Transcript of Carter Cervantez

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They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart.

But when the spotlight turns off, Fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant.

Follow Hollywood and Crime, the Cotton Club murder on the Wendery app or wherever you get your podcasts. When a fire rages in a Fortworth apartment, horror awaits beneath the flames.

This is not just a fire. We actually have a crime scene.

Firefighters immediately discovered a body, bound, bludgeoned, stabbed blood everywhere.

This was not a stranger. This was somebody who killed her out of anger. This was torture.

A young life snuffed out just as it was getting started.

She was the really cute, fun, outgoing person. A lot of people were attracted to her, regardless of whether or not they were a boy or a girl.

They found what can only be described as a grave.

Burning vengeance and insatiable grief.

If you got on her bad side, there was no coming back from it.

It takes a really evil person to be able to commit a crime that elaborate.

The level of planning, you don't often get all this intrigue. She was motivated by greed, by hatred, and finally, she was motivated by the thrill of it. She loved doing this.

November 28th, 2014. It's just before 8:00 AM on Black Friday in a suburb of Fortworth, Texas, when all hell breaks loose at the River Ranch Apartment Complex.

So we're fire department. What's the address of your emergency?

Yeah, hi.

I'm going to live over at a River Ranch Apartment, and I think there's a fire upstairs in the apartment above me.

Stay with me. I'll get someone in around.

Another neighbor, 25-year-old Jeff Kaiser, notices the smoke outside and immediately runs upstairs to check on his friend, 31-year-old Ashley Harris.

Ashley lived in an apartment complex with a lot of friends nearby, and he was really worried she might be inside.

Jeff doesn't wait for the fire department.

He got with a maintenance man and kicked in the door. And Both went into the apartment. When they did kick in the door, Ashley's dog ran out. They were looking for Ashley, calling her name. She wasn't answering. The two men couldn't really get to the bedroom. It was too smoky and dangerous, so they exited the apartment. By that time, the firefighters had arrived on the scene, and they went in with equipment.

As the smoke clears, it appears firefighters are too late.

Firefighters immediately discovered a body. So they called the Fortworth police right away.

Firefighters quickly realized the death wasn't the result of the blaze.

They find a young woman bound, hands and feet on the floor of her bedroom, bludgeoned, stabbed blood everywhere.

It was immediately apparent, this is not just a fire. We actually have a crime scene.

I was the on-call detective for our unit for the Thanksgiving weekend. Upon entering the apartment, my immediate attention was in the living room. Nothing really appeared to be ransacked or disturbed as indications of a struggle. I then walked into the bedroom where I immediately saw the victim laying on the floor.

Her wallet was there at the scene with her ID that they could tell looked like this person, Ashley Harris.

News of the fire spreads quickly throughout Fortworth.

Our friend called me and said that Ashley's apartment was on fire. I said, What? What do you mean Ashley's apartment's on fire?

A crowd is gathering in the parking lot. Concerned family and friends are desperate for information.

They were wanting to know, is Is that Ashley? Is that Ashley? We will often withhold that identification for the medical examiner to confirm that identity, either with dental records or with DNA.

I said, Can you tell me anything? He said, I'll ask you a question. He said, Does Jeremiah 2911 mean anything to you? And I just fell down. I mean, my knees just gave out. I said, It's Ashley's tattoo. There's like someone pulled the rug out from underneath you. And then we knew.

I put myself in their position, and that was the best thing I could do to let the friends and family to let them know something.

Born in 1983, three, Ashley Harris came from a loving, blended family.

She was a Texas girl, born and raised. Her parents divorced.

Ashley Harris's father. He was a Fortworth police officer at one time. He was friends with my father.

Ashley's vivacious spirit drew everyone in.

Ashley struck me as one of those larger-than-life personalities. She had a huge circle of friends.

She She was the really cute, fun, outgoing person. And so a lot of people were attracted to her, regardless of whether or not they were a boy or a girl.

In her early 20s, an unexpected romantic spark changed Ashley's life forever.

