Tipp City Murder /// Part 2 /// 911

Summary

True Crime Garage – Tipp City Murder /// Part 2 /// 911

Episode Date: March 4, 2026
Hosts: Nic (the Captain) and the Colonel
Case: The murder of Ashley Flynn, Tipp City, Ohio, February 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode continues the in-depth look at the shocking Tipp City, Ohio, murder of Ashley Flynn, found dead in her home on February 16th, 2026. Hosts Nic and the Captain analyze new details from the investigation, law enforcement's response, media coverage, and community reaction. They walk through the evolving suspicion toward the victim’s husband, Caleb Flynn, explore theories, discuss the evidence, and apply criminal profiling and crime scene analysis concepts—all while reflecting on small-town dynamics and the psychology behind domestic homicide.

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Key Discussion Points & Timeline

1. Law Enforcement Response and Evidence Collection

[03:36 – 10:17]

• Recap: Ashley Flynn found shot dead in her bed, February 16.
• On Feb 17, Tip City PD escalates with involvement from Ohio BCI, FBI, Miami County Sheriff, and Prosecutor's Office (Captain, [03:36]).
• Investigators remain at the house, remove interior doors for analysis.
• Officers seen physically lifting the backyard shed—possibly searching for the missing murder weapon.
• Ongoing question: Was the gun recovered? Is it the same gun usually kept in Caleb’s truck?

Memorable Quote:

“Obviously one's mind would go to, are they lifting the shed thinking that maybe the gun could potentially have been thrown under there, kicked under there somehow… Or did they recover any kind of evidence when they did lift this?” — Captain [06:41]

• Police keep info close—transition from investigating external suspects to eyeing the husband.
• Speculation: Was Caleb tested for gunshot residue? Did police get GSR before he could wash up? (Captain and Colonel [08:11])

2. Community Reaction & Targeted Attack Narrative

[10:17 – 12:46]

• On Feb 18, community places red and white ribbons downtown to honor Ashley.
• Residents describe Ashley as a beloved teacher; most confident in the police investigation.
• Police (Chief Atkins): early statement claims it was a “targeted attack,” often said to ease fears—worth approaching with skepticism.

Memorable Quote:

“It may… sometimes it’s even a rush to use that statement to… imply that there is no threat to other folks in the community, that this was a targeted attack.” — Captain [10:54]

• Late Feb 18: Chief Atkins firmly denies rumors that a suspect is in custody or has confessed.

3. Local Rumors, Family Dynamics & The Psychology of Suspicion

[12:46 – 17:08]

• Community initially supports Caleb, the husband—rumors swirl on social media and GoFundMe pages about whether this was a break-in or something else.
• True crime “statistical” arguments—debate over quoting stats to frame the investigation:
  • E.g. “Statistically, it’s always the spouse” vs “This never happens in our town” (Captain’s media critique [14:40])

4. Investigative Process & Arrest

[17:25 – 21:14]

• Praise for the police chief’s willingness to bring in outside agencies early—a contrast to other notorious investigations.
• Feb 19: Ashley’s memorial announced; then, late that day, breaking news—Caleb Flynn arrested, charged with murder, assault, tampering with evidence (Captain, [17:25]).

Memorable Quote:

“We brought in the FBI, we brought in the sheriff’s department… bringing in people with better resources than you have is the absolute smartest thing to do.” — Captain [17:37]

• Chief announces all future communications will go through the prosecutor’s office—a sign of seriousness and strategic communication.

5. Arrest Details & Legal Proceedings

[26:16 – 34:29]

• Caleb Flynn pleads not guilty; during his video arraignment, emotionally claims:

  “I just want to take care of my daughters. I’m not a risk.” — (Caleb to Judge Huffman, [28:25])

• Bond set at $2 million; restrictions include house arrest, electronic monitoring, and no contact with his children.
• The legal debate: accused’s attorney claims a “rush to judgment” by authorities; police chief defends the methodical approach.

6. Evidence Suggesting Staged Crime Scene

[45:33 – 58:41]

• Analysis of evidence leading to arrest:
  • The side garage door (alleged point of entry) was blocked by a fridge from the inside—making it implausible that a stranger broke in that way.
  • Caleb’s gun, typically kept in his truck’s console, is missing—console was found open (Captain, [45:33]).
  • Inconsistent statements on the 911 call, especially regarding the location/activities of the children.
  • Physical evidence: two shell casings at the foot of the bed.
  • Social media: friends say it was unusual that Ashley changed her Facebook photo to a picture with Caleb just two days before her death.

Memorable Quote:

“Neighbors and friends found it unsettling that Ashley’s Facebook profile picture was changed from a photo of her and her daughters to one of her and Caleb just two nights before she was killed. A change described as uncharacteristic for her.” — Captain [46:56]

7. Profiling: Domestic Homicide—Spontaneous vs. Staged

[51:26 – 58:41]

• Direct application of FBI’s 1995 Crime Classification Manual (Captain, [51:26]):
  • Spontaneous Domestic Homicide: Unplanned, high emotion, little or no staging, reporting sources/delays, usually no cover-up.
  • Staged Domestic Homicide: Planned, offender attempts to disguise the crime (e.g., as a break-in, accident, or suicide), removal of evidence, organized scene.
• Application: This case exhibits multiple markers of staging—organized deception, removal/hiding of the weapon, contradictory reports, implausible “intruder” scenario.

8. Motives, Community Facade & The Psychology of Offenders

[43:46 – 45:33; 58:41 – end]

• Discussion—Why do some spouses kill rather than divorce? Social standing, loss of community image, inability to face shame (Colonel, [43:46]).
• Speculation on motive: unconfirmed rumors of an affair, but no evidence of prior marital conflict or domestic violence—yet possible parallels with infamous cases (Chris Watts).
• Emphasis on letting evidence, not statistics or community bias, drive conclusions.

