"48 Hours" preview: The Black Swan Murder? | Forensic Files

ashley benefield as the former ballerina turned alleged murderer she's admitted shooting and killing her husband doug
benefield but according to a neighbor said it was in self-defense ashley claimed her husband had been
poisoning her it's a story filled with beautiful bodies and ugly allegations jim axelrod has the full report in
tonight's 48 hours i started working on a story about a scandal in the ballet world
it was a business story about a ballet company that turned into a murder investigation
alice robb is a contributing writer for vanity fair magazine the focus of her story was a new ballet company started
by doug benefield and his much younger wife ashley a former ballerina ashley's dream was to create a ballet company
that would be a home for dancers who were different body types different types of training
friends say doug knew nothing about ballet but wanted to make his new wife's dreams come true he just
immediately thought ashley was the most beautiful the most amazing person in the world
doug was 30 years older than ashley and they were married 13 days after they met
they hardly knew each other and fought often says stephanie murphy doug's family attorney and then on top of
starting a ballet company ashley also wanted to get pregnant ashley did get pregnant but says she
suffered from terrible nausea at a certain point she came to believe that doug was poisoning her she accused him
of trying to poison her claiming to be worried for herself and her unborn baby ashley fled to her mother's home in
florida and did not even tell him when their daughter was born ashley wanted to raise her daughter with
her mother alone the baby's blood work showed she was healthy but ashley still took the
baby for treatment in this hyperbaric chamber to detox poisons eventually the benefits took their
battle to court where a judge ruled there was no evidence ashley had been poisoned
then last year ashley surprisingly suggested they all moved to maryland for a fresh start they were packing up her
house in florida i heard from somebody screaming outside and she shot him she told the neighbor doug
had attacked her and she had to defend herself she's pled not guilty to second-degree
murder charges was she genuinely afraid and just trying to protect her baby and save herself or was
she trying to get doug out of her life just because she hated him doug supporters say ashley was a
manipulative character straight out of hollywood to doug ashley's this innocent pure
white swan but underneath those white feathers she's an evil woman she's the black swan
so for more on this we want to bring in 48 hours correspondent jim axelrod as per usual jim twists and turns um you
leave us with all these questions and i know you can only answer a few but black swan
i mean do does she did she have a history of being a master manipulator well anne-marie we got twists we got
turns and we got pirouettes from the ballet world with ashley benefield let me let me just say this in
terms of black swan which of course is iconic character from the ballet world swan lake and this this manipulative
character we don't really know what the facts are yet only because uh she doesn't go to
trial till 2023 and she hasn't really been talking yet um we can tell you this during the
course of their four-year marriage uh ashley accused doug not only of trying to poison her but he accused doug of
having poisoned his first wife fatally i can tell you that doug was investigated many times over the course
of the investigation the marriage and no charges no criminal charges were ever brought by the authorities against doug
benefield oh my gosh you added another twist um you know whenever uh you guys the
correspondents in 48 hours come here the stories that have to do with children always
really sort of hit me hard there is a baby involved here um do we know anything about her where
is she who's caring for her and where's ashley for that matter yeah well so the baby is about three and a
half years old now and lives with ashley's mother um and while ashley's terms of uh
uh of how much she can see the baby are controlled uh we're told sources tell us
that ashley lives very close uh to her mom and sees the baby all the time but again
we will know more as this case moves closer to trial in 2023 but i agree with you a thousand percent the
fact that there's a child involved here just uh makes the whole story even more heart-wrenching if if that's even
possible doug's family has said that if ashley is convicted they will move uh to take husband
wow um so we heard in your piece there that you know ashley told a neighbor that
this was an act of self-defense is there anything to support that idea well that's obviously what the entire
trial will revolve around uh just a couple of points there one of the facts from the investigation
is that doug was not facing ashley so the question becomes how menacing was he at the time that he
was shot but we're going to have a lot more on this very complicated rich uh story that is
really gripping um and gut-wrenching and that's tonight on 48 hours yeah it sounds layered yes a very
special 48 hours on a wednesday night jim thank you so much thanks for having us
so once again you can watch jim's full report the black swan murder during a special weeknight episode of 48 hours
that is tonight at 10 9 central on cbs

A former ballerina shoots and kills her husband, claiming it was in self-defense. Was she fighting back or was it intentional? Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports for "48 Hours" airing on a special night - Wednesday, September 8 at 10/9c on CBS and Paramount+.

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Brief Summary

Ashley Benefield shot her husband Doug, claiming self-defense amid allegations of poisoning and a tumultuous marriage.

Key points

Ashley Benefield: Ballerina to Alleged Murderer. Ashley Benefield, a former ballerina, is accused of murdering her husband Doug in a case filled with twists.
The Poisoning Allegations. Ashley accused Doug of poisoning her and even his first wife, raising questions about his character.
A Child Caught in the Middle. The couple's daughter is living with Ashley's mother, adding emotional weight to the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's a story filled with beautiful bodies and ugly allegations.

0:15WatchSep 8, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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