. And as soon as we got there, Caleb, his dad, and mom were waiting in the driveway. And so Caleb took the girls and went on a walk.

• 48:49Speaker 07

  Did you see the girls after the walk?

• 48:51Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 48:52Speaker 07

  How did they appear?

• 48:53Speaker 05

  Nervous.

• 48:54Speaker 07

  What did you do about that?

• 48:57Speaker 05

  I asked her why she was nervous.

• 48:59Speaker 07

  And without telling me what she said, what did you do next?

• 49:02Speaker 05

  I marched her down to her dad and said, she's afraid to tell the truth. Tell her to tell the truth.

• 49:11Speaker 07

  What did he say?

• 49:13Speaker 05

  Of course, baby, you're supposed to tell the truth. And then I got [BLEEP] upstairs with her.

• 49:18Kendall Rae?

  I really don't know what she wasn't telling the truth about, but Jill got cut off during her testimony and was told not to continue sharing it. And I do know that for a time at least, it was believed that the girls were going to have to testify. And ultimately, that didn't end up happening, which personally, I'm very thankful for. I definitely think that was the right call. These are very young girls who have been through something extremely traumatic. And I'm sure they would have been willing to do it for their mom, but that is just way too much for them to have to carry such a heavy burden and so much stress and trauma at such a young age. And on that note, Ashley's sister Kayla was next to take the stand

• 50:01Kendall Rae?

  after the defense declined to cross-examine Jill and she helped drive the financial part of the prosecution's proposed motive. If you remember, they argued that one reason for doing this was Caleb's desire to maintain his lucrative position working at Ashley's dad's company. And if he divorced her, well, that job would have gone bye-bye. So, delusionally, he thought murder was a better solution. So, a big part of Kayla's testimony was not only describing Caleb's history working for her dad, but also his projected future earnings at the company, which was very interesting to hear. And as a reminder, that company was a commercial flooring and church furnishings business,

• 50:43Kendall Rae?

  which we've since learned he was earning a $200,000 annual salary at as a salesman. However, we found out that he stood to gain a lot more. In August of 2025, their dad, Todd, met with a financial advisor and said that he wanted to give the business to his daughters as a gift to split 50/50. And in her testimony, Kayla shared that the day after this meeting took place, she showed Caleb and her husband a spreadsheet which projected earnings of $300,000 to $400,000 per year if things continued to trend the way they had in the past. She also added that Caleb asked to look at that spreadsheet again in September. Very interesting.

• 51:26Kendall Rae?

  And then later in her testimony, she talked about finding out what happened to her sister and about what Caleb's version of events were. And his story to her matched his story he gave to Jill. And she definitely pointed out some things that she thought were suspicious, and I think they are worth hearing. So I'm going to play some of that now.

• 51:46Speaker 05

  I just remember being like, how did you not see the intruder running out of Ashley's room when you came in to the room? And so, I kind of asked that. I don't remember at that point, but I know I asked him at a later time. But then the second thing I thought of is what in the world? This is Tipp City, Ohio. No one is targeted. And I said, and I remember being like, if this person who killed Ashley was a psychopath, why did he not just come in and shoot all of you? I can, I remember thinking that, like, it just didn't make sense that Ashley herself is targeted. And then we said, was anything taken? And he's like, no. So, it was, it was just, we could not wrap our heads around it.

• 52:28Kendall Rae?

  Like, who breaks into a house, shoots one person, takes nothing, and does it with no motive? No one. That just does not happen. And I also did want to say that Caleb mentioned that they loved Caleb. I mean, like a brother, he was such a big part of their lives. And she actually thought they got the wrong person when he was arrested. I mean, she just couldn't, you know, wrap her mind around him being responsible for killing her sister. And it was only later on during an interview with the FBI when she learned about the affair, that, you know, she put the pieces together and realized that he just was not who she thought he was. And it really sounds like that sentiment was shared across their family.

• 53:13Kendall Rae?

  I mean, this was completely shocking for them.

• 53:22Kendall Rae?

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• 54:04Kendall Rae?

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• 54:47Kendall Rae?

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• 55:31Kendall Rae?

  Now, on cross-examination, Kayla was asked to share how Ashley's daughters took the news, the news about the affair, to be clear. And it turns out, they knew Aaliyah. They knew her from church. And when they were eventually told about the affair, Kayla said they were broken-hearted for their mommy. One of the girls asked, she loved daddy more than anyone else in life. So, why did daddy not love her as much? And thinking about those two girls having to process something like that after everything else they've had to process just rips my heart up, dude. It's so messed up. I cannot imagine the pain that they have experienced over and over and over again throughout this entire process. I mean, the pain that they are still experiencing every single day.

• 56:14Kendall Rae?

  I am just beyond grateful for the love and support that I know that they have through their family. It seems like they're a wonderful family, and they are going to have the best possible support system moving forward through the rest of their lives. And Kayla is now raising them, but this is so upsetting. And my heart goes out to them and to everyone in their family. And for them to have struggled to come to terms with the fact that Caleb did this, that makes it even more heartbreaking to be so betrayed in that way. And, you know, it wasn't until they were really confronted with the facts that they couldn't deny it. And that had to have been so shocking.

• 56:56Kendall Rae?

  And here's Todd talking about the moment he received this horrific news.

• 57:00Speaker 06

  I had to call at 3 o'clock in the morning with my wife. And she said, Ashley has been murdered in her bed.

• 57:09Speaker 06

  What? I said, no way. And she said, yes. And I don't remember what else, but I said, okay, well, we're headed home.

• 57:18Speaker 07

  What did you do at that time?

• 57:19Speaker 06

  And then we loaded up everything on the truck and the trailer, and we drove, we drove back. Longest ride of my life.

• 57:29Speaker 07

  What did you do during that far ride?

• 57:30Speaker 06

  Phew, I called Jill.

• 57:33Speaker 06

  I'll be a hundred times just to see what in the world is going on. And then she started to tell me the story of what what happened. And I said, that that make me, I mean, all I could think about it, nothing in that story makes sense to me. Nothing makes sense to me. Why would somebody break in, go walk in there, shoot my daughter and then run out? If it was a burglary, why would they go around the whole house? And then your mind gets to run on a 15 hour trip. So I'm thinking, wow, I said, how it didn't make sense is those dogs, and they normally sleep in there with Ashley and Caleb. When we pull up to the house, they are barking, going crazy.

• 58:19Speaker 06

  And I, and then when you get in the house, they're going crazy and we're having fun and jumping. But I thought, how in the world? I always thought that those dogs would be one of the best defenses about against anything in that house because they were, you could be in the cul-de-sac and almost they're starting to bark. And I thought, how in the world did that happen? And those dogs not go to the mannequins? And then I even Googled, I said, can a Christian man snack and shoot his wife and kill his wife? I I did a Google on that because I thought, mm.

• 58:53Kendall Rae?

  Now, the point about the dogs is one that I raised in my original episode. Jill and Todd both testified that they barked at anyone who came in, like most dogs do. Kayla even said one of the dogs usually slept in Ashley's room. So how on earth does someone break into a home and do something like this without these dogs somehow getting involved? It just, it makes no sense. It's ridiculous. I think the fact that Todd even made that Google search really tells you how hard it was for him to wrap his brain around all of this. I mean, Caleb had truly been such a central part of their family for so many years. Earlier in his testimony, he talked about the 30 trips that they had taken together and the fact that in all of those years,

• 59:38Kendall Rae?

  Caleb only missed one family vacation, which was a trip to Gatlinburg in October of 2025. And it was because he said he was sick. I mean, he was always around and Todd said that he thought their relationship was great. Unlike Jill, he didn't see any major changes between them leading up to this. And clearly he liked Caleb enough to hire him. And that was actually part of Todd's testimony to back some of the financial stuff that we heard Kayla say when she took the stand. And speaking of the financial side of things, Tipsy PD Captain Tony Smith testified next. And he talked a lot about the bank records and other financial matters. And in his direct examination, we learned that Caleb was the sole beneficiary

• 1:00:22Kendall Rae?

  of Ashley's $100,000 life insurance policy. No shock there. We also learned that Caleb was paying $6.99 a month for something called a Snoop Report, which is a paid service that sends weekly reports on an Instagram account's activity. And he had been paying for this from September 2025 through January of 2026. And he didn't say whose account was being monitored, but right away I had my suspicions. And later on, those suspicions were confirmed as we did find out it was actually his mistress's account, Aaliyah's. And then Captain Smith also revealed that two of Aaliyah's devices were not recovered. And there is a lot to say on that, and I will address that during her testimony.

• 1:01:06Kendall Rae?

  But as for other critical moments of that day, several additional Ohio BCI agents took the stand as well. This was the DNA portion of the trial. And as I mentioned earlier, no foreign DNA profile was found in the home. And I was very annoyed to learn that Caleb was not swabbed for gunshot residue. Yes, you heard that right. Why? I don't know. Just ridiculous. But anyway, the jury also heard from their next door neighbor, who testified that no unusual activity was recorded on any of her three motion sensor cameras between February 15th and February 16th. And then the next day, Wednesday, there was more corroborating testimony. And that brings us to day four.

• 1:01:50Kendall Rae?

  The door itself was actually brought in and we heard again that the damage was sustained from the inside, not the outside. We also learned no activity was found on the neighboring home surveillance cameras. Searches turned up no leads for weapons and even a tip that came in about a hit on Caleb's life. Although all tips related to a hit were not found to be credible. Then there was also a big revelation that came in from the testimony of FBI Special Agent Sarah Deemerin. For starters, she shared more information about that garage side door. Specifically that a claw hammer from the Flynn's garage workbench was identified as potentially being the tool that made the marks on it.

• 1:02:32Kendall Rae?

  Granted, on cross examination, she couldn't exclusively say that this was the tool or who could have used it. And there was some majorly conflicting testimony later on stating that none of the tools in the home could be linked to the marks on the door. But I still think that her opinion was important to include here. And that, you guys, wasn't even the biggest thing that she shared. She happened to be one of the FBI agents who interviewed Aaliyah and collected her phone for testing. And according to her testimony, Aaliyah lied in her first FBI interview on February 20th. It was only in her second interview on the 26th that she finally admitted to her relationship with Caleb.

• 1:03:12Kendall Rae?

  And the police only knew about the affair to begin with, based on the tips from Ashley's own aunt. And then they also had follow up conversations with Ashley's friend as well. And obviously this would suggest that she knew something was going on, which we later find out she certainly did. Aaliyah even confirmed it herself when she took the stand, which happened next. Aaliyah Botner testified for the prosecution and she was on the stand for almost seven hours across both Wednesday and Thursday. And to kick things off, she spoke about, you know, how the two of them met, how their relationship evolved and first began. And as a reminder, Aaliyah was a worship leader at their church, Christian Life Center, AKA CLC.

• 1:03:57Speaker 04

  How did you first meet the defendant?

• 1:04:00Speaker 05

  At CLC.

• 1:04:01Speaker 04

  Approximately, when was that?

• 1:04:04Speaker 05

  That was the summer of 2022.

• 1:04:06Speaker 04

  How old were you?

• 1:04:07Speaker 05

  I was 20 when we met. And he was 36 or 7.

• 1:04:13Speaker 04

  At the time you met the defendant, what was your role at CLC?

• 1:04:18Speaker 05

  I interned under the main worship leader, Zach Nelson.