Memorable Quote:

“I think sometimes these individuals build up such a false outer shell of who they are… that weighs on those individuals and it just can’t be as simple as… I’ll get a divorce.” — Colonel [43:46]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On evidence vs. community narrative:

  “Let the evidence tell you what direction to go.” — Captain [16:51]

• On law enforcement’s measured communication:

  “…the little that he is saying is the right things. Again, garage opinion here…” — Captain [17:37]

• On the suspect’s court appearance:

  “It’s either acting to me or it’s him feeling sorry for himself, but I don’t think he fully understood what was happening…” — Colonel [28:40]

• On the suspect’s attorney’s statement:

  “...disappointed and concerned about the short timeline and seeming rush to judgment…” — Attorney Patrick Mulligan [33:18]

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Key Timestamps

• 03:36 – Timeline recap and law enforcement escalation.
• 06:41 – Investigation details: shed search, missing gun.
• 10:17 – Community’s tribute; targeted attack statement.
• 17:25 – Timeline of police/media events, Caleb Flynn’s arrest.
• 28:25 – Caleb Flynn's video arraignment, plea, and bond.
• 34:29 – Defense and prosecution perspectives.
• 45:33 – Breakdown of evidence suggesting crime scene staging.
• 46:56 – Social media behavior as a red flag.
• 51:26 – FBI profiler breakdown: spontaneous vs. staged domestic homicide.
• 58:41 – Hosts reflect on the psychology behind such crimes and case impact.

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Summary & Flow

Nic and the Captain offer a methodical, suspenseful unpacking of a small-town murder as suspicion swiftly shifts to the husband. They blend forensic insight, community context, and true crime skepticism, maintaining respect both for the gravity of the case and the personalities involved. The tone is thoughtful yet informal, striking a balance between “armchair detective” analysis and evidence-based reasoning.

The episode finishes by acknowledging how much is still unknown—promising updates as the legal proceedings unfold and inviting listeners to keep following the story.

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For further information and to follow updates, see recommended reading & events at crimewaveatsea.com/garage.

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Garage sign-off:
“Be good, be kind, and don’t litter.”

Transcript

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[Colonel]

Foreign.

[Captain]

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man would like to warn you that that cigarette you're smoking about scaring me half to death here is the Captain.

[Colonel]

Yeah, and it's making your fingers stink. Your parents are going to smell them. You're going to be in trouble. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend

[Captain]

we are still sipping on this golden one right here called Super Crisp Lager by the folks at Great Northern Brewing Company. Super Crisp is designed for an easy going lifestyle. In mind, it's refreshingly light and as the title would imply, it's super crispy ABV 3.5 garage grade 4 out of 5 bottle caps. And let's give some thanks and praise to our super crispy friends right here. First out up a shout out to Robin Jennings from Morrisville, Pennsylvania.

[Colonel]

And a big we like your drip goes out to Melody from Riverside, California.

[Captain]

Here's one. Long distance Amy AKA Groobs, an American Canadian expat currently living in Sintra, Portugal. Cheers.

[Colonel]

And the tall canes in the air to Katie from Aurora, Ontario.

[Captain]

And last but of course not least a shout out to Chuck Negron of Manhattan, NYC originally and later of Studio City, Los Angeles. RIP Chuck everyone we just mentioned, thank you for helping us out with the beer fund and being a great listener.

[Colonel]

Yeah, BWR beer run for everything. True crime. Check out true crimegarage.com while you're there. Sign up on the mailing list. Check out the merch. Or check out our recommended reading page. And, Colonel, that's enough of the business.

[Captain]

All right, everybody, gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. We left off on the timeline here. Midday Tuesday, February 17th, remember, sadly, Ashley Flynn was found dead, having been murdered, shot in her home in the early morning hours just the day before, one day prior. And that was Monday, February 16th. At noon on Tuesday, February 17th, the Tip City Police Chief Greg Atkins issued the third, what would be the third press release in this investigation. In it, he announced the addition of bci, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the FBI, Miami County Sheriff's Office, and Miami County Prosecutor's Office would be assisting, were currently assisting, as of that announcement, the Tip City Police Department in that ongoing investigation. A little bit later that day, the chief did give a brief interview with the Dayton Daily News regarding the investigation. This brings us, Captain, to Wednesday, February 18, 10:30am The Tip City police remained at the Flynn house around the clock. Investigators were seen going in and out of that side door that was referenced in the 911 call and also referenced in the police report, the side door to the garage on the north side of the house, as well as going in and out of the front door. Of course, at one point, investigators brought out an interior door and placed it in the back of a pickup truck parked on the driveway. And inside, the yellow police tape, presumably this door was removed and taken in for and to be analyzed or test for whatever reason in this investigation. I said in part one that I wanted to circle back to the gun. And one part of this is, is the gun missing? Do they have the gun? And we're. We're talking about. We could be talking about one gun. We could be talking about two guns, right? One, the murder weapon. Two, the gun that Caleb said was often usually stored in the console of his 2024 Ford pickup truck, which was found parked inside the home's garage. Right. There's been no mention of if Caleb's gun has been recovered. There's been no mention if the murder weapon has been recovered. There's also been no mention if they are one in the same, which is what everybody's got to be thinking about. One thing that I found incredibly intriguing, and it also might point to the idea that they have not recovered the gun. Here, Captain, is at some point, you know, talking about investigators at the scene using every resource they can to hopefully collect evidence, evidence and sort out exactly what happened, get to the truth of what happened. In the early morning hours of Monday, February 16, that they were seen lifting the shed that's located in the backyard of this property. And it's obviously one's mind would go to, are they lifting the shed, thinking that maybe the gun could potentially have been thrown under there, kicked under there somehow, and just making sure that it is not. Or did they recover any kind of evidence when they did lift this?

