Pod Insights Criminology Taylor Wright About this episode In 2017, 33-year-old private investigator and former police officer Taylor Wright vanished in after heading out to meet a friend. Eventually, the truth about what happened to Taylor would come out, and this would evolve into a homicide investigation; one that would lead directly to someone very close to Taylor. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance of Taylor Wright. Taylor was in the middle of a contentious custody battle with her ex-husband. She had taken a large sum of money out of their bank account that the court deemed was not hers to take. Some of that money she entrusted to her good friend Ashley McArthur. You can help support the show through Patreon. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 368 of the Criminology Podcast. This is Mike Ferguson.
0:43 Speaker 00 And this is Mike Morford.
0:45 Speaker 01 Mr. Morford, how you doing this week, buddy?
0:47 Speaker 00 I'm doing pretty good. I'm wrapping up some stuff before I go away for a week on vacation and just doing that last second stuff where you gotta hammer down and get things done and get things ready.
0:58 Speaker 01 Now, vacation, that sounds good. That'd be, that'd be nice for you.
1:02 Speaker 00 Every year I try and fit some week in there where I just relax and unwind and don't go on the internet at all and really, uh, scale back.
1:12 Speaker 01 Don't research true crime. You need a break.
1:15 Speaker 00 Yeah, you gotta, you gotta step back sometimes.
1:18 Speaker 01 I'll tell you the thing that, that has really grabbed my attention is this flooding in Texas, man. I just feel horrible for all these people. I saw a news blurb this morning that said that the death toll's up to, I think, over 120 now. It's just horrible.
1:37 Speaker 00 Yeah, very devastating to see that on the news and I can't imagine for, you know, a second being a parent of a missing child, wondering where they're at, wondering if they're okay and, you know, changing over from a rescue to at this point, probably more like a recovery. So, you know, if, if we have any listeners down there that are involved in this, your, our thoughts and prayers are definitely going out to you.
2:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, definitely, definitely, no doubt. All right, Morf, let's go ahead and do our Patreon shout outs and we had new support from Gene Vansel. We really appreciate that.
2:12 Speaker 00 Yeah, thank you so much for that support. It really helps out the show. For anyone else that'd like to, you can head over to patreon.com/criminology to get started.
2:21 Speaker 01 All right, Morph, let's get into this week's case. We're talking about the 2017 disappearance of a 33-year-old private investigator and former police officer named Taylor Wright. She vanished in September of that year after heading out to meet a friend. Eventually, the truth about what happened to Taylor would come out, and this would evolve into a homicide investigation, one that would lead directly to someone who was very close to Taylor. I think it's important to talk about a little of what was going on in Taylor's life, when she went missing.
2:57 Speaker 00 33-year-old Taylor Wright was once a police officer in Jacksonville, North Carolina. She worked at the department for just a year before taking a three-year break. After she had her son, she returned to the job for an additional six months. After her retirement and a divorce from her husband, Jeff Wright, she moved to Pensacola, Florida, and became a private investigator. On the morning of September 8th, 2017, 33-year-old Taylor left her home. She was never seen again. By most accounts, Taylor was a reliable person who wouldn't just vanish. She had responsibilities, her son, her job, but as we'll get into, there were also reasons that Taylor might not want to stick around and continue living her life the way it was going.
3:42 Speaker 00 She was facing a lot of trouble regarding a pending court appearance and discussion of a large amount of money she was responsible for laying out, $30,000.
3:51 Speaker 01 It wasn't just the money that was an issue for her. There was also the fact that she was still in a very contentious, ongoing battle for custody of her seven-year-old son. Taylor withdrew $100,000 from a joint bank account she shared with her ex-husband Jeff. This was not her money, and she was not entitled to take it and hide it from him, but she did. Despite it actually violating a court order, to help keep it from him, she asked her good friend, Ashley MacArthur, to hold on to it for her. Taylor taking that money, coupled with the custody battle, might have been motive for Jeff Wright to be involved in his ex-wife's disappearance.
4:34 Speaker 01 And obviously Jeff would need to be looked into and clear before investigators could really move on and look at other suspects because with Taylor out of the picture, he wouldn't have to fight her for custody of his son. He would never have to pay a dime in child support, but it didn't take police long to determine that Jeff was out of town on the day that Taylor went missing and his alibi fully checked out. Whatever had happened to her, it didn't look like he was involved. And more if you know, in every disappearance, murder, the spouse or the ex spouse is always, you know, one of the first people, if not
5:17 Speaker 01 the first person that police look at. And I think especially given the circumstances between the two, you know, there's this contentious custody battle. There's the, the money that Taylor was said to have taken. It wouldn't be the first time that a man had something to do with his ex-wife's disappearance or death because of custody, child support, and everything that goes in with a divorce.
