Sleeping with a Killer (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Ashley Mead - full transcript

Boulder, Colorado 2017: A jealous Adam Densmore takes matters into his own hands when his ex-girlfriend Ashley Mead moves on from their relationship, killing her and dismembering her body.

(Pensive music)

- [Narrator]
Valentine's day 2017.

A young mother is reported
missing in Boulder, Colorado.

- She was a frequent
utilizer of social media

and she stopped posting,
she stopped texting,

she stopped responding to
calls for family and friends.

- [Narrator] When investigators
arrive at her apartment,

they immediately become uneasy.

- Her phone was still
at the residence,

which was a little suspicious.

- For a young girl in her 20s,



it's not something that
would be left behind,

especially if she
was leaving town

for a significant
period of time.

- We certainly had concern.

We didn't know where Ashley was,

we didn't know
where the baby was.

- [Narrator] As the
gravity of the situation

quickly unfolds,

detectives enlist the
help of numerous agencies.

- When the stakes
like this are so high

and we're worried
about a little baby

and we're worried about a woman

who might have been
kidnapped or something worse,

we're gonna come up with any
investigative means that we can



to contact a person and make
sure that people are safe.

- [Narrator] This is the
story of Ashley mead,

how her disappearance sparked
a multi-state manhunt,

and how her killer,
motivated by jealousy,

commits an abhorrent act

that shocks even the most
seasoned investigators.

- Her family said that
he was prone to snapping.

- He had been boiling up
with rage and jealousy

leading up to her murder.

- I've been doing
this a long time.

These detectives are
experienced detectives

who have seen an awful lot...

And this really shook us.

(Suspenseful music)

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.

(Pensive music)

- [Narrator] 9:20 A.M.
on February 14th, 2017.

Emergency services
in Boulder, Colorado,

receive a call for
a welfare check.

- That call was made
by Ashley's supervisor,

a woman named Erin machado.

And what miss
machado called about

was the fact that Ashley hadn't
come in to work that day.

- She had been trying to
call her and reach her

and was not getting a response.

That was a little bit unusual,

not only that she
wouldn't show up to work,

but she knew some of the history

of her relationship
with her partner

and so that just made her
really concerned for her safety.

- [Narrator] Patrol
officers are dispatched

to Ashley's home.

- They found that the
door was unlocked.

They knocked and announced
and nobody came to the door.

They decided they should
do a search of the house

to make sure that there
was nobody injured

or needed medical help.

And when they got in, they
noticed the lights were on.

- There was nothing
significantly outta place.

There were a couple of
burritos in the oven

and it looked like
maybe somebody had left

in a hasty manner,
but there wasn't,

there were no open, outward
signs of violence or a struggle.

Ashley owned a white Volvo

that was not in the parking
place where it shoulda been.

(Tense music)

- [Narrator] With
no signs of Ashley

or her 13-month-old
baby, winter Daisy,

officers immediately
apply for a search warrant

so they can look for
any evidence

as to their whereabouts.

- When the officers
go out to the home

the second time that day

after they're getting a
little bit more suspicious

and they're at the
apartment a second time,

they're starting to realize

and seeing some
things that indicate

that maybe there is something
more to the story here.

- There were three phones
located in the residence,

one of which was Ashley's.

- Ashley's iPhone and her
ID was at the residence.

Both of those things, for
a young girl in her 20s,

is not something that
would be left behind,

especially if she
was leaving town

for a significant
period of time.

- When investigators
turned the phone over,

they found on the
face of the phone

or on the screen of the phone
there was a print on there

that was essentially a pattern,

and it kind of looked
like it was a footprint.

- Otherwise, there
wasn't much in the house.

Didn't look like a
sign of a struggle

or any bloodletting event.

Really, there wasn't much
that they found at the house

other than that.

(Uneasy music)

- [Narrator] Officers initiate
a missing person's report

as dispatch are receiving

further distress
calls about Ashley.

- Claudia, Ashley's mother,
she was very concerned

because she knew that there was
just some jealousy going on,

a difficult strain
in the relationship,

and she really pushed the issue
that we needed to find her.