[Colonel]

Yeah. And because this case is so early on, the cops are obviously going to keep a lot of information close to the. The vest because at some point you have to go from husband calls about somebody breaking in their house and killing his wife to we don't think anybody broke in. And we're now looking into the. Into the husband. And so I don't know if that's information that they feel like they got or didn't get from the 911 call. Again, they have extensive. Because they're talking to him at the scene. And then, like you said, they brought him in for questioning. And at what point do they go, this is just not adding up? But just because something's not adding up doesn't mean you're going to have enough evidence to arrest him.

[Captain]

Well, and this wouldn't be a 100% sign, sealed, delivered confirmation that he is the killer. But I would be curious if they tested the husband for GSR on his hands, fingers, forearms, if there would be any type of gun, powder residue, gunshot residue.

[Colonel]

Well, that makes a lot of sense, too, because, well, we believe that the murder weapon is a handgun. Right. But we have a distance. You were saying in episode one, this is not a situation where the killer goes up on the side of the bed and points the gun directly to the victim's head.

[Captain]

If she were sleeping at the time that she was shot, and if she's lying in a typical position, then there would be some distance between the end of that barrel and the victim.

[Colonel]

Right. And why would you do that? So you don't get blood on you. But also. And again, I'm just. This is just my thoughts out loud if I'm the investigator. Well, if the killer is the husband, then even if he got anything on him, he could take a shower. But I think some of these ballistic tests, we've seen cases where people have showered afterwards and they still find some kind of evidence on him. So I wonder if they were able to during the questioning. Are they able to, like you said, run some tests? I mean, if you can say his gun's missing and we can positively tell you that he fired a gun that day and he didn't Tell you any time within the questioning about going to a fire firing range. And even if he did so, well, guess what, there's going to be receipts. So unless there's some receipts of him doing that, then that evidence would be pretty damning against Caleb.

[Captain]

Yeah. Curious to see what kind of gun GSR evidence they may have, also some blood evidence that they may or may not have. And again, this is just typical stuff that the local media is picking up on of watching the detectives, watching the crime scene analyst and people processing that crime scene and what they are removing from the crime scene and what they tend to be spending a good amount of time on while they're there. On Wednesday, February 18, just before noon, this is the community pulling together and showing a display of affection and sadness for the family and for Ashley Flynn. In in particular, there was a colorful display of red and white ribbons that were placed along Main street and Tip City's historic downtown district honoring Ashley Flynn. Residents that knew her called Flynn an excellent teacher and a sweet woman. Others said that they were concerned about the shooting, but confident in the police investigation. We did have early on, the police chief stating that they believed that they had reason to believe that this was a targeted attack. And I always look at that with a bit of a side eye because it may. I feel like that statement is used a lot. I'm not saying that's the situation here, that it's overly used, but oftentimes you will see that sometimes it's even a rush to use that statement to. To imply that there is no threat to other folks in the community, that this was a targeted attack. But until we have reason to call that into question, we should take that at face value. Late that evening, late that night, actually on Wednesday, February 18, Chief Greg Atkins issued a press release to dispel rumors circulating that a suspect is in custody or was in custody at that time.

[Colonel]

Right.

[Captain]

The rumors locally were that that somebody had confessed. And so he said very bluntly, the release and spread of unverified information is not only untrue, but also deeply detrimental to the Flynn family and unfair to those involved in the investigation.

[Colonel]

Yeah, but we've seen a lot of crimes happen in small towns and people confess to the crimes. It makes zero sense to me. It's always made zero sense to me. But you see that in several cases. So it's not unreasonable that somebody came forward, even if they're not responsible. But like I was saying in part one, it seems like his family and friends and I. And I, again, this is because it's so early. You don't know exactly what Ashley's friends and families were saying, but they share a church community. So it's just so many of these people going. And I think people even noticed in like some of the GoFundMe post or some of the other comments on like news clips where it seemed like people from tip city were like, this had to be a break in, possibly a targeted attack. But who would want Ashley dead? And then people that were not from the tip community going, hey, wake up. It's normally the husband. And I think one of the interesting things about Ashley and this, this is not something I think about in all these cases. And I wish I could remember, I was watching them a news report about this and they had a detective. I wish I could remember his name. But the detective was saying, what's fascinating about this case is one, the community, like you were saying, very low action as far as violent crimes, two per year. And because of the lifestyle that she lived, she was very low risk lifestyle. So that would make investigators look inward to the family more than maybe some other individual. And obviously she was murdered with inside her house.

[Captain]

Yeah, I love to recite statistics, specifically crime statistics. And I get aggravated when they're used simply to sway one argument one way or the other. To sway an argument one way or the other. Because I've seen many times where I think it's irresponsible the way that crime statistics are reported. I, I was very vocal about that with the recent Netflix JonBenet Ramsey documentary where the police kept going on and on and on about how well the statistics would tell you that if a child dies in the home, then the parents are responsible, that a family member is responsible. That's what the statistics will tell you. But then they went out of their way to tell us over and over and over again that a kidnapping for ransom attempt is. We've never had it in the history of our city. So it seemed counterintuitive to cite both of those statistics. They essentially, in my brain, cross each other out. They cancel each other out. And then same with the Nancy Guthrie story that unfortunately continues to be ongoing because they've not located this poor woman or figured out who's responsible. You have investigators who are saying, well, we don't believe. There's no reason to believe that it's a random kidnapping, that the person just happened to take her. Because reviewing the local crime statistics say that nighttime burglaries in this area almost never happen. Oh, okay, that's great. But also, guess what? Almost never Happens a high profile case where a person is abducted and a ransom is requested. I mean, most cities never experience that. And our country at a whole, at large rarely experiences that. So it's. It's completely bizarre to me to. To cite these. To sway an argument one way or the other, or try to bring people into your line of thinking as to what theory it is that you are working, what angle it is you are working. When I hear investigators say things like that, that tells me that they have a theory, they have an angle that they're working. You've gone about it wrong, my friend. Let the evidence tell you what direction to go.

