A disturbing image found on Ashley Flynn’s phone had been saved just weeks before the wife of former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn was fatally shot.
The photograph showed Ashley posing alongside her better-known husband, but Caleb’s face had been scratched out. The image was apparently saved on February 2—slightly more than two weeks before Ashley, 37, was shot twice in the back of the head as she slept.
Caleb Flynn, 40, could face life in prison without parole if convicted of killing his wife on February 16. Prosecutors allege the former reality-TV contestant and music pastor murdered Ashley to pursue a relationship with his alleged mistress, 24-year-old Alleigha Botner.
Investigators say Flynn then attempted to make the couple’s Tipp City, Ohio, home appear to have been burglarized before blaming the shooting on an unidentified intruder.
Flynn has pleaded not guilty. He maintains that he was asleep in another room with the couple’s daughters when an intruder entered the home and killed his wife.
His attorneys argue that investigators reached conclusions too quickly and that intense media coverage of his alleged affair has influenced the interpretation of the evidence.
Prosecutors have filed a motion seeking dismissal of misdemeanor charges accusing Flynn of intimidating an attorney, victim or witness in a criminal case. The move came as prosecutors and defense attorneys rested their cases Monday, WHIO reports.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday morning.
Ashley Flynn had saved a photo in which her husband Caleb’s face was scratched out
Caleb Flynn, 40, could receive a life-without-parole sentence if convicted in his wife’s February 16 murder
Flynn called police at about 4 a.m. on February 16 from the couple’s home, telling dispatchers, “Somebody broke into my home and shot my wife.”
Responding officers found Ashley dead in the bedroom with two gunshot wounds.
Flynn told investigators that he had been in his daughters’ room when he heard a gunshot.
He also said he saw that a door on the garage side of the house had been forced open before discovering his wife dead in bed.
Authorities, however, found no evidence that an intruder had fled the property. They also said the damage to the garage-side door did not match the kind of damage typically associated with a break-in.
Police additionally observed that the center console of Flynn’s truck was open. Flynn had told investigators that he kept his handgun there.
Later that day, Flynn reportedly told police that he and Ashley had no marital problems “whatsoever.”
Authorities later learned that Flynn had been involved in a months-long affair with Botner, who allegedly issued repeated ultimatums demanding that he leave his wife.
Flynn has pleaded not guilty and says he was sleeping with the couple’s daughters in another room when an intruder killed Ashley
Flynn allegedly told Botner that he was willing to risk his daughters for her
Jurors heard last week how the lovers exchanged more than 100,000 messages during an affair lasting roughly 18 months.
In one September 2025 message, Flynn himself listed what he was prepared to sacrifice to be with his mistress – and put his daughters first.
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He said he was willing to risk his ‘daughters, a quarter-million-dollar salary job, a place to live, possibly a church I serve at, public shame and humiliation, and way more.’
Botner, meanwhile, repeatedly demanded that he leave Ashley.
‘Until she’s gone, I’m gone,’ she wrote in one ultimatum.
‘I was up until 4am last night crying, literally thinking of ways to kill her and not go to jail,’ he wrote.
Botner responded by explicitly telling him not to kill Ashley.
‘I’m not asking that you take her life, obviously, because that’s not what you should do, and I know you actually wouldn’t,’ she wrote.
‘But to make the divorce happen, it would change everything.’
Flynn responded: ‘I’ll work on getting rid of her. Until then, I love you.’
Alleigha Botner, 24, testified she repeatedly pushed Flynn to leave his wife
Botner testified she was just 20 when she met Flynn at Christian Life Center in Dayton in 2022, where she was an intern and he was in his mid-30s.
Their relationship became romantic in early 2024, she said.
By the night before Ashley’s death, prosecutors say the secret relationship was reaching a decisive moment.
Botner sent Flynn information she had researched about divorce proceedings, custody, deleting messages and how Ashley could potentially prove her husband’s infidelity.
Shortly before midnight, Flynn sent his mistress one final message.
‘Good night, tomorrow’s a big day. I’ve got to get to bed,’ he wrote. ‘I choose you, I’m about to be free.’
Hours later, Ashley was dead.
Botner testified that the timing immediately alarmed her.
‘Caleb, what’s going on? Were you involved? Is this real?’ she messaged Flynn on the morning of the killing.
She later deleted the message because she feared investigators would examine his phone and discover their affair, she admitted.
When she learned Ashley had supposedly been killed by an intruder, Botner said her ‘heart started pounding.’
‘In my mind, it just seemed like too much of a coincidence that, the day he’s divorcing her, she’s just dead all of a sudden,’ she testified.
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