When she met Laura, she was straight. She was pursuing men. And Laura just took her by surprise. And they really They just became very, very close very, very quickly. And then they moved in together.

In 2004, Ashley was ready to share this revelation about her identity with her loved ones.

When she did finally come out, everyone welcomed that decision, the LGBTQ community welcomed Ashley, and she thrived, really, really thrived.

While her relationship with Laura brought Ashley new friends and self-exploration, it wasn't meant to last.

There was a pretty big age difference. Laura had a full-time job, and Laura had her own place, and Ashley was just still trying to find her way, but they never stopped being friends.

As a young adult, Ashley struggled to decide on a career path.

When She was mid 20s is when she got into retail and then ultimately ended up an American Eagle that she really, really, really, really, really loved.

Ashley worked her way up the ranks, making assistant manager by the fall of 2011.

She works at Hulon Mall. Her manager loved her. The store employees loved her. Overall, she was great at her job. People said that she looked out for her staff, helpful mentoring them.

What Ashley loved about retail is that she got to meet new people every single day. She finally found her place in life.

Just as 31-year-old Ashley is coming into her own, her future is cut short.

We have a 31-year-old female who has been murdered. Everyone spoke very highly of Ashley. She was this great person. For us, that's important. It's like, who would want hurt her.

It was horrific. It's very rare we see a case where a person is bound in their own house. And of course, there was fire that was set to the house.

Her bedroom was the point of origin for the fire, it appeared. The bed was partially burned, and her body appeared to have been burned partially. There was some type of trauma to her body. You could see signs of blood, see some bruising. This is not going to be your typical fire investigation.

And Arson investigators notice something peculiar.

The accelerant that we saw was a bottle of alcohol, rubbing alcohol. That's not a very flammable liquid.

If you're going to set something on fire, a normal household alcohol doesn't really burn as fast and is not a very good accelerant at all.

For that reason, the fire seemed like an afterthought to me.

Coming up, Detect Objectives have their work cut out for them.

The impression that I got was, no, this was not a stranger.

Who would want to hurt Ashley?

Could a surprise witness hold the answer?

She was one of the last persons to see her alive.

Friday, November 28, 2014. Homicide investigators in Fortworth, Texas, are combing through the scorched apartment of 31-year-old Ashley Harris.

She had been bound with duct tape. There was a trauma to the head and face area. The body He was partially burned. There was evidence of a pretty violent struggle.

Beyond the bedroom, investigators find a home eerily undisturbed.

There's still money in her wallet, and her credit cards are still there. And so that was odd to them that if maybe it's a home invasion or a robbery, you would expect to see TVs taken, electronics taken, and they didn't see that.

One of the neighbors and a friend had come over and tried to get in, make entry into the apartment. Jeff said that he ended up kicking the door in, and our victim's dog ran out.

He described the door as being locked, which that was interesting to us. How was the door locked?

We don't know how they access Ashley's apartment. We just feel like by deducing all of that, there's no lock picking evidence.

The impression that I got was, no, this was not a stranger.

And investigators are faced with another mystery.

We knew that Ashley had a pickup that was parked at the scene. It was a white Dodge pickup. So for us, that was important because we wanted to search that vehicle.

The problem is, detectives can't find Ashley's keys.

The keys are missing, but it doesn't look like anything else is missing. It didn't look like a robbery.

Once we realized, Hey, If the keys aren't even here, well, whoever did this could have easily used the keys and locked the dead boat.

Investigators continue to process the scene while another team searches for witnesses.

Our job as detectives is to speak to anyone that's close to Ashley, whether it's family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, anyone that could possibly have a issue with Ashley. So when we were on the scene, I had interviewed Alexis Torres, who was a friend of Ashley's, and she was one of the last persons to see her alive.

Friends tell detectives that Ashley had been working around the clock, getting ready for Black Friday.

Ashley was going to work that Thanksgiving, and her friends had a little party because they wanted to make sure that Ashley was fed prior to having to go work.

