Serialously with Annie Elise - 25: Former Model & Ballerina Turned Murderer?! | Ashley & Doug Benefield

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

Welcome back to this week’s episode of SERIALously! In this episode, we are talking about a story that dances on the edge of reality, where love entangles with fear, insane allegations, secret suspicions, and a SHOCKING turn of events. Ashley and Doug Benefield, once head over heels in love, combined Ashley’s passion and Doug’s business-savvy mind to create the perfect dance company. But instead, they found their lives spiraling into a whirlpool of mystery, allegations, heartbreak, and MURDER. But was this murder? Or was this a case of self-defense? Your True Crime BFF, Annie Elise  Eva Benefield Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@evathefreakindiva Eva Benefield Insta: https://www.instagram.com/evathefreakindiva/  Eva Benefield Ghost Cowboy Store: https://www.instagram.com/ghostcowboy.co/  All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_ About Me: https://annieelise.com/ For Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Episode Sponsor: Hello Fresh: Go to https://www.hellofresh.com/ae16  and use code ae16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping!

Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. It's me, Annie Elise, your true crime BFF. Wait, I think last episode we said we were just going to drop Annie Elise so that it was just going to be Annie. You can just call me Annie. So it's me, Annie. I am back with a brand new crazy ass case for you. It is a wild one and it's actually one that I have seen quite a few people talking about. But all of the videos I've watched and all of the articles I've read about and things like that, not to say that the coverage hasn't been fantastic. It certainly has been. But there felt like there were just so many details missing.

And I was like, how is all of this fit into a 45-minute episode or things like that? I'm like, there's no way it can. So the case that we're going to be talking about today is a case that has been labeled the Black Swan murder, which I'm just going to kind of preface it and say, sorry, I'm getting comfy here with you guys. If you can see the video version, I'm just like getting comfy here on my chair with you um I wouldn't say that it is the black swan murder I've seen that movie it doesn't really have any relation I guess because there's a ballerina involved people are saying that but

I don't know you know how the media likes to dramatize cases and name murders, so that's what it is. Anyways, the name stuck because one of the people involved was a ballerina, like I mentioned, and she has been described as beautiful, kind, and a loving woman, but some people believe that she has a dark side, saying that she is nothing more than an opportunistic, manipulative, and calculating lunatic. Now I'm going to warn you, we are going to be here for a while today and this case is crazy as fuck. When I started researching it, I truly had no idea where it would go and as soon as I started reading through all of the court documents, I instantly knew that you guys had to hear this story because it is one where the lines really do get blurred and it's hard to decipher what the truth is. Now before

we get into it, I want to say this. This is an ongoing case. So everything in this video is alleged and sourced from court documents, from interviews, and various media outlets. Other than that, it is my personal opinion. So, let's get going. This is a case involving a former ballerina and swimsuit model and new mother. Ashley's dream was to create a ballet company that would be a home for dancers who were unconventional. I don't know that Doug could spell ballet before he met Ashley. But, 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. What was your first impression of Ashley? Young. Ambitious. We were all hoping that she would rise to the occasion. In his words, he said, I did the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life.

To Doug, Ashley is this innocent, pure white swan. But underneath those white feathers, she's an evil woman. She's the black swan. To paint the picture of this story, we are going to start with the main person involved, Doug Benefield. He was a very intriguing man. Doug was a devoted man of God, a visionary, a loving father, a caring brother, a servant leader, and a loyal friend to many. He grew up in Huntsville, Alabama. He was a champion wrestler during his years in junior and senior of high school, and after graduation, Doug attended Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. After college, Doug joined the Navy and completed the Aviation Officer Candidate School to become a

Naval Flight Pilot. He completed flight school and served as naval flight officer and pilot in an S-3B Viking aircraft for nearly three years off of Navy aircraft carriers out of San Diego. He then served for three years as a mine warfare instructor in Charleston, South Carolina, where he ended up relocating to. Then he transitioned to the Navy intelligence Community and retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander in 1999. Doug dabbled in quite a few different business ventures in Charleston for several years while also working as a security and communication technology consultant for the U.S. government. During his early years in Charleston, he met, dated, and married the absolute love of his life. Her name was Renee Cozar Benefield. Renee had been married before and had two sons that she brought into the marriage.

Then in 2001, Doug and Renee were blessed with the birth of their daughter, Eva. As Eva grew up, she looked just like her mother Renee because they were both were beautiful, stunning, and had blonde hair. They were just the perfect family and lived just outside of Charleston in Mount Pleasant. Doug was a lifelong believer in the importance of the health of his mind, body, and spirit, and he was very active in fitness training with Iron Tribe and CrossFit. Everything was great in this family. They loved each other. They were a happy couple, happy marriage, happy family. Fast forward 15 years. Now it is August of 2016, and Doug's marriage to Renee had recently ended, with Doug becoming a

widow. Renee had tragically and suddenly passed away nine months earlier from an undiagnosed heart condition. And the worst part of it all, Doug was out of town for work when she died. And the couple's now 15-year-old daughter, Eva, is the one who found her mom, deceased in their home, lying face down on her bed. So now Doug and Eva were left to pick up the pieces, which would be extremely hard for any 15-year-old. But luckily, Eva and her dad always had a very close relationship. So out of this tragedy, it's not surprising that the two of them became even closer in the months afterward. After the sudden loss of Renee months earlier in 2015,

Doug was a dedicated single father while continuing to work with defense and private equity ventures supporting government missions. Doug was widely recognized as a quantum physics expert and futuristic technologies creator, a very smart man. And luckily for Eva, Doug told her not to worry about him remarrying someone new anytime in the future because that was not his focus at all anymore. But not so fast because in that summer of 2016, Doug Benefield met Ashley Byers and their lives collided for the very first time. Their meeting spot? The beachy backyard of Ben Carson's Palm Beach home, just as his presidential campaign was winding down. When Ashley first met Doug, she didn't know about any of the details about his

life that I just told you about. All she knew was that Doug had a magnetic charm about him, and she loved his salt and pepper hair, his looks, everything just kind of was appealing to her. He looked very well put together, very mature, very professional, very successful. And after all, Doug was in shape for his age, and Ashley thought that he was just extremely handsome, charming, and she was absolutely smitten by him. Ashley herself was a very attractive girl. She was 24 years old and full of youthful radiance and beauty. She had bright blue eyes, shiny brown hair, and looked like one of those people that once you see them, you just kind of assume that they have had a great body their entire lives without ever even having to try to do that, even just very naturally pretty as well. Ashley Byers was born in Texas, but raised in Maryland by her mother. Throughout her childhood and her teen years, Ashley loved ballet, and she devoted

her entire life to it. Ashley had danced for many professional ballet companies along the East Coast, including Ballet Theater of Maryland, the Baltimore Ballet, Sarasota Ballet, Ballet Pensacola, the Brandon Ballet, and the Wilmington Ballet Company. But eventually, like many sports or hobbies, sometimes you just age out of them if you aren't lucky enough to pursue it professionally, or at least pursue it professionally in a long-term sort of way, especially with something like ballet, which is extremely competitive and doesn't have a massive amount of professional job openings to begin with. Ashley was a beautiful dancer but the reality of it was she was 5'9 and her height really limited opportunities for her because

some dance companies only wanted a specific look and a specific body type. And 5'9 was considered on the tall side to some of them. So at the end of the 2014-2015 season, after dancing professionally for almost six years, she announced her official retirement from the dance world, all so she could pursue a full-time career in modeling in Sarasota, Florida, where she lived with her mother. But there was more to just the beautiful weather and beaches that Ashley loved about Florida. She also had a very big interest in politics. According to Florida voting records, she had been registered as a Republican since she was 21 years old, which explains why she was at Ben Carson's Palm Beach home for that Republican event. And get this, Ashley had actually been a part of the Donald Trump 2016 campaign team, hitting the road for rallies and

