TRAGIC

Minor League Pitcher Blake Bivens Says His ‘Heart Was Turned to Ash’ by Murder of His Wife, Son, Mother-in-Law

“I shake and tremble at the thought of our future without them,” he said.

Tampa Bay Rays minor league pitcher Blake Bivens said his life was “destroyed” and his “heart was turned to ash” after his wife, 1-year-old son, and mother-in-law were killed this week. “The pain my family and I feel is unbearable and cannot be put into words,” he wrote in a post on Instagram late Thursday, his first public comment since the tragedy. “I shake and tremble at the thought of our future without them.” The 18-year-old brother of Bivens’ wife, Matthew Thomas Bernard, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings. Authorities have not been able to identify a motive in the murders, which started Tuesday when a neighbor found a woman dead in the driveway of a house, and police found the body of another woman and a child inside. A manhunt began for the suspect, which culminated in Bernard running naked out of the woods and attempting to choke a man outside of a church, only to be caught a few minutes later by a tactical team with a K-9 officer.