5:50 Speaker 00 Yeah, this seems like a, you know, the custody thing is something we hear about often in breakups and a lot of the cases we discuss, but this money that, you know, Taylor was said to take, have taken, that's a little bit different because the court had already sort of sided with Jeff that she shouldn't have taken that money. And so this is something that's hanging over the relationship while the custody battle's ongoing. This is something new that we don't usually see in a lot of cases. I mean, there's financial disputes and things of that nature, but this sounds like something a little, a little bit different that she basically just drained that account or drained a large amount of money from it.
6:34 Speaker 00 And, you know, the court didn't like that.
6:36 Speaker 01 Yeah. The other thing that jumped out at me was Taylor retiring from the police department. She'd only worked there for like a total of a year and a half. So it seemed really strange, but you know, multiple articles use that word retired. And maybe, you know, there wasn't an actual retirement package. Maybe they just meant. She was no longer gonna, you know, work there or in that line of work. I don't know.
7:05 Speaker 00 Yeah, it is a little bit confusing because she's so young and we typically think of older people when we hear retirement discussed. And maybe it's just she's retiring from law enforcement and moving on to a new career path as that private investigator. That might be what the the language is tricky. There was also Taylor's current partner Cassandra Waller that police needed to look into. The two met on a dating app and had been dating for a while. They had also recently moved in together. Their relationship wasn't perfect. Apparently, Taylor had cheated on Cassandra with a woman from Mississippi. Taylor also appears to have struggled with substance
7:45 Speaker 00 use. On September 8th, Taylor had left the house and then never returned. She also stopped answering phone calls and responding to text messages. After a week with no word from her, Cassandra decided to file a missing persons report. She didn't know what else to do. Taylor was officially reported missing by Cassandra on September 14th.
8:06 Speaker 01 And more, you know, a lot of times we're talking about younger people, children who are missing. Maybe they're 17, 18, 19, 20, but they're still living at home and they go missing. You know, in the case of Taylor, she's 33 years old. So this is a little different scenario in the fact that, okay, she's living with someone, the relationship hasn't been going on all that long. There's also, you know, allegations of cheating, substance use. So, you know, that might be a little tougher call on the part of, you know, someone like
8:47 Speaker 01 Cassandra to file the missing persons report. But at a certain point, you don't hear from someone, they don't come home. What else are you gonna do?
8:57 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think with everything we've talked about that's going on, the money, substance use, a possible extra relationship, you know, cheating, these are all things that the investigators are probably going to have to look at on their list as, are they connected to Taylor going missing? So it's not a real clear, precise direction for them to go. And it seems because they've got to check all these things out.
9:24 Speaker 01 The last time that Cassandra saw Taylor, she was leaving their house to see her friend, Ashley MacArthur. Ashley had once been a crime scene technician with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, but she resigned from that position in 2006. At the time of Taylor's disappearance, she was managing her family's business, renting out and maintaining pool tables and jukeboxes. Taylor and Ashley had been friends for about a year. On September 8th, when Taylor went to see Ashley, it was more of a confrontation than a visit because Ashley had a very large sum of Taylor's money and wasn't giving it back. The money was never supposed to be Ashley. She was
10:05 Speaker 01 only supposed to hold it for Taylor and keep it safe. So it should have been easy to give it right back to her, but she wouldn't return it, which frustrated Taylor. They were very close friends though, so it felt like everything would work out. Then suddenly Taylor didn't come home. And I could understand why someone would be frustrated. You know, Taylor withdraws this $100,000. $30,000 of it, she gave to Ashley to hold on to. Well, $30,000 is a lot of money. When you ask for it back and that person won't give it to you. It wasn't supposed to be a gift.
10:46 Speaker 01 It was just, hey, hold on to this for me. And now I want it back and she can't get it back. I think frustrated might be an understatement.
10:54 Speaker 00 Yeah, and I think it's just one more thing that police are gonna have to dig into because now you've got this money situation where it's some of it's been given to Ashley. And if she's not returning it and there's some friction there, that opens up another possibility, another possible motive that might explain why Taylor's missing all of a sudden.
11:17 Speaker 01 Well, you know, in a lot of cases, police struggle to, you know, find that firstly to kind of grab on to. I feel like here, they've got a lot of things.
11:30 Speaker 01 A lot of different directions to head in.
11:32 Speaker 00 After hours of waiting, Cassandra called Ashley to check to see if she knew where Taylor was. But Ashley claimed that Taylor was fine and that Taylor was just riding a horse and couldn't talk. Ashley also mentioned that Taylor had been very stressed out and was crying a lot that day. So the horse riding was kind of like a therapeutic outlet for her. A while after this, Cassandra received a text from Taylor. The text mentioned Taylor having to get her life together and needing time to clear her head. The last text from Taylor to Cassandra read, "I'll call you later. I'm not angry with you and I should have called you, but I needed to think. I'm trying to get my life organized, on track." Cassandra was pretty stern in her text response writing back.