grinding away in the Florida office. Specifically, Ashley was the director of the Women for Trump office in Florida. Now, you know we don't get too political on here, guys, so please be respectful to each other in the comment section on the YouTube side of this and leave the debates at home. But apparently, Ashley had written in some journals about Donald Trump and things that he had said to her. And this is all a direct quote from Ashley's journals. And a lot of people think that she might be a little bit crazy here, and you'll understand why later, but here we go. Ashley wrote, he said I looked good in his plane. He called me a bombshell. He called me his little girl and his baby. He said he wanted a big fat kiss and promised me a job at the White House. Now, Donald Trump was recently shown a picture of her and him together during the

campaign at an event and was asked about her. And he claimed, and this is again a direct quote, I have no idea who that person is. So either Ashley was fabricating all of these journal entries, or she didn't make a long-lasting impact on Trump. Who's to say what the truth is? I don't know. You decide. Anyways, Doug on his part was buddies with some of Ben Carson's deep-pocketed donors, so he was invited to Ben Carson's event where they met. While there, Ashley and Doug hit it off. Even though at the time, Doug was 30 years older than Ashley. She was 24 years old. He was 54 years old. What they both had in common, though, was a deep love for their faith

and a strong belief in the second amendment. According to Ashley, she says once we got to talking the conversation just flowed and Doug was enamored with Ashley's beauty and thought that she was one of the most beautiful women in the world. As he spent more time talking to her, he realized that there was more to her than meets the eye and thought that she sounded like an amazing person. The day they met was August 25, 2016. Remember this date. After their first meeting, they exchanged phone numbers and began to text each other

and continue on their flirtatious rendezvous. By the next day on the 26th, Ashley was addressing Doug as my dear and texted him that she was thanking God for bringing him into her life. And after that, the flirtation kicked up a notch and it continued with the two of them texting back and forth incessantly. It was clear at this point that they had an almost immediate infatuation with each other that neither of them could deny, and neither of them was even trying to deny it. By the 27th, Doug was flying to Israel for a week-long work trip, but that didn't stop the love train of flirty texts at all. He and Ashley continued to text

all the time. Every single day, he was gone non-stop. On September 1st, just a mere six days after they met, they were texting each other and saying, I love you. And when Doug got back from his work trip, they decided they were going to get married. Which, yeah, that timeline is correct. According to one of Doug's friends, Doug didn't want to have sex with Ashley before they were married. But here's the thing. It wasn't like they decided to get married while they continued to date, be engaged, and plan the wedding for later on in the future. Instead, they got married five days later at St. Michael's Church in Charleston. The wedding was on September 6th, and there were no guests except for a witness and Doug's friend, Tripp,

who was officiating the wedding. 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 you know a bikini model at some point and she knew how to work it. She knew how to Doug constantly. She was, you know, a bikini model at some point, and she knew how to work it. She knew how to use it. Now, it's certainly not uncommon for people to elope and get married without guests. Maybe less common to elope 13 days after meeting someone, but whatever, we know it happens. Still, there was one more detail that made this marriage different, and that's because Doug didn't tell anybody that he was getting married, except for his friend that officiated the wedding.

Other than that, it was a secret. It seemed that Doug didn't want to tell people that he was remarried after his wife had just passed away several months earlier, or that he was seeing someone in general, and that included not telling his 15-year-old daughter, Eva. Not only that, but remember, Doug had comforted Eva in the wake of losing her mother and promised her that marriage wasn't even in the realm of things that he was considering doing. And now, he just married someone that was only eight and a half, nine years older

than his 15-year-old daughter. According to an article from Vanity Fair, which by the way was amazing and I sourced a lot of information from them since the writer had a ton of inside knowledge, when Doug and Ashley got married, his cousin later stated that Doug believed that this was a chance to essentially rescue someone and that there wasn't really any doubt that Ashley saw him as a rescuer and a solution to her life situation. See, Ashley had been married and divorced and had opened up to Doug about a very traumatic past that she had, which included her dad leaving her and her mom at a very young age and a rocky first marriage.

Something I've always kind of referred to in situations like this is the term captain save-a-ho where it's like these guys come in with kind of like a god complex of sorts where it's like when the guy goes into the strip club and he wants to get her off the pole he wants to save her from that life and she sees the knight in shining armor and she thinks that this is a fairy tale and it can become toxic very quick because they both go into it romanticizing this idea of what the relationship is going to be and what it's going to become sometimes it works out more often times than not it's not a pretty woman type ending which I'm not saying Ashley was a stripper obviously she was not

she was a ballerina but still this mentality of oh she's this younger woman who needs help who's had a hard life I'm gonna sweep her off of her feet take care of her and save her therefore the term my term at least Captain Sabaho and as a side note I just want to say I'm not judging their age difference at all but I think that we can all agree that for his 15 year old daughter it may have been a lot, and it may have bothered her. And it actually did. It bothered her quite a bit, and not just about Ashley's age. Okay, listen up, guys. I know all you little sewer rats want a story time, so I'm gonna give it to you. I even pulled up my chair. And so, first of all, for this comment short answer yes long answer no okay so when I was 15 my mom died of an underlying heart condition and then my

so basically my dad was out of town and then I came home from school and I found her so that was the start of a lot of trauma and then after that my dad came home and he specifically told me don't worry Eva I'm never going to get married again well he didn't use those exact words but that's how I remember it and then after that nine months later he married he was like it was a Friday after school and he married he no it was a Friday after school and he was like so I'm seeing this girl and I was like okay and then he picked her up from the airport the next day and I met her and he was like she's super cool she's a model and a ballerina and I was like okay like cool she's kind of hot but I don't see the hype she's

23 dude like come on um then I was like all right well you're allowed to date like you're a single man I get it um and then the next day he was like we need to have a family meeting and I was like no because we're not a family and the only thing that you would should have to tell me is if you propose and as soon as those words came out of my mouth he goes we're married and I was like what um so I drove myself even though I only had my permit if you're a cop please don't arrest me this was years ago I only had my permit and I drove myself to my best friend's house and I was like guys uh my dad's actually married to this little skank and they were like what and then I was like yeah and I told I have two older like half brothers they're on my mom's side though

and I told them and they're like she's younger than us and I was like I know um and so then after that I just kind of like tried to get used to her but she was like totally not that nice she was cool at first but then she wasn't and here's why I only have three minutes anyways here this is like there's gonna be part two don't worry but um I was like so was, like, so, fuck, hold on, but then, um, I tried to get used to her, because I was, like, okay, well, like, this is reality, he's married, and so then, um, she, at first, she was nice, and then she kind of would, like, twist my words and make my dad get mad at me, keep in mind, me and my dad were, like, very close, like, since my mom died, we, me and my dad were always close, I was always, like, like, my dad's,

me and my dad were just best friends, I was close to my mom, too, but, like, me and my dad, like, had a different level kind of bond, and so when she did this, it really, like, affected me and my dad's friendships, last, like, father-daughter relationship, and that didn't cut it on my end, so I became a little bitch back, and actually, wasn't, and we will get back to that shortly. Ashley did not get a job at the White House like she was expecting after the election in 2016, and now with modeling on hold since she had relocated to Charleston, she was at a standstill. She began trying a few things here and there, but nothing was really sticking. She was out of a job and was still reeling over not having a passion in her life anymore, where ballet was that thing for her for so much of her life.