[Colonel]

Yeah. And I think it would be very difficult. Like you said, little to no violent crimes in this community, but that doesn't mean that this department isn't capable. But also, they called in the big guns. Right? They have the FBI involved pretty quickly.

[Captain]

Yeah, that. That's. Again, I'm. This will be the last time I compare this to the. The Nancy Guthrie case.

[Colonel]

But, hey, here's your show, man. You do what you want.

[Captain]

Well, that's what I want is to. This be the last time that I compared the two. Thanks for bringing me down that road. But the. The thing here is, when you look at these two investigations, try to line them up side by side, what you're seeing is one handled very properly in my humble garage opinion, and another one just a complete butt fumble. Where here in Tip City. God bless this police department, these detectives, and specifically this police chief, because what did he do right away? What did I say? It was the third time he addressed the media. He said, we brought in bci, we brought in the FBI, we brought in the sheriff's department. We. We share, you know, like those lines of jurisdiction between the sheriff's department and the county and the city can be blurry, can be gray at times. And we brought in the sheriff's department, we brought in the prosecuting office, we brought in everybody we could. And so bringing in everybody you could, bringing in people with better resources, you. You. Than you have. Is the absolute smartest thing to do. The sheriff's department out in Pima county did not do that. In fact, they. They wanted to build a fence around their little county and say, no, we got this. And news break. No, you don't. The other thing too, is in comparison, Pima county sheriff. Look, he may be a great guy. Maybe he knows a lot more. I hope he knows a lot more about the case than I do and that he's holding stuff back, but from what my eyes and earballs tell me he's not. He's talking. He's going out of his way to talk and he's saying all the wrong things. Where here we have a police chief who is saying very little. But the little that he is saying is the right things. Again, garage opinion here on. At noon On Thursday the 19th, February 19th, the Christian Life center announced a celebration of life for Ashley Flynn that would be held at 4pm on Sunday, February 22, at the church. But then you have this breaking news here. 5, 7pm that same day, that same date of Thursday, February 19th, Caleb Flynn is booked into the Miami County Jail on preliminary charges of murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence. Shortly after this, we get the police chief issued what would be the fifth and final press release he did announce. Caleb Flynn was arrested on charges of murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence. And I believe it was at this same press release, short and sweet, the way they should be. But I believe that it was at this time that he said that any communications from law enforcement about this case going forward or any press releases, any questions that the media may have would need to be going through the prosecutor's office.

[Colonel]

Yeah. Which I think is a smart move. And I think it was probably pretty devastating to this community and, and very small community. And you can say what you will about American Idol, but I played with a. A guy that was on American Idol, Lionel Richie. I wish. I would love to play in Lionel Richie's band.

[Captain]

Forget about playing with Lionel Ranchi's. You know what I'm. Hey, Lionel.

[Colonel]

Yes.

[Captain]

Let's bend an elbow and tip a bunch of these back. That when you said you were dancing on the ceiling, I want to know what that feels like, my friend. Take me there.

[Colonel]

Yeah. What drug do I have to take? On a side note, because we have that Brian Schaefer event coming up in Columbus. I mentioned that would be given out free hugs and free drugs. And I've been put on a Facebook restriction because of that comment. Speaking of drugs that would make you dance on the ceiling, they were halls,

[Captain]

cough drops that we intended to give out, but apparently Facebook is against that.

[Colonel]

But I played with an artist that was on American Idol and it was a fascinating experience because, one, I just don't watch the show that often. So I had a friend of mine that called me and said, hey, there's this guy, his name's Murphy. He was on American Idol. I got some gigs and would you want to be the music director to get this up and running. My mother just happened to be there when I took the call. So I asked her, hey, do you know this Murphy guy from American Idol? She's like, yeah, he was a big deal on that episode. So sometimes there's big deals of these contestants that don't win the show, but some of these guys that, that don't even get that far in the show end up having careers or making a living through music with the help that they got by getting the exposure. So I'm certain if he's a pastor, even if that's just a part time pastor at the church and part of the music group that he is known by many. And so I'm sure it was a very big shock to that community. Again, I don't think that the law enforcement took that lightly. And so again, what evidence do they have? Do they have blood evidence? Do they have ballistic evidence? Do they have neighborhood footage that shows nobody going in and out of that neighborhood? That doesn't mean there couldn't be somebody breaking in because you could park miles away and then decide to walk through the fields or something. That's one of the things I'd be looking into. But they might have Caleb on footage doing stuff in or around that house before that 911 call was made. And then also if you have this busted door again, you might not find DNA evidence, you might not find fingerprints. The assailant could be wearing gloves. But I think they had to have something big enough because you have the community supportive of this individual. But what I'd really love to know is what were the rumors, what were the dark rumors happening? Because when there's a swell of support, there's normally a swell of doubters.

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[Captain]

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[Colonel]

Oh, no, my coffee.

[Captain]

Bronnie here.

[Colonel]

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[Colonel]

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[Colonel]

All right, we are back. Cheers, mates talk, hands in the air. Cheers to you, Colonel.