12:15 Speaker 00 "This is not okay. Right now, I don't want you at my house." Not knowing what was going on, but knowing that her partner was ignoring and avoiding her. Cassandra felt hurt and she didn't believe that Taylor was just thinking about her life. Cassandra texted back, "You have lied again and again. I don't think we can be together. You lie. You don't know how to stop. You use drugs." Eventually Cassandra softened up and changed her tone. She texted, "Taylor, please come home," but she got no reply.
12:47 Speaker 01 Since Taylor vanished after heading out to confront Ashley MacArthur about the money, police knew that she needed to be talked to immediately. According to the Daily Mail, Ashley was flirty and playful with investigators when she sat down with them. According to court documents, during her first interview with detectives, Ashley spoke about Taylor using past tense language, saying she was a strange girl. She also didn't seem very concerned about Taylor's disappearance, saying, "I think Taylor's doing what Taylor does." She also pointed out Taylor's drug use to the detectives,
13:27 Speaker 01 saying that the different group of people that drugs brings was the only worrisome thing about the situation. Ashley told detectives that September 8th had been a regular day. She added that she picked Taylor up at 10 o'clock in the morning on September 8th, and instead of going to the bank, they headed to a farm in Milton. Northeast of Pensacola to do some horseback riding. According to Ashley, Taylor was just too stressed out about the divorce and the court proceedings, and she needed to blow off some steam. They stopped at a convenience store on the way to the farm so that they could buy some beer.
14:07 Speaker 01 After they were done riding horses, she drove Taylor straight back to Ashley's house. According to Ashley, from there, Taylor said she was going to take an Uber somewhere to drink more. Ashley said that she went inside for a minute, leaving Taylor in the car, and that when she came back outside, Taylor was already gone. So, Morf, have you ever done any horseback riding?
14:33 Speaker 00 I have, but not in not a long time.
14:36 Speaker 01 Yeah, I haven't either lately. I used to ride horses some here and there, and, you know, it's it's very fun. But it's also, you know, kind of a dangerous activity. And my thought is drinking and horseback riding doesn't really go together or shouldn't go together.
14:57 Speaker 00 Yeah, and I can see, you know, Taylor in the situation she's in. Maybe that is a believable story about, you know, wanting to have some drinks. But I'm with you, adding a horse to the mix to do some horseback riding while you're drinking, probably not a good idea. But, you know, according to Ashley, this is this is what had happened. So the police have her details to go on. Police verified that Taylor's Uber account hadn't been used in months. In their minds, there was no way Ashley was telling the truth about what happened to Taylor. The whole story about going to ride horses never made any sense. Taylor told her girlfriend Cassandra that she and Ashley were going to the bank,
15:39 Speaker 00 Wells Fargo, where Ashley had her accounts, and not that they were going to do anything outdoorsy. This was supposed to have been a trip for Taylor to recover the money that she thought her friend had been keeping safe for her and nothing more.
15:52 Speaker 01 Cassandra believed that Ashley had Taylor's money in a safety deposit box at Wells Fargo. Ashley denied ever even having a safety deposit box there, let alone holding on to any of Taylor's money. Looking through Ashley's bank records, she did deposit thousands of dollars from Taylor, but she didn't hold on to it or keep it safe. She spent it and spent it pretty fast. A cashier's check with Taylor's name and signature on it for $34,000 was deposited into Ashley's personal checking account. The signature on the $34,000 cashier's check did not appear to be Taylor's actual signature. It appeared that someone had forged it.
16:36 Speaker 00 You know, you've mentioned a couple of different times about all these things police have to look into and all these different roads that they have to potentially go down to. And now this money situation is sort of springing legs of its own because now you've got possible forgery here. And, you know, it's looking more and more like Ashley could be involved because of this money. She can't pay it back, doesn't want to pay it back, whatever the situation. It's pretty powerful when your friend comes to collect money from you that you're supposed to give her and won't give back. And then you go missing. I think that's got to be something that was sitting with police as they're opening up this investigation.
17:22 Speaker 01 Yeah, my feeling is that they started to zero in on this kind of road, right? You mentioned all the roads to go down. Well, this road seems to be the most intriguing. As far as Ashley's motive for potentially wanting to harm Taylor. I mean, she's got this money, she's spending it, she doesn't want to give it back. Losing weight on your own can feel like a fight you keep losing. Weight Loss by Hers offers access to the FDA-approved Wegovy pill and the Wegovy pen. Wegovy is the first-ever GLP-1 weight loss medication, available in a pill, and it also comes as a pen, so you've got options. With Wegovy, you can lose up to 20% of your body weight.