Alexis I had to come over to take care of Ashley's dog while Ashley was working. Because Ashley had to work late that night and then had to be at work early the next morning.

Alexis Torres came over on three occasions that night, the last being shortly after 3:00 AM. And when she arrived, Ashley was already home.

It was like 3:00 in the morning when Ashley got home from work. The plan was Ashley was going to take a nap, take a couple of hours, get back up early 7:00, 8:00 in the morning, and go back into American Eagle.

Ashley Actually wanted Alexis to stay the night, and Alexis couldn't because she had her father's pickup, and she had to return it to him because he had to work the next morning.

Alexis tells police that she hung out with Ashley for about an hour and a half before heading home.

According to Alexis, she left about 4:40 or maybe 4:45 in the morning.

Alexis remembered when she left and she told Ashley goodbye, Ashley locked the door behind Alexis. She remembers hearing that noise.

Alexis also offers up another key piece of information. Ashley usually left her keys on this counter.

She always keeps her truck keys with her store keys, and it looks like those are missing.

Ashley's body is transported to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office for an autopsy. Meanwhile, the crowd outside Ashley's apartment complex is growing.

There was a lot of friends and family. Ashley was very loved. They all started gathering. Co-workers from American Eagle started showing up.

As investigators talk to potential witnesses, one of Ashley's neighbors comes forward and reports that around 7:00 that morning, he saw something suspicious.

Steven Lee had lived at that apartment complex for several years, so he was very familiar with the people that live nearby. He turns out to be a retired law enforcement officer from California, so he was very observant.

Steven Lee had a pretty structured routine. Each morning, he would step out, smoke a cigarette, and take note of who was home and who wasn't by where their cars were.

Steven Lee noticed a specific vehicle that he'd never seen before. He described that vehicle to be a two-door black Infinity, which he thought was a G35.

It was not a car that he was familiar with. He'd lived there for a while, and he knew his neighbor's vehicles.

Everyone in that apartment has assigned parking spots. It's not technically assigned, but everybody has their spot they park in. And so he noticed that car.

More importantly, Steve says the black Sedan had been parked next to Ashley's truck.

The crowd was asked about an Infinity that may have been visiting Ashley Ashley's boss, Chris Kravy, is also standing by.

Chris Kravy is actually one of the managers at the time. He was also very close to Ashley. They were friends. And so he immediately went to her apartment when he was hearing all about this. And when he hears that a Infinity G35 had been at the scene, he immediately thinks, I know an employee that drives that type of infinity.

Chris tells police the name of the employee is 25 five-year-old Carter Cervantes.

Carter Cervantes had been working with American Eagle Outfitters for quite some time.

The first time I met Carter, she was the store manager in Amrela Texas. She actually interviewed me for a sales associate job. She was the one that you wanted to like you because if you got on her bad side, there was no coming back from it. She would always find a way at work to make it harder on you.

While Carter was managing the Amarillo store, she also hired 19-year-old David Mallory.

Sometime during their working together, Carter and David became involved in a relationship.

David was a stock manager. They weren't supposed to be dating because she controlled his pay, she controlled how much he worked, and she would just give him more preferential treatment. Our The district manager basically gave her the option to quit or to get transferred.

David is 19, very young. Carter is 25, older The managers discovered they had a relationship that was against the rules. Carter and her manager worked out that they were going to transfer her to Fortworth.

She moved about six hours away to Fortworth. David was still on our schedule in Amarillo. He didn't show up for three shifts in a row, which meant that he was fired and now considered unrehirable. We made sure to put him in our system so that it would show that he was not allowed to work at an American Eagle anymore.

However, Carter knew how to cheat the system and didn't let that stop her from hiring David in Fortworth.

She and David moved in together Carter got him employed by changing his social security number. So in the system, it looked like this was a new employee with a different social security number. So that do not hire note didn't come up with corporate HR.

While talking to detectives, Ashley's boss reveals another crucial detail.