• 1:04:20Speaker 04

  What was the defendant's role at CLC at the time?

• 1:04:23Speaker 05

  Volunteer on the worship team.

• 1:04:25Speaker 04

  What did you learn about defendant's marital status when you met him?

• 1:04:29Speaker 05

  At first I didn't know that he was married because he never wore his wedding ring. But I did find out from other people that he was married.

• 1:04:38Speaker 04

  And what was his wife's name?

• 1:04:40Speaker 05

  Ashley.

• 1:04:41Speaker 04

  Did you ever meet his wife?

• 1:04:43Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:04:44Speaker 04

  When you first met the defendant, was your relationship professional?

• 1:04:49Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:04:50Speaker 04

  How long did it remain professional?

• 1:04:52Speaker 05

  Until March of 2024.

• 1:04:54Kendall Rae?

  Then, by her own admission, things became sexual in May.

• 1:04:59Speaker 04

  Can you describe how the nature of your relationship changed?

• 1:05:01Speaker 05

  So I got out of a five month long relationship in January. And I always noticed that during that relationship, because the guy I was dating was on the worship team, Caleb was always distant whenever I was around him or whenever he would serve on the worship team. He was always, you know, super extroverted with everyone else, but was always distant towards me and this guy whenever I was with him. And so after we broke up, I noticed Caleb was starting to come in my life a little bit more and become more friendly again. And he started texting me more. It would start with just iMessage games. So we were sending friendly text messages and

• 1:05:47Speaker 05

  and it turned into texting every day. In my heart, I never thought it would be anything more than that. But towards the end of that month, March of 2024, Caleb would ask to, it started with small things. He would ask to come over just to hug me. And then he would, he would come over, he would hug me and then he'd leave.

• 1:06:09Speaker 04

  And at this time, you knew he was married?

• 1:06:11Speaker 05

  Yes, I did.

• 1:06:12Speaker 04

  So you allowed him to come over to the home?

• 1:06:14Speaker 05

  I did.

• 1:06:15Speaker 04

  When did your relationship become physical beyond hugs?

• 1:06:19Speaker 05

  Yeah, so towards the end of that month, Caleb expressed that he had feelings for me. And he said that the reason, reason why he thinks it's okay to have those feelings is because his wife cheated on him two years before 2024. He told me that.

• 1:06:35Speaker 03

  She cheated on him. And he told me that he only sees her as a roommate. That the only time they ever talk is from picking the girls up from school, dropping them off. He told me that he hates her. He told me the only reason why he's still with her is because of the girls. And that he lost his chance to divorce her because it's already been two years since it's happened. And he was feeding me all that.

• 1:06:58Speaker 04

  When did your relationship with the defendant become sexual?

• 1:07:01Speaker 03

  I believe it was May 2024.

• 1:07:04Kendall Rae?

  So there you have it, folks. Caleb said that it was okay for him to develop feelings for her because two years prior Ashley cheated on him. But to be very clear here, the FBI examiner went through her phone and found no evidence of an affair at all. The only proof that existed was Caleb's word about what a neighbor supposedly saw. Okay, and if that's how Caleb justified it, how did Aaliyah justify it? Let's find out.

• 1:07:37Speaker 04

  If you knew the defendant was married, how did you morally justify a sexual relationship with the defendant?

• 1:07:42Speaker 03

  It was completely wrong and I shouldn't have. But I think him telling me that she cheated on him and they're just living as roommates. At first I was strong and I said, this isn't okay. We shouldn't do this. I still care about you, but you know, you're married. And then he kept pursuing and it just started with little things and then it grew like cancer. And I found myself in a place I never thought I would be. So I, I never morally justified it. I just did it even while I knew it was wrong.

• 1:08:14Speaker 04

  How long did the two of you remain in a sexual relationship?

• 1:08:17Speaker 03

  About a year and a half.

• 1:08:19Kendall Rae?

  Now, I have a lot of opinions on Aaliyah and they're not good opinions. Okay. And I am very curious to hear what you guys think of her by the end of this episode or what you think if you've followed this trial at all. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to know where most of you fall on that one because on one hand, yes, she did testify against Caleb, which I can appreciate. But on the much realer hand, the absolutely vile things that this woman had to say about Ashley, the just disgusting things that she texted and the way that she went behind her back to screw her husband

• 1:08:59Kendall Rae?

  is so despicable and I just really can't find anything nice to say about her at all. I really have zero respect for her. And I know you guys are probably wondering, so let me make this clear. She did not receive any type of deal for her testimony and she has not been charged with anything related to Ashley's murder. That being said, I know a lot of people are angry about that and I understand. I know people feel that she is in some way responsible for what happened and I feel that way myself. But from a legal standpoint though, I have to make it clear. I have to say that Caleb was the only person who has been found to be involved with this murder.

• 1:09:45Kendall Rae?

  Okay, but again, Aaliyah, girl. So when she was asked why she lied initially when speaking with the FBI, she admitted that of course she was worried about her reputation and losing her job. Plus, knowing that Caleb had been arrested for murder, she was worried about being associated with it. It was only when the FBI agents revealed they found messages on Aaliyah's phone talking with a friend about the affair that Aaliyah said she finally admitted the truth. And boy, did a lot more truth get revealed. I mean, it soon became incredibly clear that their relationship, Aaliyah and Caleb's, was riddled with toxicity. Caleb's bitch ass was very jealous of other men that Aaliyah knew.

• 1:10:27Kendall Rae?

  And Aaliyah was jealous of Caleb's marriage to Ashley. I mean, it went both ways for sure. And calling it jealousy really doesn't even do it justice. It was pretty wild. Even though Caleb would tell Aaliyah that he loathed Ashley and wanted her dead upward of a hundred times, Aaliyah still couldn't handle the fact that Caleb spent any time with her at all. And that jealousy manifested itself in many ways for both of them. For example, she testified that at some points in their relationship, she believed Caleb was hacking into her Instagram account and liking pictures of guys that he thought she had feelings for. Which I've got to say, I'm, I'm lost there. Why would you do that?

• 1:11:12Kendall Rae?

  What, what is the point of that? But she said that he knew her password and would even go on her phone while she was at church on the stage. She also said that she thought he created a fake Instagram account to try and communicate with her, which we'll hear more about later. Now, as for her, she would text Caleb and make him promise her all sorts of insane shit. Like for example, that he wouldn't do nice things for Ashley. Things like getting her a birthday or Valentine's Day present. Yet despite this horrible behavior and toxicity between the two of them, their relationship continued. And eventually that escalated into conversations around Caleb leaving Ashley for good.

• 1:11:53Kendall Rae?

  However, we learned that no matter how many times Caleb said that he was going to file for divorce, he never actually did it. And that was a major sore point between the two of them. She testified that the conversations surrounding him leaving Ashley started in August of 2025 and there were four or five instances of him saying that he was going to do it and then he never actually did. And at some point after all of this, Aaliyah said that she began giving him like deadlines for telling his wife that it was over. And these deadlines came after he and Ashley's 15-year wedding anniversary cruise

• 1:12:34Kendall Rae?

  that they went on in August of 2025, which stirred up a lot of drama between Caleb and Aaliyah, as you can imagine. I mean, she was extremely jealous and bitter that he went on that trip after he told her that he would try to get out of it by faking a letter to Ashley that the cruise had been canceled. What a dumb idea. How easy that would have been for her to realize that was untrue. So that's probably why he didn't doing it. But anyway, on that trip, Ashley actually caught Caleb texting Aaliyah. So Ashley ended up texting Aaliyah and she said, I'm thoroughly confused. We need to have a sit down when I get home.

• 1:13:13Kendall Rae?

  That never ended up happening though, because Aaliyah said that she just knew she could not face Ashley for what she had been doing. So she made up an excuse about being busy and whatever plan they had to get coffee actually never actually happened. So in total, Aaliyah testified that Ashley found their messages two times. And yeah, you could tell that this time in their relationship was rocky. Just listen to this voice message Caleb sent her and heads up, the audio quality isn't the best.

• 1:13:47Speaker 04

  Hey, um, I don't know if this will go through. Service is horrible, but I wanted to send you this as a text message and just is horrible. Sorry. And I assumed wrong and like I just texted, I don't know if you got it. This week felt a lot like what we used to be and I'm sorry I assumed anything. You are more than free and able and have every right to do what you want. And I am sorry. You know more than anybody that I love as hard as I know how and am super protective. You can do whatever the crap you want. That was wrong for going on a cruise. That was wrong for hurting you.

• 1:14:32Speaker 04

  And I'm literally crying in front of thousands of people, but I don't care. I am sorry for hurting you. I'm sorry for everything and I hope you have a great day today. Please do not, well, not that you're worrying about me, but don't feel the need to text. I know I yet again have made things work. It only comes out of just sheer, absolutely massive love for you. But until I can be released from her, I know that you do not have to do anything. I'm sorry. I'm going to text this to you and then I promise I'll delete everything.

• 1:15:11Speaker 04

  It may take a lot to go through just because of service here, but I do love you and I'm really sorry. So I hope you have a great service and I love you. I love you very, very, very much.

• 1:15:29Speaker 04

  I want to see you so sorry that um my absolute desire and love and passion for you causes me just to lose it. So I'm sorry.

• 1:15:42Kendall Rae?

  I don't know if you caught it there, but Caleb said that he was going to delete everything. Or on. And that brings me to a very crucial component of Aaliyah's testimony, which is the communication methods between the two of them and their efforts to try and conceal them. So let's hear what she had to say about this.

• 1:16:01Speaker 04

  How did you and the defendant communicate with each other?

• 1:16:03Speaker 05

  At first it was iMessage and then it was WhatsApp.

• 1:16:09Speaker 04

  Why did you switch to WhatsApp?

• 1:16:10Speaker 05

  iMessage seemed to be too noticeable, like if somebody was seeing notifications coming up on her screen. Or if Ashley were to look through his phone, the first thing she would go is iMessage. So.

• 1:16:22Speaker 04

  In fact, at some point, she discovered an iMessage between the two of you, correct?

• 1:16:26Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:16:26Speaker 04

  What message was that?

• 1:16:27Speaker 05

  First time, I think it was last summer. Um, he had deleted all the iMessages on his phone between us, but it was still on his iPad. So she was looking through his iPad while he was at work and all the messages just popped up around her face and it didn't have my name attached to it.

• 1:16:44Speaker 04

  What picture did the defendant tell you, Ashley, kind of?

• 1:16:46Speaker 05

  A picture of my hand and I drew a ring on it.

• 1:16:48Speaker 04

  And what were you discussing in the messages around that photo?

• 1:16:52Speaker 05

  I was discussing how I wanted him to be my husband.

• 1:16:56Speaker 04

  What did you switch to after WhatsApp?

• 1:16:57Speaker 05

  GroupMe.

• 1:16:58Speaker 04

  Why would you switch messaging applications?

• 1:17:00Speaker 05

  I can't fully remember why we switched from WhatsApp to GroupMe.

• 1:17:05Speaker 05

  But I do remember while we used WhatsApp. I think that was when she found our messages and we kind of, I think we just freaked out and we moved to a different platform that seemed more protected. Um, I think he had a pickleball group chat on there, so it was more justified if he was on GroupMe.

• 1:17:25Speaker 04

  When did you start using GroupMe to communicate with the defendant?

• 1:17:29Speaker 05

  I think it was last August or October.

• 1:17:32Kendall Rae?