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19:06 Speaker 00 Despite being married to a deputy sheriff, Zachary MacArthur, Ashley apparently spent all of Taylor's money, and a lot of her own, on her boyfriend. She met this man, Brandon Beatty, a bar owner, through her family business where she delivered the jukeboxes and pool tables, and they began a secret relationship. She paid electric bills for him, bought supplies for his business, bought him a motorcycle, and used $30,000 to purchase a boat. The boat was purchased using most of Taylor's money. Police knew that Ashley had a motive to do harm to Taylor, not only because of the money Taylor was confronting her over, but also what was to stop Taylor from going to Ashley's husband and telling him about the affair with Brandon Beatty?
19:50 Speaker 01 And if they weren't zeroed in before Morph, they had to be now. Because on top of the money, well, now she's having an extramarital affair, something that Taylor likely knew about. So just another reason for Ashley to potentially want to harm Taylor.
20:12 Speaker 00 It seems like there's no shortage of of different things that are popping up here that are little alarm bells, little potential motives for foul play on Ashley's part.
20:27 Speaker 01 After her initial interview with detectives, Ashley continued to involve herself in the investigation. She called in tips, for example, that Taylor was a cocaine user and she could have ended up dead in an alley. She also asked questions about the status of the investigation and whether detectives had learned anything new. Detectives at the Pensacola Police Department had to be very careful when they were working this case. Once they knew that Ashley was their main suspect, they weren't exactly sure who all Ashley and her family knew in the department, or what links anyone would go to, to tip her off that she was under investigation. Despite
21:09 Speaker 01 what she told detectives, Ashley's cell phone records placed her in the Buella area, northwest of Pensacola. This was about 30 miles away from where she claimed they had been that day riding horses. And more, if I could see where, you know, this would be a real challenge for the police. You know, normally when you're investigating someone, there's very little chance that they could find out from, you know, someone within the department. But, you know, here Ashley's married to a deputy sheriff, and who knows how many people within the department she's friends with, that had to have been a real concern, that she was going
21:54 Speaker 01 to find out, and that that would change things.
21:58 Speaker 00 Yeah, it, you know, I imagine it would be tough, especially if she was still actively in law enforcement as a investigator. But having a spouse that is, is probably the next closest thing. So they don't want to jeopardize their investigation or potential prosecution. So I think they Aired on the side of caution and, you know, did this sort of behind the scenes to not tip her off in case she did have contacts there.
22:29 Speaker 01 But the one thing you hear time and time again in true crime cases is people inserting themselves into the investigation, right? And that normally, a lot of times, is because they're, they've done something, they're trying to keep tabs on what's going on. That's the vibe that, that I really get here. You know, Ashley is calling in tips. Why? Is she trying to steer the police in a different direction? She's also asking a lot of questions about the status of the investigation. Why is that? She wants to know if they're on to her?
23:13 Speaker 00 Yeah, it definitely doesn't sound like she's calling in out of concern for her friend, wanting to know how the investigation's coming along. It's more like she's keeping tabs. And, you know, if she was really caring about her friend, she wouldn't be giving them information about her using drugs and casting her a bad light and giving all these potential possible outcomes that are connected to drugs, which is what she was doing. It's actually pretty interesting how investigators found out exactly where Ashley had been on September 8th. They used the Escambia County Property Appraisal Database and found that there was a family farm on a road bearing the name of Ashley's maiden name, Britt. The
23:55 Speaker 00 property was within the range of the cell towers that Ashley's phone pinged off of. When police confronted Ashley about the lie she was caught in, her explanation for lying to authorities during her first interview was that Taylor had asked her not to tell anyone, ever, about what they had been doing that day. Ashley told detectives something new, that they did go to her family property closer to Beulah so that Taylor could pick up a lockbox that Ashley had been holding on to for her.
24:22 Speaker 01 Surveillance cameras captured Ashley at a convenience store just before noon alone on the day Taylor vanished. This is the timeframe she claimed to have taken Taylor to a convenience store to buy some beer, but the store she actually went to was nowhere near the area she claimed they were in, and there was no sign of Taylor in any of the footage. Investigators also discovered that Ashley was captured on surveillance cameras at a Home Depot on September 9th, the day after Taylor was last seen. She was purchasing potting soil and fast setting concrete mix. The sales associate who helped her pick out the concrete mix actually
25:06 Speaker 01 testified later at trial. And how many people that we talk about in these cases are caught on surveillance video at a Walmart, a Home Depot, or Lowe's buying things that seem suspicious? Fast setting concrete mix. Not that people don't buy it, but in the wake of a disappearance, I mean, what are the authorities to think, Morph?
