Baseball Player Discovered His Family Was Murdered After Checking Facebook

A minor league pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays’ farm team said he found out his family was murdered via social media.

During a service at The River Church in Danville, Virginia on Sunday, Blake Bivens revealed how he discovered his wife, baby son and mother-in-law were shot to death last August when he checked his Facebook.

“First headline I see is two females and a small child were gone,” Bivens, 24, began in the confessional, which was broadcast over Facebook. “I immediately knew that was them. I found out my family was gone over a Facebook headline. I just immediately began to scream in the middle of the airport.”

Bivens’ wife Emily, 25, their 14-month-old son Cullen, Emily’s mother, Joan Bernard, 64, and a pet dog were found slain in their Keeling, VA home while Bivens was out on a road trip with the Montgomery Biscuits.

His brother-in-law, Matthew Bernard, 19, was arrested and charged with three counts of murder after leading the police on a chase while naked. Police say there may have been “religious motivation” for the shootings, according to a search warrant, per ESPN. A determination hearing is scheduled for next week to see if Bernard is competent enough to stand trial.

Bivens spoke for more than 30 minutes on the broadcast, detailing how he first checked his phone while packing up for a bus ride to a day game, which led him to the awful news.

“There weren’t any messages from Emily or anyone,” he said. “I knew then something was going on and immediately called my parents. They were trying to figure out what was going on also. I knew I needed to get my stuff together. I needed to probably get an airport trip home, not knowing the extent of anything going on.”

He went on to discuss the heartbreaking trip home.

“The only thing I really remember from the whole plane ride is I just went through periods,” he said. “I just stared at the back of the seat the whole time, trying to get my mind to wrap around what I’m hearing.”

“It’s almost kind of like, ‘This isn’t really happening.’ I was more in a state of shock. I would go through periods of shaking,” he said. “Then I would start to lose it a little bit and break down and cry. It was kind of like a circle. The plane rides just seemed like they took forever.”

Bivens confessed the trip home “could have been a whole lot worse for me” if he hadn’t been joined by three members of his baseball team.

“I think the hardest moment for me was when I got home and I walked in my son’s bedroom for the first time and realized I was never going to see him on this earth again,” he revealed. “That was the worst moment in my life. Nothing ever will come to feeling the way I felt at that moment.”