  So they started using these messaging apps to conceal their communications. And as we heard earlier, investigators found over 107,000 messages between the two of them. And according to Aaliyah, they were deleting things daily out of fear of being caught. And they really thought no one was gonna see any of that shit. She testified that she advised him to delete the data on his devices multiple times, including the night before Ashley's murder. And I think when you hear what the two of them were saying, you might wish you could delete it from your brain because they talked about their desires to be together, about Caleb divorcing Ashley, and most concerningly, they both talked about wishing that Ashley was dead.

• 1:18:13Kendall Rae?

  And Caleb did appear to be the initiator of these messages, being the one to reference murder, but she never tried to stop him. And she even sent some very hateful things herself.

• 1:18:24Speaker 04

  In your groupie communications, how often did the defendant express negative feelings about Ashley?

• 1:18:31Speaker 05

  Just about every day.

• 1:18:32Speaker 04

  Can you describe the nature of those expressions?

• 1:18:34Speaker 05

  He would say that he hated her, that he wanted her dead. He would say so, so many awful things. I think along the lines of hating her and wanting her dead, it was kind of the same theme.

• 1:18:45Speaker 04

  Who else said awful things about Ashley in those communications?

• 1:18:49Speaker 05

  I also said awful things about Ashley.

• 1:18:51Kendall Rae?

  Now I'll share the specifics of their messages here shortly, but first I want you to hear from Aaliyah herself about the names that they called Ashley because they will be referenced in these messages.

• 1:19:02Speaker 04

  What names would he use to refer to Ashley?

• 1:19:05Speaker 05

  When we first met, he, he said that she wasn't worthy of being called her first name. So he said that we're going to refer to her as douchebag.

• 1:19:17Speaker 04

  What other names would he use to refer to her?

• 1:19:19Speaker 05

  Call her a B word. Um.

• 1:19:22Speaker 04

  The what? I'm sorry?

• 1:19:23Speaker 05

  The B word.

• 1:19:24Speaker 04

  What word is that?

• 1:19:25Speaker 05

  Bitch.

• 1:19:26Speaker 04

  What else?

• 1:19:27Speaker 05

  And call her a whore, slut, spawn of Satan.

• 1:19:31Speaker 04

  What names would you use to refer to Ashley?

• 1:19:34Speaker 05

  I, I used most of those same names.

• 1:19:37Kendall Rae?

  So as she continued, Aaliyah spoke about them seeing each other at least once a week and how they'd meet up at her apartment to have sex. And other times they'd do it in his truck in the parking lot of a Chipotle. Nothing more romantic than a parking lot of Chipotle. And she even said that when Ashley was instructing Bible camp, she and Caleb would call their time together Marriage Weeks. In one instance, she said that Caleb showed her the nine millimeter handgun that he kept in his center console. And we also heard that they had very adorable, matching Harry Potter lightning bolt tattoos. And Caleb put it in his armpit to try and conceal it. Nothing better than a nice Harry Potter pit tattoo, I always say.

• 1:20:17Kendall Rae?

  Then came the moment when she first revealed the specific nature of some of their messages, the ones about wanting Ashley to die. Take a listen.

• 1:20:28Speaker 04

  In your communications with the defendant, how many times did he express that he wished Ashley Flynn was not in his life?

• 1:20:33Speaker 05

  Every week at least.

• 1:20:36Speaker 04

  How often would he use words to the effect that he wanted her gone?

• 1:20:39Speaker 05

  Probably the same, every week.

• 1:20:42Speaker 04

  How often would he make statements about wanting Ashley to die?

• 1:20:45Speaker 05

  That's probably at least once a month.

• 1:20:48Speaker 04

  Can you describe what he said when he was stating things about wanting Ashley to die?

• 1:20:54Speaker 05

  He said that he wishes he, if he could kill her and not go to jail or get arrested, I forget exactly what he said, that he would do it.

• 1:21:02Speaker 04

  When's the first time you recall him making a statement like that?

• 1:21:05Speaker 05

  I think it was the end of last year, um, after the, after they went on their cruise.

• 1:21:10Speaker 04

  How did defendant's statements about wanting Ashley to die continue over time?

• 1:21:14Speaker 05

  They definitely continued. Um, and it seemed like when he would say it, it just got worse the way he would say it. At first it was, I want her dead, I wish she was gone. And then it was, if I could kill her and not go to jail, I would. One night he was up really late thinking about, told me that he was thinking about ways to kill her.

• 1:21:33Kendall Rae?

  There will be plenty more messages where that came from, and believe me, each of them is worse than the next. But before she was asked to read through them verbatim, which she did for hours, she first was asked to continue going through the timeline of their relationship and how it unraveled. Which brings me back to the cruise. Now, this seems like it was a major tipping point for the two of them, you could say. And like I said earlier, this is when the deadlines began. Aaliyah testified that she was done being with someone who was married. But every time the deadline came, Caleb would tell her he didn't want to hurt his girls. And so she just kept pushing that deadline.

• 1:22:14Kendall Rae?

  She did say there were times when the two of them wouldn't speak, but she always went back to him. That is until January of 2026, when Aaliyah testified that she was finally done for good. She told Caleb in December that he had until January 11th to leave his wife or she was going to move on for good. But the 11th came and went and he still wouldn't tell Ashley that he wanted a divorce. So because of that, Aaliyah cut off all communication with him until February 14th.

• 1:22:49Kendall Rae?

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• 1:23:31Kendall Rae?

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• 1:24:14Kendall Rae?

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• 1:25:06Kendall Rae?

  Now, she said that he reached out to her two or three times in that period. And you guys, one of those times he sent her lyrics. I'm sorry, it's so ridiculous and hilarious. But he sent her, he sent her lyrics to a song that he wrote her. And she was asked to talk about, you know, what the song meant to her. And she says nothing now, but holy shit, that audio was played in court. And I really don't think I have ever seen a courtroom try to contain their laughter harder. It's unbelievably cringe. Now, it wasn't actually played during her testimony. It came out later during someone else's.

• 1:25:49Kendall Rae?

  But I'm gonna play it now because it's just too good to wait. You have got to hear this if you haven't already. And there's actually two versions of the song and they're long. So I'll spare you and not play the second because it's just the same lyrics, just a different AI audio generation. Uh, but oof, this is rough. Okay. And this song is not him singing. This is AI. And this is Mr. American Idol, who apparently has a great voice. I don't know why he just didn't sing himself. But yeah, nothing more romantic than a nice AI song.

• 1:26:35Speaker 06

  We were just friends.

• 1:26:39Speaker 06

  That's what we said. Early mornings, late nights, jokes in our heads.

• 1:26:49Speaker 06

  The first time I saw you, the room disappeared. Love at first sight, even though I was scared.

• 1:27:03Speaker 06

  They said time is a thief. And life's not fair. But your love felt like home, like I belonged there. Now the third of every month hits me like rain. An anniversary carved into pain. The candles burn out, I still can't move on. Life lost its meaning the moment you were gone.

• 1:27:50Speaker 06

  They whisper about numbers, the years in between. Said love has a limit, said love's not that clean. But age never mattered when it was you and me. We were proof that forever was something you feel not see.

• 1:28:19Speaker 06

  We danced on the edge of a life we could choose. So close to forever, so much left to lose. And the third of every month, I still say your name. Like maybe the Lord might hear me pray. We almost had a ways, it was right in our hands. Now I'm learning how fragile this life can stay.

• 1:29:03Speaker 06

  Circumstances spoke louder than hearts ever could. Did what love couldn't fix, though I swear that we would. If the stars had aligned just a moment more, we'd be old on a porch counting dreams, not closed doors. I still see your smile in the back of my mind. Still reach for your hand. Every third I survive. We were friends on the surface, but deep down inside, you were always my love, my once in a lifetime.

• 1:29:49Speaker 06

  So here's to the third and the us that we lost to the almost forever that came at a cost. You were my meaning, my love, my best friend. Life has no meaning, it's come to an end. If love only comes once, then I know it was you. Now learning how to breathe in a world without you.

• 1:30:32Speaker 06

  If somewhere you feel this, if somewhere you're whole, I know you still own every piece of my soul. Forever was close, now it's just out of view. Life is now empty since the moment I lost you.

• 1:31:05Kendall Rae?

  Man, that makes me want to just throw up. Honestly, that makes me want to go get in the shower. Ugh, disgusting. Anyway, though, going back to Aaliyah's testimony, okay? She continued by talking about when she finally messaged Caleb again after she ended it. And again, that was on Valentine's Day. They had sung together at church on that Saturday, the 14th. And after the service, Caleb messaged her in a group chat with their boss, saying that they needed to get together to talk. And here's what she said happened next.

• 1:31:34Speaker 04

  What did the two of you do together after that Saturday service?

• 1:31:37Speaker 05

  Yes, he texted that day, me and my boss at the time. He said he needs to talk to us. So in my mind, I thought he was going to cancel Easter because he was upset that I ended things. So I personally messaged him outside of the group chat with my boss. And I said, are you going to cancel Easter? Why do you need to talk to us? He said it was because, he said it's not because of canceling Easter. It's because I'm finally free of Ashley. And I'm actually leaving her this time, something along the lines of that. And I just responded, I was like, you know, I don't believe you. And so that night, I think I asked him if we could talk in person about it after the service.

• 1:32:20Speaker 04

  Where did you talk in person?

• 1:32:22Speaker 05

  Next to the West Auditorium and at a table out in the open.

• 1:32:26Speaker 04

  This was at CLC?

• 1:32:27Speaker 05

  At CLC.

• 1:32:28Speaker 04

  What did the two of you discuss?

• 1:32:30Speaker 05

  He explained to me how he already had talked to her and he told her that he was divorcing her.

• 1:32:34Speaker 04

  Who's her?

• 1:32:35Speaker 05

  Ashley. And he said that she's not happy, but that he was going to do it. And I said, I don't believe you. You've said this so many times and it's never happened. And I asked him, I said, are you still willing to leave her knowing that there's a chance that I don't? I will never want to be with you again.

• 1:32:52Speaker 04

  How did he respond to that?

• 1:32:54Speaker 05

  He cried and asked me why, why I never wanted to be with him again. And I told him that I don't trust him and that I'm moving on with my life.

• 1:33:01Speaker 04

  What did you tell him in a text message on February 14th regarding your future plans?

• 1:33:06Speaker 05

  That I had a date coming up in March.

• 1:33:09Kendall Rae?

  Now, for context, the weekend of Valentine's Day and Ashley's murder, Aaliyah was actually house-sitting for the pastor at their church, Pastor Jordan Hanson, okay? And this was ultimately her alibi for the night of the murder. She stated that after worship on Sunday, the 15th, she went to her mom's house where she stayed until 11:50 PM. And then she made the 20 or so minute drive to Pastor Jordan's house, where she remained for the rest of the night into the following morning. And as we know, the early morning hours of the 16th is when the murder occurred. And home security footage corroborated Aaliyah's alibi, showing her arriving at the house at 12:14 AM on February 16th,

• 1:33:53Kendall Rae?

  which lined up with the time it would have taken her to drive there from her mom's house. It also showed her leaving the following morning at 9:57 AM when she went to the Smiths' residence after finding out what happened. And her phone also backs this up. Testimony would later confirm that it logged zero steps overnight and that her phone wasn't unlocked until the next morning. Although, despite there being no physical evidence tying her to the murder, there are definitely some people who still question her involvement. And I understand where people are coming from there. And I think a big reason for that has to do with their messages leading up to the murder. Let's listen to Aaliyah explain what happened.