25:34 Speaker 00 Yeah, the, the timing is just very interesting. Somebody's missing, you're a suspect and here you are buying this stuff. And, you know, I assume the police are like, all right, what's she using this stuff for? Is it to, to do some harmless renovation or construction on something? Or is it to hide her friend's body? On October 19th, authorities carried out a search warrant for Ashley's family's property on the 2200 block of Britt Road. A shallow grave covered by concrete and a pile of potting soil was discovered. Inside the grave, there were human remains. Though time had passed and the
26:13 Speaker 00 remains were described by WEAR News 3 as mostly skeletonized, it was obvious to investigators that they had found Taylor's body. A necklace she was known to always wear was found inside the grave near or on the body. Dental records further confirmed that it was indeed Taylor Wright, who had been murdered and buried in a shallow makeshift grave. She had been shot once in the back of the head. During her interrogation, Ashley seemed very calm and collected. When detectives informed her that they were in the process of executing a search warrant on her family's property, she said, "That's fine, but she's not going to be there." This was a partial truth from Ashley. Taylor wasn't found on the family property. She was buried just west of the property line.
26:59 Speaker 01 Somewhere along the line, Ashley must have admitted to having, but not depositing, some of Taylor's money because she claimed that when Taylor was going to Uber away from her house for a beer, she had a duffel bag stuffed with cash. Another misdirection, trying to make investigators believe that she was just a victim of a random crime. Due to having so much money on her, Ashley MacArthur was arrested and charged with second degree murder. After the case was taken to a grand jury, she was indicted on the charge of premeditated first degree murder with a firearm.
27:37 Speaker 00 So we always talk in episodes that sometimes somebody's doing something that makes them look guilty, but it's not always the case. They just look shady and turns out they have nothing to do with a crime. Well, here, you know, police arrest Ashley after that stuff she was seen buying at Home Depot is found on the grave of her missing friend. So, you know, it wasn't too hard for police to connect the dots here and say, okay, we've, we've got to go out and pick Ashley up for this.
28:10 Speaker 01 Yeah, pretty damning, right? When you're seen buying potting soil and fast setting concrete and authorities find your supposed friend buried in a, in a shallow grave, covered with concrete and potting soil.
28:31 Speaker 00 Incredibly, in February 2018, Ashley's bond was lowered from $1 million to just $40,000, which she was able to pay. She was released pending trial, required to live with her mother in Gulf Breeze, Florida, and fitted with a GPS tracking monitor on her ankle. Still, her release from jail upset Taylor's mother, Nancy Murchison, who told W A R News 3, "I see the criminal given more rights than her victims. She should be in jail. She should have never bonded out."
29:03 Speaker 01 And I know that, you know, bonds are often lowered, but this is a big drop more from $1 million to $40,000. You know, 1 million, okay, tough, you know, maybe to, to come up with the, the, the bond amount. $40,000. What's a, what's a bail bondsman charge? 10%, 20%? I don't, I don't know what the number is, but to come up with 4,000 or $8,000, a lot easier than 100 or 200,000.
29:38 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's, it seems like a very substantial drop, you know, in a murder case where there's a pending murder charge for that kind of drop. It seems almost as if, you know, this seems like the kind of reduction you would see for somebody who maybe stole a car and was given a million dollars bond. And then the, the court recognizes that that is extreme. So they drop it down to what they feel is more appropriate, you know, where something where there's no, there's no physical harm. There's no death. Here we have a clearly a murder, all signs leading to Ashley,
30:17 Speaker 00 and they drop that from a million to $40,000. It just seems unfathomable to me.
30:24 Speaker 01 In March of 2018, while out on bail, Ashley was arrested again. This time she was charged with arson, racketeering and fraud. It turns out that Taylor wasn't the only one that Ashley had been stealing money from. Between 2015 and 2017, she managed to steal more than $13,000 from the Azalea Cocktail Lounge and Seville Quarter, two bars in Pensacola. Ashley's family's business called Pensacola Automatic Amusements rented jukeboxes to the establishments and she helped herself little by little to some of the profits that should have gone to the bars.
31:09 Speaker 01 She did this by keeping the payments made by credit card or app and only handing over the cash inside the jukeboxes. She then doctored up fake collection reports to show the amount of money she left in the machines. The arrangement both businesses agreed to was a 50/50 split between the bar whose patrons were supplying the money and Pensacola Automatic Amusement for their machines and required maintenance. Assistant State Attorney Thomas Williams told the Pensacola News Journal that Ashley's father's character and reputation were pristine in this community.
31:49 Speaker 01 And Ashley used that trust and that reputation and that longevity in the business to steal. She was charged with organized fraud and racketeering as a result.
