The Dark Plot of Ashley McArthur

[Music] hey you and welcome my name is mike and in this whole video we are going to look at the story of ashley mcarthur a former crime scene technician right who became the very thing she fought against if you can believe it so yeah pretty dramatic [Music] back to pensacola in this one land of witches if you recall taylor wright was a friend of ashley's and when taylor entrusted some money to ashley to keep it from her ex during court proceedings well actually you know how about i just keep it what do you think about that that's what happened so uh yeah without further ado let's do ashley mccarter was born in 1977 from florida of course where else now at this point i could go into you know the whole upbringing of ashley but uh you know now that you know the smallest bit of information about her how about we change gears and by gears i mean years to the mighty 2017. in the late summer early autumn of that year it was hot but a woman named taylor wright was sweating about something else that's something else being about a hundred grand that wasn't um wasn't strictly hers [Music] taylor wright had gone through a messy divorce and it wasn't completely settled between her and her husband his name was jeff it's very hard not to do it in the voice jeff had custody of their son and taylor was supposed to pay for child support and so on and so forth but that wasn't finalized and court dates were looming for son and also the judge had demanded she put that money back taylor and jeff had lived together in north carolina taylor had been a police officer there however once the relationship broke down taylor seeked out fresh pastures in pensacola and was going to make a new life for herself and so she did taylor became a private investigator taylor wright p.i she made new friends and began a relationship with a woman named cassandra taylor had just moved in with her but most of her belongings remained in a moving trailer parked outside because at that moment she had well frankly bigger fish to fry than carrying boxes namely that 100 grand in her bank account see that 100 grand taylor had that was from a joint account she shared with her ex-husband she didn't want him to have it so she just took it to which a judge said you know you better put it back you know court dates a common judge's orders if she didn't put the money back into the account she would get jail jail jail to her the date was set for the 7th of september but taylor pushed that something jeff you know he wasn't surprised she would do things like that often and so the next date was set for the 12th of september and this time taylor didn't push it she just didn't show up show up anywhere taylor was missing cassandra reported taylor missing on the 10th of september but honestly at that time nothing really happened the police didn't think too much of it if she'd gone missing plus witchcraft well then maybe there was a potential that it was a ritualistic kill on the 11th of september cassandra then called a friend of taylor's ashley macarthur cassandra called ashley basically like here come over and get taylor's [ __ ] out of here she was pissed off she thought taylor might have might have just done a leger just left by herself the reason for that was about a month and a half prior to you know this september time there taylor cassandra's relationship had gone through a bit of a rough patch to be fair taylor had cheated on cassandra and she had also started using uh the devil's dandruff which was not a popular decision with cassandra at all then on the 14th of september cassandra went back to the police and was like okay ah she's missing you might wanna have a goo she has a little boy his name's drake he's with his dad uh but she was texting him every day they would text back and forth she hasn't communicated with anyone we're all just puzzled just befuddled on on what has happened to her as its 15th day approaches authorities say the search for taylor wright is ongoing but at this point they don't suspect foul play we've questioned numerous amount of people and through that investigation that's what that's why we believe that that she left on her own her mother nancy murchison says friends and family have not heard from her since september 7th and she's never done this before no no she's she's never done anything like this before wright's car and all of her personal belongings were left inside a home she lived in with a roommate on berkeley drive in pensacola my gut tells me that this is not normal behavior that she wouldn't do this and something bad has happened to her now ashley was a good friend of taylor so they'd known each other for about a year at this point since taylor moved from north carolina to pensacola but um you know they were kind of taking sieves you know you know actually would help taylor out any way she could and so when taylor withdrew that 100 grand from the bank account she shared with jeff taylor needed a place to stash the money so that he couldn't get it she filled out a cashier's check and through different transfers she gave 34 000 to ashley for safe keeping in august ashley even added taylor to one of her accounts so she could keep the money there hidden away from jeff in safety deposit boxes we all wish we had a friend like that am i right no ashley was a businesswoman she worked for her family's company called pensacola automatic amusement incorporated the company owned jukeboxes pool tables and other different you know bar games she wasn't always solely working for the business though in 2001 she enrolled to the university of west florida where she earned a degree in forensic science and technology in 2006 she worked at the escambia county sheriff's office as a crime scene investigator but that career womp well ended pretty quickly to be to be fair six months was all she was at doing the yo uh you know csi her back was [ __ ] basically from a car accident so she went back to the family business full-time she married uh her husband zach macarthur in 2014 they had met yeah he was a police officer at the sheriff's office so that's how they met and that's actually how ashley met taylor was through her husband as well see at one point zach he changed lanes he left the the sheriff's office he became a private investigator and that's how he met taylor wright also a private investigator that's how ashley and taylor became bffs as the court date in