• 1:34:32Speaker 04

  During your communications on February 14th and 15th of 2026, what did the defendant discuss with you regarding specific plans of his?

• 1:34:40Speaker 05

  He told me he was going to divorce Ashley on February 16th. And he was walking through the steps of what he was going to do in the morning. And he told me that it was, he actually was going to do it this time and that his actions will prove.

• 1:34:55Speaker 04

  Who was he going to talk to in the morning?

• 1:34:57Speaker 05

  He was going to talk to Todd and Jill, tell them what's happening. He was going to talk to his girls. He was going to call Dave from the D F Effect, which is my boss now. He was going to call him and ask him for a job. He was going to contact a hotel to be booked that day. And then he was going to move out all of his stuff.

• 1:35:17Speaker 04

  When did he tell you he was going to talk to the Smiths?

• 1:35:19Speaker 05

  First thing in the morning on February 16th.

• 1:35:22Speaker 04

  What did he tell you about attempting to talk to them on the 15th?

• 1:35:25Speaker 05

  I think he told me he tried to talk to them and they were.

• 1:35:29Speaker 06

  Or they had the girls or something along those lines.

• 1:35:32Kendall Rae?

  Then came their discussion about Caleb getting a burner phone, which she said he wanted because he thought it would be safer for them to communicate on after he told Ashley that he was leaving. She said that they were worried about their phones being searched in the process of a divorce, because then their affair would come to light and that could make things harder on Caleb. So this was their plan to still be able to communicate. Now, what's interesting to me is that we heard her say earlier that he already told her he wanted a divorce in their messages about the whole Easter church saga. And this, of course, doesn't change the fact that they wanted him to get a burner phone. I just thought that discrepancy was pretty strange. And actually, for Aaliyah, she already had a burner, okay?

• 1:36:15Kendall Rae?

  So she testified back in January of 2026. She took a solo trip to Clearwater, Florida with her dog to clear her head. This was just after ending things with Caleb, so she said she wanted time to herself. Well, anyway, on that trip, her phone fell out of a kayak and into the ocean. And even though she managed to retrieve it, it was completely broken. She also explained that she left her laptop at the airport on the way home. And despite filing a report online, it was never recovered. Now, if you're thinking this sounds suspicious, I hear you. I completely understand why you would think that. And, you know, there's a part of me that does too. But testimony later in trial would corroborate the efforts that she made

• 1:36:59Kendall Rae?

  to fix her phone and to get her laptop back. I definitely still have my own suspicions, in my opinion. Um, I have to be careful from a legal standpoint and try to stick to the facts here as we're covering a trial, but I do think it's odd. Anyway, though, as she continued talking about her phone situation, Aaliyah also shared that another member of their church gave her a phone to use until she could get a new one, but she said that she was using both phones at the time of the murder. All that to say, Aaliyah and Caleb spoke feverishly that night about him needing to get his own burner phone and about how he needed to delete all of the messages off his devices. And she even made several ChatGPT searches related to this. She asked if their GroupMe messages could be recovered.

• 1:37:45Kendall Rae?

  How Ohio divorce works and whether a court could see their Venmo transactions or find them in bank records.

• 1:37:51Speaker 04

  On February 15th, 2026, did you conduct any searches with ChatGPT?

• 1:37:59Speaker 06

  I did.

• 1:38:00Speaker 04

  What were you searching for?

• 1:38:02Speaker 06

  I was afraid that if he got a divorce, that Ashley would bring up the messages she saw between us. And for some reason, I thought that maybe they would search warrant her phone. Or his phone, sorry, if she did bring that up. So I was really worried that, again, I was worried about my reputation. I was worried about losing my job. And so I was sending Caleb ChatGPT screenshots of how to fully delete all the messages from his phone.

• 1:38:29Kendall Rae?

  After this, Aaliyah continued answering questions about their communications that night. And this is when some of Caleb's most damning messages were revealed.

• 1:38:39Speaker 04

  On the evening of February 15th, 2026, how did you continue to communicate with the defendant?

• 1:38:44Speaker 06

  GroupMe.

• 1:38:45Speaker 04

  What was he telling you?

• 1:38:46Speaker 06

  That he was going to divorce her the next day.

• 1:38:49Speaker 04

  What did he mention about deleting applications from his phone?

• 1:38:52Speaker 06

  He said he was gonna delete GroupMe from his phone on the morning of the 16th.

• 1:38:57Speaker 04

  What did he mention about wiping or resetting devices?

• 1:39:01Speaker 06

  I think he said again that he wiped and reset his iPod.

• 1:39:06Speaker 04

  What statements did he make about February 16th, 2026?

• 1:39:11Speaker 06

  He said, "It'll be a day I never forget."

• 1:39:14Speaker 04

  Did he say it's happening?

• 1:39:16Speaker 06

  He did say it's happening, the divorce.

• 1:39:19Speaker 04

  And did he say actions will come tomorrow?

• 1:39:21Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 1:39:22Speaker 04

  What did you understand actions tomorrow to mean?

• 1:39:25Speaker 06

  A divorce.

• 1:39:26Speaker 04

  What time did your communications with the defendant end on the night of February 15th, 2026?

• 1:39:31Speaker 06

  12 something AM.

• 1:39:32Speaker 04

  What was the last thing he said to you that night?

• 1:39:36Speaker 06

  I think it was something like, "Good night. Tomorrow's a big day. I gotta get to bed."

• 1:39:41Speaker 04

  You remember him saying, "I choose you?"

• 1:39:45Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 1:39:45Speaker 04

  And about to be free?

• 1:39:46Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 1:39:47Speaker 04

  How could you be free of Ashley if the defendant and he were going to co-parent their two young daughters during and after a divorce?

• 1:39:55Speaker 06

  I think he just meant from the relationship.

• 1:39:56Kendall Rae?

  Then she talked about the next morning when she found out what happened.

• 1:40:00Speaker 04

  When did you wake up on February 16th, 2026, the day of Ashley's murder?

• 1:40:05Speaker 06

  Around 8:00 AM.

• 1:40:06Speaker 04

  When did you expect to hear from the defendant that day?

• 1:40:08Speaker 06

  First thing in the morning.

• 1:40:09Speaker 04

  When did you learn about a crime at the Flynn residence?

• 1:40:13Speaker 06

  I received a random direct message on Instagram from a random congregant who goes to CLC.

• 1:40:20Speaker 04

  And what did you learn from that message?

• 1:40:22Speaker 06

  He said, "Did you hear about Mrs. Flynn?"

• 1:40:24Speaker 04

  How'd you respond?

• 1:40:25Speaker 06

  I said, "What are you talking about?"

• 1:40:27Speaker 04

  What'd you do at that time?

• 1:40:29Speaker 06

  My heart started pounding and it just, it seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day he's divorcing her, she's just dead all of a sudden. And so, um, I think I called my boss and I asked him if he's heard about it. He said he was at the Smith's, um, along with other staff and that I should come over there.

• 1:40:50Speaker 04

  Did you send, did you send any messages to the defendant?

• 1:40:54Speaker 06

  I did, yes.

• 1:40:55Speaker 04

  What did you say in those messages?

• 1:40:57Speaker 06

  I said, I said something like, "Caleb, what's going on? Were you involved? Is this real?"

• 1:41:03Speaker 04

  Did he respond to those messages?

• 1:41:05Speaker 06

  No.

• 1:41:06Speaker 04

  Why did you delete that message you sent to the defendant on the morning of February 16th?

• 1:41:10Speaker 06

  Because I, since there was a murder involved, I knew that they would probably be searching his phone. And if they saw any messages between us anywhere, um, the affair would be found out.

• 1:41:21Kendall Rae?

  Then came the shocking testimony of Aaliyah reading through their messages verbatim and just buckle up, you guys. And this went on for literal hours. So obviously I can't include it all, but I'm going to share, you know, the worst of it, the most damning moments. And just FYI, these messages were also read chronologically. So we're going to jump back in the timeline and work our way forward.

• 1:41:46Speaker 06

  Caleb on February 11th of 2025 says, "Why can't it be you? Why couldn't I have met you and married you and had kids with you?" I said, "On the same day, oh lover." He said, "On the same day, I want to take my girls and run away and never come back." I said, "On the same day, I have the same gut-wrenching thoughts when I see families, happy couples, et cetera. Please, baby, I would do this in a heartbeat, freaking leave it all." I said, "On the same day, I'd do anything." Caleb said, "On the same day, I need her to die, to cheat again, to leave." Caleb said on February 16th of 2025, "Sorry, I'm short. I hate douche. I want to be with my girls, but I don't want to be anywhere near her

• 1:42:30Speaker 06

  because one, I hate her, and two, I know it hurts you." I said on February 19th of 2025, "What do you want me to do?"

• 1:42:39Speaker 04

  And how did Caleb respond?

• 1:42:40Speaker 06

  "Marry me."

• 1:42:41Speaker 04

  How did you respond?

• 1:42:42Speaker 06

  I said, "Ah," you know, all caps.

• 1:42:45Speaker 04

  And what did he say in 5839?

• 1:42:47Speaker 06

  He said, "Kill douche." I said, "Oh, man, please." I said on March 8th of 2025, "I hate her. I've never hated anyone like I do her. I said that on the same day." I said, "On the same day, I hate the thoughts she causes in my head." Caleb said, "On the same day, I'm sorry what she does to both of us, but mostly you. I hate her as well and I want her gone." He said, "On the same day, I don't give her anything and will continue that." I said, "Good, I'd be utterly broken if I ever found out you did somehow." Caleb said on March 9th of 2025, "I know, sweetheart, I know. I don't receive or take things as I don't want anything that she has to offer, ever. I hate her." Caleb said, "I make you hurt more than I make you happy. And can you honestly say this is what you want and what you see for your life?

• 1:43:31Speaker 06

  To have to sneak around, to not be able to love publicly and to hurt at all times, knowing my situation? I want you, Aaliyah, as my wife and the mother of my kids, but what do I do? How do I escape this?" I said, "I don't know, Caleb. You have to find a way." He said, "I want her dead and gone." He said on March 24th of 2025, "'Cause she doesn't give a rat's ass." I said, "On the same day, hear me. I love you more than anything in this world." I said, "And you haven't lost me yet." I said, "What can I do?" And he said, "Kill her." He said on March 26th of 2025, "I already miss you like crazy and I hate her ever-living guts." He said on March 15th of 2025, "I'm sorry, gosh, I'm sorry. I want her dead and gone."

• 1:44:13Speaker 06

  I said, "I've never wished that upon someone, but have more than ever with her." I said, "I love you, Caleb. I just want you all to myself." He said, "I want all of you and not have to worry about sneaking around." He said on May 9th, 25, "I'm sorry you're feeling this way this morning. I 100% believe the enemy will do everything he can to distort and poison our minds. He has already done that to us. He wants more than anything to cause resentment, doubt, and hatred, to poison our souls, to hinder us. But all I can do is assure you that I'm not lying to you. I'm not sleeping in that bed. I don't want to, nor will I ever. I'm sorry that, again, that you're in your head so much. I hate her. I will always hate her. And I know it's hard knowing things or wanting to ask about every detail. I've wanted to ask things as well.

• 1:44:57Speaker 06

  My mind wanders all the time as well, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry you're hurting and all that you have to go through with all this."