The other thing she wanted was to be a mother, but Doug had a vasectomy years earlier. As I mentioned before, Doug considered himself a venture capitalist of sorts, an entrepreneur, frequently dabbling in different projects and business ventures. So when he and Ashley got married, one of the things that they started talking about was the possibility of opening up a ballet company in Charleston. For Ashley, this was her dream. She could still pursue her passion, but this time in a different way. This time she could help other young men and women achieve their goals in ballet. She had the idea of making her ballet company different than

the rest, vowing to be an inclusive place for dancers to come, so that other people who were like her, maybe not the perfect height or weight or whatever it was according to other ballet companies they could come find a home at her company and still be given opportunities from their hard work and their talent and not just based on their physical appearances so this sounds like an amazing idea obviously and doug had the money to invest and to start up this dance company although they would of course need more funding from investors since this was a huge project but they knew that this was something that they wanted to make a reality. So that's exactly what they did. Doug had the

business smarts and Ashley had the dancing experience and now together they had one dream to shake things up in the ballet world by giving a chance to dancers who didn't fit the usual mold. In the world of ballet, job opportunities are hard to come by, and when an offer does appear, it can feel like a golden ticket for these dancers, regardless of where that offer is coming from. According to Vanity Fair, A&B planned to redress not only height and size discriminations, but the notorious whiteness of classical ballet. Each new hire, at the behest of their new bosses, posted a photo on Instagram with a hashtag, We Embrace Diversity, or A&B Family. Christopher Charles McDaniel had spent years as the only Black dancer at Los

Angeles Ballet before deciding to join A&B. There was so much hope for what could happen with this new company, he had said. And in a world where even the most established companies struggle for funding, A&B seemed to have no shortage of cash. The fledging trope 47 dancers in all reportedly had an annual budget of $2.5 million, and its dancers were promised eight-month contracts, health insurance, and for those who had been recruited from Germany or Argentina or Estonia, American visas. One ballet dancer who joined was named Kimberly Thompson, and she was one of Ashley's friends. In the world of ballet, again, job opportunities are hard to come by, like I mentioned earlier. So despite being a brand new entity with no history to back it up, A&B was still seen as a relatively solid choice by Kimberly.

Why? Because the company had some well-regarded individuals on board. Names like Octavio Martin, who filled the role of artistic director, and Alexandre Prio, who stepped in as a company, Kimberly trusted her. After all, they had shared experiences at the Maryland Youth Ballet. And to top it off, Kimberly had researched Doug online and felt like from everything she read, he was a solid businessman. So Kimberly said yes to a contract offering a $21,000 salary along with an $80 weekly pointe shoe stipend and a monthly health insurance stipend of $150. She committed herself to a one-year lease at an apartment suggested by the A&B leadership, who also gave a $250 monthly stipend to help cover the $1,100 rent. Additionally, A&B provided her with the opportunity to teach for seven hours per week in its brand new conservatory, with a pay rate of $35 per hour. While Ashley and Doug and several

other people who worked for A&B were working to get the ball rolling on this new venture, things with Ashley and Doug in their home life weren't going quite as well. You see, Doug really wanted Ashley to be a mother figure to his daughter, Eva. Initially, Ashley tried to extend an olive branch to Eva by having more of a friendship-type relationship. Ashley tried to bond with Eva by showing her some of her favorite dance videos, and they even had a therapeutic day of houseplant shopping together, followed by an afternoon repotting them in mason jars on the porch. But the truth is, when you're 15 years old, there's a good possibility that you don't want your dad's new wife,

who isn't even old enough to be your biological mother, stepping on your toes and trying to act like your new mom, and wanting you to pretend like everything is normal when, in fact, it's not normal at all. But Doug and Ashley didn't get that, and Doug was frustrated that Ashley and Eva weren't connecting on the level that he had envisioned for them. Ashley would complain to Doug about Eva and almost treated it as a competition of who could have Doug's attention or who could be number one. And for Eva, she began to get frustrated that her dad was essentially letting someone come in and sabotage their father-daughter relationship. Just one month

after their marriage, Ashley's insecurities began to surface. In a frantic state, she called Tripp, Doug's friend, the one who officiated Doug and Ashley's wedding. And she told him that she was scared Doug's affection might be swaying toward Eva instead of toward her. Tripp said she was just hysterical. And I said, Ashley, what is the bottom line here? What are you so upset about? And she replied, I just want him to pick 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. Which let me just say this, if you are ever in a relationship with someone who has children and your new partner or spouse or whatever it is is demanding that you choose them over your own child that is a huge red flag huge huge also who could blame Eva for being a little resistant to someone that was forcing herself and expecting to be treated like she was her mother. Months had passed and it was now June of 2017 and Ashley found Eva's diary and for some screwed up reason she decided that it would be a really good idea to read it. Talk about an invasion of privacy and she had no idea that what she was about to read would feel like a punch in the gut. But what the hell was she really expecting? You don't go

snooping in somebody's diary, especially a teenage girl, and not find something that you probably weren't looking for. And personally, I feel like she was kind of searching for dirt to try to use against Eva to paint Eva in a weird light to her dad since they were in this weird fight for Doug's love over his daughter. I don't know. It is bizarre. Anyways, she reads the diary and Eva had written that she hated Ashley and that she couldn't stand her. Which let me just say, going through someone's diary is fucked up. But I guess if you're going to, maybe don't tell anyone so that they don't know how psychotic and gross you are. I don't know. But no, Ashley was pissed and determined to make it known. So she went straight to Doug and told him, and they began arguing. They were

yelling and screaming at each other, and in the heat of the moment, Doug grabbed one of their guns and threw it at the wall. And there was another big fight about Eva that escalated between Doug and Ashley, where this time Doug was so angry that he punched a hole in the wall. And the fights just kept getting worse and worse over time. And they were always about his daughter Eva. And on one occasion in particular, things came to a terrifying head. Doug and Ashley were arguing about Eva once again, and Doug lost his temper and fired a gun into the ceiling of their home.

And this happened while Eva and a friend of hers that was living with them at the time were both at the house. That same day, Doug reportedly punched their dog, Sully, the golden retriever. But outside of their home, they tried to show a different picture of their lives, a more perfect picture that wasn't real at all. For example, just a few days after Doug put a bullet in the ceiling, they threw a party for themselves, a wedding reception. Ashley was quoted in an interview that took place later saying, I'm a ballet dancer. I can put on a good face no matter what's going on in my life. Trust me, I can put on one heck of a show. Which, first of all, Ashley, you are a child for that

statement, and I'm really embarrassed for you. It's a little bit cringe. But also, you have all of this fighting going on at this house, and you have Ashley being unbelievably immature and selfish and demanding these unrealistic expectations of Doug. You have Doug who is trying to make his wife happy and keep his daughter happy as well. He's also on top of that having major anger issues. All while they are pretending like everything is perfectly fine and trying to keep up this facade while trying to launch their ballet company. Not a good situation at all. One month after the wedding reception, another secret was about to be revealed and poor Eva was in for an even bigger surprise. About a month and a half before A&B was supposed to open, Ashley found out that she was pregnant.

Ashley had always wanted to experience motherhood, and somehow that led to Doug getting a reverse vasectomy. And this news was devastating to Eva. This may be hard to understand, but I do have a friend who went through something extremely similar. And she said that news like that can feel like the ultimate betrayal in the moment. For Eva, one day she had both parents and then suddenly lost her mom with no explanation. So her dad was the only thing left of their family unit that she grew up with. And then now you have her dealing with the fact that her dad, who she trusted and who promised wouldn't get remarried, had a vasectomy, got married, and all of this suddenly backtracked all of those promises he made.

That can be extremely hurtful because usually parents don't betray or lie to their children. And now it felt like he was starting a whole new family and one that she would not be included in given her relationship with Ashley. And I do want to be clear that I don't think it was Doug's intention to hurt his daughter Eva, but more likely that he lost sight of how that could affect her without talking to her about it first, since he had promised her that that wasn't even an option. As Ashley's pregnancy progressed, it turned into an extremely hard pregnancy for her. She started having major nausea and other pregnancy-related symptoms, and she didn't expect to have issues like this, especially with the opening of the A&B company around the corner. Or maybe this would have been something that she held off until the company got started. She wasn't planning to be pregnant. She told Doug about the nausea and he tried to do what he could to help. Unfortunately, Ashley's hard pregnancy forced her to take a step back from the dance company so that she could stay home and try to rest and get better. Now Doug had to handle everything related to the company, in addition to his other business responsibilities.