She had not talked to
her for a couple of days

and then she hadn't seen
any social media posts

for a day or two, and that
was also very unusual.

She knew that
that's not something

that Ashley would be doing

based on their history
as mom and daughter,

that they would talk frequently.

So, she was becoming
more and more concerned

as the hours passed.

- Her cat was still on scene.
And according to the people

that patrol had spoken with,

she wouldn't go anywhere
without the cat.

- Her mother informed
the investigators

that if her cat were
still in the apartment,

that was a red flag,

that Ashley always
took her cat with her.

- There had been a previous trip

that Ashley had made just
a couple months prior

and she'd ended up bringing the
cat with her on a road trip.

- Ashley had been
home with her family

in Pennsylvania that Christmas.

And when she was
home for Christmas,

she took her cat with her
to go home to see her mom.

In talking to her
family and friends,

it was very clear she liked
to wear bright clothing

and really stand
out from the crowd.

She was somebody that
was well-liked at work,

had good friends,

was a really energetic young
woman from everything we heard.

- Ashley was a pretty
eclectic person

and she had these huge black
glasses that she liked to wear.

They looked kinda
like a costume jewelry

or something that somebody
would wear to try to be funny,

but they were the
glasses that she wore.

- Ashley's mom talked about
what kind of person Ashley was.

She talked about her
relationship with Ashley,

that Ashley texted her a lot,

that she was in
communication with her a lot.

And then she just
kinda talked about

she was just an extremely
well-loved individual

and that she really,
really loved her baby.

- [Narrator] Police
start canvassing the area

and speaking with
Ashley's neighbors.

- They talked to neighbors.

They brought in some dogs
to try and run a dog track

that didn't lead to anything
of evidentiary value.

The neighbor directly next door,

the way the apartments
were configured,

there were stairwells
that abutted on each side,

the neighbor's apartment and
Ashley and Adam's apartment.

That neighbor ultimately,
when interviewed,

indicated that she had heard
what she believed to be

someone falling down the stairs.

She was on the phone upstairs-

the neighbor was on
the phone upstairs

and was very concerned
that one of her kids

had fallen down the
stairs and called out,

and her daughter indicated
she had not and she was fine.

(Uneasy music)

But that was a loud noise of
something going down the stairs

on the evening of
Sunday the 12th.

Nobody had any
interaction with Ashley.

In addition to the neighbors

not seeing her
since Sunday night,

all of her electronic devices
went dead that night as well.

She was a frequent
utilizer of social media,

and she stopped posting,
she stopped texting,

she stopped responding to
calls for family and friends.

So, Sunday night was what
we ultimately traced back

as our trigger point.

And so, we knew that we had
a two-day lapse of unknown

from the time she was last here
and we knew that she was okay

until she was reported missing.

- [Narrator] Investigators
gain more information

from Ashley's cell phone.

- Ashley's phone had a lot
of great information on it

to show pictures
of where she was,

kind of the things that
she had been doing.

She looked that day
like she was very happy

and kind of carefree that day

and just being a mom
with her daughter.

We were able to
get some messages

that she had sent to her friends

about her tumultuous
relationship with Adam

and about her
seeing other people,

about him finding out about
that, about his drinking.

(Brooding music)

- [Narrator] Boulder
police start delving

into Ashley's relationship
with Adam Densmore.

- Adam and Ashley
had met in Louisiana

when she went to
college out there.

They met in Shreveport.

And from very early on
in the relationship,

they fought a lot, they had
a lot of strain and tension.

It was an unhealthy
relationship, for sure.

Ashley became pregnant and
when Adam moved to Colorado,

she eventually came out
to Colorado as well.

Part of that was because
she wanted her daughter

to have a father.

- Adam initially
denied paternity,

so there was this
kind of disagreement

about him being
the child's father.

- We learned through
the investigation

that Ashley had bought him a
paternity test for Christmas

and he had just received
the results on February 8th.

He learned that he was, in fact,
the father of winter Daisy.

- [Narrator] From
interviews of co-workers,

friends, and family,

investigators are receiving
alarming information

about Adam Densmore's behavior.

- He was drinking quite a bit.

He was exhibiting some
jealousy about her

and he was doing things

that people just thought
was pretty aggressive.

