According to a statement from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, Doug was shot to death on Sept. 27, 2020, after going to the Florida house of his estranged wife, Ashley Benefield, during a “custody dispute” over the couple’s small daughter. The former ballerina’s seesaw marriage with her considerably older husband lasted only four years, before she shot him on Sept. 27, 2020. Who was Doug Benefield first wife and where is she now? Scroll down to know more about Doug Benefield first wife, marriage, death, and many more:
Doug Benefield first wife, who is she and where is she now?
Benefield first wife was Renee. Doug allegedly poisoned Ashley and his first wife, Renee, according to Ashley. Renee died of coronary artery sclerosis, a cardiac ailment, according to her autopsy. Doug kept Ashley’s marriage a secret from Eva, his 15-year-old daughter from a previous marriage. Renee, Eva’s mother, had died nine months before of an undiagnosed heart condition.
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According to a statement from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, Doug was shot to death on Sept. 27, 2020, after going to the Florida house of his estranged wife, Ashley Benefield, during a “custody dispute” over the couple’s small daughter. Investigators and Doug’s family have questioned Ashley’s claim that she shot Doug in self-defense after a heated “domestic argument,” claiming it didn’t appear to match the facts gathered at the scene.
A whirlwind romance of Doug and Ashely
Doug worked as a consultant for technology companies and government contractors and was 54 years old. In August 2016, Ashley Byers met Doug Benefield during a dinner in Florida, and flames sparked right away. Ashley, a former ballerina and bikini model, was 24 years old. In front of a small group of guests, the couple married 13 days later in his birthplace of Charleston, South Carolina. Ashley had a difficult time getting along with Eva and her friend Sydney, who had moved in with the family.
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During an argument with Ashley about Eva, Doug discharged his revolver into the kitchen ceiling. Doug, on the other hand, kept encouraging Ashley to follow her dream of founding a ballet company in Charleston. For unconventional performers, the American National Ballet would be a more receptive environment. When they were starting the dancing group, Ashley fell pregnant. She became nauseous and had to return to Florida to be looked for by her mother.
Why Ashley killed her husband Doug Benefield?
Ashley and her mother returned to Charleston in September 2017. She wrote a caustic note after packing up her possessions. Doug was described by Ashley as “possessive” and “controlling.” She reported that Doug’s firing a gun into the ceiling, as well as other dangerous actions, had made her fear for her life and the safety of her pregnant child. Ashley and Doug reconciled in the summer of 2020, announcing that they would be moving to Maryland with their daughter and Ashley’s mother. Doug was loading a U-Haul with the family’s belongings on September 27, 2020.
A former ballerina shoots her husband. Did she kill to save herself or was it out of spite? #48Hours contributor @JimAxelrod reports, tonight at 10/9c on @CBS and @paramountplus. https://t.co/uogI4ETPmi
— 48 Hours (@48hours) September 8, 2021
That night a neighbor called 911 to report a shooting at the home. Ashley had strolled up to his residence with a.45 caliber gun, claiming Doug had assaulted her and she had shot him. Doug died at a local hospital an hour later. Ashley was arrested and charged with second-degree murder on November 4, 2020. She was released on bond after a few weeks and is now awaiting trial. She entered a not guilty plea.
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