Snapped revisits the Valley Center double homicide tied to Kisha Schaberg in season 25, episode 11. The hour follows how a reunion between a birth mother and her 18-year-old son, Anthony “Tony” Bluml, quickly spiraled into a deadly plan. That plan ended with Roger and Melissa Bluml, Tony’s adoptive parents, being shot in their driveway in November 2013.
This episode is set to re-air on Sunday, August 24, at 11 pm. The episode first aired in 2019 and traces the case from the first 911 call through plea deals, sentences, and later court filings. Viewers will see the sequence at home, the hospital fight for life, and the steps that led to four arrests.
Roger and Melissa Bluml adopted brothers Tony and Chris when they were young. Years later, after clashes at home, Tony left and reconnected with his birth mother, Kisha Schaberg. Tony’s younger brother, Chris, however, did not intend to rekindle his relationship with his birth mother.
Investigators later said planning for the crime took shape after the pair returned to Kansas and stayed in a hotel. The duo travelled to Valley Center in Kansas, where Tony was supposed to meet his adoptive parents, Roger and Melissa Bluml.
According to The Wichita Eagle, detectives learned about texts seeking a gun and about a staged break-in at the house. The shooting took place as the Blumls pulled into the driveway. Melissa died the next day. Roger succumbed to his injuries and died about five weeks later.
Tony dined with his adoptive parents on November 15, 2013. During that window, Schaberg and an accomplice went to the home and tried to make the scene look like a burglary. When the couple arrived at the scene, both were shot from close range in the vehicle. Chris, then 16, came home from a school event and found them in the truck.
Tips and interviews moved the case quickly. Within days, law enforcement arrested Schaberg, Tony, and two friends, Braden Smith and Andrew Ellington. Charging documents outlined capital murder after Roger’s death, along with aggravated robbery tied to missing items, as summarized by The Wichita Eagle.
Detectives tied together surveillance video, phone records, and statements. A schoolmate told police about a request for a gun two days before the shooting, and officers recovered items linked to the victims.
Court records say Tony texted updates as the plan unfolded. Schaberg handed off Melissa’s purse to be discarded, according to the Kansas Court of Appeals memorandum in Schaberg v. State (2020) and Oxygen’s case recap.
By 2015, plea talks replaced trial settings. Kisha Schaberg entered a no-contest plea to capital murder and two counts of aggravated robbery. Tony did the same. Each plea removed the death penalty from consideration, according to KSN’s coverage of the plea and sentencing (May-June 2015).
The sentences matched the gravity of the charges. As per KSN, in June 2015, a Sedgwick County judge ordered life in prison without the possibility of parole for both Schaberg and Tony after their no-contest pleas to capital murder and aggravated robbery.
Andrew Ellington received a life sentence with parole eligibility after 25 years. Meanwhile, Braden Smith was sentenced to about 24.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, as reported by The Wichita Eagle.
The appellate record shows that Kisha Schaberg later sought postconviction relief, arguing ineffective assistance during plea talks. The court affirmed the denial of relief in 2020, leaving the convictions and sentences intact.
