The investigation into the tragic shooting of 59-year-old Doug Benefield posed a compelling question: what motivated the deadly encounter?

As detailed in the “Deadly Dance” episode of Oxygen’s Dateline: Unforgettable, the person who fired the fatal shot was Ashley Benefield, 29, Doug’s estranged wife and a former ballerina.

On September 27, 2020, Ashley called 911 from a neighbor’s home in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, claiming she had shot Doug in self-defense after he allegedly attacked her.

What happened to Doug Benefield?

When emergency responders arrived, Doug was barely hanging on to life. As he was transported to the hospital, an unexpected figure, Ashley’s therapist Dr. Barbara Russell, also arrived at the scene, raising eyebrows.

Lt. Dan Dickerman of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office commented in the episode, “In my experience, it’s unprecedented for a therapist or doctor to appear at an active crime scene right after the incident has taken place.”

Before Ashley got to the station for questioning her legal team arrived, according to Deputy Justin Warren.

“Her attorney approached me…and advised me she was her attorney,” said Warren. “The other two attorneys were on the way as well.”

Investigators knew Ashley was claiming self-defense. Seated with her lawyers, she exercised her right to stay silent. She wasn’t under arrest and was free to go.

At the hospital, doctors tried to save Doug’s life. But his injuries were too severe, and he died. Doug’s 19-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Eva, grappled with grief. 

Eva’s mom, Renee, died from a heart attack when she was only 15. Her dad was her whole world. Eva had struggled to accept Ashley as her stepmom.

How Doug and Ashley Benefield met

Detectives learned that Doug met Ashley in the summer of 2016, less than nine months after Renee died. The two clicked at a dinner party hosted by presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson. 

Doug was a former Navy pilot who worked in the defense industry. Ashley, 30 years younger, was a retired ballerina who modeled and taught dancing. 

They each had a concealed-carry gun permit and were deeply religious. 

Dateline correspondent Andrea Canning observed in Dateline: Unforgettable: “These two really bonded over guns, God and politics.”

That introduction, according to Russell, sparked a “whirlwind relationship,” she said. “It ended in marriage 13 days later.”

Ashley moved from Florida to Doug’s home in Charleston, South Carolina. The newlyweds formed the American National Ballet, a company with a mission to celebrate diversity. It was Ashley’s dream come true.

Dancer Sarah Murawski recalled them as blissful, saying, “They’re the most in love couple I think I’ve ever met in person in my life.”

By the summer of 2017, the couple was expecting a baby. But there were issues brewing behind the happy facade.

Doug Benefield’s alleged dark side 

Ashley told her therapist that Doug turned violent weeks after they wed. “He would push her into a wall,” said Russell, who had Ashley’s permission to speak. “[He’d] scream in her face, punch the wall.” 

Ashley believed that Doug was poisoning her while she was pregnant with tea laced with something toxic. 

“Doug told her that he killed his wife, Renee,” said Russell. “He said he poisoned her, and that the police will always believe him, and he will kill her too.”

Eight weeks into her pregnancy, Ashley fled to Florida to live with her mother. The ballet company folded. 

Ashley didn’t tell Doug when their daughter, Emerson, was born in the spring of 2018. Ashley left his name off the birth certificate. She believed Doug was stalking her. 

After everything she’d heard about the Benefields’ rocky relationship, what shocked Russell about the shooting was, she said, that “it wasn’t Ashley that was dead.”

Police reports of complaints dating back to 2017 documented the couple’s tumultuous relationship, according to Dateline: Unforgettable.

Despite evidence suggesting Doug was a violent and abusive husband, his brother, David, viewed Doug as the victim. 

“Ashley was severely abusing him, emotionally and through the control of  the child,” he said. “Doug was not doing any of that.”

During the couple’s legal battle, Ashley went to great lengths to defeat Doug,recalled his former lawyer, Stephanie Murphy.

“She tried to get Charleston law enforcement to exhume Renee’s body to try to say that he had killed her,” said Murphy. “She was going to newspapers around the country talking about the poisoning.”

The couple faced off in family court in the summer of 2018. Emerson was six months old, and Doug had still never met her. 

On the stand, Ashley recalled domestic violence by Doug. “He hurt our pets in order to hurt me,” she told the court. “He was verbally abusive.” She also testified that she feared for Emerson’s safety. 

Doug acknowledged he’d made mistakes. He admitted to yelling at Ashely, punching a few walls and mistreating the pets. He denied killing his first wife.

The judge sided with Doug, saying that Ashley’s testimony didn’t carry “a single scintilla of credibility.” 

Doug was given immediate access to Emerson and sole responsibility over her medical care. 

Doug’s next decision stunned Murphy. “Doug said, we’re all gonna go together,” she recalled, “me and Ashley and our daughter.”

Doug moved to Florida and saw Emerson regularly over the next two years. The relationship remained unpredictable.

Ashley confided to others that she was afraid of Doug and accused him of abusing their daughter. Doug, meanwhile, told his attorney he believed Ashley might be mentally unstable. 

Despite their issues, they agreed to move to Maryland—where Ashley had grown up—but planned to live separately. The night of the shooting, they were together packing Ashley’s belongings.

Ashley Benefield arrested for husband’s murder

As detectives worked the case, they became increasingly doubtful about Ashley’s claim of self-defense and Doug’s alleged violence. 

Multiple guns that had been found at the scene raised questions about the nature of the deadly incident.

In November 2020, Ashley was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. In the media, she was called the Black Swan, after the movie about a sinister ballerina.

Doug’s daughter, Eva, was convinced Ashley murdered her dad. She expressed those views on social media. Her videos about the case racked up millions of views.

Prosecutors build their case

Ashley’s trial began in July of 2024. Assistant State Attorneys Suzanne O’Donnell and Rebecca Friel knew what they were up against: Would the six-member panel see Ashley as a domestic abuse victim or a liar?

Prosecutors had to convince them Ashley’s life wasn’t in danger that night. Their theory: She shot Doug because she was desperate to have Emerson to herself and feared losing her.

Jurors heard that Ashley fired four shots at Doug. The county medical examiner testified the fatal bullet entered Doug’s side—not his front, as might be expected if he were attacking her.

Detective Chris Gillum, from the sheriff’s domestic violence unit, testified that Ashley called repeatedly trying to have Doug arrested. “She says,” Gillum recalled, “‘I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep my baby.’”

Ashley Benefield takes the stand

Ashley’s attorney, Neil Taylor, challenged prosecutors’ witnesses and cast Doug as the instigator, not the victim.

“I believe,” he said, “he was the one who put Ashley in the position that compelled her to resort to self-defense and use deadly force.”

Ashley told the court how Doug became controlling and abusive, even firing a gun into their walls. The night of the shooting, as she prepared to move to Maryland, they argued. He hit her, she said, and came at her.

On the stand, Ashley grew emotional as she explained what made her pull the trigger. “I was scared to death,” she told the court. “I thought he was gonna kill me.”

During cross-examination, O’Donnell had the courtroom lights brightened to show Ashley had no tears in her eyes. 

She instructed Ashley to reenact how Doug lunged at her and how he held his hands, but Ashley said she couldn’t remember.

In closing, O’Donnell urged jurors not to be swayed by Ashley’s performance.

The jury ultimately found Ashley guilty of manslaughter, not second-degree murder. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

Dateline: Unforgettable, airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Oxygen.