In August of 2014, months prior to the murder in November, there There had been an individual that had gone into American Eagle and stolen over $18,000.

Co-workers tell detectives that Ashley was the one who discovered the theft.

A fan individual, possibly a male, comes in, goes straight to the safe, unlocks the safe, and takes money from the safe and walks out.

The back door was left unlocked, which is how he got in. You have to a key to open it. It's not a digital safe. It was obviously somebody who had worked at an American Eagle because they didn't search around. It was clear to Ashley that this is David Mallory that's entering in and taking the money, the person that would have left the door open would have been his girlfriend at the time, Carter Cervantes. So we believe when it was time to close up, she gave him the key for the safe.

Coming up, could one of Ashley's former coworkers have reason to kill her.

Carter did hold this against Ashley because Ashley was the one that turned them in.

And investigators learn the horrific details of Ashley's last moments.

Ashley Harris had a tremendous amount of injuries on her body. She had basically more injuries than anyone I've ever seen.

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Hours after discovering the brutalized body of 31-year-old Ashley Harris, the assistant manager at a popular retail store, investigators in Fortworth, Texas, get their first big lead.

So back in 2014, in August, there was this robbery that occurred inside of American Eagle. It was the tax-free weekend. An individual had stolen over $18,000.

After reviewing the surveillance footage, Ashley identified one of her coworkers as the perpetrator, David Mallory.

The record showed that the alarm was not tripped, but the door was ajar. Carter Cervantes, as one of the assistant managers, would be one of the only people that would have a key to both the safe and to the back door.

Earlier that night, Carter Cervantes had gone out to take out trash, which is not typically something that she normally does. But on this specific night, she did take out trash, and she left the door propped open. And that's where this individual, later on that night, made entry.

When detectives pull the police report on the theft, they find that it's still an active case.

From the police Department's perspective, it was still an open case. From American Eagle's perspective, they were satisfied that they knew who had done it.

Carter Cervantes was terminated right after that, and David Mallory never showed up to work, so he was obviously also terminated.

Carter did hold this against Ashley because Ashley was the one that turned them in.

Detectives become even more suspicious when they received the results of Ashley's autopsy.

Ashley Harris had a tremendous amount of injuries on her body. She had basically more injuries than anyone I've ever seen.

She had a deep cut to one side of her neck. Numerous injuries on her face and head from being struck with a hard object. She had what we believe to be a stomp mark on one of her lower legs. There was evidence of ligature where something had been wrapped around her neck and pulled tight to result in strangulation as well. This was somebody who killed her out of anger. This was torture, This looked like somebody who was mad at her.

The cause of death is listed as asphyxia and blunt force trauma to the head and neck.

She was deceased shortly before the fire started.

It becomes clear to authorities that this was a rage killing and that Alexis Torres is not their suspect.

Alexis was very cooperative, and she was cleared pretty quickly.

Alexis turned out not to be the best person to look at at that time after we developed two additional suspects.

Investigators at the scene immediately start tracking down Carter Cervantes and David Mallory.

We found through our research that they lived in an apartment complex near Hulon Mall and near the crime scene, and that they did have a G35. The exact the vehicle seen parked next to Ashley's truck, registered to Carter Cervantes.

I contacted one of our undercover units to maintain constant surveillance on this apartment, roughly from about 3:00 till about midnight. There was a white Cadillac that was parked nearby, registered to David Mallory. But the black two-door Infinity wasn't in the parking lot at that time.

In the early morning hours of Saturday, November 29th, Detective Cedillo returns to run surveillance on the apartment. It's been nearly 24 hours since Ashley was found murdered.

Upon driving near the building, I now see the black two-door Infinity back then Approximately 7:45, and the sun's starting to come up. I see the lights on the vehicle blink on and off as if someone has unlocked the vehicle, which gets my attention.

David Mallory and Carter Vonda both came outside. They got to her car, and he followed them as they left the parking lot.

He follows them just a couple of miles to Hulon Mall, which is very interesting. Where are they going to Hulon Mall early in the morning?

