48 Hours - The Black Swan Murder?

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

A former ballerina shoots her husband. Did she kill to save herself or was it out of spite? "48 Hours" contributor Jim Axelrod reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. I started working on a story about a scandal in the ballet world. My name is Alice Robb, and I'm a contributing writer for Vanity Fair. It was a business story about a ballet company that turned into a murder investigation.

company that turned into a murder investigation. In 2016, Ashley married a much older man. Together, they made a plan to start a new ballet company. Ashley's dream was to create a ballet company that would be a home for dancers who were unconventional. She didn't want a cookie cutter company. She wanted girls that were tall, girls that were short. You know, I am taller, so I thought that this would be a great fit for me.

I don't know that Doug could spell ballet before he met Ashley. What? You know, when you love somebody, what do you want to do? You want to make her happy. Ashley was 24 and Doug was 54. They knew each other for approximately 13 days before they got married.

Ashley was sending photographs of herself to Doug constantly. She was a bikini model at some point, and she knew how to work it. She knew how to use it. His major concern is, how is he going to introduce Ashley to Eva? I felt like Ashley was taking my dad away from me. Ashley wants to win total affection. She wants to be number one.

She would go through periods where she was just raging at Doug. She flip-flops between he's a great guy who everybody knew him as, or he's evil. Good or evil, good or evil, good or evil. She goes to live with her mother and effectively cuts off all communication with Doug. He's begging her to talk about things, give him another chance. Meanwhile, she accused him of trying to poison her. She's accused him publicly of murder, attempted murder. Was Doug Benefield dangerous? He accused him publicly of murder, attempted murder.

Was Doug Benefield dangerous? They both had a lot of guns. And there was an incident where during an argument, he shot a gun into the ceiling. After the case with the poisoning allegations, I saw a picture of the two of them, you know, arm in arm, attending a gala together and looking like a happy couple. He was so hopeful and optimistic that everything would be all right. Every time she made allegations, she always came back to him and gave him hope of reconciling.

At some point, Ashley said that she wanted to move to Maryland together and start over as a family. They were packing up her house in Florida. I heard somebody screaming outside. And she shot him. She walks next door, gun in hand, and tells the neighbor, I shot Doug in self-defense. It was right next door to me. She just came over. Her strange husband attacked her, and she says she shot him. Was she genuinely afraid

or just trying to get her way? Since Black Swan came out, I think that's a lot of people's only window into ballet, which sucks. But this certainly does parlay into that narrative. To Doug, Ashley is this innocent, pure

white swan. But underneath those white feathers, she's an evil woman. She's the black swan. Thank you. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok Do you remember your last conversation with your dad? He tried to call me, but I didn't pick up because I was at work. I said, I'll call you later. Never called him.

I assumed everything would be all right. I'd get a Bible verse next morning, and I'd call him, because I was at work. I said, I'll call you later. Never called him. Because I assumed everything would be all right. I'd get a Bible verse next morning and I'd call him and everything would be okay. Eva Benefield got a Bible verse by text every morning from her father, Doug. It was their daily ritual. But on September 28, 2020, that Bible verse never came. A sign that everything was not okay. I was freaking out and I spammed him with text messages. I called him. Out of desperation, she began Googling the names Doug and Ashley Benefield and accident with Florida man.

Later that day, Eva called an uncle who had texted her. And I said, what's wrong with my dad? And he said, there's been an accident. And I said, she killed him, didn't she? And he said, yeah, she shot him twice. Hang on, those were the first words out of your mouth? Where was that coming from? I just had a gut feeling.

Eva's gut feeling came from watching her father and his much younger second wife, Ashley, argue frequently during their four-year seesaw marriage. The fighting had now exploded into heartbreak for Eva. I drove a couple blocks down the road to my friend's house, and they saw that I was crying, and they said, what's wrong? And I said, Ashley killed my dad. And they saw that I was crying and they said, what's wrong? And I said, Ashley killed my dad. It was a tragic end to a relationship that began at a dinner in Florida back in August of 2016.