september was gaining on taylor she asked ashley to head to the bank with her so she can regain her money that was you know just just resting in ashley's account ashley was busy with business around that time and couldn't go to the bank with taylor you know that's why the first court date was pushed back so plans were made then between taylor and ashley that on the 8th of september 2017 ashley would drive over taylor's pick her up go to the bank so ashley came over she picked up taylor and they left cassandra was texting taylor that day taylor was very agitated she was very stressed out she needed that money she needed it so they're texting and then at about 11 30 the messages stopped taylor stopped replying to anything that's the last anybody heard of her so then cassandra being like you know knocking any answer out of her partner she called ashley who she knew you know they were together to ask where is she ashley called her and said that instead of going to the bank as they were supposed to taylor was riding a horse that very moment at a farm outside of pensacola you know taylor was stressed out she needed a chill so cassandra asked ashley to tell taylor to call her once she was done she didn't later on then that day ashley then told cassandra that you know after the yell that they went back to ashley's and at 5 p.m taylor just was thirsty she said she wanted to get a drink she got in an uber and left that was it soon after this conversation cassandra received a text message from taylor saying she needed some time for herself and needed to organize her thoughts cassandra thought she was leaving her ashley was soon brought in to be questioned by police where she told the police that exact story obviously was a minimal interaction i don't like the draw conclusion but she seemed like someone would ever have any intent to harm taylor so this whole thing about a safety deposit box of yours you know anything about that well taylor wanted to give a safety deposit box initially and but she didn't want her name or anything to be on anything that jack could find how much has she been drinking that day she had like a yeti type crafting full of beer i mean was she like a costume like she didn't seem to be just trying to help her and of course the story that i get is a very sob story about how jeff's taking all this money because i just didn't see her as a bad person i mean but maybe maybe i was she was fine she just said that she wanted to go have a beer and that she was gonna get an uber to take her to go have a beer i said well i'll just drop you back off at your car and she's like well i don't want to drive i went inside and when i came back out she had already gone through it no i don't want i don't know that she's been harmed no i didn't i think taylor's doing what taylor does spoiler alert she was lying like a rook [Music] and so the search for taylor you know continued uh the police looked in briefly into taylor's ex jeff but he was confirmed to be way out of 10 at that time but you know it may be due to money he might be involved but he wasn't involved the detectives went out to different properties to see if they could find a lead ashley's family owned a number in the area they went over to cassandra's house and there they found some bits and bobs of taylor's one thing was a nineteen thousand dollar cashiers check which was weird if taylor disappeared voluntarily why would she leave you know that amount of money why wouldn't she take that winner it's a lot of money especially for somebody who was dealing with some money issues at that time on the 19th of october ashley was brought into the police station for further questioning little did she know that the police had been digging you know and they had a couple of facts they were now going to present to her about the story she had told you know we've turned up some things that we don't we don't really know what to think at this point uh namely uh cell phone terror records which showed ashley and taylor at a completely different firm than the one they said they were at where the horses were 45 minutes away a farm which her family happened to own do you know how um cell towers work and how phones communicate with cell towers there are some discrepancies i want you to told us okay that you didn't go to the melting when you said you want to fall when you say you want to go a little bit about ashley see ashley you know was married to zach and they supposedly had an open you know relationship while ashley worked for the family company one location styx billiard became a frequently visited place by her and not only during her work hours ashley and the owner of the place brandon first met when he purchased the business back in august 2016. first of all you know relationship was strictly business jukeboxes and so forth that didn't last and became a bit more than um she began to pay for supplies for his business paid the bills a few times bought him a boat a motorcycle four a or fifteens four revolvers when one is just not enough during the summer she would go there every day during the summer of 2017 she was obviously head over heels and as ashley was in the interrogation room of the police station a search warrant of a property at 2206 brit road was so you're the carried one that was with her on this day at this farm that you did not disclose those i didn't do anything she's at that farm we're gonna find her because we're executing a search warrant out there right now that's fine then she's not gonna be there that's where the farm she actually went to was located and a tragic update out of escambia county florida tonight the body of a private investigator missing for more than a month has been found when she never told the police about which was weird as it shared her name ashley britt macarthur this was the location on which the phones of taylor and ashley pinged on the 8th of september the place where on the 19th of october the skeletal remains of taylor were found in a shallow grave next to the fence close to a wooded area at the edge of the property she had been shot in the back of the head you see ashley never had the safety deposit box you know that she was putting taylor's money into nope taylor's money was long gone by september by the time taylor wanted it back ashley had been spending it on brandon by forging taylor's you know who signature that is [Music] that taylor's name but it doesn't really look