32:01 Speaker 00 A fire on June 8, 2017, at the Pensacola Automatic Amusement Offices destroyed much of the evidence that investigators were seeking as part of the investigation into Ashley's fraud scheme. The Florida Fire Marshal found multiple points of origin where it was apparent that more than one fire had been started, and debris from the fire tested positive for a chemical accelerant. Investigators knew this was a clear case of arson, and the trail led right to Ashley MacArthur. In an interview with the Pensacola News Journal, Larry B. Johnson, owner of the Azalea Cocktail Lounge, called Ashley "a world-class con artist."
32:41 Speaker 00 It's possible, likely even, that Ashley embezzled money from other businesses in the area, but there wasn't any proof, or they never noticed any discrepancies in the volume of purchases and the money they were receiving. For this fraud, Ashley was sentenced to serve 84 months in state prison and an additional three years of probation after her release. Despite little doubt Ashley was behind the arson fire, she was found not guilty on the arson charge.
33:08 Speaker 01 But the one thing you'd have to say is that, you know, Ashley was involved in a litany of different crimes.
33:19 Speaker 01 I mean, she's facing a murder charge. We know that. But then on top of that, you know, she's scamming different businesses out of money. She's thought to have, you know, committed this arson to try to cover that up. Now, she wasn't found guilty of that charge, but I mean, all signs are pointing to Ashley being into all kinds of different things.
33:44 Speaker 00 Yeah. And, you know, a lot of people, if they find themselves facing a murder charge and they are out on bail, especially when it's been dropped down so much, or fortunate enough to be out on bail, you think they would keep their nose clean and not be out committing arson. Of course, she was found not guilty of that. So we can't really say that she was. But, you know, I think investigators have little doubt that she was behind it.
34:11 Speaker 01 In August of 2019, nearly two years after Taylor's disappearance, Ashley MacArthur finally faced trial for her murder. The proceedings were pretty quick. The case went to the jury. After just four days of evidence presentation and testimony, her defense team leaned strongly on the fact that the only charge against Ashley was first degree murder. If she had stolen so much money from Taylor and it was why she had murdered her, why hadn't the state charged her with theft too? If it was a fact and they could prove it, what did they have to lose? The case against Ashley MacArthur was full of circumstantial evidence. The
34:53 Speaker 01 law makes no distinction between direct and circumstantial evidence. That's for the jury to decide. It's up to them to figure out what they think is important to the case and what isn't. Even if they had a bloody fingerprint, they could choose to disregard it as irrelevant. Just as they can choose to believe the circumstantial evidence is relevant. Megan Knotts, an investigator with the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, admitted on the stand that she found no forensic evidence linking Ashley MacArthur to Taylor's murder. And it seems to me more of that in a lot of trials.
35:33 Speaker 01 Most of the evidence is circumstantial. You know, how many times does the prosecution have that kind of, you know, slam dunk evidence? DNA, things that conclusively prove the person did X. I think more often than not, it's, it's a whole bunch of different things. A lot of them circumstantial that are leading in the direction of this person being guilty. Not the Perry Mason moment, the aha moment that this piece of evidence is presented that without a shadow of a doubt proves that the person did it.
36:18 Speaker 00 Yeah, I'm sure the prosecution would prefer to have eyewitnesses or maybe video surveillance that shows the murder actually happening, something powerful that, you know, or even direct physical evidences as far as DNA, that kind of stuff. But just the circumstantial case can be damning. And, you know, from what we've talked about, Ashley is the last person that Taylor is going to see. There was a dispute over money. Then you've got the Home Depot sighting where she's purchasing the same things that are found on top of the shallow grave just off of Ashley's property.
37:00 Speaker 00 All of that in itself can be pretty damning and could seal Ashley's fate in court.
37:08 Speaker 00 Cell phone records prove that Ashley's husband, Zach MacArthur, wasn't in the area the day that Taylor disappeared. So whatever had happened, only Ashley knew about it and Zach wasn't involved. The fact that there was no physical evidence connecting Ashley to the crime isn't all that shocking. Remember, she had been a crime scene technician and would have been able to account for DNA, fingerprints, and anything like blood spatter at the crime scene. And she'd know how to cover her tracks and not leave evidence. She would be well aware of how these things worked and also of how damning they could be if used against her.
37:42 Speaker 01 While Ashley certainly knew her way around crime scenes and evidence, she apparently didn't have a lot of knowledge about or experience with the cellphone data, which is what ultimately proved that she was lying. Everything that was within her control was done nearly perfectly. Where she left the body, what she said happened that day, and any evidence left at the crime scene were all things that she was able to influence or shape. She couldn't control the cameras at Home Depot, the cell towers her phone connected to, or the fact that Cassandra knew Taylor was meeting with her. When you look at the evidence in this case,
38:25 Speaker 01 it's the thing she had no control over that made the case for the prosecution.