Doug met Ashley and felt like he'd been struck by a thunderbolt. He just immediately thought Ashley was the most beautiful, the most amazing person in the world. Writer Alice Robb wrote a piece about the Benefields for the November issue of Vanity Fair. Doug was from Charleston, South Carolina, a consultant who worked with technology companies and defense contractors. The two had bonded over conservative values and guns. The night that she met Doug for the first time, she had guns on her person, in her purse, in her bra. Stephanie Murphy, Doug's family attorney, says that when Ashley first met Doug, she was working in the Sarasota campaign office of Donald Trump. Her job was to help galvanize the evangelical vote and work the rallies. You can see video of her on the internet throwing things into the crowd,

getting people really excited. According to Ashley's journal, she was traveling on Trump's plane when Trump showered her with compliments. As she wrote, he called me a bombshell, his little girl, and his baby. Aside from her work in politics, Ashley had also been a fledgling swimsuit model and a dancer with the Maryland Youth Ballet, where she was sometimes a featured performer, as in this piece from The Nutcracker. I've seen videos of her dancing. She was definitely a good, well-trained dancer. Days after they met, Doug left the country on a short business trip.

And by the time his plane was landing back in the United States, the heart emojis were flying fast and furious. They were saying, I love you to each other within, I think, a week or so. Doug was deeply religious, and his friends believed he wanted to marry Ashley before he was intimate with her. What did he say to you? Will you marry us? Trip Cormany was one of Doug's closest friends, and happened to be an ordained Episcopal pastor at the time. Just 13 days had passed since the couple had met.

Trip wasn't thrilled, but agreed to perform the ceremony. It was being loyal to my friend. Doug invited almost no one to the wedding, not even his teenage daughter. He loves this girl, his 15-year-old daughter. He goes and gets married and doesn't even tell her. Yep. Tommy Benefield is Doug's cousin. It's bewildering.

I would have talked him out of it. Eva certainly would have talked him out of it. Eva was stunned, still dealing with an unspeakable trauma. Nine months earlier, Eva's mother and Doug's wife, 56-year-old Renee Benefield, had died. Eva had discovered her mother's body. I couldn't get in through the front door, and she wasn't answering the doorbell or the knock, so I crawled through these bushes and then your parents bedroom yeah so I could see directly in there the blinds were open the lights weren't on or anything and then I could

kind of see her silhouette so I went to the door and to my neighbor the neighbor kicked in the door there Renee was dead from an undiagnosed heart ailment. In the aftermath, Doug was right there for his daughter. After my mom died, he really took kind of a motherly role along with a fatherly role. He made sure I could go to him with boy problems, with school drama, with anything, and he would take care of it. But nine months later, Eva discovered Doug had a new woman in his life.

I was upstairs and he said, Eva, we need to come down and talk to me and Ashley. And I said, the only thing that you would need to tell me about y'all's relationship is if y'all, if you proposed. And as soon as those words came out of my mouth, he said, we're married. That's a lot. It is a lot. Doug encouraged Ashley to try and mother a reluctant Eva, who was only nine years younger. He basically told her that I needed somebody. I needed a motherly role in my life. And I didn't think that I needed that. The situation became even more complicated when Doug and Ashley allowed Eva's friend Sydney to move into the house.

Two teenage girls and a new young wife were a combustible combination. And during one heated argument with Ashley, Doug cracked. In a terrible moment, he discharged the gun into the ceiling of his house. His best friend, Tripp, says that Doug was filled with regret. In his words, he said, I did the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life. But that did not end the relationship. Just the opposite. the relationship. Just the opposite. Two days after the gun incident, Doug and Ashley threw themselves a formal wedding reception, complete with guests this time. The newlyweds also forged ahead with Ashley's grand plan to create an inclusive ballet company. The idea of it was really great.

But implementing it was something else entirely. And so when it didn't go her way, she was just going to destroy it. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder?

I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there. And we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus

and the Wondery app. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye?

Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. Once Ashley started causing trouble and stress, that's when he started to realize how I was feeling. Even though there was a growing tension at home between Ashley and Eva.

He promised me that things were going to be okay eventually. Doug went ahead with helping Ashley follow her dream. Establishing a ballet company in Charleston with a unique mission. Being more inclusive, having dancers of every shade, color, body type, those are all things that I'm a big believer in. Ashley and Doug hired ballet master Michael Wise to train the dancers. They talked a big game about big money, he says. Ten million dollars they promised

they'd secured from backers and boldly named their new company the American National Ballet, or A&B. When you first met Doug, what kind of guy did he strike you as? Kind, a very serious businessman, and had a very methodical approach to a lot of what he did. Did he know anything about ballet? No. And he was very open about that. I was supposed to be working with Ashley to get her to understand how a company should be run. What was your first impression of Ashley? Young. Ambitious. We were all hoping that she would rise to the occasion. that she would rise to the occasion. In the summer of 2017, Ashley and Doug were there as A&B held auditions.

I definitely thought that it was something that I wanted to be a part of. Dancer Amana Hemsley hoped A&B would be her chance to prove herself. Being a black female dancer, it's so challenging to audition for other companies where you don't fit the mold exactly. So I thought that this would be a great fit for me. If you're in the ballet community, you know there's a lot of crap that needs to change.

Athena Nicolacopoulos interviewed with Ashley and loved what she heard about her vision. It sounded like she was genuinely excited to get this new company going and that they were going to try and do things a little bit differently. The majority of her dancers were individuals that were very much like her. Had the drive, had the want, but hadn't necessarily been given an opportunity. Dancer after dancer proudly posted to social media they'd joined the A&B family. But that wasn't the only family Ashley had in mind. to social media, they joined the A&B family. But that wasn't the only family Ashley had in mind. On top of starting a ballet

company, Ashley also wanted to get pregnant. And in the midst of putting together the ballet company, that's exactly what happened. How did that sit with you? It didn't sit well at all. So this kind of felt like another stab in the back.

There was a lot of stress because now they basically have two teenage daughters and a little girl on the way. At the end of the summer in 2017, some 40 dancers from all over the world began arriving in Charleston to work with Ashley. From the first meeting, they realized what they'd been promised at A&B wasn't what they'd be getting. We get there and we're like, where is she? And Doug announces that she is bedridden with a really difficult pregnancy and so she wasn't going to be there for the first however many months. It was explained to me that they't going to be there for the first however many months.

It was explained to me that they were going to be developing this state-of-the-art facility in downtown Charleston. Day one, when we're ready to start up, they were like, can we use your facility? Each day something would happen that just made us feel even more unsettled. Hi, guys. Sorry. The shoes kept dropping. The company typically pays for the dancers' pointe shoes. I remember one day we came in and they're like, yeah, unfortunately we have to half your allotment of shoes. This sounds like a professional baseball team not supplying their players with bats.

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. On top of all this chaos and confusion, the dancers were having trouble getting paid. Their checks were often late, if they arrived at all. Doug was scrambling to meet the company's obligations. We would ask him, hey, where's the money for our shoes or our paychecks? He would go to the bank and just pull out cash and give people cash. Paying you out of his own pocket in cash is not the kind of thing that's going to inspire confidence. No. No. Confidence had gone a long time at this point. That was very long gone. We really thought, we're like, well, when Ashley comes back, like, that might be what fixes all of this.

But Ashley wasn't coming back. At the end of August, citing her difficult pregnancy, Ashley went back to Florida to live with her mother, while Doug tried to make the ballet work in Charleston. What did you make of that? with her mother while Doug tried to make the ballet work in Charleston. What did you make of that? I was just kind of like, okay, I mean, that means I get more alone time with my dad to hang out. We had a decent amount of sympathy for him, too.

We're like, geez, he got sucked into this whole thing, and poor thing, he doesn't really know what he's doing. He's trying to be there for us as much as he can. The rumblings about trouble in the Benefields' marriage grew louder. It seemed like it was something that was going to crash and burn very shortly. Very shortly. In September, while Doug was at an event for the ballet, Ashley and her mother drove from Florida to the house in Charleston and dropped a bombshell. The marriage was over.

