Unimaginable way young dad learned his wife and baby were murdered
Young baseballer Blake Bivens has spoken publicly for the first time since his wife, son and mother-in-law were murdered in a triple homicide last August.
The 25-year-old pitching prospect for the Tampa Bay Rays shared the details of how he learned of his family’s deaths on Facebook during a live conversation with The River Church interim senior pastor Travis Gore.
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Bivens’ wife Emily, 14-month-old son Cullen and mother-in-law Joan Bernard were killed on August 28, with his brother-in-law Matthew Bernard arrested and awaiting trial.
Bivens, who was playing with the Double-A team in Montgomery, Alabama at the time, said he knew something was wrong when he didn’t wake up to his standard text message from Emily.
He then couldn’t reach her or anyone else in the extended family.
Bivens learned of deaths on Facebook
He said he then saw something on Facebook about his brother-in-law, who was 18, being sought by police.
The Rays arranged for him to fly home and as he was waiting for a flight he saw the news on Facebook.
“First headline I see is two females and a small child were gone,” Bivens said.
“I immediately knew that was them. I found out my family was gone over a Facebook headline.
“I just immediately began to scream in the middle of the airport.’’
Bivens thanked the Rays organisation for their support.
Montgomery manager Morgan Ensberg flew with him from where the team was playing in Chattanooga, and they were joined by security chief Jim Previtera and Vince Lodato in Charlotte for a connecting flight and the drive to Keeling, Virginia.
“It’s almost kind of like, ‘This isn’t really happening.' I was more in a state of shock,” he said.
“I would go through periods of shaking. Then I would start to lose it a little bit and break down and cry.
“It was kind of like a circle. The plane rides just seemed like they took forever.”
He took the rest of the season away from the team, visiting Tropicana Field once in September with his father to see teammates and his bosses.
He pitched this winter in Australia to get away and planned to pitch this season before the COVID-19 crisis brought games to a halt.
Bivens leaning on faith
Bivens shared with the church how he was leaning on his faith as he grieves.
“When I read, ‘Take heart, for I have overcome the world,’ it changed, it completely flipped a switch in my heart,” he said.
“And from that moment on I knew that this was not going to beat me, this was not going to beat family.”
He has posted photos on Instagram to celebrate his family at certain milestones, such as Emily’s 25th birthday in October and their fourth wedding anniversary in January.
Two weeks after the tragedy, he shared a photo of Emily’s planners and notebooks.
She wrote that she would use social media to share her relationship with God, make better connections and “be a better friend.” He vowed in the comment to do the same himself.
A few weeks ago he also introduced a new member of the family in Jax, a beagle puppy.