[Captain]

Cheers to you, Captain. You're going down a road that I like because I think that there could be a lot of avenues coming off of this road again. It's, it's now a collection more of what we don't know because I think the police department's done their job of not letting us know too much. And so here, you know, with a statement in the 911 call of her face is ghost white. Again. We don't know what was said in his interview regarding what the family members he himself is and the victim were doing that Sunday night, that Sunday evening, that Sunday afternoon. Are they able to place the time, time of death to be much earlier than the 911 call? That would be highly, highly suspicious. So there's really a lot here, there's a lot beneath the surface that we will be learning. I don't know how soon we will be learning that because we already mentioned that he was arrested and charged. He being Caleb Flynn, the, the husband and father of the two children and husband of the victim. Remember that fifth and final press release by the police chief stating that he was arrested not only on charges of murder but also tampering with evidence. So he's essentially charged with shooting and killing his wife and staging the crime scene to potentially mislead investigators. That's what they're charging him with. That doesn't mean that that's what he's guilty of. That's what the crime scene is telling the police. That's what hopefully there's evidence to go along with that. That is telling the police and that's what they based this arrest on. Caleb Flynn, 39 years old, he pled not guilty this just. On Friday the 19th. I'm sorry, Friday the 20th. Two charges of murder, assault, and tampering with evidence. And in that.

[Colonel]

Can we talk about the.

[Captain]

He says, quote, I just want to take care of my daughters. I'm not a risk. This is what he told Judge Samuel Huffman in a video of his arraignment from jail. And then the judge set the bond at $2 million.

[Colonel]

Yeah, but if you haven't watched this, I believe I put a clip on our social media, on Instagram or Facebook. I don't know if he can't understand him because some of this stuff they're talking through, like, intercoms, so it might be hard to understand, but I, I don't know if this guy is working with a, a full box of crowns because he didn't seem to understand what was happening. And then. I'm sorry, but I just think there's some. It's. It's either acting to me or it's him feeling sorry for himself, but I don't think he fully understood the question of, of what he was being asked. And, and then. So then he goes, well, I'm just worried about taking care of my kids and what's going to happen with my kids. It was so frustrating because it's like, do you think they're just going to let you walk out? I mean, yes. This guy seems to be a, a pillar of his community, and he has no criminal charges against him. But they must have enough on you that they feel confident in arresting you. I would also wonder when they took him down to the station for questioning, and I don't know if that. Do you know if that happened at the station or did they do the questioning in the house?

[Captain]

Well, they, I mean, they interviewed him and walked through the home with him, per the police report. But, but at some point, several hours after the call came in, they stated that he, he was asked if he would be willing to go to the police department to be interviewed, and he, he consented to do that. So.

[Colonel]

And do we know if he took a lie detector test?

[Captain]

No, we don't.

[Colonel]

I'd love to know if he.

[Captain]

That could be. That could be part of it, but again, I, I don't think. I wouldn't guess that it is.

[Colonel]

Right.

[Captain]

The thing here, though, I mean, he's. He's simply saying that he wants to take care of his kids and, and I think he's using that as an attempt to, to push back on the judge's concerns that this guy's a flight risk and well, how can I take care of my kids if I. If I take off and flee the area? You know, that's his kind of pushback on. Well, I just. I'm not a flight risk. I'm. I just want to take care of my kids.

[Colonel]

Well, and if I was the judge, I'd also be worried about suicide, because if this guy's involved, if this guy killed his wife and was trying to stage it in a way that she was targeted, or somebody broke into their house, what is he. What is the motivation for this crime? And one of the rumors that have come out. There's two rumors that I've heard. One rumor is that he was having an affair with another lady at the church. So his wife did some work at the church, but this other lady was involved. And. And the. The church aspect, because, I don't know. I don't have a. I'm involved in churches to the point where I show up and play bass at a church function, but I don't know the inner workings. So when you say this lady works at the church, like, I know one of the choir members cleans the church once a month as, like a. A way to volunteer at the church, but I don't think she's on payroll. So how is this other lady that he possibly was having an affair with, how is she involved? They know her name. Her name has been out there. I'm not going to say her name because I think it's just a allegation. Right now. I don't even know if there's any proof. And the other rumor I heard was that there was no communication, at least between Caleb and this other female about. Well, one, there just wasn't much communication beforehand through his cell phone. But again, you don't know if they're. If they are having an affair. They might not be communicating through text messages. They might be communicating through a social media app or maybe through email, but. So that could be a possible motive. I mean, a lot of people have said online this has a weird feeling of Chris Watts. Obviously different because Chris Watts's wife was pregnant at the time, and he killed his children as well. And so it's a little different, but it has those feelings.

[Captain]

The judge set the bond at $2 million, and his attorney, and this might go a little bit out of order here at this point in our timeline, but his attorney, Caleb Flynn's attorney, this man's name is Patrick Mulligan, said in a statement he and his client were disappointed. I'll read you verbatim here. Quote, disappointed and concerned about the short timeline and seeming rush to judgment in this case, end quote. The murder takes place on Monday morning. Police arrested Flynn on Thursday. And then here, another quote from the attorney. When the government runs out of leads or can't develop leads and looks at a surviving spouse, in cases such as these, the chance of a wrongful conviction increases. The Tipp City Police Chief Greg Atkins defended the department's investigation, saying in an email release that same day that they had not moved fast, that the investigation, that the detectives did not move fast.

[Colonel]

Well, again, this is weird because in some investigations you don't get the evidence quickly. We don't know what they knew within 24 hours. By the time you question him, you could go, well, statements from the 911 call to the statements he made to police are inaccurate. His gun is missing. What surveillance footage did we find? The autopsy, which would have probably been done within, what, 48 hours, is going to roughly give us the time of death. And that might not coincide with what the statements he's making. And then again, it's a small town, so if there's dirt to be found, they'll find it quickly. So I like those statements that he's making. Hey, we didn't rush to judgment here. And, and hopefully if you get the big boys involved with the sheriff and the FBI, that they come in and they let the evidence determine that what they thought the outcome was and not the outcome determines what evidence we need to collect.

