On an autumn day in October 2018, the small town of Sodus, New York, was shaken by a brutal act of violence that claimed the lives of Amber Washburn and her boyfriend, Joshua Niles. Amber, a 24-year-old female, and Joshua, 28, were gunned down in the driveway of their home, a place where they were building a life together with their young son and Joshua's two children from a previous relationship. The couple was ambushed, with Joshua being shot multiple times.
Amber, who had just returned from an errand with her son, witnessed the attack on her boyfriend and attempted to flee. In a desperate bid to escape, she put her car in reverse but was fatally shot in the head before she could get away. Miraculously, her young son, who was in the backseat of the vehicle, was physically unharmed.
The investigation into the shocking double homicide quickly pointed away from a random act of violence. The targeted nature of the killings led law enforcement to scrutinize the lives of the victims, and a bitter custody dispute soon came into focus. Joshua had recently been granted full custody of his two children from his former girlfriend, Charlene Childers. This development had reportedly enraged Childers and her new husband, Timothy Dean, who was a former police chief in Sunray, Texas. Investigators began to unravel a sinister plot that stretched from the quiet streets of Sodus to the heart of Texas.
The ensuing investigation revealed a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Charlene Childers and carried out by her husband, Timothy Dean. Driven by a desire to regain custody of her children, Childers admitted to being the driving force behind the plan to have Joshua Niles killed. Timothy Dean traveled from Texas to New York to execute the deadly plan. Another Texas police officer, Bron Bohlar, was also implicated in the scheme for helping Dean rent the vehicle he used to travel to Sodus to commit the murders.
The case culminated in the arrests and convictions of all three individuals involved. Timothy Dean, the man who pulled the trigger, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Charlene Childers, the mastermind behind the plot, received a sentence of 28 years in state prison for first-degree manslaughter. Their accomplice, Bron Bohlar, was sentenced to one to three years in prison for his role in the conspiracy. The tragic deaths of Amber Washburn and Joshua Niles left a lasting scar on their families and the community, a stark reminder of the devastating consequences of a custody battle that spiraled into a calculated act of murder.
