Elder Chose to Murder Wife Rather Than Divorce and Risk Offending Church, Prosecutors Say
A church elder in Minnesota is at the center of a twisted tale of affairs, murder-for-hire and allegedly killing his wife when the hit fell through.
Stephen Allwine, a deacon in a United Church of God congregation, is on trial this week for the first-degree murder of his wife, Amy.
Prosecutors allege Allwine discovered the affair website Ashley Madison and then began cheating on his wife. Rather than divorce her, they say he hired Besa Mafia for $6000 to kill her and make it look like an accident. When the hit fell through, Prosecutors say Allwine murdered Amy himself in 2016.
According to City Pages:
After Amy was found dead later that fall, Stephen told investigators that he had no knowledge of the Dark Web. That turned out to be false, according to the criminal complaint against him, as computer forensics later found that he had been accessing the Dark Web as early as 2014, and cookies for several Tors—search engines used to search the Dark Web—were installed on his phone around the same time that dogdaygod [The name Allwine allegedly used online] started looking for ways to murder Amy.
The United Church of God is quite firm on divorce, and prosecutors believe this was the motive Allwine had to kill his wife.
“Couples who decide to marry are expected to know one another well enough, before they marry, in order to assess as closely as possible how they will get along after marriage. The Church strongly recommends counseling with the ministry,” according to the church site. “Even if couples have a short courtship, fail to counsel before marrying or have dysfunctional backgrounds, none of these recognized troubles justify the later putting away of [divorcing] a mate with the freedom to remarry. Marriage is a commitment for life. Failure to plan properly is not grounds for the future dissolving of a marriage.”
Allwine’s attorney vehemently denies the allegations as something that sounds like the plot of a movie or TV show.
“Just because he had an affair doesn’t mean he killed his wife,” attorney Kevin DeVore says.
Investigators initially ruled Amy’s death as a suicide, but quickly changed their report to foul play, as several items failed to line up: The gun was found near Amy’s left arm, but she was right-handed. Amy had no gun powder or other residue on her. Forensic tests also revealed bloody footprints had been cleaned up throughout the house. They also found poison in her system.
But Devore finds fault with the analysis.
According to Twin Cities Pioneer Press:
Devore questioned the credibility of the computer analyst who performed forensic examinations on Stephen Allwine’s computers and said the investigation of the home had been “contaminated.”
Police officers, Devore said, removed the gun found near Amy Allwine’s body to remove bullets and take photos before returning it to its original position.
Devore pointed to at least three neighbors who reported seeing Amy Allwine outside her home the night of her death and reported hearing two vehicles “racing” out of the neighborhood around then.
He also said authorities failed to follow up on an unknown user who remotely accessed Stephen Allwine’s computer the day of Amy Allwine’s death.