[Captain]

It was also stated at the arraignment that if he does post bond, he will be on house arrest with an electronic home monitoring device and that he would have no. They would have no interaction at all, even 12 degrees of separation with the children, which. This, this makes all the sense in the world. If he's innocent. This is very unfortunate for this man, but it makes all the sense in the world because those two children, elementary school daughters, are very likely your only witnesses in this, this case. Now, what they heard or didn't hear, we don't know what they saw. What they didn't see, we don't know. But again, what we do know is at the time of the 911 call, per our suspect, the person charged, he stated that the children were in the home. And we know, per the police report, that they were removed from the home after the police were on the scene. So you have four people in this house before the 911 call, presumably during the time that the shots were fired, and you have one of them that's dead, one of them that's arrested and the two of them who are left to be potential witnesses if and when this thing does go to trial.

[Colonel]

And yeah, and I don't know if law enforcement did this, but what I do is I would want a toxicology report on the children. Right. Were they. Did they get any sleep aid?

[Captain]

Yeah. Well. And we're going to get into some thoughts on how. If he is responsible, then how much of this was planned versus spontaneous? On Friday, February 20th, the Christian Life center announced that the celebration of life for Ashley Flynn that was to be on Sunday afternoon was canceled at the family's request. Request. Instead, the funeral service would be private and by invitation only. The. The family of Ashley Flynn released a statement saying, our hearts are shattered. Ashley brought endless light to our world and we are trying to navigate this immense loss. Our family believes this arrest was made carefully and not without serious consideration. After speaking with both local police and federal authorities, we trust the proper steps were taken and the process is being handled appropriately. We kindly ask for privacy as we work through this complex situation. We are clinging to our faith just as Ashley did each and every day.

[Colonel]

Do you think there's a possibility that law enforcement gave them some more breadcrumbs?

[Captain]

I would think that they probably did. Without being specific.

[Colonel]

Right.

[Captain]

And that there would be ways to handle that without being specific. I also would be shocked if the children, whether they know something of. If they knowingly know that they know something of importance. Sorry, that's a jumbled up sentence there. But it made sense as I was saying.

[Colonel]

Sure.

[Captain]

No, but what I mean is they, they could have very important information to the investigation that they don't understand is important. And it's because of something that was gleaned from the children. One or both that have helped to clear things up for law enforcement. And keep in mind, they've been in the custody and care of family members. That information may have been passed along to those family members during that time of custody and care as well.

[Colonel]

That's a great point.

[Captain]

An original. Originally, a preliminary hearing was scheduled for Caleb Flynn in Miami county municipal court for p.m. thursday, February 26. The hearing was to determine whether there is enough evidence or probable cause for the case to proceed to a trial. If so, it would be forwarded to a county grand jury for review. This preliminary hearing was rescheduled for 1pm Thursday, March 26. And part of that is we do know that Caleb Flynn has waived his right to a speedy trial. So what exactly led to Caleb's arrest and then being charged with the murder of his wife. We can only come to our own conclusions because we've not been told. And as far as I know, we went through a police report, but I have not seen any arrest affidavit publicly released to the public which would contain specific information as to why they chose to arrest him. Because, look, they could have held him for a period of time, but they would have been required to let him go at some point. They, at some point you have to either charge or release, and we do know that they charge. So some things to consider is obviously his presence in the home. One thing that a lot of people are calling into question, I think they should, it's the initial location of the children. And you're going to base this off of their statements. You're going to base this off of the things he was saying on the 911 call, what he told the investigators as they were walking through the home together, and then later what he said in his interview at the police station. I'm guessing that some of the specifics there changed at some point that he may have gotten frazzled and was unable to keep his story straight. If he is, in fact guilty.

[Colonel]

But I think they had to take into account, like you said, if we, we can hold him for a time period, but he, if he's not being charged with anything, then he has the right to be around his children. And could that possibly bring another tragedy to this whole thing?

[Captain]

Yeah. And you don't want to charge him on some flim flam charges. You want, you don't want it to be flimsy. So it doesn't matter if you want to keep him from the children or not. The way that I see everything being conducted, it seems very thorough and on the up and up. And we talk about this so many times in the garage where a detective, their job, whether they recognize it or not, is to assure that their findings are upheld in court with a conviction, not just an arrest. And the, the other part of our system too, is that it is the judge's job to ensure that whatever the verdict is is later upheld. Right. That it's not a mistrial, that it's not something goes wrong during the course of the trial. And so you're not going to push the envelope and nor should you if he waives his right to a speedy trial, you don't want to just grab him by the ear and go, well, tough. Mr. We're going in for the arraignment today, preliminary hearing today. You, you don't want to do that. I mean, you, because then it will be, he was treated unfairly. You, as the judge, you want to make sure that he, that the, the defendant is of sound mind, that they understand the charges, that they understand their plea, and that they have effective counsel and that they have a fair trial. And so this is all just, this is all just part of that. Now, part of what could have led to his arrest too, is what, how much evidence were they seeing that is telling them that, hey, this scene looks staged. And not just looks staged, but we can prove that it was in fact staged. And some folks can say, look, this was a quick arrest. But I mean, if, if the killer and the victim are all in the same home at the same time, your crime, you have one crime scene and it's not that big. It's not that. It's, it's a single family home on a single family lot. I mean, there's, it, it's not a huge crime scene. It, it wouldn't take, you know, and they were there for three days that we know of.