38:31 Speaker 00 Ashley's defense team pointed out that the concrete came in 50-pound bags, and that Taylor's body weighed more than that. Ashley's mother testified about a back injury that Ashley had suffered years prior to the murder, and noted that she always tried to avoid lifting anything heavy because it would hurt her back. While this may be true, could you move something heavy to cover up the theft of thousands of dollars as well as murder? Maybe you'd put an extra effort or deal with some back pain if it meant staying out of prison. She also could have used ropes, a dolly, or even a pickup truck, anything to make the work of covering up the murder easier.
39:07 Speaker 01 Yeah, I have a bad back. I don't go out of my way to, you know, lift a lot of heavy things. But if my life is on the line, or my freedom is on the line, could I, you know, juice it up a little bit to, and live with a little bit of back pain? Yeah, obviously, I don't know what type of defense that is. Ashley's actions were incredibly calculated. She even used Taylor's phone to try to throw off the timeline and buy herself some time before people would start looking for Taylor. She texted Cassandra pretending she was Taylor trying to buy time. Looking back on everything she did,
39:52 Speaker 01 It's pretty chilling. Cassandra told oxygen.com she knew what she did. And the whole entire time she was pretending to be my friend. I think you have to feel pretty bad for Cassandra. She was looked at by police early on since she was in a relationship with Taylor. Cassandra was a public school administrator. There are very high standards of behavior. When you work with children, even the slightest hint of impropriety, violence, or criminality could get her fired.
40:25 Speaker 00 Due to information Ashley gave to investigators, as well as the fact that Taylor was in a relationship with Cassandra, Cassandra's home was searched. Taylor's passport and ID were found, as well as a revolver that was missing a single bullet from the chamber. Taylor had been shot just once in the head. Cassandra's text messages with her missing girlfriend had been made public, and she wasn't always very nice or forgiving in what she said to Taylor. Her whole life was laid bare and all because of Ashley MacArthur.
40:55 Speaker 01 And I think, you know, this is really tough. But it's also part of the, the kind of spider web of people who are affected negatively by a murder. You know, obviously you have family and, and friends who are devastated when someone loses their life. But here in the situation of Cassandra, yes, she lost her partner. And I'm, and I'm sure that hurt her deeply. But also her entire life was turned upside down because she was looked at as a suspect, mostly because of the actions of Ashley, trying to cast suspicion in her direction.
41:37 Speaker 00 And police would naturally look at Cassandra to begin with, since they lived together. And finding some of those things in, in her house, you know, there, you'd expect them to be there. Those are things of Taylor's.
41:53 Speaker 00 That she would have in a place that she was living. So not necessarily damning. Although, you know, some people might think, hey, here's a gun with one bullet missing out of the chamber and Taylor was shot just one time. So some people might think that that's, you know, no pun intended, a smoking gun, but you know, she turned out to have no involvement in the crime.
42:18 Speaker 01 Some of Ashley's friends testified at trial and what they said didn't help her one bit. Her friend Audrey Warner's testimony was quite damning. She claimed to have heard Ashley MacArthur planning to put enough cocaine in Taylor's beer to cause her to overdose and die. Another friend, Jessica Wheeler, explained that she said this world would be better if Taylor wasn't here and she wasn't a good person. Ashley's friend said that Taylor did once drink beer, that Ashley had laced with cocaine, but she spit it out because it tasted gross. The first plan, which could have been flawless, didn't work.
43:00 Speaker 00 Another friend of Ashley's Alexis Cook said that Ashley knew that she was too small to hurt anybody, so she'd just shoot her to get it over with. This happened to be exactly how Taylor was killed. What Ashley's friend said about her being too little to actually overpower anyone rings true, even when you only look at her financial crimes. She used trust and friendliness to steal thousands and thousands of dollars. She didn't rob a bank, hold anyone up, break into any home or business. She simply took money here and there where she felt that she would be able to get away with it. Finally, the man who Ashley had been having an affair with, Brandon Beatty, said that Ashley said to him once, "They'll never find that bitch. She's gone."
43:45 Speaker 01 Ashley MacArthur was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with a mandatory minimum of 25 years served before any possibility of parole. She is currently housed at Lowell Annex Correctional Institute in Ocala, Florida. Of the punishment, Cassandra told Oxygen.com, "We got the verdict we had been waiting on for two years. We finally got the justice that Taylor deserved."