The detective watches as Carter Cervantes exits the vehicle and enters the mall.

She was wearing dark clothing. Why would they be coming back to a location where they used to work and where Ashley Harris used to work? At 7:45 in the morning. The only people that are in the mall are mall walkers or employees.

Detective Cedillo calls for backup before following Carter into the mall.

And I went into the mall. As I'm walking, I run into Chris Cravy, who is standing outside of American Eagle with the gates still closed. I said, Hey, by chance did you see Carter Cervantes walk by?

Chris says he hasn't seen Cervantes, but is anxious to get inside the store to collect a large sum of money in the safe from Black Friday.

I asked him, What are you doing still standing out here? And he says, Well, we changed the locks to the gates after we learned of Ashley's death. So he was waiting on his bosses to show up with the keys so they can go in. At that point, no one other than law enforcement knew that there was any keys missing. The locks were changed at American Eagle for precautionary reasons.

On Tax-Free Weekend and Black Friday, those were our highest deposit days. Sometimes Sometimes two or three deposits would be left inside of the safe until they could take it. Carter would always joke that if I were ever going to steal a deposit, it would be Black Friday or a tax-free weekend. We always thought, Oh, ha ha, that's funny.

Black Friday and special events are huge. Stores can bring in 50, 60, sometimes almost even 70K in cash. Carter knew the process, the timing, who did what, when, how they made deposits. She knew there would be a lot of money in there.

So for me, in my mind, I'm thinking that David and Carter are there to rob the money from Thursday night and Friday night.

Outside, officers confront 19-year-old David Mallory, who appears to be waiting on Carter to exit the mall.

He didn't want to talk. That's whenever we arrested him for not having his driver's license on his person. Our goal was to talk to David and also to get that vehicle, the search for forensic evidence. We took the car, but we don't have a right to search the vehicle legally until we obtain a search warrant.

Meanwhile, Detective Sadio is having no luck locating Carter inside the mall.

At this point, the mall is starting to open up and customers are starting to come in. Now, it's going to be even more impossible to locate Carter. So I decided to go and maintain surveillance at her apartment a couple of miles from the mall. Shortly after, the undercover officer had spotted Carter Cervantes in the business office of the complex. The officers mentioned that she was wearing pink scrubs, which that didn't make any sense to me because when I saw her go in, I never saw her wearing any pink. She agreed to come down to our office to be interviewed.

She volunteered of her own volition, went down. And so now the detectives have both of them to at least start getting information.

I know you have a lot of questions about what's going on and why you're here. You're under arrest for not having a job relationship on your person at the offense here in Texas.

When they asked David Mallory about why he was at the mall that morning, he told them that he brought Carter to the mall and that she was supposed to be doing some new employee paperwork and that he was waiting for her to finish.

Is there a reason why you're lying to You know she hasn't worked since she left the American Middle. I thought maybe I got her confused or something.

No, you can't even say that without stuttering.

Coming up, investigators finally confront Carter Cervantes.

We asked where she had been the last two days. She mentions that she cook Thanksgiving dinner for her and David. I know that's a lie.

No, it's not.

You're about to make the biggest mistake of your life. Do you understand me?

I haven't done anything.

November 29th, 2014. It's been a little over 24 hours since the brutal murder of 31-year-old Ashley Harris. Now, investigators in Fortworth are gearing up to interview their prime suspect, Ashley Ashley's former coworker, Carter Cervantes.

Carter Cervantes is super nice and friendly at the police Department, and looking them in the eye, answering questions.

All right. So how did you end up in full work?

I had a job opportunity with American Eagle Outfitters.

I was a store manager for them in Amorello, and they transferred me down here to work at Hulon Mall.

Okay.

Are you still there?

No, I'm not.

Why did you leave that company?

They decided to let me go on September first. There was a robbery at Hulon Mall, and I had closed the night before.

They determined that I had left the store unsecured, so they let me go.

Where are you currently working?