So, one day he
showed up at her work

and co-workers saw him behaving

very aggressive towards Ashley.

At the same time,
he quit his job.

He was working and
he quit his job

and he told people that he
worked with that he had to quit

because Ashley was gonna take
their child away from him.

So, there was definitely
some jealousy,

some resentment, some
anger building up in him.

(Brooding music)

- His friends,

and I don't even know if
I'd call them friends,

but his acquaintances
talked about

just the way that he
would treat people

and the disrespect and the
shortness and very narcissistic

and believed that other
people were inferior to him,

and that was a common theme

through everybody
that we talked to.

- Other than what we
heard from Adam's friend

but from Ashley's
friends and family

was that this was a
tumultuous relationship.

He was emotionally and
verbally abusive to her.

He put her down, he talked
about his time in the military

and that he had killed people.

I learned that they broke
up in about may 2015

and I was told that it was
after Adam killed their puppy

instead of taking him
to the vet to get care.

They were all very
concerned for Ashley.

Pretty much to a one,
they all believed

that she was being
physically abused by Adam

and asked her about it,

but she always denied that
there was physical abuse.

- [Narrator] Aware that Ashley

has recently started
a relationship,

investigators track
down her new boyfriend.

- We spoke with him at length.

He volunteered to come
to the police department

to talk to us more.

- He had an alibi
for the timeframe

when Ashley was last seen
until she went missing.

He didn't seem to be a
suspect in the case at all.

- We certainly had concern.

We didn't know where Ashley was,

we didn't know where Adam was,

we didn't know
where the baby was.

Nobody had heard from
anyone since Sunday prior,

this is now Tuesday, so there
were definitely concerns.

We were drumming it up as a
suspicious missing person.

(Ominous music)

(Ominous music)

- [Narrator] Investigators
looking for Adam Densmore,

Ashley, and their
daughter, winter Daisy,

are hopeful nothing
sinister has happened,

as Boulder is not known
as a high-crime city.

- The majority of
people in Boulder

are very educated,
many scientists,

many people associated

with the university of
Colorado, professors.

We have the national atmospheric
research center here.

We have a number of high-tech
businesses, ball aerospace,

lots of very educated,
science-oriented people.

- We have a Lotta people that
come to train for athletics,

for biking, for running,

so it's a very open,
welcoming community.

Pretty much everybody
is welcome here.

- [Narrator] Boulder detectives

are confident that Ashley mead

and her daughter winter
Daisy's disappearance

is not the result
of a random attack.

- Detectives, law enforcement
are trying to find him

as well as their daughter

because concerned about him,
concerned about their daughter.

"Where is Ashley at?"

So, they're trying
to reach out to him.

They're not successful at that.

They're trying to
reach out to his family

to see if his family
might know where he is

and where the child is at.

(Uneasy music)

- [Narrator] With
crucial time passing

and still no contact
from Adam Densmore,

the Boulder police department
call his parents in Louisiana

to see if they know
the whereabouts

of winter, Ashley, and Adam.

- His parents indicated
that he had shown up

for a surprise visit.

They had gotten a call on
Sunday evening, late on Sunday,

and Adam said that
he and winter Daisy

were coming for a visit.

And he had driven throughout
the night Sunday night,

all night, and
throughout the day Monday

and arrived, I think,
about 7 or 8 P.M.

In haughton, Louisiana,

at his parents' house
on Monday night.

- He was driving Ashley's car.

Ashley was not with him.

And the information I received

was that Adam said that he had
been in a fight with Ashley

and he needed to get away.

- His parents were
very surprised,

at least that's what
they communicated

is that they were very
surprised to see Adam

on the evening of the 13th
for a couple of reasons.

One is because they didn't know

that he was making this
essentially impromptu trip

to Louisiana to see them,

and also that Ashley was just
very attached to the baby

as her mother, and so
it was very unlike her

or uncharacteristic for Ashley
to not be where the baby was.

- Ashley was the kind of mother

that always had winter with her.

She was still breastfeeding.

She was weaning winter, but
it would be very abnormal

for her to allow Adam to
take the baby without her.

- Winter Daisy appeared
to be in good shape.

