American Idol contestant's kids asked heartbreaking question after mom's death as dad is accused of killing her
The children of a former American Idol contestant accused of murdering his wife had a heartbreaking question about his alleged affair, their family has said.
Caleb Flynn is currently on trial for the murder of his wife Ashley Flynn on February 16, while the couple's daughters, who were just 11 and nine years old at the time, were in the next room.
The former American Idol contestant was accused of fatally shooting Ashley, 37, in the head in the middle of the night, before making it appear as though the house had been burgled and calling the police to the family home in Tipp City, Ohio.
Flynn has been charged with murder, aggravated murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence, and witness intimidation, court records say, and has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, PEOPLE reports.
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The court has also heard that Flynn had been having an affair with Alleigha Botner, who was in her early twenties and was employed at the church where he worked, with prosecutors sharing text messages which had been exchanged between them, some of which Botner also read in court.
As part of the trial Ashley's sister Kayla Keyt told the court what the couple's daughters had said when they heard that their father had been having an affair.
“They said, ‘She loved daddy more than anyone else in life. So why did Daddy not love her as much?’”, Keyt told the court, with the trial being streamed on Court TV.
Keyt added that the elder child had said that she was not surprised when she found out that Botner had been the woman her father was having an affair with.
She went on to tell the court that the family had been 'committed' to letting the children know that their father is a suspect in the murder investigation, but when they asked questions they were informed that police 'have sufficient evidence' that their father is a suspect.
Keyt told the court in her witness testimony: “We didn’t want to burst their bubble, ever."
Botner also took to the witness stand as part of the trial, confirming to the court that she and Flynn had started an affair back in March 2024.
She said that during the course of their relationship she had told Flynn to leave Ashley on multiple occasions.
During her evidence, Botner read out messages from her text exchanges with Flynn which were sent while they were in a relationship.
These included several times where she had issued Flynn an ultimatum to leave his wife, as well as Flynn saying he would be willing to 'sacrifice' his daughters for her.
In the messages both Botner and Flynn directed insults at Ashley, including calling her 'spawn of Satan'.
Other text exchanges saw Caleb allegedly saying that if he had been able to kill Ashley without being discovered then he would.
At another point in the messages Botner, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing herself, also wrote that she wanted to kill Ashley.
Flynn had appeared briefly on the 12th season of TV talent show American Idol.
Topics: US News, Court, Crime, American Idol
Kit Roberts