• 1:45:04Kendall Rae?

  Now, during this part of the testimony, the prosecutor played several videos that Caleb had sent to her. And he used these videos to prove to her that he was home alone because she was so neurotic about him spending any time with Ashley. So here's one of them.

• 1:45:20Speaker 06

  Hey babe, I am so sorry to hear about my sirs in your car, but I wanted to show you that I am home alone. I'm not sure if you want to see the puppies, but... If anybody's listening, I love Aaliyah Botner. I love her, and I'm home alone. First, do you love Aaliyah? Do I see Aaliyah? You want to see Aaliyah? Please continue your excitement. There it is. Yes, you want to see Aaliyah.

• 1:45:48Kendall Rae?

  So her first day of testimony wrapped up after this, but it picked back up on Thursday morning. And that's when she continued reading their messages. And that brings us to day five.

• 1:45:59Speaker 06

  Caleb said on May 16th, 25, "I do care. When I was hurting yesterday, I didn't throw out statements like that, but I should be used to that by now. I'm sorry this sucks. I hate this in my life and this situation more than anything in the world. If I could literally kill her and not go to hell, I would do it in a heartbeat."

• 1:46:15Speaker 04

  When he said, "If I could literally kill her and not go to hell," who was he talking about?

• 1:46:20Speaker 06

  Ashley. I said on June 12th, 25, "I need you." Caleb said, "Please hire someone to take douche out. I need you in my life. I need you." I said, "So tempting. I can't live without you. And I've had this thought so often lately. How do we figure this out? I said, "I genuinely can't picture my future any other way." June 12th, 25. Life with you and loving you is so easy and just makes sense. I've fallen so madly in love. I don't want to settle for anything less. He said, "We have to get rid of Douche. I need you, you're my everything." I said, "I don't even want to say this in a joking way anymore. We need a solution, Caleb. We need it to be me and you forever and no exceptions." He said, "I've never joked about it." I said on, on July 10th, 25, "Baby, I miss you so much already."

• 1:47:05Speaker 06

  I said, "How do we do this?" He said, "I honestly and truly don't know." I said, "Do you know how badly I want to say F it to any rules and any barriers and just love you with my entire heart for the rest of my life?" I just wish I didn't say this. I didn't mean it. Says, "I want to kill her, Caleb."

• 1:47:22Speaker 04

  Who said that?

• 1:47:23Speaker 06

  Me. I said it so bad. He said, "That makes two of us."

• 1:47:27Kendall Rae?

  Hearing her say all of that made me feel fucking sick. I mean, it's one thing to knowingly begin a relationship with a married man, a married father, mind you, but that, my god. It's disgusting and it just keeps going.

• 1:47:45Speaker 06

  Caleb said on August 22nd, 25, "I cannot stop crying. Those are not just words. I'm truly lost in nothing without you. I hear and understand everything you're saying. You have every right to feel the way you do. The timing of this effing cruise was the worst ever and I cannot say I'm sorry enough. I know that is still not enough, but I've said it before, but I have, I have to say it again. I didn't go to hurt you. I didn't go for her. I only went because I felt the Lord asked me to stop being disobedient and trying to control things. But, Aaliyah, I'm sorry I went. I thought the Lord would honor that, what I did as being obedient, but it has truly made things awful. I'm not blaming the Lord or anything, but it has ruined everyone, I know that. I'd give anything in the world to have you again and to be friends and like you said, hold each other, but I know this trip in the presence of Douche has ruined it all. It's more than I can actually bear.

• 1:48:30Speaker 06

  I'm sorry I've hurt you. I was up till 4 a.m. last night crying and literally thinking of ways to kill her and not go to jail." On August 22nd, 25, I said, "It would change everything, Caleb. I'm not asking that you take her life, obviously, because that's not what you should do and I know you actually wouldn't. But to make the divorce happen, it would change everything."

• 1:48:49Kendall Rae?

  As these messages continued, we heard a ton of fighting between the two of them, especially regarding the January 11th deadline that Caleb missed. We also heard Caleb absolutely spiral about the date she said she was going on in March and he begged her for one more chance. However, she continued to say she didn't trust that he'd follow through with the plan, but he reassured her for quite a long time that he definitely was going to do it. He even told her on February 15th that he went to lunch to practice what he was going to say when he told Ashley's parents. And here she is explaining their final conversation hours before the murder.

• 1:49:28Speaker 06

  He said, "I want to say so much, but I won't. I pray for you still every night and, and will pray for your mind right now. Protection in Jesus's name." I said, "Thank you. Make sure you are sure about your decision tomorrow and where in your to-do list are you packing your things?" He said, "I'm sure, but I'll let you know if anything changes, but it won't." I said, "What do you mean you'll let me know if anything changes?" I said, "Gosh, this is the same story every time. Why even say that, Caleb?" He said, "No." I said, "Why even say that? Like it's an option, like it's in your mind." He said, "My bad, seriously. You have asked me several times if I'm sure and if I want to do this and so I just responded with a poor choice of words. It's not an option." He said, "Please, no, I didn't mean anything by that. I'm so sorry." I said, "I'm sure," and in parentheses, "but..."

• 1:50:13Speaker 06

  He said, "No buts. Are you in bed?" I said, "I'm going to sleep." He said, "Okay, thank you again for all your help today. I'll get a burner phone first thing and contact you from that and then after, after every update." I said, "Let's go to sleep. Keep me posted. Good night. My heart is so fragile, you aren't careful. I've been burnt far too many times than I have deserved." He said, "Man, not sure. Not how I wanted to sleep the night before the hardest day of my life. But I'll continue to apologize. I'm not changing my mind. It was never a thought. I want you, Aaliyah. I want to do this. I want a chance." He said, "I'm sorry I even said it. It was a stupid comment that came off wrong and I'm so sorry. Seriously, I'm so sorry. I wasn't meaning to be careless." I said, "You just have to be careful.

• 1:50:56Speaker 06

  I literally just communicated 10 minutes ago how terrified I am that you aren't going to follow through tomorrow like every other time. You've got my hopes up again. We'll see what happens. Let's drop it." He said, "I will be more careful. I'm sorry." I said, "Just all feels so familiar." Okay." He said, "You will see tomorrow. Well, actually today now. I've already made the first step and talked to her. Now it's her family, then you and Josh publicly, then Jordan. It's happening, Aaliyah." He said, "Thank you for everything today." I said, "You're welcome. Get some sleep and sleep in." He said, "All right, I'll talk to you as soon as I get a phone." February 16th, day I'll never forget. I said, "You're about to be free." He said, "I choose you, Aaliyah. You're more than enough. Good night."

• 1:51:38Kendall Rae?

  Then came the morning of Ashley's murder. And actually, before Aaliyah found out what had happened, she sent Caleb a message and they had actually made a plan for her to not message him first that morning, but she did.

• 1:51:51Speaker 06

  Hey, I know you said not to text first, but real quick, when you get the burner, you will have to text this number. And I gave them my burner number. Not my normal one. I still have my burner, so it's complicated. I can only receive iMessages with my old number.

• 1:52:04Speaker 04

  And that was sent at 7:50 a.m. on February 16?

• 1:52:09Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 1:52:11Speaker 04

  And you deleted that message later?

• 1:52:13Speaker 06

  I did.

• 1:52:14Kendall Rae?

  After this was when she said she received that DM from someone at their church and that's when she texted Caleb saying, "Caleb, I just saw the news. Someone told me to pray for Ms. Flynn. What is going on right now?" In all caps. Were you behind this? What is going on? Is this real? And this message was deleted too. Afterwards, she went to Ashley's parents' house and that's when she saw Caleb for the first time and just listen to what he said.

• 1:52:45Speaker 04

  Why didn't you go to the Smiths?

• 1:52:47Speaker 06

  Because that morning I called my boss. He said he was there and that it would be a good idea for me to come over there too because all the staff was there for the Flynn and the, and the Smiths.

• 1:52:58Speaker 04

  What did the defendant tell you about the early morning hours of February 16th, 2025, when we were at the Smiths' house?

• 1:53:06Speaker 06

  When I walked in, he didn't see me at first. He came over and hugged me. And then the first thing he said to me was, "It didn't happen the way we thought it would, did it?"

• 1:53:16Kendall Rae?

  Then she got into what Caleb told her happened to Ashley and his story was different. I mean, every other time that he has told people his story, he said that he fell asleep in the girl's room, right? And that's where he awoke to the sound of gunshots. But to Aaliyah, he told her he fell asleep on the couch and not because he was sick.

• 1:53:38Speaker 04

  What else did he tell you?

• 1:53:39Speaker 06

  And I, I said, "Caleb, how? How did this happen? Do you not have cameras in your house? How did you not know someone was breaking into your house?" I was asking him just a lot of questions and really wondering how this happened and I was just very suspicious.

• 1:53:57Speaker 04

  How did he tell you it happened?

• 1:53:58Speaker 06

  He said, "He was sleeping on the couch because he always told me he never slept in bed with her. He said he was sleeping on the couch. That he woke up the first time from the dog shivering and he thought it was weird, but then he went back to sleep. And then the second time he woke up was from a gunshot. He said that he ran straight to the garage door, saw that it was wide open and then went into, looked into Ashley's room and he said he saw blood everywhere. And he said he'll never forget that sight."

• 1:54:27Kendall Rae?

  So that finally concluded her direct examination and if you're exhausted, same. Next up though, cross-examination.

• 1:54:40Kendall Rae?

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• 1:55:25Kendall Rae?

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• 1:56:58Kendall Rae?

  Thankfully, her cross-examination wasn't quite as long, and during it, the defense had a few major goals, okay? A, to reframe the text messages as figurative language. B, to establish Aaliyah as the emotionally volatile and jealous one. C, to challenge Aaliyah's credibility. And D, to express doubts that she was thoroughly investigated. Now, for that first point, the defense was trying to make the jury see that despite his language, Caleb never actually meant the horrific things he said. Aaliyah even admitted that when they were talking about wanting Ashley dead, she didn't mean it, and she didn't think Caleb did either. And when she was asked whether she took his messages about being free and taking

• 1:57:41Kendall Rae?

  action to mean murder, she said, "Never."

• 1:57:45Speaker 05

  Would you agree that there are more messages than the ones that you've read in the 107,000 where you have talked about how much you hated Ashley? Yes. Would you agree that there are more messages in the 107,000 other than the ones that you have read where you have wished that Ashley was gone? Yes. Are there more where you have demanded that Ashley be gone? I always meant divorce, but yes. You made a comment during direct examination that

• 1:58:20Speaker 05

  when you had said that you wanted to kill Ashley, that you didn't mean it. Didn't. And at the time, you didn't believe that Caleb meant it either when he said it. I did not believe he meant it, no. And why didn't you believe he meant it? I don't think he could ever be capable of doing something like that.

• 1:58:41Kendall Rae?

  On the point of establishing Aaliyah as being the more emotionally volatile one, the defense called attention yet again to her messages, which, by the way, she sent twice as many messages to him as he sent to her. She read a bunch more texts, including one about Caleb murdering her heart and taking her virginity and stomping all over it. They also pointed out that Caleb was not the sole driver of the hatred towards Ashley, but Aaliyah was just as, if not more, expressive about her feelings. In fact, they argued that Caleb only said those things to appease her, which Aaliyah said might have been true.