[Colonel]

Yeah, that's the thing is we can say it seems fast, but you got one crime scene and you're collecting a lot of evidence really quickly, but not because you don't have to look, you don't have to go look for the evidence. Right. You know, you're not looking for the victim. We have the victim. You're not looking, you're not having to investigate a dump site. We have the victim in her bed. And so like you said, there could just be a ton of stuff piling up here. I'll never understand why, if, if the motivation is to get rid of her so he can start a new life. I just don't, I don't understand why you want to just divorce the person. But I think sometimes these individuals build up such a false outer shell of who they are. Oh, he's this part time pastor and he's this, he prays and worship leader and he's the pillar of the community. And I think sometimes that weighs on those individuals and it just can't be as simple as. And then also the relationship you have with, you know, your spouse, I mean, obviously that's his spouse at the time, but her family and other people in the community. But it's crazy to me that these people, instead of just going, hey, you know what, I'll get a divorce. I won't see my kids all the time. But I think they're afraid of losing that facade of I'm a shining light in this community. And I think that's part of the motivation to kill an individual as opposed to just divorce the individual. If I'm making any sense at all,

[Captain]

I'm glad that you don't understand that because if you did, I wouldn't be sitting in the garage with you here today. I mean there's. It's psycho for. They call it psycho for a reason. And if he is in fact guilty of shooting and killing his wife, look, and then, then as far as whatever with society or communities go, glass houses, people keep in mind, glass houses. And I cannot stand the holier than thou persons out there. If she's not the right wife for him, we're human beings. If she's a terrible mother, we're human beings. If he's not good at being a husband, we're human beings. And error only becomes a mistake once we refused to correct it. And as far as we're told, we only live once. So you know, I don't want to go too far down that road. I want to go through some of the specifics of this case before we go down a road that I think that the listeners will be very happy that, that we do go down here. What evidence led investigators to believe Caleb Flynn staged the crime scene? And as, as we know, investigators reported several pieces of physical evidence and inconsistencies that led them to believe Caleb Flynn staged the crime scene to look like a home invasion. As he said on the 911 call, of course we have the obstruction of the alleged entry point. Flynn claimed that this the side door to the garage was left open by an intruder. However, police find a large refrigerator positioned in front of that door which would have made it extremely difficult for an intruder to push it out open from the outside. The handguns location his handgun. Specifically, police observed that the center console of Flynn's 2024 Ford truck in the garage was open. This mass matched the exact location where Flynn reportedly told police he kept his handgun. Again, a lot of people pointing out to pointing out the inconsistent 911 statements during that lengthy 911 call where some folks are saying that he would state something then later quote, corrected himself. A lot of that I think pertains to where the kids are. What the kids were doing during that call, I didn't hear to me I. While I see this being reported a lot and talked about a lot I. That didn't jump off the page or, or kick me in the earballs when I heard it. I trust the community and the people looking at this. If they think it's suspicious, it's well it's worth looking at the physical evidence in the bedroom. Two gunshell casings were found on the floor near the foot of the bed where Ashley Flynn was shot. And then this tidbit here, Captain. Suspicious social media activity. Neighbors and friends found it unsettling that Ashley's Facebook profile picture was changed from a photo of her and her daughters to one of her and Caleb just two nights before she was killed. A change described as uncharacteristic for her. So let's go down this road. Yeah, I want to do a little crime study, specific crime study, a little crime scene analysis, investigating and classifying this violent crime. So let's look at a study on domestic homicide. If in fact that is what this is. We know based on the charges that the Tipp City police and the prosecutor there believes that is what happened. So we have domestic homicide. Let's take a look at key types, indicators and investigative considerations. Domestic domestic homicide involves one household or family member killing another, including common law partners. The crime classification manual from 1995 from the FBI outlines two sub types of this crime. One, spontaneous domestic homicide. This is unplanned, triggered by recent or cumulative stress. No intentional staging occurs typically in this type of crime. Body movement or positioning may happen for the offender's benefit, but not to mislead law enforcement. And then the other subtype here, Captain, would be staged domestic homicide. So the difference being, the big difference is being planned. Often designed to appear accidental. This would be suicidal, natural causes or linked to a secondary crime or crime such as robbery or rape. These staged domestic homicide crime scenes are more organized. Weapons, fingerprints and evidence are commonly removed from the crime scene. The body is usually not concealed and may be found in the home or elsewhere. Media driven occult, satanic staging may appear in these crimes. But we got to keep in mind, part of that statement in the classification manual I believe comes from the time period this was published in, 1995. So occult and satanic staging, that that would make sense with a lot of the different crimes and things that were going on or speculated about in the media at the time period. We also saw that shortly after the Manson family murders too, where folks would annihilate their family or kill a spouse and then try to make it appear that a crazy batch of hippies broke in and painted the walls with blood. Obviously, victimology would be familial in both of these types. Investigative indicators for spontaneous cases, Crime likely occurs in the victim's residence. Check. In some cases, there may be documented history of domestic violence or conflict. We don't we don't know anything about that. So domestic violence, that's obvious. But conflict could be things like financial conflict, employment, alcohol or drug use.

[Colonel]

Yeah, we don't have, or at least I haven't seen any local rumors that they had had marital problems. Everybody said they seem to be the. The perfect couple. And so, yes, there are these rumors or rumblings about a possible affair with somebody at the church, but I think that's just coming from a very small group. So again, we'd have to see proof of that first. So there's no knowledge or at least nothing coming out that Ashley knew of affair that Caleb was having.

