When Massachusetts State Police detectives responded to a reported suicide in Westfield, Massachusetts, on Could 8, 2018, they discovered Amy Fanion lifeless on her eating room flooring with a gunshot wound to her head. Her husband, Brian Fanion, a Westfield Police detective, had known as 911, reporting that Amy Fanion had shot herself.
On the scene, detectives made a number of discoveries that raised questions. The gun used within the capturing was Brian Fanion’s service weapon. And there was an absence of gunshot residue on Amy’s head, which was uncommon in a self-inflicted gunshot wound. What had occurred in that eating room that morning? “48 Hours” contributor Nikki Battiste takes a have a look at the proof in an encore of “The Detective’s Wife” airing Saturday, April 19 on CBS and streaming on Paramount +.
Detective Brendan O’Toole took Brian Fanion to the State Police barracks in Russell, Massachusetts, to get his assertion of the occasions surrounding his spouse’s sudden loss of life. On the finish of the interview, O’Toole requested Fanion to show over his telephone for information extraction. Fanion complied however gave a caveat.
“I turned off the recorder and that’s when Brian told me … ‘you’re going to see some things on there and it’s not what it appears to be,’” O’Toole instructed “48 Hours.”
Hampden County Superior Courtroom
Investigators would uncover hundreds of deleted textual content messages between Brian Fanion and a lady named Corrine Knowles, referred to as Cori. Brian Fanion had instructed O’Toole he and Knowles have been simply mates, however the textual content messages conveyed that the connection had develop into one thing extra.
On Could 17, three days after Amy Fanion’s wake, O’Toole and Detective Mike Blanchette confronted Brian Fanion about his relationship with Knowles in addition to the dearth of gunshot residue discovered on Amy Fanion’s wound.
“I mean, there’s no doubt she was shot … but the question is, from what distance,” O’Toole requested Fanion.
Hampden County Superior Courtroom
Inside every week, investigators seized all of Fanion’s electronics, together with his workplace laptop and laptop computer on the Westfield Police Division. When Detective Tom Forest from the Cyber Crime Unit examined the pc’s laborious drive, it revealed peculiar internet searches and on-line exercise he thought-about notable to the investigation. The net exercise started about three months earlier than Amy Fanion’s loss of life, across the time Brian Fanion and Knowles’ friendship turned flirtatious.
“… it’s only when this affair starts up … that all of these incriminating searches start to appear,” Hampden County Assistant District Legal professional Mary Sandstrom instructed “48 Hours.”
The primary of those inquiries was associated to widespread family poisons. On the morning of Feb. 12, Brian Fanion searched “household poisons,” “dangerous sources of radiation,” “worst sources of radiation” and “common prescription overdoses.” He additionally visited internet pages titled, “9 Surprising Sources of Radiation in Your Home;” “Carbon Monoxide: The Invisible Killer;” “Common and dangerous poisons;” “16 Common Household Items That Could Kill You;” “What Over-the-Counter Medications Can You Overdose From?;” “Which Drug Causes the Most Deaths Each Year?” and, lastly, “Prescription Drugs Linked to Most Fatal Overdoses.”
At trial, Brian Fanion’s protection legal professional Jeffrey Brown argued that the Fanions have been getting ready to have a younger niece stick with them and that a number of the web sites have been associated to potential hazards their 200-year-old home would possibly pose.
Originally of March 2018, Fanion repeatedly Googled his potential lover, Cori Knowles. On April 2, as issues heated up between Fanion and Knowles, he started questioning the nuances of affairs, looking out “can you have an affair without sex.”
Two weeks later, on April 17, Fanion started researching divorce legal guidelines in Massachusetts. A number of internet pages he visited have been associated to pension rights after divorce. Fanion was planning for his upcoming retirement, and in accordance with Knowles in an interview with police, he feared dropping a part of his pension if he have been to divorce his spouse. The next day, Brian Fanion’s inquiries into infidelity resumed, visiting internet pages titled “My perfect affair – how I’m getting away with it” and “Emotional Infidelity: Worse Than A Sexual Affair?”
Eleven days earlier than Amy Fanion died, on April 27, Brian Fanion searched “gsr testing” on his work laptop. That morning between 9:22 and 9:38 a.m., Brian Fanion visited 5 internet pages associated to gunshot residue. Amongst these internet pages have been “Gunshot Residue Collection: The Decisions that Make or Break a Case” and a information report on YouTube known as “What gunshot residue tests tell us.” Sandstrom instructed “48 Hours” this had nothing to do with Brian Fanion’s work on the Westfield Police Division.
“He wasn’t assigned to any active investigations in April and May of 2018 … that would necessitate looking up gunshot residue,” Sandstrom instructed “48 Hours.” “Nobody in the Westfield Police Department does gunshot residue testing.”
On Could 7, 2018, the day earlier than Amy Fanion was shot lifeless, Fanion repeatedly searched find out how to take away frequent contacts from his telephone. At his trial, Fanion’s protection argued that he was within the means of getting a brand new telephone and needed to know find out how to erase information from his present one. Sandstrom prosecuted the case.
“Now, the defendant suggests that he did these searches because he’s in the process of getting a new phone right before his wife’s demise,” Sandstrom instructed the jury. “But he’s not looking to delete all data off of his phone … he’s searching how to delete the frequently contacted list because he doesn’t want evidence of his relationship with Corrine being discovered by the state police.”
Fanion’s trial for the homicide of Amy Fanion started on Feb. 23, 2023. Sandstrom’s first witness was Amy Fanion’s sister, Anna Hansen. Hansen testified that after Amy’s loss of life, Brian Fanion confided that he was involved about some searches he had made.
“I asked him what that search was, and he said how to make a murder look like a suicide,” Hansen mentioned on the witness stand. Below cross examination by the protection, Detective Tom Forest testified that he by no means discovered any searches associated to these phrases.
On the morning of Could 8, 2018, whereas Brian Fanion was nonetheless at work, he searched “massachusetts medical examiner offices” and visited a web site that listed the items inside the Massachusetts State Police forensics part.
In her closing arguments, Sandstrom said that that morning, Brian Fanion was getting ready for his spouse’s homicide. “He’s looking up and researching the units that will appear … after he’s committed this murder. … the evidence in this case proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew he was going to murder Amy Fanion when he left the Westfield Police Department at 11:47 a.m. on May 8th.”
Brian Fanion’s protection argued that Amy Fanion had anger points and suffered from extreme anxiousness. After Amy’s loss of life, many members of her household signed a letter in assist of Brian, stating that they have been sure Amy had taken her personal life. A number of members of Amy Fanion’s household took the stand, and though they have been known as as witnesses for the prosecution, their testimonies supported Brian Fanion’s protection.
After a month-long trial, the jury discovered Brian Fanion responsible of the first-degree homicide of Amy Fanion. He was sentenced to life in jail. His conviction is underneath attraction.
