Naman Shrestha
In the episode titled ‘The Necklace’ of NBC’s ‘Dateline,’ the primary focus is on the gruesome murder of 33-year-old mother of one, Taylor Ashley Wright. The former police officer had a lot to look forward to when fate intervened. The brutality and unexpectedness of the killing rocked the entire community to its core, especially her family and friends. Throughout the course of the investigation, the detectives focused on various possible suspects before the evidence led them to the perpetrator responsible.
Taylor Ashley Wright Was Found Buried in a Farm Property
Born on April 24, 1984, Taylor Ashley Turcotte Wright was in the foster care system until the age of 13, when she was taken in by Nancy Murchison and her family. Although she had a rough start to her life, things began looking up, thanks to the love and care of her new guardian. In her teenage years, she formed a romantic connection with a Marine named Jeff Wright. Later, Taylor went on to become a police officer in Jacksonville, North Carolina. They eventually married and in 2010, welcomed their son, Drake, whom they both doted upon. Over time, their marriage deteriorated. According to Nancy, it was Jeff who wanted a divorce from Taylor. However, Jeff claimed that he wanted to make the marriage work, and Taylor had talked about getting a divorce.
Once, Jeff reportedly had called 911 after an altercation with Taylor, who was arrested for battery. Later, he dropped the charges against her, but her career as a police officer came to an end. Since she did not have a steady job or housing, Jeff was granted full custody of Drake. In 2015, when their divorce was finalized, Taylor began dating both men and women. After moving to Pensacola, she met Casandra Waller on a dating website, and the two instantly hit it off. While things became serious between them, Taylor was in the middle of a lawsuit with her ex-husband over their son and marital assets. As per the show, she believed she was solely entitled to the $100,000 settlement they received in relation to a bad car accident. Even though the judge froze their joint assets, Taylor reportedly withdrew $100,000.
Around the same time, by September 2017, Taylor became a private investigator and was in the middle of moving in with Casandra. However, the couple hit a few rough patches in between because of Taylor’s infidelity and occasional drug abuse. They somehow managed to work through all these issues and were looking forward to spending the rest of their lives together. Unfortunately, just when they were on the verge of starting to live together, 33-year-old Taylor mysteriously vanished on September 8, 2017. After about a month of searching for her, the investigators discovered her remains buried outside a farm property in Cantonment, Florida. The autopsy revealed the cause of her death to be a gunshot wound to the back of her head.
The Police Suspected Taylor Wright’s Girlfriend and Ex-Husband During the Investigation
During the investigation, when the authorities interviewed Taylor Ashley Wright’s girlfriend, Casandra Waller, she claimed that the 33-year-old woman went out with a close friend, former crime scene technician Ashley McArthur, and didn’t return home. The detectives then turned to Ashley, who claimed that Taylor was highly stressed on the day she was last seen. She also told them that instead of going to the bank, they had gone horseback riding in East Milton, after which they went to Ashley’s residence. As per her accounts, Taylor left her house around 4:30 pm in an Uber to have a beer downtown.
As more days passed by without any leads, the investigators zeroed in on Casandra and searched her house, where they discovered a cashier’s check for $19,000. Despite being a person of interest in the eyes of law enforcement, she was fully cooperative with them and had nothing to hide from them. Eventually, she was eliminated as a suspect. Upon focusing on Taylor’s ex-husband, Jeff, they learned that he was hundreds of miles away in North Carolina when she went missing. After dismissing him as a suspect, the police focused their attention on the woman who had last seen her alive, Ashley McArthur.
When the detectives dug deeper into her phone records, they found various discrepancies in her story. For instance, there was no record of an Uber or any other taxi service being summoned to Ashley’s house on the fateful day. As per her cell phone records, she and Taylor had gone to the former’s family farm property in Cantonment, Florida, and not Milton, as claimed by the suspect. Moreover, the authorities also learned that Taylor went against court orders and withdrew $100,000 from her joint bank account with Jeff. To hide the money, she reportedly gave a significant portion of it to Ashley, who allegedly kept making excuses to not return the money to her. The authorities learned that by then, Ashley had already spent the money on buying expensive gifts for her ex-boyfriend and secret lover, Brandon Beatty.
The Killer Was Brought to Justice Two Years After Taylor’s Death
On October 9, 2017, while some of the detectives questioned Ashley, the others executed a search warrant at the farm property, right outside of which they found remains of Taylor Ashley Wright with the help of a special K-9 unit. At the police station, she kept denying having anything to do with the murder. However, she was arrested and charged with first-degree premeditated murder. The investigators believed that when Taylor insisted on needing the money back, Ashley allegedly killed her in a state of panic. Amidst all of it, she was also accused of burning down her business, for which she was tried on fraud, racketeering, and arson charges. Ultimately, she was convicted of the former two but acquitted of the arson charges.
Nearly two years after Taylor’s murder, in August 2019, Ashley stood trial for the murder charges against her. During the trial, the prosecution presented a heap of evidence against her, including surveillance footage, cell phone records, and financial records. They also called multiple witnesses who testified against Ashley, claiming that she had been planning to cause Taylor’s death by cocaine overdose. Meanwhile, the defense argued that the prosecution lacked any physical evidence or murder weapon to connect the defendant to the crime. In the end, she was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison with a mandatory minimum of 25 years.
Read More: Where is Ashley McArthur Now? Update on the Killer
