When a murder makes national headlines, we often hear more about the person accused of committing the crime than the person whose life was taken. This week on Pushing Up Lilies, I want to change that. I’m talking about the murder of 37-year-old Ashley Flynn, a devoted mother of two, former elementary school teacher, and volleyball coach from Tipp City, Ohio. Ashley was a woman of faith who loved her family, her community, and the children whose lives she touched. On February 16, 2026, she was fatally shot while in bed inside the home she shared with her husband and daughters. Her husband, Caleb Flynn, a former pastor and American Idol contestant, initially told investigators that someone had broken into their home. But as investigators examined the scene, questions began to emerge about the reported forced entry, the removal of security cameras, and the physical evidence surrounding Ashley’s death. As a forensic nurse and former death investigator, I want to take you through some of the details that stood out to me. We’ll discuss the autopsy findings, bullet trajectories, blood evidence, digital records, and how investigators reconstructed what happened inside that bedroom, even though the murder weapon was never recovered. We’ll also look at the evidence prosecutors presented concerning Caleb’s extramarital affair, the messages that became central to their case, and the trial that resulted in his conviction. But beyond the investigation and courtroom proceedings, I want us to remember Ashley. She was a mother whose daughters will grow up without her, a teacher who made a difference, and a woman whose life meant so much more than the circumstances of her death. Join me as we examine the evidence, the investigation, and the heartbreaking story of Ashley Flynn, because behind every case file is a person with a life, a family, and a story worth telling. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: [00:00:00] Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Pushing Up Lilies. I’m your host, Julie Mattson. I just need to say before I start this week that the second annual Murder Mystery Dinner was absolutely amazing. It was so wonderful to finally meet Jan Bynum and to hear what she went through after Kelli Ann was abducted, raped, murdered, and then buried, and the years that she waited to find her body. The story is heartbreaking, and it’s live on my YouTube. I recorded live at the event, so feel free to go to my YouTube channel. It’s under Pushing Up Lilies or Brains, Body Bags, and Bedside Manner, and you can actually see, the interview live. It was amazing. I also played the song that I had written for her, and it was wonderful to finally meet her. I feel like sometimes God just puts people in your path, and [00:01:00] I feel like that’s exactly what happened in this case. And so please, if you have not read it, I encourage you to go and listen to the song as well. We’ll be doing this again every year, every October. I don’t really have a date yet for next year because I try to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with other events in the area. So as soon as I know, you will know. But, this week I wanna talk about The Flynn case, and I know we’ve all seen him crying online, and a lot of people wonder exactly what that case is about. we’ve heard over and over that he was on American Idol, and it’s like, what is the story? So, imagine going to sleep in your own bed in the home that you share with your husband and your two children, and you have no reason to believe that your life’s about to end. Your children are sleeping [00:02:00] nearby. Your husband is someone you’ve trusted, somebody that you’ve built a family with, and someone who’s publicly devoted his life to serving God. But before morning, you’re dead. You’ve been shot twice in the head, and the person responsible for your death is the very person who promised to love and protect you. This is what prosecutors said happened to thirty-seven-year-old Ashley Flynn in Tipp City, Ohio, on February sixteenth of twenty twenty-six. And on September twenty-ninth, twenty- twenty-six, a jury agreed. Her husband, Caleb Flynn, a former pastor and American Idol contestant, was convicted of her murder. On October fifth, he received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. And just two days later, his attorney filed an appeal. So today we’re gonna talk about Ashley Flynn, the life she lived, the marriage that she thought she had, [00:03:00] and the affair her husband was hiding, and the evidence that prosecutors used to convince a jury that her murder was planned. So, we’re also gonna discuss some of the forensic evidence in this case, because as a forensic nurse death investigator, there are several details that I find particularly interesting, and some of them tell us quite a bit about what happened inside that bedroom. I’m Julie Matson. I’ve been a registered nurse for more than thirty years, and I’ve spent much of my career investigating deaths, examining bodies, and working alongside law enforcement and medical examiners. Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. So, before we discuss Caleb Flynn, I wanna spend some time talking about Ashley, because when cases like this make national headlines, it seems that the person that’s accused of committing the murder often becomes more recognizable than the person whose life was taken, and that’s not fair. I don’t like it that way. [00:04:00] Ashley Flynn was 37 years old. She lived in Tipp City, Ohio, which is a community actually north of Dayton. So, she was a wife, a mother of two daughters, a former elementary school teacher, and a volleyball coach. Very active in her community. People who knew Ashley described her as devoted to her family, her faith, and the children she worked with. She was involved quite a bit in her