When the Massachusetts State Police detectives responded to a suicide reported in Westfield, Massachusetts, on May 8, 2018, they found Amy Fanion Dead on the floor of his dining room with a gunshot wound. Her husband, Brian Fanion, a Westfield police detective, had called 911, informing that Amy Fanion had shot herself.
In the scene, the detectives made several discoveries that asked questions. The weapon used in the shooting was Brian Fanion’s service weapon. And there was a lack of shooting waste in Amy’s head, which was unusual in a self -inflicted gunshot wound. What had happened in that dining room that morning? The “48 hours” collaborator, Nikki Battiste, analyzes the evidence in a bis of “the detective’s wife” that is now transmitted in Paramount +.
Detective Brendan O’Toole Tok Brian Fanion to the state police barracks in Russell, Massachusetts, to obtain his statement from the events surrounding the sudden death of his wife. At the end of the interview, O’Toole asked Fanion to turn on his phone for data extraction. Fanion fulfilled but gave a warning.
“I turned off the recorder and that was when Brian told me …” You’re going to see some things there and it’s not what it seems to be, “said O’Toole” 48 hours. “
High Hampden County Court 
The researchers would discover thousands of text messages eliminated between Brian Fanion and a woman named Corrine Knowles, known as Cori. Brian Fanion had told O’Toole that he and Knowles were just friends, but text messages transmitted that the relationship had something else.
On May 17, three days after Amy Fanion Estela, O’Toole and Detective Mike Blanchette faced Brian Fanion for their relationship with Knowles, as well as the lack of shooting waste found in Amy Fanion’s wound.
“I mean, there is no doubt that he was shot … but the question is, from what a distance,” asked O’Toole Fanion.
High Hampden County Court 
In a week, the investigators confiscated all the fanion electronic products, including the computer from their office and the laptop in the Westfield police department. When detective Tom Forest of the Cyber crime unit examined the computer’s hard drive, revealed peculiar websites and online activity that he considered remarkable for the investigation. Online activity is about three months before Amy Fanion’s death, around the moment Brian Fanion and Knowles’s friendship became flirtatious.
“… It is only when this matter begins … that all these incriminating searches begin to appear,” said Hampden County Assistant District, Mary Sandstrom, “48 hours.”
The first of these consultations was related to common domestic poisons. On the morning of February 12, Brian Fanion looked for “home poisons”, “dangerous radiation sources”, “the worst sources of radiation” and “common prescription overdose.” Hello, they also visited websites entitled, “9 surprising sources of radiation in their home”; “Carbon monoxide: the invisible murderer”; “Common and dangerous come”; “16 common home articles that could kill you.” “What free sales medications can it exaggerate?;” “What drug causes the greatest amount of deaths every year?” And, finally, “prescribed medications linked to most fatal overdose.”
At the trial, Brian Fanion’s defense lawyer, Jeffrey Brown, argued that bushels were preparing for a young niece to keep the issue and that some of the websites were related to possible dangers that his 200 -year -old house could pose.
At the beginning of March 2018, Fanion repeatedly sought to its potential lover, Cori Knowles. On April 2, as things warmed between Fanion and Knowles, hey, questioning the nuances of affairs, looking for “can you have an adventure without sex?”
Two weeks later, on April 17, Fanion began investigating divorce laws in Massachusetts. Several web pages that he visited were related to the rights of pensions after divorce. Fanion was planning his next retirement, and according to Knowles in an interview with the police, he was afraid to lose part of his pension to divorce his wife. The next day, Brian Fanion’s consultations about infidelity resumed, visiting websites entitled “My Perfect Affair: How am I getting far” and “Emotional infidelity: worse than a sexual issue?”
Eleven days before Amy Fanion died, on April 27, Brian Fanion looked for “GSR tests” on his work computer. That morning between 9:22 and 9:38 AM, Brian Fanion visited five web pages related to shooting waste. Among those web pages were the “collection of shooting waste: the decisions that make or break a case” and a news report on YouTube called “what tests of shooting waste they tell us”. Sandstrom told “48 hours” that this had nothing to do with Brian Fanion’s work in the Westfield police department.
“It was assigned to any active investigation in April and May 2018 … that would need a search shooting residue,” Sandstrom told “48 hours.” “Nobody in the Westfield Police Department tests shooting waste.”
On May 7, 2018, the day before Amy Fanion was shot dead, Fanion repeatedly sought how to eliminate frequent contacts of her phone. In his trial, the Fanion defense argued that he was in the process of obtaining a new phone and wanted to know how to delete the data from his current. Sandstrom processed the case.
“Now, the defendant suggests that he did these searches in the process of obtaining a new phone just before his wife’s disappearance,” Sandstrom told the jury. “But you are not looking to delete all the data or your phone … you are looking for how to eliminate the frequently contacted list because you do not show your relationship with the State Police Correred.”
Fanion’s trial for Amy Fanion’s murder began on February 23, 2023. Sandstrom’s first witness was Amy Fanion’s sister, Anna Hansen. Hansen testified that after Amy’s death, Brian Fanion confined that she was worried about some searches she had done.
“I asked what that search was and said how to make a murder seem suicide,” said Hansen in the witness post. Under the interrogation of the defense, detective Tom Forest testified that he never found searches related to those terms.
On the morning of May 8, 2018, while Brian Fanion was still at work, he searched for the “Massachusetts Forensic Doctor offices” and visited a website that listed the units within the Forensic Section of the Massachusetts State Police.
In his final arguments, Sandstrom Sticht that that morning, Brian Fanion was a preparation for his wife’s murder. “He is looking up and investigating the units that will appear … after having committed this murder … the evidence in this case demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew that he was going to kill Amy Fanion when he left Westfield.” “
Brian Fanion’s defense argued that Amy Fanion had problems of anger and suffered from severe anxiety. After Amy’s death, many family members signed a letter in support of Brian, stating that they were sure that Amy had tasks of her own life. Several members of the family of Amy Fanion Toking The Stand, and Altheheh called witnesses of the Prosecutor’s Office, their testimonies supported Brian Fanion’s defense.
After a one -month trial, the jury found Brian Fanion guilty of the first -degree murder of Amy Fanion. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. His conviction is under appeal.