But Ashley kept getting worse, and so did Ashley and Doug's fighting. Their marriage quickly began to deteriorate once Ashley became pregnant. Shortly after that is when she starts all the drama of accusations, but that started the real problems between Ashley and Doug. Ashley eventually moved back to Florida and moved into her mom's house so that her mom could take care of her and be there for her all of the time. Doug had agreed to this plan and thought that it would be best for Ashley to stay with her mother because of the stress at the house and her difficult pregnancy. In the beginning after they separated, Doug and Ashley's text

messages to each other were almost like they were back in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. Doug would send texts like, I miss you so much, it's making me sick, and there are no words to say how much I miss you. And Ashley would reply with messages like, I love and miss you too. However, Doug didn't know that Ashley's plan was quite different than what he was told. Ashley was straight up leaving him. On September 18th, a day that they had been waiting for, the launch of the American National Ballet Company, Doug was at the studios welcoming the new dancers. Meanwhile, Ashley was on a secret 500-mile trip back to South Carolina, and Doug had no clue that she was coming. She went to the house when she

knew that he wouldn't be there. She packed her clothes and left him a four-page note. The letter started by saying, I can tell you straight up that I am totally heartbroken. In the next four pages, she listed 21 points, all of the things that she couldn't put up with anymore. His temper, the way he yelled and cursed at her, the things that he had't put up with anymore. His temper, the way he yelled and cursed at her, the things that he had thrown and broken, including a loaded gun that left a huge hole in the wall, and Doug shooting the ceiling, all of these things. She also wrote about how unhappy she was with the condition of the house,

the black mold on the walls, the unsafe tap water, and the exposed outlets. She ended the letter by saying, All of these things and more I have overlooked and I have lived with now for over a year because I love you, but even since finding out I was pregnant, you have continued to display psychotic, irrational, and unsafe behavior that has left me fearful for my life and safety, as well as that of my unborn child. I have come to get only what belongs to me. Do not harass me or try to follow me or I will call the police and have a restraining order against you. I will talk with you only via text starting Tuesday, September 19th.

Do not call me or my mom. We will not pick up. Thank you for understanding, Ashley. When Doug got home, he was surprised by all of this and he read the note and he was devastated. So he texted Ashley saying, I just finished reading your note. I don't even know where to begin. I'm sorry for not being a stronger, better man throughout all of this. I swear I'll never act like how you described ever again. He sent another text to her, letting her know that he was planning on going to therapy, and even said that he was going to lock his guns away in the safe. The texting continued, with Doug saying, I'll never raise my voice at you again. A week later, he texted again, thank you, amazing woman of God for being you. I'm constantly sending angels to protect you and

our baby. But at this time, his apology was going unanswered and falling on silence. Which let me just say this too. The sending angels to protect you and our unborn baby, I guess he was trying to be sweet in this like weird way, but that sounds a little too much like Chad Daybell to me it's a little too like cultish so I was like not ready to be hearing that it was too soon for me so Ashley only responded when it came to ballet contracts or to thank him for depositing money into her account but Doug was persistent he texted we're perfect together just out of the blue on October 2nd to her and then on October 9th he texted I've just never loved this deeply before I lost He texted, Before arriving, dancers were encouraged to sign leases at a luxury apartment complex nearby that would be super close to the ballet studios. In emails, A&B said,

The best part is you can see the main studios from the apartments, not even a two-minute walk. But wait, there's more. We are building a rehearsal studio space on the ground level of the apartments. Then on the day when the dancers arrived in Charleston, the dance company had a film crew for a photo shoot on standby and through a pizza party, and the dancers all seemed to be so excited about kicking off the start of the new dance studios. As some dancers had interviews and posed for the cameras, some of the others weren't as excited and tried to ignore some of the red flags that they were beginning to see. Over the past few months leading up to the opening, many dancers emailed A&B about various questions, scheduling, etc., and they were only receiving vague emails in response. But on A&B's Facebook page, the company always posted things like, there are big things in store for A&B and we are changing the face of ballet.

We will be making a lot of announcements in the upcoming weeks. Promise after promise after promise. But those announcements never came. And now that these dancers were in Charleston, the dancers noticed that there wasn't a studio at all, not on the ground level of their apartments, and not even one that was a two-minute walk away, as promised. They were told that there were a few reasons that they were having trouble with the construction, and that in the meantime, they would just use a studio that was five miles away. And a lot of the dancers were even more confused because Ashley, the founder and the face of the dance company, was nowhere to be found, and they had no idea that she had moved to Florida. A few weeks passed, and the cracks in A&B really started to show, and it felt as if maybe A&B wasn't this great idea that they were once sold. But at this point, nobody had any solid proof that something shady was going on.

That was until one day when they all got a clear warning sign that nobody could ignore. On payday, nobody got paid. The truth was that this $2.5 million budget was just a pipe dream, and Doug had held onto the hope that he could gather the funds before the cat was out of the bag. He took out hefty loans amounting to tens of thousands of dollars just to meet the first payroll. And then when payment eventually came, it wasn't in the form of direct deposits or checks because Doug had to scrape up the money to pay them himself. So instead, the dancers were just given bundles of cash in envelopes. Barely a month after their arrival on Friday, October 20th, the dancers were brought in and given non-disclosure agreements to

sign. One of the dancers had said that they were told that something grand and fantastic was about to occur, and that they had to sign the NDA in order to learn what that was. So all of the dancers signed the NDA, but then three days later, almost half of the dancers were laid off. A and B made up an excuse about how they now wanted to go in a different direction, but nobody believed it, and they all began to think that this was something bigger. All of these dancers had traveled across the country to move to Charleston. Some even came from overseas and got their visas. They signed leases, and they were promised all of the things, and now it was all falling apart right before their eyes. The truth was, the money to fund this dance company just wasn't there. A&B had overpromised and significantly underdelivered.

And now Doug, who had invested $100,000 of his own money, was about to watch everything crumble. According to ex-business partners of Doug's, this wasn't the first project that he led that had these issues, and that in his past experience, Doug would try to get more investors by saying oh this person invested this amount of money etc in hopes that they may be swayed to invest but the money never was invested in the first place and at the end all of the big talk and false promises was ending in nothing. Now Ashley who claimed she hadn't been informed about the layoffs, was livid. She texted Doug expressing her frustration about the situation because, hello, this was the very issue that they had pledged to combat in the ballet world. On the A&B Facebook page, Ashley

issued a statement, her first public communication since the season had started. In this statement, she wrote, that took place on October 23rd. As the founder, I am completely devastated by what has been done and the way it was done. The new leadership has destroyed all that we worked so hard to build, and I cannot stand behind them or their actions. A&B was created to be different from any other company and was supposed to set a new standard in how it treated its dancers. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves for how this was handled. My heart goes out to all of those affected by recent changes. Each and every dancer brought on possesses amazing talent and potential. The original group

assembled was truly diverse in every way and this is a huge loss for America and for art lovers around the world. As I am no longer associated with this organization in any way, please feel free to share your concerns with A&B's leadership. And then she put the COO's email address. Doug pleaded with Ashley to remove her Facebook post, telling her that she was making the problem worse and adding more stress for the dancers that weren't laid off yet at this point. But Ashley shot back, and she sent him a text message saying, what about all the people whose lives were just ruined? A few days later, Doug admitted to Ashley what had happened. He sent her a text message saying, there's no money. You can't imagine how

badly I want to escape this situation. My only intention was to support the 40 dancers that we After this, Ashley called CPS on Doug for leaving Eva at home for long periods of time that he would go to work, saying that she was home alone a lot and that he was neglecting her, which really infuriates me because CPS actually conducted a full-blown investigation for neglecting a child, who was at the time 15 years old, almost 16, and perfectly cared for. Of course, that claim was dismissed because Eva was never really alone all of the time. Her older half-brothers, who were now adults, frequently came with their wives to look after Eva and to just spend time with her since they had lost their mom. Back in Florida, Ashley's health showed no signs of improvement.