She came to Charleston and packed up her things and then left Doug this scathing note about all the reasons why she didn't want to be with him anymore. In the note, Ashley called him possessive and controlling. She wrote the incident when he'd fired a gun into the ceiling, as well as other unsafe behavior, had left her fearful for her life and the safety of her unborn child. I could see the look on his face when he read it. I could just tell his heart was broken. But Ashley's note was just the beginning. He had this family that he thought was going to be perfect, happy, and faithful.

And it fell apart in the most spectacular way. It wasn't long before the relationship became truly toxic. She thought Doug may have poisoned her. This is a pretty long letter. She says at the end, do not harass or try to follow me or I will call the police. She does not seem like someone who is open to getting back together. She does not seem like someone who is open to getting back together. Ashley's scathing note to Doug left little doubt about her feelings.

I really think that Ashley thought that that was going to be it. Just pack up her stuff, leave a note, and it was going to be over. But Doug wasn't ready to give up. He sent Ashley text after text begging her to reconsider. One of them read, I am on my knees and face before God, asking you to forgive me. But Ashley was not in a forgiving mood. She decided to call the authorities on Doug.

Cops showed up at my house after she left my dad, and he wasn't home. I had to answer the door. She got child protective services involved from Florida. I hadn't even seen her in months. Ashley told police that Doug had anger issues and all about the day he fired his gun inside the house. Investigators interviewed Eva. I was constantly having people come up to my door and questioning if my dad was a good dad. And it just made me so angry because he was, and I just kept having to repeat myself. My dad is a good dad. He's never done anything to hurt anyone. He wouldn't hurt anyone. Doug was subjected to a CPS investigation, but ultimately was cleared. He'd been evaluated by a psychologist, a full psych evaluation, who said, there's nothing wrong with this guy. He's not dangerous.

Doug was struggling on another front. Overwhelmed by handling the ballet company. overwhelmed by handling the ballet company. By mid-October, we were notified that Ashley was stepping down. Did she jump or was she pushed? Pushed. Why? Because there needed to be leadership and Ashley was not being a leader. Wise was in the room when Doug got a call from Ashley

who was more than a little upset. The phone rang, he picks it up and you hear Ashley screaming, you took my ballet company away from me. With Ashley gone, Doug brought in new leaders who made drastic changes. gone, Doug brought in new leaders who made drastic changes. On October 23rd, 2017, some of these dancers, including Amana, were called into a meeting, told to sign non-disclosure agreements, and fired. And Doug was of no help here? No, Doug was, yeah, nowhere to be found that day. help here? No. Doug was nowhere to be found that day. Just like that, half the company's dancers were gone. Two days later, Ashley posted on the ballet's social media pages, I am completely devastated by what has been done and the new leadership has destroyed all that we worked so hard to build. What happened hurt. It helped to know that someone was on our side there and that,

you know, this was never the intention. It seemed like a beautiful idea had gone up in smoke. Within months, the American National Ballet was done. Doug was out more than $100,000. His ballet nightmare was over, but his friends say a new one was just beginning. Ashley now had questions about Doug's first wife, Eva's mother Renee, and how she died. Ashley texted Doug, Wait, what did she die of again? Doug told her that Renee had a 75% artery blockage. Ashley, I thought I have heard you say something about medications or something, like bad drugs?

I've read the autopsy report. It's clear. Died of a heart attack, essentially. It soon became clear why Ashley was so interested in how Renee died. She told Doug's cousin, Tommy, she thought Doug had poisoned Renee. What was your reaction? You must have been like, what? It's out of left field. I'm really confused by that. It's just preposterous that he would have harmed Renee.

He was in love with her. The local police say they closed the case in 2016 after they got the coroner's report. But Ashley talked to writer Alice Robb, shared her theory about Renee, and made another shocking allegation. She said that, you know, as a dancer, she'd always known her body well and that she really felt like she was even more nauseous than she would have expected as a pregnant woman. And she said that she had been poisoned.

