she was crying and frantic. i said, settle down, it will be okay, who is with you? her son was there. gina hickman, a good friend of the family and wife of a fire chief herself, rushed over to the bryans. i went over and hugged her neck and told her how sorry i was, that god would get us through this. and she said, i m sorry, i know he was your friend too. keith s deputy chief terry hamilton reached becky on her cell. so i told her not to worry, they ll do a full investigation and they ll find they ll figure out who did it. at the house becky was on the rear patio on the phone with friends and family repeating the story of the armed intruder. we were sitting in open light around the patio and i was fearful. that they might come back. you thought right at that moment that this person she described could come back? yes, i did. we hadn t had anything like that happen before. tammy mcneil, a detective with the mustang police
what s your first name? becky bryan. becky talked about how close she and keith were especially after they made it through that rough patch. we were quite in love. i didn t even know he loved me until i filed for divorce. he really came to play. the investigators went over step by step how the shooting went down. what are you looking for when you go into that conference room to interview becky? how does this person know keith, can she describe him better, you know, things like that. and the door opened, and we were watching a loud movie, carrie, and this young kid about 25 years old walks into the house and comes over to the carpet, and my husband didn t even have time to turn around. i looked just in time to see, and then he come up from here
she wanted to have a birth announcement printed up. birth announcement? a birth announcement. did she have a name picked out? she had a name picked out. mark, that object of becky s obsession, also testified, adding this potentially incriminating detail. he said that on the day keith was shot, becky left him a voice maehl, saying she planned to buy a house near him because she was about to inherit some money. to many in court, the implication was that becky had been expecting a life insurance payout. becky and keith s grown sons kept their feelings about their mother s guilt or innocence to themselves, but both testified briefly for the prosecution, as did a parade of investigators and forensics experts who laid out the physical evidence. there were two microscopic components of gunshot residue detected on becky s hand. and in that dryer with the gun
the affair had been a reason behind becky and keith s brief split. now investigators and the ex-lover hatched a plan. record a conversation between becky and her so-called prodigy. maybe becky would give something up to him. three days after keith was shot, becky s ex dialed her up. becky, how are you doing? thank you for calling me. becky seemed concerned about covering up the affair. if you could say that you knew or remembered a realtor by that name that you went to broker school with and that s it. and while she stuck to her story about the intruder who shot keith, she said she had news about him. and the guy that shot keith, he killed himself yesterday near the city. so i m no longer in danger. well, that s good. that s good news. i know. so everything is good. we didn t have any information like that. law enforcement had not given her any information like that. the call rang all kinds of
sorry, he said but your husband should have hired me. do you have a gut reaction about that story? it was concerning to me because we are a small community. my first concern was, you know, is there somebody out there, where is he, and how are we going to find him? becky described the shooter as a man in his 20s with a big nose and wearing a hoodie. i was trying to get as much information out to other law enforcement agencies as well as our officers so they could start looking for him. was it possible keith knew the man? keith was in no condition to help investigators, but at the hospital, hopeful news. he was clinging to life. i told her, i said, he s going to surgery. and she said, really? keith made it through surgery, still in terrible shape, but alive in the icu. when becky arrived, the halls of the hospital were filled with friends, loved ones, and keith s firefighter brothers. it seemed half the town of mustang was there praying for keith. how hard was it for y