A farmer who was wrongly convicted for murdering his wife’s sister has spoken out about his shock tat his parents covered up for his killer brother.
Floyd Bledsoe was caged for life in 2000 after his brother Tom killed 14-year-old Camille Arfmann the year before in Kansas.
Tom was arrested and admitted it but retracted his confession after Floyd failed a polygraph test and was put on trial.
Floyd Bledsoe (pictured in 2018) was caged for life in 2000 after his brother Tom killed 14-year-old Camille Arfmann the year before in Kansas
Tom (pictured) was arrested and admitted it but retracted his confession after Floyd failed a polygraph test and was put on trial
He served nearly 16 years in prison until new DNA evidence cleared him and implicated Tom for killing Camille (pictured) in 2015
He served nearly 16 years in prison until new DNA evidence cleared him and implicated Tom in 2015.
The murderer killed himself just a week later and was found with three letters admitting the ‘rape and murder of a 14-year-old’.
His parents had testified saying Tom was at home with them at the time of the murder, with his mother telling Floyd: ‘I know Tom didn’t do it… you’ll be blaming your dad next.’
Writing in the Guardian today, Floyd said: ‘My brother had withdrawn his confession and my parents testified that, at the time of the murder, he was home with them, sleeping. I can’t describe how much that hurt. They didn’t look at me.’
On his time in prison, Floyd (pictured) said he battled bouts of depression, especially around Christmas and birthdays
The then father of two (left), who was 23 when he was convicted, went through appeals with Kansas University School of Law and undertook DNA testing at the end of 2014. Right: Floyd’s then wife Heidi
On his freedom, Floyd wrote: ‘It felt like bliss. I walked out at 3.30pm and went to a restaurant to celebrate with my attorneys and interns. I couldn’t thank them enough.’
He also revealed he has seen his parents since his release during a visit to his sick mother in hospital.
Floyd said all ‘I saw this sick old lady, struggling to breathe, and all I had was compassion’, adding that his father was ‘stand-offish but I learned in prison that I had to forgive them’.
The farmer got remarried, to a volunteer from prison, and had a daughter, to whom he gave the middle names Alice and Jean after the two attorneys who helped him prove his innocence.
On his time in prison, Floyd said he battled bouts of depression, especially around Christmas and birthdays.
The then father-of-two, who was 23 when he was convicted, went through appeals with Kansas University School of Law and undertook DNA testing at the end of 2014.
It found his brother’s DNA on Camille’s body, leading officials to realise Floyd was innocent. Tom was found dead soon after in a car with three letters.
In a letter to his wife, Tom Bledose apologized for taking his own life, saying: ‘I really loved you but I cannot go on. It’s tearing me up inside,’ reported Topeka Capital-Journal.
It found his brother’s DNA on Camille’s body, but he was found dead on November 9 in a car with three letters. Pictured: Floyd during his release in 2015
In the note to his parents, he asked them to ‘please tell Floyd I am sorry’.
And in a missive addressed to ‘whomever cares’ he details how and why he killed Camille.
Tom said in the note that he picked her up from his brother’s trailer and took her to his parents’ house, where the two had sex in their bed.
When he found out Camille was just 14 years old, Tom wrote that he ‘freaked out’.
He went to his truck, grabbed his 9mm gun and pulled Camille to the ground in an attempt to scare her, but he accidentally fired a round to the back of her head, he wrote.
‘I didn’t mean to kill her,’ Bledsoe claimed.
But the letter did not explain why he shot the girl three more times and then hid her body in a trash heap.
On his freedom, Floyd wrote: ‘It felt like bliss. I walked out at 3.30pm and went to a restaurant to celebrate with my attorneys and interns. I couldn’t thank them enough’