She was experiencing severe sharp pains in her stomach as well as chest pains. Despite consulting doctors and taking medications to help alleviate some of her pain, nothing seemed to work. Some days, she could hardly muster the strength to get out of bed. She didn't know what could be the problem, and she was starting to get extremely worried by this, wondering what was wrong. So she decided to send a hair sample to a lab for testing. The lab indicated that her body contained hazardous amounts of aluminum, cobalt, zinc, tin, and barium. Ashley was shocked, and paranoia began to set in. Furthermore, in the lab report, it was suggested that Ashley had been intentionally and consistently exposed to these toxins by someone that they referred to as the poisoner. A specialist in toxicology cautioned Ashley that her pregnancy may have exacerbated the situation, explaining

that a pregnant woman takes in seven times more air and nutrients compared to a non-pregnant woman, which increased the chances of toxin absorption. Ashley thought back to the hot tea that Doug used to make her every single morning to help her feel better, and she began to wonder if maybe her own husband could be the culprit, the poisoner. But could all of this be true? Was Ashley really being poisoned? The Carlson Company, the lab that Ashley used for the testing, was no stranger to the spotlight. The tragic death of actress Brittany Murphy at age 32 years old led her grieving father to reject the official cause of death, which was ruled as pneumonia. So he also had sought out the Carlson Company's services, sending them a snippet of Brittany's hair for testing. The result? The report concluded that Brittany,

similar to Ashley's case, fell prey to intentional heavy metal poisoning. This finding made headlines and was huge, but it also received a lot of flack for not being credible. Another renowned toxicologist reviewed the report and dismissed the claim as unfounded and absurd. So if the claims were unfounded and absurd, why would a company make stuff like that up? Your guess is as good as mine. Now in the background of all of this happening, Doug sent Ashley a gift that included Teavana tea bags, that same tea that Ashley thought Doug was using to poison her. So Ashley didn't drink the tea and actually took it straight to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office for testing. She wanted it inspected by a hazardous materials response team specialist. And when the tea was analyzed, nothing was done to the teas at all.

Then in March of 2018, at eight months pregnant, Ashley checked herself into Tampa General Hospital, and she told the nurses that she had been a victim of intentional poisoning, and that she was in danger and worried that her baby was poisoned as well. So the hospital immediately got ready for an emergency c-section, which was okay since Ashley was due in just a few weeks anyway. Ashley did not tell Doug anything about this, and since Ashley came into the hospital saying, hey, my husband poisoned me, she was booked in the hospital under a different name so that her attacker couldn't find her. In June of 2018, Ashley went to the Hyperbaric Center of Southwest Florida and scheduled 26 oxygen chamber sessions for her now three-month-old daughter because she was concerned that the baby had been poisoned while she was sick. But hyperbaric oxygen therapy is commonly used for treating scuba divers with

decompression sickness, or firefighters suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. It is not a light scale treatment. Now to be honest, I don't really know what to make of all of this. Was she poisoned or not? What was up with the results? Were they made up? I don't know. Once she had the baby, Doug did eventually find out that she was born, but I'm also not exactly sure how he found out, if Ashley let him know or if he just figured it out by being like, oh, she's due any day now and that's how it went. But in any event, Ashley had no intention of sharing any type of custody at all. So Doug filed with the courts in Florida where Ashley was living to have access to see his

new daughter and to get shared custody. This hearing was in July of 2018, and it had now been 10 months since Doug and Ashley last saw each other. Ashley wanted to fight Doug's request for custody, and she accused Doug of domestic abuse from the incidents that had happened earlier in their relationship. She combined that with her new accusation of attempted poisoning, among the numerous other allegations that she had made in attempt to secure a restraining order to keep Doug far away from her and her baby. Doug's attorney tried to discredit Ashley's claims by going through the plethora of lovey-dovey text messages that she had sent to Doug when all of these domestic abuse incidents occurred, insinuating that maybe she was exaggerating or lying about things because

her text messages seemed to show that things were fine. Ashley explained that she had just been trying to placate Doug because she was scared of him. This hearing lasted eight hours, and it ended with the judge denying Ashley's request and ruled for joint custody. Specifically, the judge said there is not a single piece of credible evidence that Ms. Benefield has ever been poisoned or suffered from any illness of any poison. Because of the nature of the case and because it was in family court, the details are unknown except from those who were present that day in the courtroom. So I'm not sure all of what happened that day, if the lab reports were examined, discredited, or what really happened. But nevertheless, that was the judge's ruling. But then things took an even weirder turn. Despite all of the crazy shit that I just told you, Ashley and Doug somehow found their way back to each other.

In November of 2018, they sought the guidance of a marriage counselor and decided to rekindle their romance. Which like number one, if Ashley truly thought that he was poisoning her while pregnant, girl, run. Run far and fast. And while I'm on that note i wonder if ashley ever got a mold test done in the home that she shared with doug because maybe that was the contributing factor and why she had these weird toxin levels in that letter that she wrote to him mold was one of the things that she was pretty pissed about so if there there really was mold, maybe that's what was causing her so many health problems. Mold poisoning can affect some people that live together in a house, but oftentimes it doesn't affect everyone in the household. Everyone is different and it just depends on your body. So I'm not sure if mold will lead to all of those substances showing up

in her lab report, so I'm definitely not saying that it was the mold, but I know that it can cause someone to have pretty intense side effects. So I'm just wondering if everything was ruled out before she jumped to accusing her own husband of poisoning her and her unborn child, his unborn child as well. But aside from that, number two, how could she go back with Doug after all of the things that Ashley had written in the note? She was in fear for her life. She was in fear for her unborn baby's life. So what had changed? Did Ashley make that stuff up? Or did all of this happen? Was this the case of a woman believing that a man will be better and just trying to give it another go? Was she so psychologically abused

that she couldn't get away from her abuser, even though it seemed that she already had? I don't know. Maybe. But also number three, did we forget about the gun shooting into the ceiling and Doug punching the dog and, according to Ashley, knocked the dog out cold? Nothing was ever done that would make tension and heated fighting just go away. So again, what's the difference now? Is this truly a domestic abuse situation that was extremely toxic, even though there wasn't any physical harm to each other? And maybe that's why they kept coming back together,

even when most people would have already just hit the road by now? Or was this, again, just a psychological thing for her I don't want to be misconstrued here and it to be taken as victim shaming in any way if this abuse really was happening because I know it takes many people several times to get out of a situation like that but it appeared Ashley already was out of that situation and safely so why willingly get back into it and again it's not us to judge in that regard because we don't know what she was feeling, what she was being told, and things of that nature. But we're going to get into some more details that give me pause. Despite trying to patch things

together and make it work, it quickly became clear that Ashley still harbored some serious resentment and serious doubts about Doug. She couldn't get the thought of him being the culprit of her poisoning out of her mind. Then, Ashley's mind started racing with thoughts about Eva's mother, Renee. Did Doug poison her too? Remember, Renee was 56 years old when she was found unresponsive. If you were to judge her by her pictures, she seemed like the epitome of health and happiness. But when the police looked into her pictures, she seemed like the epitome of health and happiness. But when the police looked into her tragic death, one of the things that they investigated was her cell phone. Apparently, her text messages showed a wildly different side to her and Doug's marriage than what it appeared from the outside.

They discovered that Renee and Doug had their fair share of fights as well. An investigation report said that Renee had expressed to Doug how he had kicked her during their New Year's Eve honeymoon. And it also pointed out instances of Doug threatening himself with a gun. After she died, Doug explained that Renee hadn't been in the best of health in the year leading up to her death, and that she had experienced fainting spells twice in the past year. The coroner ruled that she had died due to a heart condition. Ashley brought this up to Doug and he denied it and he swore on everything that of course he had nothing to do with Renee's death and how could he since he was out of town anyways. During the Easter weekend of 2019, they all went out for dinner. At this dinner, Ashley and her mother pulled Eva aside, and they went to confront her with this new information about her mom and how her mom died. And according to Eva, she says, they questioned if I felt safe

living with him. They asserted that he was behind my mother's death. They claimed that my dad was planning to harm Ashley and her mom. I attempted multiple times to neutralize the situation by assuring them that my dad has been nothing but a pillar of support. After that incident, leading into the summer months, Doug's suspicions about Ashley began to surface. He noticed her becoming more elusive and acting extremely secretive, so he put a tracking device on her car and hired a private investigator. I mean, can you just say, like, the most toxic relationship of toxic relationships? You're both now spying on each other, have suspicions against each other.