Ashley believed that Doug has been poisoning her while she was pregnant with their daughter. They were both big tea fans. And she hearkened back to the times that Doug was bringing her tea in bed because she didn't want to get out of bed. Doug, still hoping for a reconciliation and apparently having no idea about Ashley's suspicions, sent her a birthday gift at the end of November 2017. He had purchased a lovely teapot and teacups and saucers and this specialty tea that was supposed to be for pregnant women. The gift fed Ashley's growing concerns about Doug.

She takes it to the police department as hazardous materials and claims that it's how he's poisoning her. What do the police make of that? They treat it as hazardous materials that day. They test it and prove out it's not any poisonous materials. Ashley also sent her hair to an independent lab for testing to determine if she'd been poisoned. The report said her hair showed higher than normal levels of aluminum, zinc, and other metals. But Doug's lawyer disputes those findings. She had gotten plenty of lab work done because she was pregnant. Her medical records in South Carolina, her labs all came back normal.

Three weeks before her due date, without Doug knowing, Ashley checked herself into the hospital. I don't think she was poisoned, but that doesn't mean she doesn't think she was poisoned. She was at Tampa General Hospital claiming the child had been exposed to heavy metals in utero because her husband had poisoned her. Ashley also claimed, without any proof, that Doug was physically abusive and had held her prisoner back in Charleston. And even though Doug was hundreds of miles away, she said he had been stalking her in Florida. I don't think Ashley was ever sincerely afraid of Doug. With no way to know if what Ashley told them was true, the hospital took precautions for her safety and assigned her a new name christina

three days later doctors performed a c-section the baby girl was healthy but ashley continued to worry her baby had been poisoned both ashley and her daughter were here every single day receiving treatments. Do you think Ashley really believed she was poisoned? Chat with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and Twitter. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn,

and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that was still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with.

In the Pitcairn Trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all.

I'm Marcia Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery

Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. The news that Ashley had given birth to a healthy baby girl in March 2018 took more than a month to reach Doug, says his lawyer, Stephanie Murphy. The baby was born about three weeks early. Doug had no idea. She had named the child something completely different than they had ever discussed. The child did not have Doug's last name, and Doug was not listed as the father on the original birth certificate.

No one was. Ashley wanted to raise her daughter with her mother alone. She didn't want to co-parent. And she kept pursuing her accusation that Doug had killed Renee. Eva says that at one point, Ashley and her mother Alicia even pulled Eva aside. And they suggest to you that your father had a part in your mother's death? Right. What exactly did they say to you?

They said, we're concerned about your safety. Your dad's a bad guy. He does bad things. I just told them to get away from me. But mother and daughter did not go away. Months later, Eva says, they renewed their accusations. And what did they say that time? Your dad poisoned your mom. How'd you react to that? I said, no, he didn't.

I was there, I found my mom. And that caused a lot of emotional trauma. My dad wouldn't do that. He loved my mom. I want to be clear about something. Was Doug ever charged with any crime? No, sir. None of the allegations were true. He never, ever did anything that she said he did. Ashley did not respond to our request for an interview,

but she appeared convinced that she and her three-month-old baby had been poisoned. In her search for help, Ashley signed them up for 26 consecutive days of treatment in this hyperbaric chamber. It can detox the body of heavy metals and other toxins. Safety director Robert Sederoth says Ashley and her daughter spent 40 hours in this 12-person chamber that looks more nautical than medical. We call them dives because it's, we're almost simulating diving, like when the divers go down. Ashley's daughter was the youngest patient ever treated here. Adults wear a plastic hood while inside the chamber, but with a baby, things got a bit tricky.