[Captain]

And that's a natural leap for the community or members of the community to make when one spouse is charged with the homicide of another spouse. It's just regardless of man kills woman, woman kills man, that's husband kills wife, wife kills husband. That's something that's going to be thought of and looked at as well. In the spontaneous type, the offender may delay reporting to change clothes or craft an alibi. And a third party often discovers the victim's body. The offender may show personalized aggression and a marked attitude change after the trigger. Now, investigative indicators for staged cases. So keep in mind some of these are going to blend together just by the nature of the victimology, the nature of the offender. They often live together, nature of the offense, the crime scene. Some of this is going to blend together, but hear the subtle differences and then apply them to what little we know about this case. So this is indicators for staged cases. Controlled organized crime scene, removal of evidence, potential accident, suicide, overdose. So to stage it, you're going to want to make it look like something else took place to mislead investigators. You can't hide the fact that the person is dead. You're just trying to set it up to make it look like they died by some other manner than you killing them. So potential, you're going to set it up to make it look like a potential accident, potential suicide, potential overdose. Warning. Insulin can often be a great way to confuse medical examiners as it will mask what took place and may mimic natural causes. But here we have something different. Some of the staging can be to include and oftentimes does make it look like somebody else did the crime, that there was another crime in progress when it took place. Again, we already mentioned robbery and rape. In a staged domestic rape slash murder, victims are rarely left fully nude. Typically they're partially clothed. If the supposed primary threat, often the male household member, has no or minor injuries. Here we have no injuries while others are killed in the home. Staging should be suspected. This is the FBI saying this. They're not saying that it, that it is the situation, that it is the result of a staged domestic homicide. They're saying if you go into a scene, any scene, and the primary threat has no or minor injuries and others are killed, staging should be suspected. Pre offense behavior may improve conspicuously. Okay. Friends slash family may report the victim voiced fear or foreboding. Okay. And here we don't seem to have that. And that goes along with we don't seem to have a history of domestic violence in this relationship. Medical and psychiatric history of the victim is relevant, especially if suicide or natural causes are claimed. Search warrant suggestions. That's interesting because it made me think of the Ellen Greenberg case where what, what the FBI is stating here is just because you have some kind of psychiatric history, that doesn't mean particularly that the dead person was suicidal. It could also mean that they're having psychiatric problems or they have a psychiatric history because they're experiencing something from someone else, that maybe they are in fear because of their spouse or they're being bullied by their spouse.

[Colonel]

Right. There's some kind of mental abuse.

[Captain]

So search warrant suggestions. I think maybe the one thing that could have been done a little, if I could tweak one thing of what I've seen about this investigation and the way that it was handled is we've talked about this in some other cases. I think it was the Aaron Spencer case in particular might have been the Spencer Tepe, Monica Tepe murders case as well, where we saw that police and detectives could go into a crime scene. But as soon as they recognized that we're talking about a murder situation, they, they waited to go in with the fine tooth comb until they had that search warrant obtained from a judge. So search warrant suggestions for this type of investigation. If you're looking at spontaneous domestic homicide, it says obtain financial and medical records to assess stressors and corroborate spontaneity. If you think that somebody would freak out and murder their spouse, you might be able to find some type of paper trail in it in medical records or financial records staged. Seek evidence of motive and planning, including telephone and personal records, travel logs, motel bookings and gasoline receipts. One thing that they said about stage two that the FBI said, and this circles back to something that we touched on just very, very briefly, they say that you if most of the time when it's a staged homicide, there's a good amount of planning that's going to go into that. And one could be planning this for days, weeks, months in advance. One thing they point to is a change in the level of affection and appreciation that a spouse shows for the later to be dead victim. Is there an uptick like, oh, he was holding her hand all the time. He was putting his arm around her all the time. This, we just noticed this two days, three days before. Before he never sort of behaved that way in the room with her. Before he was going out of his way to say that he loved her and buying her gifts and putting on that facade of, oh, I'm the perfect husband. We have the perfect marriage. And that is interesting to me that they note that in the crime classification manual because we have neighbors and friends that say they found it a little strange that Ashley's Facebook profile picture was changed from a photo of her, her and her daughters to one of her and Caleb just two nights before she was killed.

[Colonel]

Yeah, I think it's important to jump on these cases and look into these cases as they're unfolding and, and it's kind of what we all do, right? You go, hey, did you hear about that crime that happened in Indiana? Did you hear about that crime that happened in California? Sometimes we get bombarded, especially when it's in our neck of the woods. Hey. And so, but there is a frustration because we've covered so many cases that we do know that there's, there's going to be evidence and information and answers. Maybe not all the answers, but more answers as this case develops. But it's a, it's a fascinating case and I'm like you, I'm fascinated with the investigation. So I'm very curious what they found and what evidence they have against them. So we'll, we should know that within about a month or at least part of that because it will be in reports. So we'll keep following this one and a lot of the updates, as you guys know, become off the record episodes. As much as I'm interested in the investigation, that's, it's the why in some of these cases like this just doesn't make a lot of sense. If he was responsible for this, just seems like there was better ways out of whatever situation he thought he was in. Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week, same bat time, same bad channel. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners?

[Captain]

Absolutely we do here, Captain. I want everybody to go to crime [e-mail] garage and there you will read Crime Wave. Join true crime Garage on crime wave at C 2.0. Enter your info below to receive your discount code, which saves you $100 when you register and gives you an exclusive meet and greet with the Garage guys. True Crime Garage. We are going on vacation. This is planned for February of 2027. We hope that you will consider joining us on the big boat, joining us in international waters and joining us on the beach again. You can do that by going to crime [e-mail] garage. There you're going to type in. It's very quick, takes 10 seconds. You're going to type in three pieces of information. They're going to send you a super secret code which will save you 100 bucks. And we can party together, my friends. Check that out.

[Colonel]

Or you can just use our promo code. Garage at checkout. What's awesome about this? What a great thing for Crime Wave to do. Hey, we're going on the cruise. And the main reason we're going is because of True Crime Garage. You use that promo code and we get to hang out. Private vip. It's like a. It's like you're joining us in the garage, but we'll be on a floating garage ship. So very exciting. Until next week.

[Captain]

Be good, be kind, and don't live.

[Colonel]

Sam.

[Captain]

Oh, no.

[Colonel]

My coffee.

[Captain]

Bronnie.

[Colonel]

Here, new brawny 3 ply is now more absorbent.

[Scarpetta Promo Announcer]

Wow. Got a clean shirt.

[Colonel]

Do you wear plaid, Ronnie? Some of the strongest.