It is time to probably cut the cord. The investigator tracked Ashley down and followed her and came back to Doug to let him know that Ashley was having an affair with someone. And this time, Doug was furious and deeply hurt, and he was the one who finally decided that they should separate for good this time. But Doug couldn't stay mad at Ashley for long. He still clung to the dream that they could reconcile, move in together, and reestablish their family life. Even while Ashley kept pushing for full custody, Doug expressed his gratitude toward his estranged wife in his text messages,

praising her for being an extraordinary woman and for bringing their precious baby into the world. He forgave her for the affair and pleaded with her to withdraw her accusations in court. But Ashley was now somehow more convinced than ever that he had for sure poisoned her, and that he 100% poisoned his first wife, Renee. And on top of this, in November of 2019, their couples counselor discovered that Doug was secretly recording their therapy sessions, which was a violation of their client contract. So the therapist put an end to their couples counseling, but did continue to see just Ashley on her own. Six months later, in May of 2020, Ashley seemed to have the change of heart that Doug had been hoping for. So she texted Doug and

said that she really wanted to talk about things and that she was considering going to a genuine trauma therapist with Doug. And Doug was basically like, say no more. Yes, let's do it. And what do you know? They started dating again. They liked to go to restaurants, go to the beach, spend time with their daughter, all of that, and they all continued to do it. But then one day, Ashley had an idea. She thought that maybe it would be a good idea for Doug, the baby, and her to move to Maryland, where Doug was starting a new job and where she grew up. She was hoping that a change in scenery might be just what they needed for a fresh start together. And over the next few months, that became the plan. But Doug's lawyer, Stephanie Murphy,

warned Doug that maybe Ashley had a hidden agenda in all of this. In an email on August 31st, she said, I've long believed, and I'm sorry, I know it's not what you want to hear, that Ashley could be using this chance to switch up the jurisdictions, seeking a new state and new judge where she can bring up her case again since she has not been successful here. And Doug responded to this email by saying, I share the same worry. I can't trust her at all, no matter how much I wish she would change. But for some reason, in mid-September, Doug went ahead and rented the U-Haul and continued his plans to move with Ashley. Why? The relationship is still toxic. You don't trust each other. It seems like you guys hate each other. Why continue this? You're even confiding in

your attorney that you don't trust her. What is going on? But everything would come to a screeching halt because the day before they were supposed to move, with that U-Haul loaded nearly all the way up, ready to go the next day, the unexpected happened. 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's right next door to me.

She just came over. Her strange husband attacked her, and she says she shot him. She's with me now. I'm quite upset. The weapon is here. We need the police before her mother and the little girl gets back from the park. I don't want them to find it. You want me to go over and look at anything or just wait for the police? No, I want you to just wait for the police, okay? So they were in an argument? I don't know. She came in. She was quite hysterical.

I didn't know who was banging on my door. She said that he attacked her and she shot him. They've been having trouble. Ashley shot Doug with a.45 caliber handgun, an act that took the life of Eva's only surviving parent. Despite Ashley's initial claim of self defense, two months later, she ended up being charged with second degree murder. She was initially held on bail but was eventually released on bond with an ankle monitor and restrictions. So what was the evidence that led police to believe that this was no longer self-defense? According to court documents,

a search warrant was obtained for the residents and during the execution it was discovered that a total of four shots were fired. Four.45 caliber casings were located on the floor in Ashley's bedroom. A loose projectile was also found on the floor, and two more were found embedded in the walls of the residence. Ashley was transported to CID by patrol for an interview. Prior to her arrival, Ashley's legal counsel had already arrived. Ashley and counsel advised that she did not wish to make a statement at this time. Ashley did, however, make a spontaneous statement to me advising that her ears were still ringing. Ashley was shown to the interview room so that she could confer with her counsel. As we walked to the interview room, I did not observe Ashley to have any injuries, nor did I observe any ripped, torn, or stretched out clothing. A search warrant was obtained for

photographs as well as DNA from Ashley's person. I reviewed the photographs and spoke with the crime scene technician. No injuries other than a minor scratch on her right side were visible. The scratch appeared to be old and very minor. Upon further investigation, a witness explained that Ashley had obtained the scratch on her right side the day before the shooting, when she was inadvertently scratched when someone walked by her carrying a box. Douglas was found to have been shot twice. One of the rounds entered the outside of his right leg and exited the inside of his right leg. The other round appeared to have skipped across the right bicep and entered his chest cavity from the

right side. No signs of stifling were observed on Douglas or his clothing, indicating that the firearm was several feet away when it was fired. Based on the entry wounds on Douglas, it does not appear that he was facing Ashley when she began shooting. It also does not appear that Douglas had taken any kind of defensive or combative stance. After being shot, Douglas fell to the ground and it appears that he may have struck his head on the way down. Douglas did have an abrasion on the back of his head, which was the same as a small patch of disturbed drywall on the eastern wall of the bedroom. Douglas was not found to have any weapons on his person or near him. On October 1st, 2020,

a second search warrant for photographs was executed on Ashley for any delayed injuries that may not have been visible on the night of the shooting. No injuries were observed. Numerous requests have been made through Ashley's legal counsel to set up an interview to discuss what happened and what occurred in that room that night. During this investigation, it was found that since the time Ashley found out she was pregnant with the child that she and Douglas share, she has made several allegations against Douglas. While looking into the outcomes of the numerous cases, it was found that they had never resulted in criminal charges and were furthermore closed as unfounded.

None of the cases involved the allegation of physical domestic violence. Based on these cases and Ashley's actions leading up to the murder of Douglas, it appears that the main focus of these complaints was to keep the child away from Douglas. In one of the most recent cases, Ashley and Douglas went before the Honorable Judge Moreland for an injunction hearing. During the hearing, Judge Moreland openly advised that she did not find Ashley's story to possess a tiny fraction of the truth. Judge Moreland further ordered Douglas to have access to the child for visitation. At this point, it appears that Ashley had exhausted all legal means of keeping the child away from Douglas before the shooting.

So Ashley was charged and booked back in November of 2020, but like I said earlier, she has been released on bail. Florida is a stand-your-ground state, and Ashley claims that she acted in self-defense. Florida's stand your ground law is that the statute states that a person in his or her dwelling residence or occupied vehicle has the right to stand his or her ground and use or threaten to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes such force is necessary to prevent imminent death great bodily harm or prevent the commission of a forcible felony. So is it possible that Ashley acted in self-defense? So far, we know that Ashley ran right over to the neighbor's house and told them what she did. In addition, it appeared that the

shots were fired at Doug's leg and Doug's arm, which for Ashley, someone who is familiar with guns, is it possible that she could have aimed for that part in an effort to just stop him but not kill him? I don't know. And unfortunately, the shot to the arm ended up hitting Doug's chest cavity, ultimately killing him. But also, why would Ashley want him dead? Did she still believe that she was poisoned and that she really was in danger and therefore couldn't risk her daughter spending time with their dad? Was there a financial motive in all of this? Maybe, but if there was, Doug's life insurance policy had expired a few months prior to his death and he forgot to renew it.