Ashley's daughter was really small, you know, at that time, so we ended up taking this ring and we put it around her waist. It was like, she was like a little ballerina, and so her half of her body was actually inside of the hood. In the summer of 2018, the poisoning allegations came to a head when the Benefield squared off in a Bradenton, Florida courtroom. Doug wanted to see his daughter and Ashley was requesting an injunction to keep him far away. An audio recording was made of the proceeding. Here,

Stephanie questions Ashley about the state of her pregnancy. You also told Lakewood Ranch OBGYN that the pregnancy had been uncomplicated, correct? Is there a page you'd like me to reference? I'm just asking him. Is that what you told him? I wouldn't say it was uncomplicated. My entire life has been complicated for about two years. Okay. The OB wrote in her report, pregnancy has been uncomplicated. Was that inaccurate? I'm not responsible for what the doctor or the nurse writes.

Okay. You have accused your husband of poisoning you. Yes. It is heartbreaking that somebody you would trust would do something to you. But the judge was not persuaded by two days of testimony and the lab test results Ashley had submitted. There is not a single scintilla of credible evidence that Ms. Benefield has ever been poisoned or suffered from any illness of any poison.

That ruling cleared the way for Doug to finally see his daughter. Days later, he and Ashley met outside the sheriff's office to exchange the baby. To Stephanie's surprise, Ashley was suddenly very accommodating. She then immediately went right up to Doug, handed the baby over, nice as she could be, very cordial. She even suggested that the three of them, Doug, Ashley, and the baby, spend time together. And Doug said, okay, sure, because Doug wanted to make the transition as easy for his daughter as possible. Because to her, he was a stranger. And I talked to Doug.

I said, OK, it's fine, of course. Please be careful. For the better part of the next year, Doug, Ashley, and their daughter seemed happy, at least according to Doug. Doug even moved to a nearby apartment in Florida. Doug thought they were back together, that they were doing what they were supposed to do in the beginning, which was to slowly get to know each

other, be a family. I thought everything was going to be okay. But in August 2019, when he met Ashley to pick up his daughter, Doug was stunned to see an engagement ring on Ashley's finger. Doug hired a private investigator to find out what was going on. The private eye told Doug that Ashley was seeing another man. And in November 2019, Doug filed for divorce. Soon after, Ashley began lodging complaints against Doug. Ashley accused Doug of sexually abusing his daughter. She accused him of a whole litany of things. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Doug vehemently denied harming his daughter and authorities agreed

there was no evidence. Doug then wrote an email in March of 2020 to the sheriff's office accusing Ashley of having a split personality. But a few months later, Doug did something that seemed unthinkable. In a head-spinning move, he announced that he and Ashley were going to try again to be a family and were relocating to Maryland. Tommy, I know we keep circling back to the same question, and I'm sorry, it's just any viewer of this hour is going to also be asking, what did Doug need to see before he would say, time out, we're done?

He is still believing he can rescue and save and have a marriage, a loving marriage. After somebody says you're sexually abusing your daughter, don't you cut and run? Don't you say, I tried. Right. I'm out. Right. Yes, most people do.

But not Doug. She's still presenting to him and to others that they're going to put all this back together again. Friends held their breath, but hoped for Doug's sake that a miracle reunion was about to happen. Tripp says he knew better than to even try to talk Doug out of reconciling with Ashley. There's nothing I can say that could possibly turn him around on this. He's going to do this if it kills him. What do you make of Ashley and Doug staying together?

Go inside the couple's short but troubled relationship at 48hours.com. He said that their relationship was going really well, and he was just excited for a fresh start. On September 27, 2020, Doug Benefield was preparing to begin his new life. He was moving with Ashley, their young daughter, and Ashley's mother, Alicia, from Florida to Maryland. So it's Sunday night, and Doug is over at Ashley and Alicia's house. And Doug is filling up the U-Haul. Alicia decides to take the baby for a walk down to the neighborhood park.

Ashley stayed behind with Doug. Soon after, a neighbor heard screams and called 911. I heard somebody screaming outside. Then Ashley walked to a different neighbor's house, carrying her.45 caliber handgun. She walks next door, gun in hand, tells the neighbor, I shot Doug in self-defense. The neighbor calls 911.