• 1:59:18Speaker 05

  Throughout the time that you've been on the stand, you've expressed that you have an understanding that Caleb was telling you lies to make you feel better. Yes. But in your opinion, at the time that he is saying that he hates Ashley, is he saying that as a lie to make you feel better? He might have been.

• 1:59:38Kendall Rae?

  And as for challenging her credibility, the defense wanted the jury to see her as an unreliable witness, of course. And the fact that she lied to the FBI was a huge point in their playbook. Plus, the fact that Aaliyah never went to the police with her suspicions or told anyone that she thought he may have done this until after the FBI showed up at her mom's house. And then came the devices. The defense pointed to her lost devices from that Clearwater trip, and although she claimed to have made an effort to repair her phone, she said she didn't have the documentation to prove it. Like I said earlier, though, proof of these efforts would later be found on her devices in the forensic examination, so, you know, that kind of defeated their point there.

• 2:00:21Kendall Rae?

  But on the defense's lack of investigating Aaliyah point, they did get her to confirm that police never searched her apartment or car and that they never took DNA or fingerprints from her.

• 2:00:33Speaker 05

  You only had two interviews with law enforcement in February? With the FBI, yes. Yes. Did you have interviews with any other law enforcement meetings?

• 2:00:43Speaker 05

  In February? At all? I don't think so. Just those two in February, the 20th and the 26th? Yes. I've had a lot of meetings with prosecution, but... Just police? Yes. Did law enforcement ever search your apartment?

• 2:00:58Speaker 05

  No. Did they ever search your vehicle? No. Did they ever collect your DNA? No. Did they ever collect your fingerprints? No.

• 2:01:05Kendall Rae?

  Her Google searches following the murder were also revealed on cross-examination, and I thought they were worth mentioning. On February 17th and 19th, she searched "wife being murdered and no suspect found." Homicides in America that still remain unsolved. And she also searched for her name and Ashley's. And I know that was a lot to take in, but that does conclude Aaliyah's testimony, okay? So, moving on. Her time on the stand was followed up by a digital forensic analyst named Joseph Wilhelm, who examined about 12 devices in total. His testimony centered around the extraction of Caleb's devices, including things that had been deleted or removed from his phone.

• 2:01:47Kendall Rae?

  And he also played a big role in the prosecution's accusation that he was awake and moving when he said he was sleeping.

• 2:01:55Speaker 04

  Did you examine the Safari browsing history from Caleb Flynn's iPhone?

• 2:02:00Speaker 06

  I did.

• 2:02:01Speaker 04

  When did the available browsing history begin?

• 2:02:04Speaker 06

  The available browsing history began on 2/15/2016 at 3:06 PM.

• 2:02:13Speaker 04

  When did it end?

• 2:02:15Speaker 06

  It was available until 2/16/2026 at 00:22 hours or midnight 22 hours.

• 2:02:25Speaker 04

  What were you able to discover regarding the use of the Safari browser in normal versus private browsing mode?

• 2:02:31Speaker 06

  So, I saw there were other artifacts available outside of that timeframe

• 2:02:38Speaker 06

  that indicate that either the browsing history had been deleted at some point or it may have been exclusively used in incognito mode until the history was available.

• 2:02:53Speaker 04

  Is it normal for Safari browsing history to be limited to a short or recent timeframe when older history exists in other pods?

• 2:03:03Speaker 06

  It can be, depending upon how often the user deletes their data, their history, or if they're using the device in incognito mode.

• 2:03:13Speaker 04

  What are possible explanations for the gap in browsing history?

• 2:03:17Speaker 06

  So, the user either deleted the data or it was being used in incognito mode. The Safari application on your phone doesn't provide a way for the history to be deleted automatically like it does on your computer.

• 2:03:30Kendall Rae?

  It also revealed that no messages between him and Ashley existed and that several apps were removed from his phone leading up to what happened.

• 2:03:39Speaker 04

  How many text messages did you recover between Caleb and Ashley's phone?

• 2:03:43Speaker 06

  There were no messages on this phone between the two of them.

• 2:03:47Speaker 04

  How did your analysis uncover interaction between this device and GroupMe messages sent to and received by Aaliyah's GroupMe account?

• 2:03:56Speaker 06

  So, on this particular phone, there were no GroupMe artifacts. There were GroupMe artifacts that show that GroupMe at one time was installed on the phone, but there were no longer any GroupMe messages.

• 2:04:08Speaker 04

  Did you examine artifacts showing applications that had been uninstalled from the device?

• 2:04:13Speaker 06

  I did.

• 2:04:14Speaker 04

  What application was uninstalled on February 14th, 2026 at approximately 9:10 PM?

• 2:04:21Speaker 06

  It was an app called AI Music Song Generator.

• 2:04:26Speaker 04

  What application was uninstalled on February 15th at 3:05 PM?

• 2:04:31Speaker 06

  ChatGPT.

• 2:04:33Speaker 04

  What application was uninstalled on February 16th at 1:01 AM?

• 2:04:39Speaker 06

  It was the GroupMe application.

• 2:04:42Speaker 04

  What application was uninstalled on February 16th, 2026 at approximately 1:02 AM?

• 2:04:48Speaker 06

  Instagram.

• 2:04:49Kendall Rae?

  His biggest findings, though, relate to Caleb's movements inside the house leading up to Ashley's murder, and I want to start with the evening of February 15th. Fitting his account of being sick, Caleb made a search just after 3 PM on the 15th for best cough medicine for adults. Then Caleb's phone began to move.

• 2:05:07Speaker 04

  What were the locations of the defendant's iPhone on February 15th, 2026, starting at approximately 5:49 PM?

• 2:05:15Speaker 06

  So, at approximately 5:49 PM, the device departed the area of 932 Cunningham Court in Tipp City. Between 5:52 and 5:55, it stopped at the area of Circle K on County Road 25A.

• 2:05:32Speaker 06

  At approximately 5:55, it continued to travel north on County Road 25A, past the YMCA. At 6:03 to 6:43, it was at or near the YMCA. At 6:50 until 6:55, it stopped in the area of CVS in Tipp City.

• 2:05:52Speaker 06

  And then at 6:59, it returned to the area of 932 Cunningham Court.

• 2:05:57Speaker 04

  And after it returned to the Flynn residence at approximately 6:50 PM on February 15th, did the location data indicate the device left that area before February 16?

• 2:06:09Speaker 06

  The location data remained at that residence for this device until the device left the residence to go to the Tipp City Police Department with the defendant.

• 2:06:17Speaker 04

  And when was that, approximately?

• 2:06:19Speaker 06

  Like 4:15 in the morning.

• 2:06:21Kendall Rae?

  So, his phone remained at the residence after 6:50 PM, and we previously learned that he had spent much of that evening texting with Aaliyah. And their last message was sent at 12:45 AM. Well, according to Wilhelm's testimony, Caleb's phone was plugged in and locked on the charger from 1:07 to 2:30 AM. But according to Caleb's Apple Health data, which received input from his Oura Ring, Apple Watch, and iPhone, it appears as though he may not have been sleeping.

• 2:06:53Speaker 04

  What types of devices recorded health data in the Apple Health database?

• 2:06:56Speaker 06

  In the timeframe of interest, there was an Oura Ring, there was an Apple Watch, and there was the iPhone itself.

• 2:07:04Speaker 04

  Did you find heart rate information from an Oura Ring?

• 2:07:07Speaker 06

  I did.

• 2:07:08Speaker 04

  When was the last time heart rate information was recorded from the Oura Ring on February 15?

• 2:07:14Speaker 06

  It was at 10:50 PM and 29 seconds.

• 2:07:18Speaker 04

  When did heart rate information from an Apple Watch first appear in the database on February 16th, 2026?

• 2:07:25Speaker 06

  The first time Apple reported that heart rate information occurred from the watch was at 1:33 AM and 3 seconds.

• 2:07:37Speaker 04

  What was the final recorded heart rate from the Apple Watch on February 16th, 2026?

• 2:07:43Speaker 06

  The last reported heart rate from the watch was at 2:10 AM and 11 seconds.

• 2:07:49Speaker 04

  What are we looking at here?

• 2:07:51Speaker 06

  That's the same table.

• 2:07:53Speaker 04

  So, that summarizes that heart rate data you were just talking about?

• 2:07:58Speaker 06

  Yes, that's the heart rate data.

• 2:08:01Speaker 04

  After 2:10 AM, was any additional heart rate data recorded from the Apple Watch?

• 2:08:05Speaker 06

  No.

• 2:08:07Speaker 04

  What are you able to tell from this data?

• 2:08:10Speaker 06

  So this data to me as a digital forensics examiner just means that the watch was being worn at the times that those heart rates were taken.

• 2:08:18Kendall Rae?

  And I gotta say, what a dummy that he had his Oura ring and his Apple Watch on during all of this. God, people are so stupid. Although, again, we love stupid because stupid gets caught and stupid goes to jail. In addition to his heart rate data, there was also significant findings about the steps he reportedly took during that time.

• 2:08:37Speaker 04

  Did the Apple health database also record step activity from the Apple Watch?

• 2:08:42Speaker 06

  It did.

• 2:08:44Speaker 04

  What was the first step activity reported from the Apple Watch on February 16, 2026?

• 2:08:50Speaker 06

  The first step data reported was an event that began at 1:19 a.m. and 46 seconds. It was reported from Caleb's Apple Watch that 18 steps were taken.

• 2:09:04Speaker 04

  How many steps were recorded on the Apple Watch from 1:19, 46 seconds to 1:19, 48 seconds?

• 2:09:11Speaker 06

  18 steps.

• 2:09:13Speaker 04

  And from 1:22, 09 a.m. to 1:22, 45 a.m.?

• 2:09:19Speaker 06

  18 steps.

• 2:09:20Speaker 04

  From 1:23, 23 a.m. to 1:23, 36 a.m.?

• 2:09:25Speaker 06

  34 steps.

• 2:09:27Speaker 04

  1:52, 40 to 1:56, 35?

• 2:09:32Speaker 06

  21 steps.

• 2:09:34Speaker 04

  And from 2:18, 37 to 2:28, 11?

• 2:09:38Speaker 06

  105 steps.

• 2:09:39Speaker 04

  After 2:28, 11, what device recorded the next step activity?

• 2:09:44Speaker 06

  The next step activity was reported from Caleb's phone.

• 2:09:48Speaker 04

  Why would step data switch from the Apple Watch to the iPhone at that time?

• 2:09:53Speaker 06

  The health database is capable of having both devices report step data simultaneously. In this particular case, there's no additional data found on the phone after approximately 2:28 from the watch, so it suggests the watch may not have been worn any longer.

• 2:10:11Kendall Rae?

  After this, there was a lot of talk about Caleb's AirPods, which have never been recovered. The case was found on his bedside table, but never the pods themselves. And the data from that was interesting. It showed his phone's audio switching between the AirPods and the speaker eight times between 2:23 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. and the AirPods registering as in-ear at 2:29 a.m., about a minute and a half before the 911 call connected. And it was also interesting that the final disconnect didn't happen until about 20 minutes after the 911 call. I'm just very curious about the AirPods in general and why they've never been found or how they played a role in all of this. I've got lots of questions related

• 2:10:56Kendall Rae?

  to the AirPods. And I want to know mainly what he needed the AirPods for, right? Like, they never really explained that. I don't know if they fully understand. Part of me wonders if he didn't want to hear what was going on or like needed music to sort of sounds really disturbing, but like pump himself up? Or he was trying to block out the noise? I don't know. It's really, really odd. But anyway, more damning facts continued to come to light as the trial pushed into Friday. And his testimony continued first thing that morning. So that brings us to day six. This is when we learned more about

• 2:11:38Kendall Rae?