I'm not currently working. I do some volunteer work sometimes at Texas Health Service.

Do you own any other scrubs beside these?

Yes, I do.

We asked where she had been the last two days. She mentions that she cut Thanksgiving dinner for her and David, and they had a quiet dinner there at the apartment where they watched movies.

After just half an hour, Detective decides to take a break and regroup.

Thank you. We gave Carter a bottle of water, and Detective Pate and I step out, and we're sitting in our office, but we're watching the interview room through a monitor.

She got a tissue, and she wiped the mouth of the bottle off. And she wiped the bottle down and she used the tissue to put the cap back on. She never touched the bottle again.

So at that point, I'm thinking, she thinks we're going to try to grab DNA from the bottle, which is only making her look more suspicious.

So if you're perfectly innocent, why are you wiping down a water bottle at the police station?

When detectives asked Carter about her trip to the mall that morning, she denies it.

You were not in that car this morning. You don't get out of the mall.

No, I got up. I went and put the laundry in, and I went and checked my email. That's all. Okay.

I know that's a lie.

No, it's not.

You're about to make the biggest mistake of your life. Do you understand me?

I haven't done anything.

She continues to deny that she ever went to the mall that morning. We thought she'd be the weakest link. Boy, were we She was actually the tougher one to interview.

After the interviews, Carter is free to leave, but David is booked on the misdemeanor and sent to jail.

David was arrested, but then it's just like getting a no seat belt ticket or a moving violation ticket, you get out pretty quickly. So he was out.

They didn't have enough to charge them yet, but the investigators were narrowing in quite quickly.

After the interviews, I obtained a search warrant for Carter and David's apartment. Initially, we weren't sure exactly what we were looking for, but we found some receipts. She was using credit cards, which turned out to be a bad mistake for her. We began to do follow-up investigation at those locations. We obtained some video.

What they see on the surveillance video is shocking.

On November the 21st, Carter Cervantes went and purchased a pair of shorthandled shovels, and she purchased what I'm going to describe as a murder kit. She had rope, She had gloves. She purchased a tarp and duct tape.

When authorities pull the surveillance footage from the mall on Saturday, November 29th, ninth, the day after Ashley's murder, they see a familiar figure.

It's Carter Cervantes. We have her going into the mall around 8:00 in the morning that next day after the murder.

She's walking through the mall. She is wearing a gray sweater, the black pants, the black hats.

Carter actually goes up to the roll-down door, and she tries to unlock the bottom of that door. That's when we knew she had Ashley's keys, but she was unable to gain entry into the store. American Ego, out of abundance of caution, had changed the locks at the store.

The second that they got word that there had been an employee that was killed, corporate immediately changed the locks in this Fort West store. She did not bank on that.

Later, when she walks from the mall towards her house, she is wearing pink scrubs. So our theory is that she has the pink scrubs underneath the dark clothing. And once the offense was committed, I think she was going to shed those clothes and now be wearing pink scrubs.

Investigator's suspicions are finally validated.

At that point, it all becomes apparent that this is the reason why they killed Ashley Harris. They were there to get the keys.

Coming up, new evidence surfaces, and it's quite damning.

Upon searching Carter's vehicle, there was a loaded Glock underneath the driver's seat.

When we opened the trunk of David Mallory's car, those two shovels that she bought were sitting in the back of his trunk.

Following the November 29th, 2014 interviews with murder suspects, Carter Cervantes and David Mallory, investigators in Fortworth, Texas, are inching toward justice for Ashley Harris, and the evidence is mounting.

Upon searching Carter's vehicle, there was a loaded glot underneath the driver's seat. We located several The lives that were in the vehicle, and we seized two cell phones which belonged to Carter and David.

When we opened the trunk of David Mallory's car, those two shovels, the exact same shovels that she bought, were sitting in the back of his trunk.

They had bungy cords and zip ties and a tarp. To me, all that's indications of trying to wrap up a body somehow, but they weren't able to do that.

The nail in the proverbial coffin comes with the DNA results.