It was right next door to me. She just came over. Her strange husband attacked her, and she says she shot him. Ashley can be heard sobbing in the background. When the ambulance arrived, Doug was still breathing. When the ambulance arrived, Doug was still breathing. Police and EMTs assisted Doug, who had been shot twice in his right leg and arm. Police noted that the bullet from his arm traveled into his chest cavity.

Doug lived for an hour, but died at nearby doctor's hospital. Ashley was not arrested that night, as detectives began investigating her claim of self-defense. But they'd have to do it without her. She didn't speak to detectives at all. As of today, she's never given any kind of statement to law enforcement. But Ashley's mother, Alicia, told the detective that she and her daughter were victims of domestic abuse and had been living in fear of Doug for three and a half years.

She claimed that they had tried to get help, but nobody would help them. And Ashley's lawyer, Faith Brown, told the detective that Ashley was creating an escape plan to get away from Doug once and for all. an escape plan to get away from Doug once and for all. Brown told the detective Ashley was in danger, has a psychologist, two attorneys, and a burner phone. Ashley also had a safe location and a rental car set up. Ashley was expected to implement the plan the very next day because, as Ashley's lawyer told a detective,

she was very concerned Doug was getting wind of the plan. But, as detectives investigated, Ashley's claim of self-defense became problematic. A detective noted that Doug had no guns or weapons on his person or near him. She shot an unarmed man. If it were self-defense, why wasn't there a mark on her body? Ashley had only an old and very minor scratch on her body, police reported. And perhaps most troubling of all,

the forensics determined that it does not appear that he was facing Ashley when she began shooting. Ashley has not revealed what happened in that moment. More than a month after the shooting, in November of 2020, Ashley Benefield was charged with second-degree murder. The arrest warrant noted it appears that Ashley had exhausted all legal means of keeping the child away from Douglas before the shooting. She's pled not guilty. I don't know what Ashley believed.

Writer Alice Robb says it's difficult to know if Ashley was a victim or a master manipulator. Was she genuinely afraid and just trying to protect her baby and save herself? Or was she trying to get Doug out of her life just out of spite? Just because she hated him? I feel like part of her wanted to believe that my dad was a good guy, but then there was also a part of her that was scared of him, and I think that that part took over. Why was she scared of him?

I think all the allegations she made, just she started to believe them a little too much. Today, Ashley's mother, Alicia Byers, has custody of her grandchild. Ashley is free on bond and reportedly sees her daughter frequently. Do you ever think about her, Ashley? All the time. What do you think? I just want to know why would she take away my father, my best friend,

knowing that I don't have another parent. I knew something was wrong one day when he didn't send me a good morning text. And then a couple hours later, I got a call that she had shot and killed him. Over the past year, Eva, now 20 years old, has been exploring her feelings on TikTok, using her unique sense of humor to soothe her pain. She posts frequently under the name Eva the Freakin' Diva, where she jokes that her brand is the girl with the dead parents. This isn't the chum bucket.

I use dark humor. I just, I don't know, I guess it's the way my brain's wired, but I'd rather not sit and sulk. I'd rather just make light of a situation. These days, Eva cherishes her time with Sully, the dog who once belonged to her father. And she and Tommy still go to the beach at Sullivan's Island where her father's ashes were scattered.

When we stand out here now, all these months later, any peace? I don't think I'm going to get peace until after the trial is over. Do you ever dream about your dad? A few times. What happens in the dream? We're in this big house, and he enters the room through a door, and he says, I've been in hiding, and I need you to help me.

And then I run with him, and there's a tunnel, and then I wake up. Ashley remains free on bond. Her trial is not expected to take place until 2023. If Ashley is convicted, Doug's family plans to fight for custody of his now three-year-old daughter. A California lawyer murdered. This looked like a targeted assassination. This guy dressed as a delivery man.

Across the country, a matching deadly attack at a judge's home. Who would want to hurt the judge? Were the crimes connected? 48 Hours, Saturday at 10, 9 Central on CBS. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.