Patricia Kimble thought she’d found love with husband Ted Kimble before he murdered her

Patricia Blakely Kimble thought she had finally found true love when the 26-year-old devout Sunday school teacher married Ted Kimble, son of a Baptist preacher in Greensboro, NC., in 1994.

However, the following year her husband Ted and his brother Ronnie Kimble orchestrated her cold-blooded murder. Their motivation was purely one of financial gain.

Ted forged his wife’s signature on a life insurance policy application to the value of $200,000. He then hired his brother Ronnie to do the killing in exchange for a share in the life insurance money. Ted had taken a second job to provide himself with an alibi.

Ronnie went to their home and shot Patricia once in the head before pouring gasoline on her lifeless body and setting fire to the house. When firefighters extinguished the flames a few hours later, they discovered Patricia’s now unrecognizable remains.

Patricia Kimble had become concerned about her safety

Police were first alerted to Ted’s possible involvement when a friend of Patricia told police that she had told her she was worried about her husband’s behavior. When police examined Patricia’s diary, they discovered more references to her being afraid of her husband.

Investigators then learned Ronnie Kimble had confessed to a friend that he had committed the murder. The net slowly began to close in on the Kimble brothers, and they were eventually arrested.

In September 1998, a jury convicted Ronnie Kimble of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison.

The following March, Ted Kimble was facing the prospect of the death penalty, which caused him to enter an Alford plea, meaning he escaped execution.

An Alford plea meant he would be treated as guilty and accepted that prosecutors had enough to convict him, but he maintained he was not guilty of first-degree murder.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree arson, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and received a 107-year prison sentence.

Authorities later discovered that during his trial, Ted Kimble had offered a fellow inmate $100,000 to kill eight witnesses and help him escape from jail.

More from If I Should Die

Follow the links to read about more murders profiled on Before I Die.

Hae Min Lee was an 18-year-old high school student from Baltimore, Md., when she vanished one day in January 1999 only to be found later strangled to death. An anonymous tip led to her ex-boyfriend, 17-year-old Adnan Masud Syed, being locked up for her murder.

James Ramey busted into the home of ex-girlfriend Amanda Mangas and shot her dead in Ohio in 2017. He then kidnapped their son Winston along with the child’s grandmother Deborah Mangas. Police then launched a desperate bid to find the trio before it was too late.

If I Should Die airs Thursday at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.