Ashley Benefield, who is currently known as Black Swan, is a famous ballet dancer born in 1992 in Florida, USA, to mother Alicia Byers.
The details about her father have not yet been revealed in the media due to privacy reasons. However, it looks like Ashley Benefield’s parents separated when she was young.
According to her mother, Alicia Byers, Ashley Benefield has been passionate about dancing, especially ballet, from a young age. With her parents’ support, she started pursuing her career as a ballet dancer when she was still in college.
I can't help but notice 2023 she looked poised and confident. Wearing blazer to hide her frailty. Now, she is hunched over little makeup, looking down and frail. Interesting tactic playing to the jury. IMO#BallerinaMurderTrial#AshleyBenefield #AshleyBenefieldtrial pic.twitter.com/ouWJ4kVrpM
— Kimberly Gates (@realtorkim15) July 23, 2024
With time, she became a great ballerina dancer in her 20s, performing on huge stages and earning a name for herself in the field.
After her success as a dancer, Ashley wanted to build her own inclusive ballet company that would feature people of all ethnicities and body types. However, after she got married, everything changed in her life, and she became a person who took her husband’s life.
Ashley Benefield was married to Doug Benefield, who was 30 years older than her!
Ashley Benefield, 24 years old, first met Doug Benefield, 54, in August 2016 at a dinner party in Florida during the presidential campaign.
When Doug Benefield first met Ashley Benefield, he immediately thought, “Ashley was the most beautiful, the most amazing person in the world,” as reported by Vanity Fair writer Alice Robb.
A 6-person jury was chosen last night. Court is set to begin at 8:45am ET. #AshleyBenefield is charged with second-degree murder in the death of her husband Doug Benefield. She says she killed him in self-defense. pic.twitter.com/5v5fWxObSR
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) July 23, 2024
At that time, Ashley Benefield worked in Donald Trump’s campaign, while Doug Benefield was a South Carolina consultant.
Just a week after their meeting, they started dating, and the 30-year age gap between them hardly mattered.
However, the most shocking part is that they married in 2016, just 13 days after starting their relationship. Doug’s close friend Trip Cormeny, who was an ordained Episcopal minister at the time, attended the wedding ceremony.
Doug Benefield was already the father of a teenage daughter, Eva, whom he had with his first wife, Renee.
According to the reports, Renee had recently passed away from an undiagnosed heart ailment, and Doug Benefield thought his daughter Eva needed a motherly figure in her life.
#TheBlackSwan #TheBlackSwanMurderTrial #AshleyBenefield #DougBenefield
— Adriienne F (@itsadriienne) July 23, 2024
ASHLEY BENEFIELD TRIAL BEGINS TODAY‼️
OPENING STATEMENTS BEGIN SOON‼️ pic.twitter.com/SEKdYu5UJ4
However, her daughter did not want that, and she never liked her father marrying Ashley as she thought she was taking away her best friend.
Further, as Eva was still going through sadness due to her mother’s passing, she experienced another trauma after her father remarried just nine months after his first wife’s loss.
Ashley Benefield had a daughter with her husband, Doug Benefield
The first year of their marriage ended happily, as Ashley got to open her dream ballet dance company with the help of her husband, Doug.
Further, at the end of the summer of 2017, dancers worldwide joined their company, and it was going as she had dreamed of.
As everything was going right, she decided to pursue motherhood and became pregnant in July 2017.
First piece of non Karen Read content in quite a while. Join me tomorrow at 8am EST // 1pm UK Time as we discuss the Ashley Benefield case before it goes to trial – https://t.co/4uzCEA0t1i pic.twitter.com/onFhDH9wG8
— Dylan (@Dylan12D) July 7, 2024
In 2019, when Ashley was having an argument with Doug regarding her step-daughter Eva, Doug furiously fired the gun into the ceiling, which scared both Ashley and Eva.
Later, Ashely decided to go to her mother Alicia Byers’s house in Florida until the heat between them cooled off.
After moving to her mother’s house, she returned but left a letter for Doug, in which she warned him never to call and to try to meet her.
She gave birth to her daughter in March 2018 without letting the father know. Further, she also did not put the father’s name on the baby’s birth certificate.
Despite months of conflict and legal issues, the couple patched up out of the blue, and they lived happily together for almost one year.
In the spring of 2020, the couple decided to move to Maryland, and Ashely suggested bringing her mother, too.
To sum up, Ashley Benefield's lawyers asked the judge to recuse himself and he denied the motion. The trial is set to begin on Tuesday at 8:30a.m.#trial #court #florida #crime #murder #AshleyBenefield #DougBenefield #BlackSwanMurderTrial pic.twitter.com/dNEzhzhGis
— 👨⚖️Law Spy⚖️ (@LawTeoYer) July 22, 2024
On September 27, 2020, when Ashely and Doug were alone in one room, and their daughter was with her grandmother in another room, a neighbor heard screaming and called 911.
After seeing Doug with multiple gunshots, they took to the hospital, but he did not make it. Police arrested Ashely and charged her with second-degree murder, but she claimed it to be self-defense.
Additional Information
- Ashley Benefield worked in Donald Trump’s campaign office in Sarasota, Florida, when she met Doug Benefield. He previously served as a Navy pilot and worked with technology companies and defense contractors.
- Ashley Benefield had previously sued Doug, claiming he had hands in his first wife’s passing and also tried to poison her with tea. However, she had no evidence to support her statements.
- Doug Benefield’s suspect remains unknown; however, the investigation is still ongoing as of 2024. Many officers believe Ashley Benefield is responsible for his loss, as they call her a Black Swan.
- CBS News 48 Hours, a true crime podcast for fans, covered Ashley Benefield and Doug’s case in season 34, episode 36, The Black Swan Murder, released on September 8, 2021.
- Even though Ashley Benefield and Doug Benefield have received the whole country’s attention, Wikipedia has not written about their case yet.