So there was no big payout here. In February of 2023, Ashley's lawyer filed a lengthy motion to dismiss and request for immunity, and this court document that I found was the one that I had mentioned in the very beginning of this video that made me realize I had to do a video on this case. It says, presentation was a complete fraud. On the day of the homicide, September 27, 2020, Ms. Benefield knew the following about her husband. A. He fired a handgun into the ceiling of their kitchen in an effort to intimidate her. B. He threw a loaded gun at her. C. He punched their dog in the face hard enough to render the canine unconscious. D. He regularly carried a loaded concealed firearm. E. He unlawfully placed a

tracker on her car and Ashley frequently observed him tailing her car. F. He was caught by a neighbor at night standing in her backyard and peering into her home. G. He punched numerous holes in the wall of their home. H. his previous marriage had a history of domestic violence. Then they say, while physical conditioning played a larger role in Ashley's career as a ballerina, she was no match for Douglas Benefield. In sharp contrast to Miss Benefield's little structure, Doug was a former naval officer, admittedly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, who stood 5'9", weighed 169 pounds, and was in prime shape. And they attached exhibits of Doug working out and taking selfies. Ashley, that he worked for government agencies, such as the CIA, was a technical expert in advanced classified fields that required a security clearance, and trained with both active and

retired special forces in hand-to-hand and close quarters combat at a secret location in the United States called the Ranch, moody and unpredictable. He would also frequently go between calm and rage, and Ashley would never know what would set him off. He would often tell Ashley, you haven't seen the warrior side of me, and you never want to. Then it says that the weeks before the incident, Ashley, her mother, and daughter were preparing to move to Maryland, and that Doug leased a local apartment, and that he too was moving to Maryland. And it was made clear to him, and he understood that the parties would not be cohabitating upon their arrival at this new destination. Which is news to everyone, right?

It says that when he got to the house, Doug's mood was consistent with prior behavior, being happy and then all of the sudden being extremely agitated and angry. Then, Ashley and Doug were talking about how to load the U-Haul truck, saying that since they would be living in different places and unloading different places, Ashley's stuff would need to go and last to be unloaded first. Allegedly, this annoyed Doug, and he expressed frustration and anger by stating, it should not be a your house, my house arrangement. We are moving together as a family, making a fresh start, but you're dividing us. And then Ashley claims that this is when things began to escalate, because Doug told her it's time that she began acting like a wife.

Otherwise, he would have to pack her in the pod, like a moving pod. And then she claims that this threat was something that Doug had said before, saying on several occasions that he would say, if you don't cooperate, I will ship you in the pod and you won't like it because you will be hot and it'll be slow. And if you're going to be difficult, you're going to go the slow way to Maryland, like this torture threat. So then Doug started trying to open the pod and make room. And Ashley said, hey, it's full already. Don't mess with it. But Doug tried anyways. And when he tried to open it and it was locked, became even more angry especially when ashley said she didn't know where the key was then it says that doug started confronting ashley moving in close crossing his arms and glaring at

ashley and this is a direct quote concluding she was defiant, he grew tense, shoulders raised, fists clenched, heavy breathing, and sharp stature, with nasty comments spewing back and forth. As in South Carolina, Ashley was concerned for her safety and wanted to avoid antagonizing Doug. She had tried to attempt to de-escalate the situation by redirecting the conversation and calming him down by speaking softly and positively. He would have none of it, and in an effort to protect herself, she moved away from him to the rear of the garage and resumed packing. Then Doug responded by growing increasingly aggressive and threatening and began to hover over the top of Ashley in a very intimidating manner,

all while she was bent over packing boxes in the garage. Fists clenched, arms jingling, as if getting ready for physical contact. Ashley thought he may lash out, so she tried to tell Doug, Hey, I'm exhausted. I'm finished for today. So that maybe he would leave. The filing goes on to say that Doug didn't listen and continued to pack in a passive-aggressive way. It says that Ashley would try to move to the opposite sides of the garage

as well as in the house, but that Doug kept coming up to her and body-checking her instead of going around her when he needed to walk by. Ashley said that Doug was mumbling under his breath and clearly hostile. Then, while Doug was carrying a box, he again body-checked her, and this time deliberately hitting her with the box, leaving scratches on the side of Ashley's body. Afterwards, while in the baby's room, Doug stood in the doorway blocking Ashley from leaving, while puffing his chest, clenching his fists, and glaring at her. And that's when Doug yelled that he knew what she was doing and accused her of trying to force him to leave, get rid of him, and that he was not leaving and he could stay if he wanted to and also spend the night if he wanted to because he was her

husband. So as things were starting to escalate even more, Doug moved out of the way and Ashley ran through the house to try to go to the front door and Doug grabbed her yanked her back and said where do you think you are going then he once again aggressively confronted her thereby blocking her path to the front door while wagging his finger in her face and exclaiming you can't leave me Ashley found the strength to tell him outright, I am done. You need to leave now. Now terrified, Ashley braced herself for what she believed would be certainly physical impact. Her instincts were allegedly correct. Raising his right hand with a closed fist, Doug drove his knuckles into the left side of Ashley's head while exclaiming, I am not done. The impact resulted in

a sharp numbing pain which caused Ashley to stumble to her right side after which she fled to her bedroom. Her worst fears realized. Ashley now believed her life was in danger. Never before had Doug actually struck her. In the past, he psychologically abused her and sought to intimidate her by, among other things, holding her against her will, punching holes in the wall, harming their domestic animals, and shooting and throwing guns in the house. But this was different. Any restraint had been abandoned. As she entered her bedroom, she swung the door behind her in an unsuccessful effort to close it. The door remained ajar. And then they include an exhibit in the filings, but unfortunately the picture of Ashley's face

without the proof that she was hit in this black and white. Then it says that Ashley had a laundry basket in the corner of her room that had a gun on top of it. When Doug came in her room, he was upset, very visibly upset. And that when ashley held the gun to him and told him to stop but instead she claims that doug was postured like a martial arts fighter with his hands parallel to his chest his shoulders moving and he started advancing toward her now terrified and fully believing that she was about to suffer great bodily harm if not death she fired the weapon doug continued advancing apparently toward Ashley. In fear for her life, she frantically moved in an effort to put more distance between them.

Still, he did not stop coming toward her, and she continued firing. In what seemed like slow motion, she saw Doug's legs go up in the air as if his feet slipped out from underneath him, and then he fell backward. The exhibits included transcripts from interviews from Ashley and Doug's legal battles, and in the transcripts with Doug's version of events in many of the incidents that happened in their home. All of the transcripts in here that are going to be read are Doug's answers, and the person asking the questions is the lawyer. I'm not asking what Ashley did.

What happens with the gun? After a few, maybe, maybe another minute to two minutes, I couldn't tell you the exact time. Of Ashley talking about Eva? Of Ashley talking. And I am begging her to stop talking and to please stop. And your head's on the counter? My head's on the counter. What happens with the gun? She wouldn't stop. Just completely would not stop. And so out of complete and utter frustration, no anger whatsoever, I don't remember feeling a single iota of anger. It was purely utter frustration. And so...

What happened? I... literally the gun's sitting in front of me and I pull it out of the sleeve and I shot at the ceiling. Okay. Did she somehow egg you on with the gun at any point in time? I didn't hear anything about that. She egged me on in the argument, not stopping. She didn't bring the gun into the house. You did, right? No. You were the one that threw the gun against the wall, correct? Absolutely, and I admitted to that. You were the one that pulled the gun out of the sleeve and discharged it? Absolutely, and I admitted it. But you think

that was her fault? Absolutely. There's two parties. She had the ability to stop arguing. Any one of the hundred times I asked her to. I'd say that was the result, but I wouldn't say that, thinking back. Yeah, that's what I said there. No, that's not what was going on in my head. My head was pure expression of frustration. Do you see where it says right here in your own document that's now part of Exhibit 3? I threw it to make her shut up. Do you see you wrote that? Yes. This is your writing? Uh-huh. Yes? Yes. Did you hit Sully? You could call it hit, yes. You called it hit? Yeah. He sprung up into it, I guess your lap, and you reacted and hit him. Yeah. So when you say you could call it, you called it hit, correct? Yes. He wouldn't stop either, so you hit him? Yes, I hit my dog. And you admit that that happened on or about that day you hit the wall to get her to stop talking? I hit it out of frustration, effective stopping her for a minute.

