Baseball player Blake Bevins says his life 'turned to ash' after the killing of his wife, toddler son and mother-in-law
Tampa Bay Rays' pitching prospect, Blake Bivens, finally broke his silence, days after the brutal murder of his wife, his toddler son, and his mother-in-law in Virginia by his brother-in-law.
Bivens, a pitcher for Montgomery Biscuits, took to Facebook to share a heartbreaking post about his slain family. He also shared a picture of his wife Emily Bivens, 24, and their 14-month-old son Cullen on Instagram. His mother-in-law, Joan Barnard, can also be seen standing behind her daughter in the picture.
Reports state that the three were killed on Tuesday when Emily's younger brother, 18-year-old Matthew Barnard, allegedly went on a murder rampage in their home in Keeling, Virginia. Bernard, who was arrested later that day after being found running through the street naked and attacking bystanders, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
Bivens, in an Instagram post, wrote: "Two days ago my heart was turned to ash. My life as I knew it is destroyed. The pain my family and I feel is unbearable and cannot be put into words. I shake and tremble at the thought of our future without them."
According to the Montgomery Advertiser, Bivens and Emily, who were high school sweethearts, married in January 2016. The pair's first child, Cullen, was born in June 2018.
"Emily, my sweetheart, you are the best wife and mother this world has ever seen. You made me into the man I am today and you loved me with all of my flaws," Bivens wrote in the post. "My sweet little boy, dada loves you so much! I can’t breathe without you here. I finally understood what love was when you were born and I would have done anything for you."
Bivens' manager and teammates also rallied around him and nearly broke into tears while addressing a press conference in Montgomery, Alabama on Thursday. Montgomery Biscuits manager Morgan Ensberg, who traveled with Bivens after the news broke on Tuesday, said: "It was awful."
"Blake is an incredibly strong man. He's an incredibly strong man, and he went through just a rotation of tearing up, and then he would shake and then he would just stare," Ensberg said. "I'll never forget his face. He was scared. He was nervous. He didn't know what was going on. He couldn't get in touch with his family and so we knew something was obviously wrong. I didn't let him out of my sight. Nobody's thinking about baseball."
More details of the triple homicide were released on Thursday in new court documents, however, the motive for the killings has not yet been identified. Reports state that Bernard began his fatal rampage on Tuesday morning at a neighbor's house in Keeling. He allegedly punched his neighbor in the arm before running away. The neighbor reportedly heard gunshots at the house next door, drove to the residence and found the dead body of 62-year-old Joan Bernard on the driveway.
After deputies arrived at the scene, they also found bodies of Emily and Cullen in the house, they had bullet wounds on their heads. Subsequently, after a manhunt was launched, a rifle was found in a wooded area behind the home and shell casings from it were discovered near the three bodies, according to the New York Post. Authorities also found a bloodied sledgehammer inside the home's garage. Bernard was found four hours later, emerging naked from a wooded area.
Bernard's uncle, Bryant Bernard, expressed his shock at the killings and said that "In my wildest dreams, I never could have imagined it. Not him," calling him an "all-around perfect kid," according to WSLS. The suspect is currently being held in a prison without bail and is being kept on suicide watch.