It was in the early morning hours of Jan. 12, 2020, when 31-year-old Shea Briar was found clinging to life on a rural road in Jay County, Indiana.
Briar was unable to communicate, and first responders were initially unsure of what had happened to him, but when he arrived at the hospital, medical staff discovered a bullet wound in his back.
“There was no exit wound … It was actually in his heart,” Jay County Sheriff’s Detective Ben Schwartz told “48 Hours” correspondent Anne-Marie Green. “He … passed away.”
Green reports on the case in “Coached to Kill,” an all-new “48 Hours” now streaming on Paramount+.
An investigation was launched, and police soon received a call from a woman named Kristi Sibray.
Sibray was an acquaintance of Briar’s former fiancée, 29-year-old Esther Jane Stephen. Stephen, who went by the name E.J., was a local high school softball coach. She and Briar shared a young daughter together.
Sibray, a former police officer, told detectives that in the months leading up to Briar’s murder, Stephen came over often and that she was accompanied by her assistant coach, 19-year-old Shelby Hiestand.
Jay County High School yearbook
During those visits, Sibray said Stephen would confide in her about problems she was having with Briar. Stephen and Briar had recently broken off their engagement, and Briar had filed a court petition to establish parenting time for the daughter they shared.
“He wanted to provide for her … and he just really wanted to have some visitation,” Tracy Hoevel, Briar’s mother, told “48 Hours.”
But according to Sibray, Stephen wasn’t happy about it.
“She didn’t want to share the baby. That was her baby. That was her child,” Sibray told “48 Hours.”
Sibray told investigators that Stephen would discuss ways to get rid of Briar, but that she didn’t think anything of it at the time.
“I just really thought she was venting. I did not think that was for real,” Sibray told “48 Hours.”
And Sibray said she had that same mindset when, over time, the conversations grew more detailed — and various methods were discussed. At one point, Sibray said Stephen and Hiestand told her they put pills in Briar’s tea.
“They crushed up ibuprofen, I believe … And he did drink the whole glass, but nothing happened to him,” Sibray told “48 Hours.” “I’m like, ‘are you serious?’ … I didn’t even … believe her. … Because I just could not see her doing that.”
But when Sibray learned of Briar’s murder, she said she immediately viewed all those conversations in a different light.
“I felt like I failed because how did I miss this? How did I miss these signs?” Sibray said.
A day after speaking to Sibray, detectives brought Stephen and Hiestand in for questioning.
After initially denying involvement in Briar’s murder, they both admitted they took him to that rural road and that Hiestand shot him in the back.
Hiestand told detectives she blacked out then fired the gun at Briar.
Jay County Sheriff’s Office
E.J. Stephen and Shelby Hiestand were arrested and charged with murder, but they would both later plead not guilty and when Stephen went on trial, she placed all the blame on Hiestand.
Stephen took the stand and insisted she had no reason to want Briar dead. And as for those pills in Briar’s drink, Stephen said that it was Hiestand’s idea and that she only went along with it because she thought it was an innocent chemistry experiment.
What would a jury think?