So you hit the wall where? I was inside the closet and hit it from the, on the inside of the closet, just about where there's an ADT alarm system. It put a hole in the wall? Yes, it did. And then it went through. My fist went through the sheetrock and sort of hit the outside. I remember that because that's where I first started to have them put the ADT, so they already started cutting the hole. Is this Ashley's fault again because she wouldn't stop?

I would say Ashley was... Ashley was the cause of the argument, yes. During your arguments in the past, besides shooting a firearm, throwing a firearm, and punching a hole in the wall, did you ever throw things besides the gun? I don't ever remember throwing anything. No, I don't remember. The only thing I remember, one time standing at the sink and there's a glass in the sink and I definitely, it broke when I put it down too hard. So you were in an argument and you put a glass down

too hard and it broke. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. There was also transcripts of the neighbor who believes that she saw Doug peeping into Ashley's backyard. In the exhibits, there was a text message that Renee Benefield had sent to Doug while they were married, which were included to show his previous history of abuse and being a fraud. It's a little cut off at the top, but the part you can see is when she says, deeply disappointed that you distorted who you really were when I married you. I loved you through finding out you weren't really what you pretended to be. You kicking me so hard on New Year's Eve on our honeymoon because you were having trouble functioning in certain areas.

You holding a gun to your head twice in my home that I opened to you with my children that still love you. Having to sell everything down to my wedding ring. Finding out that you were on Viagra, which all you had to do was tell me, you know I wouldn't care. Trying to film us making love on our honeymoon. Finding out that you were eye pencil, on and on. I loved you so much. And then it cuts off and then it says, that's why I cut off to think you would take pictures of me without asking. Doug, I wouldn't do that to you. I love you.

There are a lot of people saying that Ashley was not the victim of any type of abuse and that she made this whole thing up to kill Doug and eliminate the threat of him taking her daughter away. Doug's attorney also said that Ashley did this three days before a custody hearing was scheduled for the 30th, where a psychologist's evaluations of Ashley and Doug were set to be released. And they went on to say that Ashley did this because whatever would have come back in that report could have affected her custody with her daughter. The last part may 100% be true, but that doesn't change the fact that if what Ashley said happened in all of those events, which it seems like Doug admitted to all of them too, that it would make her a victim of domestic abuse, even though up until the day she shot and killed is, but that's just my opinion. But I also want to be clear, being a victim of domestic abuse and a domestic dispute isn't just isolated to physical abuse. It can be emotional torment, mental torment, all sorts of different forms of abuse. Her strange husband attacked her and she says she shot him. A 911 call from a normally quiet Lakewood Ranch neighborhood. It was a domestic. She shot her husband turned into a bloody crime scene. A couple once madly in love in the midst of a child custody battle was allowed to to see his daughter and I think that she, from what we understand, was upset that

he was in her daughter's life. Ashley and Doug Benfield's tumultuous relationship ended in gunfire. Ashley is accused of killing her husband. What better way to get rid of someone than just to kill him and then claim self-defense. Sarasota attorney Stephanie Murphy represented Doug Benfield in the custody battle of the Benfield's young daughter. She had made so many false allegations. There were so many law enforcement officials throughout not only Florida, but also South Carolina

who had said, no, this isn't adding up. It's a story with years of information. The more you peel an onion, the more layers you get. Details, court filings, and issues. Displayed by really many of the media outlets that she was a conniving, plotting individual, which is quite far from the actual truth of the matter. South Florida attorney Neal Taylor represents accused murderer Ashley Benfield. We asked to speak with her. from the actual truth of attorney Neil Taylor repr Ashley Benfield. We asked

She's not talking, but fo Why are you guys speaking I think it's important th that Miss Benefield, like to a fair trial. And while the details of the case may be titillating, the representations have often not been at all accurate. Doug's family would disagree. Tommy Benfield is Doug's cousin.

Don't know the words that were said, but what we do know is he had packed an entire U-Haul of Ashley and her family's stuff to move to Maryland literally the next morning. Was literally picking up the last box in her closet to move to the U-Haul when she shot him. A move to Maryland to reconcile. That's at least what Doug's attorney told us. Ashley's attorney says the opposite. I don't believe the plans that Mr. Benefield had were consistent with the plans that Ms. Benefield had. Sometimes we want to make things happen. We would like to have it our own way, but that doesn't mean that the other party shares that perspective. She's with me now, quite upset. The weapon is here.

Ashley's neighbor at the time, who called 911. We need the police before her mother and the little girl gets back from the park. Said Ashley pulled the trigger because she was attacked. The proof will more than adequately demonstrate that Ms. Benefield was in great fear of immediate and severe bodily harm. Doug's family doesn't believe the shooting was in self-defense. They think it was calculated. She can act that she cares and she feels bad and she's remorseful, but I think deep down that's what she wanted to do from the very start. Ava Benfield is Doug's daughter from a

previous marriage. He became a widow in 2015 when his wife, Ava's mom, Renee Benfield, died from a heart condition. Months later, he met and married Ashley. Why would you take away your own child's dad when you grew up without one? And why would you take away another child's dad when you know that she didn't have a mom to begin with? A case that's still awaiting a trial date in Manatee County. I hope that the process is but I realistically, I do happen anytime soon. A fa justice, absolutely uncond

he was giving to not only off his back, but the las a woman out on bond still awaiting her fate. There will be no doubt about certain aspects of the case. It's been more than a year now since Doug was killed. His family is ready for the case to be seen through. More recently, Ashley was back in court. And Ashley Benefield back in court.

Let's take a look. We've got some video for a pre-trial hearing. And she is free right now. She's not locked up. She's going home every day. She's staying with her mother and her child, who is now, I believe, four years old. So there's the former ballerina and swimsuit model,

now an accused murderer. Let's bring back in our think tank Marie Pereira, Nima Rahmani, Kirk Nermy. Nima, they had a bitter, bitter custody battle where she was making allegations of being a victim, that he was trying to poison her. The judge in that case, and there wasn't a jury, it was a judge, didn't believe anything that she said.

Do you think the defense goes there again in this case and try to paint the picture that doug benefield is trying to kill her oh no question vinnie and this is the type of case that you need to be worried about that judge's finding that's not going to come in but we know those florida juries they love a good self-defense case going back to trayvon martin we cover the popcorn movie theater case here on Court TV, and they're already talking about stay on your ground. And we know that female defendants do better in murder cases, particularly attractive ones. And here's someone that immediately went to the neighbor and said she acted in self-defense. So I believe she did it. You know me, I'm siding

with the prosecution. But this is the type of case that you have to be worried about and outright not guilty and a defense verdict. Originally, her trial was supposed to begin in late July of 2023. But now Ashley is set for her trial in October of later this year, according to the county court records. What do you guys think about this case? It is one where there is so much division. And like I said in the beginning, there was so much information that hasn't been released that I felt like, okay, I just need to share this with everybody because I feel like you need to have all of the information before you can truly make a judgment for yourself and form an opinion.

But now hearing all of this, do you believe that she was scared for her life and this was self-defense? Or do you think that she had been plotting and planning trying to get Doug out of her life and get him out of their child's life and then this was the final way to do that that the moving wasn't working that all these court filings weren't working so then she had to result to this what do you make of the entire situation I'm curious because like I said so many people are divided on this and there are so many different opinions out there so let me know what you guys think thank you for tuning in to another episode of serialously

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I have new tiers with behind the scenes stuff, bonus episodes, uncensored videos, new content, exclusive content, I mean private discord, you name it, it's all over there. So I will have the link to everything including all my social medias in the show notes below. All right guys, thank you again for tuning in with me on this long, long case today for another episode of Serialistly. I will see you guys bright and early next week unless I drop a bonus episode this week which I might just do so make sure that you're following along so you don't miss any of those bonus episodes too all right guys thanks again it is your true crime bestie Annie signing off have a good week bye