44:11 Speaker 00 This is an interesting case all around and not the victim blamed Taylor. She didn't deserve to die, but she wasn't innocent in this whole story. The phrase no honor among thieves could be used to describe the situation. Taylor thought she could trust Ashley with money she had stolen, but Ashley went on to steal that money from Taylor. The question a lot of people ask is why? Why would Taylor give that money to Ashley to hold on to? Why not give it to someone she trusted more? Why not hide it or put it in a lockbox or bury it?
44:43 Speaker 01 Well, my thought is that she did trust Ashley. She must have trusted her a lot to hold on to this, you know, $30,000 to give it back at some point. Ashley just had a very different idea of how things would play out.
45:01 Speaker 00 And it makes me think that Taylor probably had no idea of Ashley's habit of skimming money from places and, you know, ripping off these bars because if she knew about that, she probably wouldn't have trusted Ashley to hold on to this money.
45:19 Speaker 01 Now, we don't know if Ashley was ever planning to pay back that money she took from Taylor. She could have spent it thinking she would replace it before anyone even knew that it was gone. But Taylor got scared by the impending contempt charge. And then Ashley ran out of time. Maybe she just planned to tell Taylor flat out that it was stolen money in the first place and she wasn't going to pay her back, thinking that Taylor couldn't get the police involved. Or she could have just always been plotting about how to get rid of Taylor if she ever came around asking for the money. I don't think we'll ever know since Ashley still maintains her innocence.
46:02 Speaker 00 We also don't know what Taylor would have done with that money had she gotten it back. It seems to keep from going to jail, she would have followed the court's order, put the money back into the bank account. And who knows, maybe later she would have been awarded some portion of it that she was entitled to. Maybe Taylor could have made things right with the court, her ex-husband and Cassandra, and maybe gotten clean and turned her life around. But she never got the chance because she placed her trust in someone that she thought was a friend.
46:31 Speaker 01 And I think this is a little bit of a different case more in the fact that, you know, most of the time, when we talk about a victim, they're talked about in such glowing terms. You know, often they're squeaky clean. They're leading, you know, such a good wholesome life. And I definitely don't want to make Taylor out to be a bad person, but there's no doubt she had done some things that she shouldn't have done, like take the money. But that doesn't mean that she should have lost her life. I think that's a, you know, a common theme that we see in some cases.
47:12 Speaker 01 Even if somebody's doing something that, you know, you might consider criminal or immoral or whatever it is, it doesn't mean that they deserved to lose their life.
47:25 Speaker 00 Yeah, unfortunately, we see a lot of times in cases we cover where greed or theft is involved, that, you know, money does lead to these kinds of outcomes. And, you know, $30,000 is a big chunk of money. I mean, people have been killed for a lot less than that. So, you know, anytime you have a situation where somebody's desperate and they've taken this money and now they can't account for it, they're being confronted about it, it can lead to this kind of outcome.
47:56 Speaker 01 You know, and I, I go back to Ashley, right? She was married to a deputy sheriff. She had a job with her family business. I mean, it doesn't seem to me morph as though she was down and out, but she was having an affair. I think bottom line is she was just greedy. She was scamming some of these businesses out of money. She was using some of that money on her boyfriend. I just get the feeling like she thought she could do whatever she wanted and get away with it.
48:32 Speaker 00 Yeah, we talked about her being smart enough to maybe counter some of the evidence she might leave behind that would point to her. But thankfully, she wasn't smart enough to avoid cameras at Home Depot, the cell towers that tracked her cell phone and told investigators, you know, where she actually was, so they had an area to look into. You know, she, you know, she probably thought she was committing the perfect crime. In reality, she had slipped up despite that training she had and that knowledge she had. She didn't think of everything. And that's fortunate because it helped solve this case.
49:12 Speaker 01 And I thought it was pretty telling that, you know, a lot of her friends who testified at her trial had very few good things to say about her. And maybe that's just indicative of the type of person that she really was.
49:28 Speaker 00 Yeah, a lot of times if you're on trial and you have people that you know, you're friends with, they come and talk to the court and tell them about you. You're hoping that it's going to be good stuff that makes you look better. And that wasn't the case here for Ashley, for sure.
49:43 Speaker 01 No, because I think deep down, you know, she obviously was not a good person. She stole, she cheated, and she killed. Pretty tough to get up on the stand and say good things about a person like that. But that's it for our episode on Taylor Wright. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a rating, leave a review. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out.
50:15 Speaker 00 If you want to find us on social media, look for us on your favorite platforms. We're available on all major social media outlets. Just search for Criminology Podcast. You can also check out our website, criminologypodcast.com. And if you want to join the discussion with other listeners, head over to our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans.
50:36 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike.
50:46 Speaker 00 And Morph.
50:47 Speaker 01 We'll talk to you next week.
50:48 Speaker 00 Take care, everyone.
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