After meeting at a political dinner in Florida in August 2016, Ashley Byers and Douglas Benefield married just 13 days later, with Ashley taking her husband’s surname. Family and friends worried they were rushing into things, but the couple insisted they were in love – despite the 30-year age difference.
The event had been part of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Benefield, then 24, had been working in his campaign office. A former ballet dancer and swimwear model, she had been studying dance since she was eight and had dropped out of school to work with the Maryland Youth Ballet. But by 21, her ballet career hadn’t taken off and she was teaching dance. Doug, then 54, was a retired naval flight officer who lived in Charleston, South Carolina, where he worked as a security consultant. Doug’s first wife Renee had died nine months earlier from an undiagnosed heart condition which left him raising their 15-year-old daughter, Eva, alone.
Benefield and Doug married in a very small ceremony, followed by a party for friends and family, but their marriage was rocky from the start. Eva struggled with her new stepmother, who was only nine years older than her, and it caused arguments with Doug. During one fight, Doug allegedly fired a gun into the ceiling of their home to try to stop the shouting.
But the couple stayed together and Doug even had a vasectomy reversed so they could have a child together.
Benefield had a dream of building a ballet company and Doug helped her make that happen. They opened the American National Ballet in Charleston in 2017, but it struggled and closed down within a year. That same year, Benefield got pregnant and told Doug the nausea was so bad she was going to stay with her mum to be looked after. But a month later, in September 2017, Benefield returned with her mum when Doug was out and packed up her things. She left Doug a note saying his possessive and controlling behaviour was making her fear for her safety. She told him not to contact her again.
It appeared Benefield didn’t want anything to do with Doug now she was pregnant and she tried everything she could to discredit him. She reported Doug to the police about the incident where he’d fired a gun into the ceiling and even accused him of poisoning his first wife – even though medical records showed cause of her death was an undiagnosed heart condition. Doug was desperate to be involved in Benefield’s pregnancy but in March 2018, she checked into a hospital and had the baby via C-section. Doug didn’t know she’d had a baby girl until Benefield filed court papers to keep him away from their daughter.
The documents accused Doug of trying to poison Benefield, but a judge disputed the claims. She said, “There is not a single scintilla of credible evidence that Ms Benefield has ever been poisoned or suffered from any illness of any poison.”
When the baby was six months old, Doug was allowed to share custody and the couple tentatively reconciled. They even went to couple’s therapy, but the reunion was rocky.
At one point they broke up, with Doug believing Benefield had been unfaithful. She accused him of a whole litany of abuse, but investigations cleared him. During the summer of 2020, the couple got back together and announced that they were moving to Maryland, where Benefield had grown up, with their daughter and Benefield’s mother.
On 27 September, Doug, then 58, went to Florida, where Benefield was staying with her mother, and hired a rental van. He spent the day helping Benefield pack, while her mum took their daughter to the park. At 7pm, neighbours heard gunshots and one dialled 991. He reported that Benefield had walked into his house holding a gun and said Doug had attacked her and she’d shot him. When the police arrived, Doug was on the bedroom floor. He’d been shot in the leg and arm, with the second bullet entering his chest. He was rushed to hospital but died an hour later.
Benefield claimed Doug had attacked her and tried to block her from leaving, but the evidence didn’t support her story. She had no injuries and his wounds showed he wasn’t even facing her when he was shot – he was turning away. He had no weapon or defensive wounds. In the house there were two other loaded guns. Why did Benefield have so many guns in a house with a young child?
Benefield was arrested and charged with second degree murder. She pleaded not guilty. The killing became known in the media as the Black Swan murder trial, with reference to the 2010 film in which a ballerina mentally unravels.
At the trial in 2024, Benefield claimed the shooting was self-defence after an abusive four-year marriage. She took the stand and said Doug had a temper. He would throw things and scream during arguments. She said the night she shot him, Doug had hit her in the face. She had no injuries apart from a scratch that may have happened days earlier.
“I just held the gun in front of me and said, ‘Stop,’ and he turned and he got into this like almost like a fighting stance,” Benefield said. “He started moving his arms and his hands around. He started coming towards me, he lunged at me and I just pulled the trigger.”
The prosecution said the bullet had come from the side, not from the front of Doug’s body. They said Benefield wanted Doug dead so she would gain sole custody of their daughter – something she had already gone to great lengths to try to make happen. They said the abuse had been fabricated. In July, Benefield was found guilty of manslaughter with a firearm. Four months later, she was sentenced.
“You have managed to orphan not one, but two young girls,” Eva told Benefield. “Ashley, since the day you shot my father, I’ve only had one question to ask you – why? Why did you end my dad’s life knowing he was my only living parent and the only person I could confide in and count on for everything I needed as I turned into a young adult?” Eva spoke about how her dad had always been there after her mother had died, but how Benefield had come into their lives and changed everything.
“I watched my dad paint over every memory and every corner of that house, change the furniture, rid the house of every bit of my mom that was left so you could enjoy life without the remnants of my dad’s late wife and soulmate,” Eva said. “I had to come home from school to see you barely clothed, sitting on the countertops my mom used to cook our family dinner on. I had to live in a house stripped of memories I still cling to so I can remember the happy childhood my parents gave me.”
Benefield was sentenced to 20 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation.