  Aaliyah's devices, including that no step data was reported throughout the night and her phone reported consistent findings with when she woke up and when she found out about the murder. Then we heard about more Google searches made by Caleb, and they were just too good not to share, you guys.

• 2:11:58Speaker 04

  Do you find any relevant browsing history on that laptop?

• 2:12:01Speaker 06

  I did.

• 2:12:02Speaker 04

  What Google searches did you find on February 18, 2026?

• 2:12:07Speaker 06

  Do fire sticks have cameras? Can an iPhone record video with the screen off? If an iPhone is off and charging, could it record video?

• 2:12:19Kendall Rae?

  Clearly, he was worried about some secret video being recorded, but not worried enough that he couldn't check out what Aaliyah was up to. On February 19, his laptop was used at 8:01 a.m. to look up her Instagram. I mean, this dude is relentless. Anyway, as for his cross-examination, Joseph had to make a few concessions. He stated and confirmed that data shows connections, not locations. Heart rate data can't show whether someone is awake, sleeping, or dreaming. Rolling over can count as steps. Data could be reliable, but it also could be unreliable. The AirPod report was very unreliable for false in-ear

• 2:13:00Kendall Rae?

  readings. And that nobody ever asked Apple to verify these devices. Still, though, I think his testimony went a long way, as did the testimony of FBI Special Agent Andrea Kinzig, who took the stand next. And she made four major points for the prosecution. First, that Ashley's phone was plugged in and locked at 11:20 p.m., consistent with her going to sleep. Her phone did show activity at 2:05 a.m., however, it was determined that this was an automatic iOS update run by Apple. She also had no reported steps after 11 p.m. And second, she spoke more about the deleted items from Caleb's phone. A BCI analyst had sent Google a preservation request from his Gmail on February 16, which

• 2:13:45Kendall Rae?

  was retrieved four days later. And in those four days, about six emails were deleted. And these emails related to the Snoop report that I mentioned earlier. Third, Kinzig testified that the family's Blink camera system went offline on January 26, 20 days before the homicide. They had three cameras, a front door, a back door, and a living room. And all of those were connected to an account created in October of 2021. And fourth, she ruled out a tip that had been made regarding a hit on Ashley's life. Now, I mentioned a tip on Caleb's life earlier, and this was different. And I don't want to spend much time here because, as we heard in the testimony, investigators didn't find it to be credible anyway. But of course, the defense really picked this apart during cross-examination

• 2:14:30Kendall Rae?

  because they argued it wasn't thoroughly investigated. I don't really have much to say on that, though. It makes sense that they would argue that, but yeah, there's really nothing to that. But anyway, before getting more into her cross-examination, though, there were a few more quick learnings from her direct testimony, including Ashley had searched, can your iCloud get hacked? And could someone hack into your iCloud and create a fake conversation? Nothing suggested Ashley was worried about her safety, and she had no significant conflicts with anyone except her husband. There was no evidence that Ashley was having an affair. Some messages between Ashley and Caleb had been deleted from her phone, but investigators couldn't say when or by whom. And on January 21, Caleb texted

• 2:15:14Kendall Rae?

  Ashley he was at worship and asked if he could call her back later, to which Ashley replied, you can be honest. Is it her? Which obviously points to her knowledge of the affair. Cross-examination-wise, there was a lot of focus on Caleb's loving messages to Ashley, which honestly just pissed me off so much. It's such a waste of time because saying a few I-love-you's here and there doesn't mean that you're not capable of murder. There was also a focus on the messages where the two of them discussed being sick, which corroborated his story of why he'd need to sleep on the couch. And then as for the Blink camera stuff, Special Agent Kinzig couldn't say who unplugged the devices, which is frustrating.

• 2:15:56Kendall Rae?

  Then we heard from the neighbor, Jordan Hanson, who authenticated his Ring doorbell footage, as well as from Jordan himself, who corroborated that Aaliyah was house-sitting that weekend. And last to take the stand Friday was Detective Sergeant Mike Morgan. His time on the stand was critical because that's when Caleb's initial two interviews with the police were played. Both interviews were conducted on February 16 in the hours following Ashley's murder. The first began at 4:28 a.m. and the other just after 12:30 p.m., during which Caleb was asked a lot of questions about the timeline and his version of events. So let's finally hear from Caleb himself about what he claims happened.

• 2:16:36Speaker 04

  Take me to the point where you guys are laying down with girls. I think you stopped there.

• 2:16:42Speaker 02

  We put the girls out and went out in the living room to watch. She's reading something on her phone. She reads books on her phone. We had Jurassic Park on till about 11. Because I remember-

• 2:16:59Speaker 04

  In your bedroom?

• 2:16:59Speaker 02

  In the living room.

• 2:17:00Speaker 04

  Oh, you and her were out in the living room.

• 2:17:03Speaker 02

  And I remember seeing, oh my gosh, it's already 11. So we went into the bedroom. They were-

• 2:17:09Speaker 01

  And I took coffee. It's because she's in my. God, screw it. So I did. I fell asleep. I took some equate or something to try and knock me out, you know? And it wasn't till later on that I heard from the dog move. I thought that it was because one of my daughters got enough. They get up to go to the bathroom or get water. And that's when I got up and I walked in their bedroom and just tucked them in.

• 2:17:46Speaker 05

  So you heard somebody in the house?

• 2:17:48Speaker 01

  I heard the dog.

• 2:17:50Speaker 05

  Okay, so you heard the dog?

• 2:17:51Speaker 01

  The dog woke me up. They shook. And then I just went into the room to check on my girls. And I laid down on the bottom bunk with my youngest, just for a little bit. And that's when I heard it.

• 2:18:07Kendall Rae?

  As he continued through his crocodile tears, he revealed plenty of interesting things, including the mention of a suspicious salesman who supposedly showed up at their house on Saturday, the fourteenth, Valentine's Day.

• 2:18:21Speaker 01

  On Saturday, she said that, and she said Galentine's with the girls, Valentine's with the girls.

• 2:18:28Speaker 05

  With your daughter?

• 2:18:29Speaker 01

  Yes, I was at church.

• 2:18:30Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 2:18:31Speaker 01

  And she said that they were dancing to something and she saw a car in the driveway. And, um.

• 2:18:40Speaker 05

  This was on Saturday?

• 2:18:40Speaker 01

  Yes. And I even talked to my girls about it tonight before they went to bed. I was asking them, she said she saw a car in the driveway. And then there was a, through our glass window, she could see someone just standing there, but not knocking on the door, just standing there. So she opened it and some guy went into some weird sales pitch for America.

• 2:19:05Speaker 05

  This was on Saturday? That wasn't him?

• 2:19:09Speaker 01

  I don't know. She didn't say, she didn't, yes, but then she said he didn't have a, like, a salesman shirt or any logos. And he gave her a flag and said, will you wave this for my boss? And so she waved it and then he's like, okay, I'll be right back. And she said, well, no, I'm gonna go. And we got busy, we're busy and that was it. That's the only thing I know is that, because she said he had long hair.

• 2:19:41Speaker 05

  Long hair.

• 2:19:43Speaker 01

  And that.

• 2:19:44Speaker 05

  Any certain build?

• 2:19:46Speaker 01

  No, she just said he was rough. But then what he said, I'm gonna come back. She said, no, we're busy. And he said, well, I'll come back later. And then she shut the door.

• 2:19:59Kendall Rae?

  Really, dude? A rough-looking salesman coming to the house the same week and not even the same day as someone was murdered? Really, Caleb? That is, that is a stretch if I've ever heard one. And that wasn't the only story like that either. When asked if he knew anyone that had problems with them, he said no. He said everyone loved Ashley. But he mentioned that a man once showed up at her job at Lifewise. And when he wasn't let into the building, the man said, I know where you live. Caleb didn't know if he said that to Ashley or to someone else, but he was insinuating, in my opinion, that this guy possibly could have done something. I mean, he is just throwing, what is it, shit spaghetti at the wall? Seeing what sticks? I don't remember the phrase, but he is grasping at straws.

• 2:20:44Kendall Rae?

  But the detectives obviously were not buying it, right? Less than 10 minutes into his first interview, Caleb was literally saying that he constantly deleted messages on his phone, including messages between him and Ashley because it takes up storage. And I understand some people do that when they are constantly having trouble with storage, but to delete them like every day, I find that really hard to believe. I'm sure there are people out there who do that. But I don't know, who deletes messages with their spouse because it takes up space on the daily? I don't know, maybe some of you out there do that. I thought it was really strange.

• 2:21:23Kendall Rae?

  Last year during the winter months, I was pregnant and I was miserable. I was really hot and I was living in my Skims pajamas and loungewear because it's so stretchy, it's so comfortable, and it's also nice and cooling during the night. I'm a big pajama girl. I feel like I sleep so much better when I sleep in good fabrics. And so I put on a set of pajamas pretty much every night. I always go to sleep cold and then I end up hot during the night. So I like a long-sleeved pajama set throughout the year. And my skim sets are some of my favorites in my pajama collection, ones that I reach for all the time. In fact, I slept in my Skims pajama last night, I'm not kidding. I love them so much, they have lasted me years, the set I slept in last night. This is now the third year that I've had them for.

• 2:22:08Kendall Rae?

  They're just fantastic. Everything I've ever owned from Skims is fantastic, actually. In fact, I am wearing their bra today. I don't think I own any other brands of bras anymore, actually. I wear Skims bras every single day. Their loungewear and pajamas is fantastic. You're gonna want to check them out for yourself. Shop my favorite loungewear and pajamas at skims.com. After you place your order, be sure to let them know I sent you. Select podcast in the survey and be sure to select my show in the dropdown menu that follows.

• 2:22:42Kendall Rae?

  But another thing that was discussed in both interviews was his reaction time to calling 911. There was some back and forth on what he said, but Caleb ultimately stated that it took him between two and five minutes before calling 911. He said the reason for that delay was because he ran to Ashley in the bedroom, shook her leg, and then turned on the lights to see what happened. He then says he ran to the pitch-black living room where his phone was located. And at some point, he had observed the garage door open, the one leading into the house, not the damaged side door, which he said he closed. We also got clarity on the what he saw versus what he heard dilemma. In both interviews, he reported hearing two gunshots.

• 2:23:26Kendall Rae?

  And in the second interview, he mentioned that he never actually saw the wounds. And again, I know that was something that I was very curious about in my last episode. I really was having trouble understanding. And again, it kind of requires believing his story for this to matter, but I thought I would loop it in anyway. Now, in his second interview, Detective Morgan was definitely a lot more pointed in his questions. By that point, he was calling out a lot of the things that just didn't make sense.

• 2:23:55Speaker 05

  It looks like there was possibly a tool mark used on the strike plate. What's the strike plate? The part of the door that, where the door latches. Okay, it looks bent.

• 2:24:10Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:24:11Speaker 05

  You know, obviously, we may be able to match tool marks with, you know, if we find the tool or anything like that. Then also, there was damage to the inside of the door, as far as like it looked like it had been blown out a little bit, like when it was pushed open. But that seems, you know, different from what I would think would happen because the door wasn't latched. So that doesn't necessarily make a whole lot of sense to me.