like her signature would you maybe wrote her name on there by chance and as taylor started to grow more and more stressed about the court date she asked ashley about getting her money back more and more and so ashley decided to kill taylor shooting taylor wasn't even her first attempt she had previously tried to overdose taylor by basically giving her a beer that was chock full of cocaine taylor spotted out as she was like oh that's beer sarah so next stop gun i think something happened you're trying to forget about it personally okay her relatives lived there and she knew they'd be out as they were attending a funeral ashley drove taylor to the farm where she executed her by shooting her in the head she later gave the gun to brandon who sold it ashley wrapped up taylor in a hammock and moved her to an abandoned area of the property she then tied up the area using her knowledge of csi the next day after going to home depot she came back with cement lance soil she would later send messages from taylor's phone making it appear as though she was still alive to cassandra to herself even [Music] this is the day after she was disappeared her phone is communicating with the tower that covers your house your house [Music] the arrest report says wright was going through a tough divorce and she trusted her friend and now alleged murderer ashley macarthur to help her macarthur was holding 34 thousand dollars for right needed for legal cause when wright asked for the money back deputies say she was killed ashley was arrested on the 19th of october the trial was set for august 2019 though before the trial could take place ashley was found guilty of a separate crime two trials has begun against a former escambia county crime scene technician ashley macarthur has two open court cases in escambia county ashley had skimmed thousands of dollars from jukeboxes her family business rented to local bars so she just [ __ ] loved stealing money the state says ashley macarthur had a business called pensacola automatic entertainment they say she had an agreement with the azalea lounge where they would split the proceeds of the jukebox 50 50. but they say instead she stole 13 thousand dollars and kept all the money in some transactions they then say she set her business on fire to burn financial records related to that agreement in january 2019 a jury convicted ashley of racketeering and organized fraud and was sentenced to 84 months in state prison followed by three years of probation you will see through the evidence and by the end of the trial that ashley macarthur had the motive ashley mcarthur had the opportunity and ashley mcarthur tried to cover it up and again i am giving you a very general outline of what this case is about and as you hear from the witnesses and you see the exhibits and the evidence it will fill in the detail for you and at the end of the trial you will be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that ashley mcarthur murdered taylor wright and she did it over money there is no question that would happen to taylor wright is a tragedy no one in this courtroom is going to dispute that the evidence will show you the state's case is built on yes lies told by ashley macarthur a motive she may have had things that she did ways that she lived her life that you may not like but their case will not be built on eyewitness testimony it will not be built on physical evidence or scientific evidence in the end after you've had an opportunity to get all the evidence and hear the law from her honor we believe that you will have reasonable reasonable doubt in this case and with that we're going to ask you to turn a verdict of not guilty the murder trial started on the 26th of august 2019. was law enforcement did they seem too concerned no did there come a time when miss macarthur was spending money on you personally yes ma'am um in approximately august of 2017 did she buy your motorcycle did miss macarthur also buy you a boat yes ma'am i heard her say about asking audrey about how much cocaine would it take to kill somebody and that it wouldn't nobody would think twice about it because about her overdosing because she already did cocaine though the defense tried to argue that you know the back problem which actually suffered during her car accident would have prevented her from moving taylor's body and they also argued that the cement and soil purchased by her the ones she now used to cover up taylor's body it was completely different type cement you know she bought soft powdery cement and this was like a rocky chunky cement if the concrete that she purchased isn't the concrete there they don't have a concrete case it's a brave defense we the jury find the defendant ashley macarthur guilty of first degree free meditative murder with a firearm as charged in the indictment so see we all all right then ashley macarthur have been having been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of your peers of first degree premeditated murder with a firearm i am going to adjudicate you guilty i'm going to sentence you to life with a mandatory minimum 25 years state prison for the firearm ashley macarthur was found guilty of premeditated first degree murder she was sentenced to life in prison and that is the story with that one turned out actually was this greedy gus in the end you know what i mean it was a complicated situation you know money moving around and the lies and lies actually was feeding to the police you know i'm curious in these situations at what point did she say yep gonna do this it'll be worth it because it wasn't even that much money it was like 30 grand this whole time it's pretty obvious actually only cared about one person herself which is fitting because i doubt anybody gives a [ __ ] about her now [Music] thank you so much for watching i really appreciate it i will see you as always real soon in the next one till then take care of yourselves mike out

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 1,245,426

Rating: 4.9256949 out of 5

Keywords: that chapter, ashley mcarthur, taylor wright

Id: hcHBzB_9EpE

Length: 21min 56sec (1316 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/bringthesunn]

For whatever reason I thought he had already covered this case, I’m having some weird deja vu right now.

[u/Lyude]

Man you beat me to it lol

[u/kween_of_the_kitties]

Yay! 🥰 Just watched with the husband over dinner! Love ya, Mike! Thanks