Carter's vehicle, the floor mat in that vehicle, we ended up getting forensic evidence off of that. We found blood on the floor mat that had been transferred from David's boot to the floor mat of the car.

Sure enough, it did match Ashley Harris's DNA. So that was a big, big piece of evidence that we were able to get.

In addition, we got Ashley's DNA on this gun that was found in Carter Cervantes' car under the seat. Ashley had a star-shaped injury behind one ear. That That's purely the result of an impact. And she had another one on the bridge of her nose. Eventually, we determined that the most likely thing that caused that was being pistol-whipped.

The arrest warrants for capital murder were obtained on December fourth. David was arrested in West Texas. Once Carter learned that there was an arrest warrant for her, she tried to turn herself in with her attorney.

Her lawyer was adamant that we couldn't speak to her and was upset that she was getting arrested.

David, however, agrees to answer some questions.

David, are you aware what you're under arrest for? It's hard are capital murder. He did admit that Carter stole the tax-free weekend money back in August, but wouldn't admit to the murder. Man, I don't know nothing about no homicide, but I don't.

I I really feel like I'm just getting drug into this because she doesn't want to go down the road. When detectives pull the couple's phone records, they find a blueprint for Ashley's murder.

Once we were able to forensically analyze those phones, the entire case and their plan was spelled out.

The planning and the prep for this horrible, horrific event is just part of their daily life almost in their text messages, like back and forth, what's for lunch, what's for dinner, let's go to a movie. Oh, yeah, I got the duct tape and the shovels.

It was evident to us that Carter was the mastermind behind this, and I think David was the muscle. She's the one that coordinated everything and came up with the plan.

On Friday, November 28, 2014, authorities believe Carter and David laid in wait outside Ashley's apartment until she returned home from her retail shift.

To this day, we still don't know whether or not the door was locked and how the suspects actually got in.

She fought for her life. Ductaped, hand and foot, stabbed, bludgeoned, asphyxiated. The fire was set to try to cover up other evidence.

We believe that Carter Cervantes locked the door on the way out. I mean, they had her keys. And if they want the place to burn, it makes more sense to lock the door behind you. She was motivated by greed. She wanted money. She was motivated by revenge, hatred. And finally, though, she was motivated by the thrill of it. She loved doing this.

And that's not all.

I kept going through the phone records, and I found they had text messaged each other GPS coordinates. This coordinates flew out into middle of nowhere, north of Abilene.

David Mallory sent this text, these coordinates, to Carter on November the 25th, four days after she purchased these shovels.

What they find at that spot is chilling.

They walked directly to the spot where these coordinates directed them, and they found what can only be described as a grave. We believe that David used those shovels to dig that grave, and the intent was to have transported Ashley's body there and buried her, and that the plan just didn't work out.

They put a lot of planning into this. I don't think they expected that Ashley was going to put up a fight. Their plan fell apart very quickly, and they got desperate.

My opinion is it was harder to move a dead body than they thought it was. For that reason, they tried to destroy the crime scene and destroy evidence with the fire.

Carter Cervantes fancied herself, I presume, a criminal mastermind, but in reality, she was an amateur, and she left a trail of evidence a mile wide.

On May 26, 2016, Carter is convicted of capital murder and receives a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Ultimately, the jury in David's 2017 trial holds him just as responsible as Carter.

Both Carter and David are doing life in prison without the possibility of parole. They will both die in prison.

It takes a really evil person to be to commit a crime that elaborate, it's unfathomable.

As swift as the life without parole was given on both defendants, we'll never be able to give her back to the family.

All of us that experience it will never be the same person that we were before November 28th, ever. The mark Ashley left on this Earth and the happiness and joy that she brought everyone, myself included, never leaves. I think that there's a piece of her that's with me sometimes. Carter Cervantes is currently imprisoned at Patrick O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas. David Mallory is currently imprisoned in Ferguson Unit in Madison County, Texas.

They will never be released. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them.

Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey.

I've been a ghost or guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.