• 2:24:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:24:45Speaker 05

  And then it appears that whoever did this was standing pretty close to your wife.

• 2:24:55Speaker 05

  Okay? It appears that she didn't, she was laying there asleep. In all my time of being in law, of course, in 16 years, plus my training and experience, normally when somebody is murdered, there's a motive. Okay? And there's a lot of different reasons, you know what I mean? Like in my time, there's been financial, there's been, you know, different things, you know, marital problems, whatever, you know what I'm saying? And I'm still trying to figure out what those motives would be for somebody to do this. That basically, you know, nearly a point-blank range.

• 2:25:40Kendall Rae?

  Detective Morgan also straight up called out that if there was something on their devices, it would be found. And Caleb was even given a chance to come clean at least with the devices and say if they would find anything, but he revealed nothing. Even when he was asked if there were problems in his relationship, he literally said none whatsoever. He definitely tried to walk it back a little bit, but generally speaking, he tried to paint the picture that they were a happy couple with very little problems. And interestingly, he wasn't asked about the affair in either interview. And granted, they didn't know about Aaliyah because that rumor had not yet been exposed. Um, but normally, they ask if there's any extramarital affairs going on and stuff in interviews like this.

• 2:26:25Kendall Rae?

  So I thought that was kind of interesting, not. Too bizarre, but yeah, just wanted to note that. But other interesting findings from these interviews include the facts that Caleb said he was scrolling Twitter before bed, but we know he was texting Aaliyah. He also claimed nobody beside Ashley and the girls knew where he kept the gun, the one in his center console. And he mentioned that he felt like they were already blaming him for this. The rest of his testimony resumed on Monday morning and they played the third interview with Caleb, which was conducted on February 19th. And the audio on this video is really hard to hear, so I'm just going to describe it as I'm playing it. But in the beginning, Caleb was asked to draw a diagram of the residence and where

• 2:27:10Kendall Rae?

  he was throughout the night. He also went over the timeline again, mentioning that Ashley was a deep sleeper and that the dogs bark when there are people outside of the house, but not when they're inside. Hmm, okay. And when asked directly about his involvement, he denied taking part in her murder. At the end though, there was a major tone change. Caleb suddenly became very defensive, saying, "I didn't touch my wife." To which Detective Morgan said, "The evidence is a little bit contrary to that." Now during cross-examination, a few key points were made, and this included the fact that none of Ashley's blood was found on Caleb or his clothes. Caleb was never tested for gunshot residue because they didn't want to rush to judgment.

• 2:27:51Kendall Rae?

  None of the 80-plus tools were conclusively matched to the damage to that side garage door, and they still did not have the gun. Defense attorney Mulligan also pointed to many of the leads that they say weren't followed up on. For example, that tip about the hit on Caleb, or that salesman who supposedly showed up on the Saturday before. I literally cannot roll my eyes harder. And finally, you guys, the last person to take the stand was criminal intelligence analyst Samantha Reeve. Her testimony went heavily into the Instagram activity and accounts of Caleb, Ashley, and Aaliyah, the messages between Caleb and Aaliyah, and Caleb's timeline versus the investigative timeline.

• 2:28:34Kendall Rae?

  And on the Instagram front, there were a few notable findings. For starters, Reeve linked a fake Instagram for a Derek Hammett to Caleb. Looks like Caleb really did have a Finsta. And if you recall from earlier, Aaliyah believed that he had created this account to reach out to her. Well, he did. The photos the account posted were saved on Caleb's phone at the same times they went up, and the Instagram was created on an iPhone that was consistent with his device. And despite messaging Aaliyah on two separate days in November of 2025, he never received a reply.

• 2:29:07Speaker 04

  When was the Derek Hammett account registered?

• 2:29:12Speaker 05

  November 5th of 2025.

• 2:29:14Speaker 04

  And when was the last login to the Derek Hammett account?

• 2:29:17Speaker 05

  November 16th of 2025.

• 2:29:20Speaker 04

  What can you tell us about location data for Hammett's Instagram account?

• 2:29:24Speaker 05

  We were able to determine that that IP address came back to the residence where Todd and Jill live.

• 2:29:32Speaker 04

  Did you attempt to identify Derek Hammett?

• 2:29:35Speaker 05

  Yes, I tried to do a reverse image search to see if I could identify who this person was.

• 2:29:41Speaker 04

  Were you successful?

• 2:29:42Speaker 05

  Not in identifying this person as Derek Hammett.

• 2:29:46Speaker 04

  What did you discover about the images used in his profile?

• 2:29:49Speaker 05

  These images were actually taken from another Instagram profile that is open publicly. It's also an Instagram that Caleb C. Flynn's profile followed. It's for a Jared Long.

• 2:30:03Kendall Rae?

  And we also learned that a device consistent with Caleb's iPhone was used to log into his wife's and Aaliyah's Instagram accounts. He logged into Ashley's as recently as February 13th, which is interesting because it turns out that he had blocked her from his personal account. Now, on the timeline front, Reeve's testimony was really helpful because she put everything in one place. She went back as far as 2021 and highlighted all the major moments in this case. She compared Caleb's timeline from the day before the murder with what the investigation found, and shocker, there were discrepancies. Not only regarding the health data movement that showed him up and moving when he said he was asleep, but also his general movements on the 15th.

• 2:30:46Kendall Rae?

  If you remember, he told Aaliyah that he went out to lunch on the 15th to practice what he was gonna say to Ashley's parents. And then he said he went to their house to talk to them, but they weren't there. Well, his phone data showed that he never went near their house. And also, Todd, her father, was literally in Canada. Obviously, this man is just a big fat fucking liar, and I think that was made very obvious throughout the course of this trial. I think everyone was slightly shocked to see it end on Monday, which was day seven, and even more shocked that the defense called zero witnesses, but that's how the cookie crumbled. And by Tuesday, the 29th, closing arguments began. And verdict-wise, come on, I think we all saw it coming, right?

• 2:31:30Kendall Rae?

  I felt pretty confident as I was watching this trial unfold. And in less than three hours, Caleb Flynn was found guilty on all charges. And you could see him start to tear up as all nine counts came back guilty. And I just have to wonder what he was actually thinking. I mean, all throughout the trial, we saw him crying these fake-ass tears. And I mean, I just can't imagine someone as cold-hearted as him as capable of feeling real emotion other than emotion for himself. I mean, I think if he had any real tears, they were for him. And unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, this won't be the end of us hearing about him. Following the verdict, his attorneys said they fully anticipate filing a notice of appeal,

• 2:32:14Kendall Rae?

  which is due within 30 days of the final judgment. I am very hopeful and very confident that this verdict and justice for Ashley will stand. Caleb's sentencing is scheduled for Monday, October 5th. So when you are seeing this episode that just happened, that is in the future for me as I'm recording a few days earlier. So here's a quick update on how that went from me in the future. Hi, everyone. Jumping in from the Sesh set here, my other podcast, which you should check out. But yeah, sentencing literally just wrapped. I'm recording this on October 5th. And to say that this hearing was emotional would be an understatement. It was very intense.

• 2:32:57Kendall Rae?

  And I want to start out by sharing a huge bombshell that was dropped by the prosecution. Paul Watkins revealed that Caleb coached his two daughters on what to say before their initial forensic interview. Are we shocked? No, I wouldn't put anything past Caleb. Now, the specifics weren't provided, but he shared that Caleb told the girls what to say, and specifically not to mention that he told them what to say. Caleb reportedly said that their words would mean the difference between life and death for him. So friends, if we didn't already think this man is the scum of the earth, now we definitely do. Caleb did read a statement himself, and it was a total just bullshit sob story. There was no confession, not that I'm surprised.

• 2:33:41Kendall Rae?

  I mean, he is never going to confess, in my opinion. But he apologized for what he said about Ashley, but yeah, denied killing her. He also spoke to his daughters and talked about how he loves them and cried about how he's gonna miss out on them growing up, as if it's not literally his fault. There were several victim impact statements read as well, one from Ashley's sister, one from her brother-in-law, and also from her parents. Her mom Jill and her brother-in-law Matthew each read a statement on behalf of Ashley's daughters, and their words were just beyond devastating. I will have those linked below if you would like to take a look at them for yourself. How their own father could do this to their mother and to them is just beyond words, and

• 2:34:22Kendall Rae?

  you can just hear through everything that they had to say that this was something that they can't even fully comprehend either. And ultimately, the judge tore Caleb a new one before she handed down his sentence. She said that his actions were abhorrent and that he used his faith to manipulate others. So in the end, Caleb Flynn received a much deserved sentence of life in prison without parole. He also faces an additional seven years to be served consecutively for the gun specifications, and an additional nine years to be served consecutively for the tampering with evidence charges. And that, you guys, is the trial of one of the biggest losers to walk planet Earth, Caleb Flynn.

• 2:35:02Kendall Rae?

  And I really don't have much to say other than I'm just so happy, so grateful that Ashley received justice and that her family, you know, can walk away with that. I mean, it doesn't bring her back. It certainly doesn't heal them completely, but I know it will make such a huge difference for them to see her killer behind bars. And this is such a different type of episode for me to do because during a trial, there's so much emphasis put on the killer and the victim is, you know, really not talked about that much, which is something that frustrates me. It's how the system works. I understand that. But I wanted to end this episode by sharing a statement on behalf of the family following this verdict.

• 2:35:47Speaker 04

  Today's verdict brings justice and accountability for Ashley's death, and our family is deeply grateful to everyone who helped bring us to this moment. However, no verdict can bring Ashley back, give the girls back their mother, or erase the pain our family has endured. The cruelty of what happened to Ashley and the things we've been forced to hear and relive have at times felt unbearable. But through all of it, we've held tightly to this truth. Ashley's life will not be defined by the way it ended. She'll be remembered for the way she lived. Ashley loved Jesus with her whole heart. Her faith wasn't simply something she simply spoke about. It was how she lived. She loved people well, found joy beyond her circumstances, prayed boldly for her family,

• 2:36:31Speaker 04

  and wanted her life to point people to Jesus. Most of all, she loved being a mom. She prayed over her girls, taught them to love God, and showed them what it looked like to live with faith, kindness, joy, and grace. We refuse to let the evil that ended Ashley's life have the final word in her story. Our faith does not erase our grief, but it carries us through it.

• 2:36:56Speaker 04

  We know Ashley is home with the Lord she loved and served. So as this chapter closes, our prayer is that Ashley's story does not end with a verdict. We pray it continues through her girls, our family, and every person touched by the way she lived. If you want to honor Ashley, love people well, pray boldly for your family, choose joy, and point people to Jesus. We are deeply grateful to the jury for their careful attention and service and to the Miami County Prosecutor's Office, the Tipp City Police Department, the FBI, BCI, and every investigator and advocate who worked tirelessly to seek the truth. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for, loved, and supported our family. We ask for privacy now as we continue healing and loving Ashley's girls the way she would want them loved.

• 2:37:40Speaker 04

  Please remember Ashley, not for how she died, but for how beautifully she lived. The family of Ashley Smith Flynn.

• 2:37:48Kendall Rae?

  That is it for me today, you guys. I know that was a super long episode and something totally different for my show. Let me know if you are interested in seeing more trial coverage in the future, because I'd definitely be interested in doing that, depending on the trial. I will be back next week to discuss another case. And until then, stay safe out there.

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