she went from saying i want to do what i want to just pulling yeah yeah. she did. i m not lying to you. and when the detective gave a description about a gunshot wound, a description that turned out to be inaccurate, that really set tom off. that wound on the back of her head isn t where she could do it herself, tom. oh, [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. and then quite suddenly in the middle of it all completely out of nowhere the detective made an abrupt declaration. i have to let you know your wife did not make it. your wife did not make it. she was breathing when i was holding her. she was breathing. they told me she was breathing when she left the house. ashley died while tom was in police custody. i didn t shoot my wife.
inside the master bedroom ashley was alive, but the wounds to her head were catastrophic. the police body camera shows officers kneeling on the floor trying to stabilize her condition. paramedics went in and they made a decision to do what we call a load and go which means they re not going to spend any time doing life support stuff. ashley s mom huddled with her grandchildren in a neighboring bedroom. listened to it all through a closed door. is there any way to describe what it s like for a mother to be in that situation? no. your brain does funny things. i just knew that my whole world is never going to be the same again, ever. outside, spencer watched tom pacing back and forth, crying, talking to himself. i notice he s wearing a white t-shirt and he s covered i believe it was on his left side
better times and take a break too. ashley s adoptive dad joel was at the party. there was dancing going on, people were having a good time. ashley seemed to be having a fine time. she and tom seemed to be getting on fine? they seemed to be getting along fine. that s when ashley and andrea went off into the kitchen, had a little party of their own. what were you drinking? jungle juice and jell-o shots. oh, my. i was having a good time. there was one unusual thing though, said andrea. ashley had just gone through something kind of awful. she found out that she had a miscarriage that day and i said oh, i m sorry. are you okay? and she was like yeah. was she unhappy about the miscarriage? my impression of it is she already has her beautiful family. it seemed like her life was already complete so i don t
in a large amount of blood. it was odd, bryan thought that the police officers didn t take tom s clothes or bag his hands for gunshot residue. he still had evidence on him and he needed to be preserved. he needed to be controlled. he needed to be processed. and clothing removed, everything. that s not what happened. not at all. and soon after ashley was rushed off to the er, tom got in the back of his squad car and was driven away, but surprisingly, not to the hospital. coming up, tom tells his story. i heard her gun cock. the wound on the back of her head isn t where she could do it herself, tom. when dateline continues. en d. pass the ball. pass the rock..
remember on the night it happened, former deputy bryan spencer saw tom roaming around freely with blood and other potential evidence all over him. the police 101, very basic thing. any scene that you respond to, you want to treat it as the highest level of what it could possibly be. so he would be a suspect. he needed to be preserved. he needed to be controlled. but none of that was done at the scene. pretty soon ashley s parents began to expect it was a coverup to protect tom. perhaps the so called blue wall of silence looking out for a fellow law enforcement officer. it s a hell accusation to make though. it is strong, but that is how we feel. mind you the police department strongly disagreed. both the coroner and the crime scene investigators issued reports that her death was indeed suicide and remember, tom told the police she d expressed