Ashley Marie Esselborn’s classic Southern belle appearance once helped her pursue a promising modeling career. Today, however, her time in front of the camera is a distant memory as she serves a lengthy prison sentence.
The 25-year-old is three years into an eight-year term for her role in the fatal beating of Zachary Wood inside a Wichita Falls, Texas, home in 2022. Prosecutors said Esselborn encouraged the attack.
The violence was so severe that police characterized the scene as a “massive bloodletting event.” Esselborn was initially charged with murder, but later reached a plea agreement in which she pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence.
Esselborn has made repeated attempts to secure her release. Last month, however, a parole board denied her petition for the second time, concluding that she remained too dangerous to return to the community.
Before her arrest and conviction, Esselborn earned money as a Hooters server and OnlyFans model.
Her OnlyFans income was reportedly substantial enough that, following her 2022 arrest, she asked whether those earnings could be used to cover her $50,000 bond.
Esselborn’s story also attracted the attention of the true-crime documentary series Lethally Blonde, which examines cases involving people known for their physical appearance. The program devoted an entire episode to her case.
Since her incarceration, photographs and court records have documented a marked change in Esselborn’s appearance.
Ashley Esselborn has repeatedly sought her freedom, but her parole request was denied again last month
Images obtained by KFDX show how Esselborn’s appearance has changed since before her arrest
A form completed after her 2022 arrest listed Esselborn’s weight as 135 pounds. When she appeared in court in 2023, records stated that she weighed 185 pounds.
Images from the following three years appear to show further changes in her weight and appearance.
Her successive mugshots also show visible differences each time a new photograph was taken.
Esselborn’s prospects worsened further after her September parole application was rejected following several concerns raised by the parole board.
One finding stated that she had made an “unsatisfactory institutional adjustment” while incarcerated, although the board did not provide additional details about the alleged shortcomings.
The board also cited the “brutality, violence and assaultive behavior” connected to the offense. Officials said her conduct reflected a “conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others” and concluded that she continued to present a threat.
The circumstances surrounding Wood’s death provide the disturbing backdrop to Esselborn’s case.
Esselborn is pictured wearing a pink bikini in the snow in a 2021 photograph
Zachary Wood, 23, was beaten to death with a baseball bat after the attackers accused him of stealing drugs and money
Esselborn appears in a photograph shared on her Instagram account
A May 2022 police report seen by the Daily Mail said Wichita Falls Police Department cops responded to a home in the Texan city for a welfare check.
Inside they found Wood dead and immediately suspected foul play.
A search of the home by responding officers found that it had been ransacked and ‘evidence of a massive bloodletting event’ had taken place in multiple rooms, the report said.
Payton Collier, who was living with Wood at the time, was interviewed by police. She denied knowing what happened to his friend.
After a forensic search of her phone, they uncovered text messages sent to Collier which said: ‘What’s going on?’
According to the report, Collier responded: ‘I’m beating the f*** outta him rn, he stole my f****** s***.’
She later followed that up by saying: ‘Come and help me!! I’m beating the f*** out of him,’ followed by an image of her hand covered in blood, the report said.
Two days after Wood was murdered, Collier reported to a police station and gave a follow up statement, police said.
Esselborn is seen here appearing before a Texas court in December of 2022
Ashley Esselborn (right) pictured in her Hooters uniform in a photo from March, 2020
A form when she was first arrested in 2022 noted her weight as 135lbs, but when she was returned to court in 2023 they noted she weighed 185lbs
In that, she said that it was her boyfriend Ronnie Lang who had killed Wood using his ‘hands, feet, and a baseball bat.’
She also identified Esselborn as being at the scene, saying that while she didn’t assault him she was ‘cheering them on while they were assaulting him.’
In her own statement to police, Esselborn said she was inside the home when Wood was killed.
She said that she and Wood slept in the same room and she woke up to find some of her belongings and a bundle of unknown drugs missing from her purse.
Esselborn said that Collier was also missing money from her purse and started questioning Wood over the alleged theft.
According to Esselborn, Lang then entered the room and started beating Wood until he died, before the group later discarded of bloody items they had with them.
Payton Collier and Ronnie Lang
William Bell and Esselborn
The day after that, another witness came forward and said that Esselborn returned home the night after she made her statement and bragged about not being arrested.
According to that witness, who was not named, she overheard Esselborn ‘bragging that she didn’t go to jail and that she had also put hands on [Wood],’ the report said.
She initially was facing a charge of murder in relation to the death of Wood and of tampering with evidence.
That murder charge was later dismissed after she pleaded guilty to evidence tampering in May of 2023, and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Both Collier and Lang as well as third accomplice William Bell all accepted deals after pleading guilty to Wood’s murder.
Lang is currently serving 50 years behind bars, Bell was sentenced to 30 years in 2023 while Collier was handed 25 years behind bars.