She was hungry and
she was thirsty

when they arrived at
grandma and grandpa's house,

but she was uninjured

and there was nothing other
than getting her some food

and something to drink.

(Ominous music)

- [Narrator] During
the phone call,

Adam's father says something
that alarms investigators.

- Adam's dad, in those
initial contacts,

revealed to investigators
that Adam said,

"I did something stupid."

And that had drawn
his father's attention

because he wasn't sure
what he had meant.

- To me, that was an admission

that something serious
had happened here.

The fact that he left it at
just, "I did something stupid,"

didn't give any other
details at that time

made me feel like it was a
way of him almost venting

or releasing some of
that built-up guilt

and tension in him,
releasing that to his father.

- I was thinking
we had a homicide.

(Eerie music)

- [Narrator] Detectives step
up their efforts to find Adam

and issue a press release.

- We put her picture out, we
put information out about her,

and I remember everyone-

I remember getting so many calls

that we actually
opened up a tip line

because we were getting
so many calls about it.

- [Narrator] Police
learn that Adam

is on the way to his
grandmother's house.

- Investigators in
Conway, Arkansas,

spoke to her at my request.

- She had gotten a message that
she needed to convey to Adam

to tell him to call the police.

- Adam arrived at approximately
9 P.M. on February 14th.

He was driving Ashley's
car, he had winter with him.

And then, at some point he
learned that Boulder police

were trying to contact him
because Ashley was missing.

And at that point in
time, he became upset.

And first thing the next morning

when he woke up at about 8:45,

he got on the road and began
his travels back to Boulder.

(Uneasy music)

- Now, we kind of are
tracking Adam's movements.

We know he's been
to Conway, Arkansas.

We don't know exactly what
his course back to Colorado

or if he's really coming
back to Colorado would be.

And we, at that point,
are continuing to search,

have no idea what's
happened to Ashley, no idea,

but it's been now several
days since she was last seen.

We know he has
the child with him

and is traveling
across the country.

- [Narrator] On February 15th,

Boulder detectives
call in other agencies

and departments to
help with the search.

- We were tracking his phone.

We knew that he was on a highway

that was passing right by Tulsa.

The FBI notified their
associates in Oklahoma,

who relayed the information
to Oklahoma state patrol,

and they basically
had patrol units

set up to intercept
Adam Densmore.

- It was getting to a place

where the pieces were
starting to come together.

We still had no idea what
had happened to Ashley.

The difficulty from a legal
standpoint at that point

was we had no basis to hold him.

There were no warrants.

There was nothing that would
allow them to detain him.

- We sat down with
the Da's office,

trying to figure out
what crimes we did have.

At that point we were convinced,

based upon everything
that we had,

that there was a strong
likelihood that Ashley was dead,

but we didn't have probable
cause at that point.

And it was one of
the assistant das

who came up with the idea

that in fact we had
a custody violation

that we could make an arrest on.

- [Narrator] Then,
detectives receive a call.

- We were trying to communicate

to the FBI and the
Oklahoma highway patrol,

"yes, we have a warrant, but
he's on the phone right now

"with a detective in Boulder,
so do not stop the vehicle."

(Tense music)

- [Narrator] Boulder
police finally have

a location for Adam Densmore

and they are just hoping
that Ashley is still alive.

- From a timing standpoint,

we're talking about things
moving very fast at this point.

We obtained the arrest warrant

for the violation of
a custody situation.

The difficulty was Oklahoma
highway patrol and the FBI

were indicating they
were moving into position

to stop and detain him.

At that very time was
when he was on the phone

with detective Kirshbaum.

Any time you're given an
opportunity to have a detective

have a conversation with
somebody who is a suspect,

you wanna take
advantage of that.

He said something along the
lines of, "let him continue on.

"Continue to follow him, but
do not make contact with him,"

because we wanted to
continue that conversation

to collect as much information
as we possibly could.

(Tense music)

- When the phone was hung up,

I was standing in the cubicle
next to detective Kirshbaum.

And of course, another attorney

that was working on
the case with me and I,

being the attorneys, had a
bunch of extra questions.

We were like, "we really would
like for you to lock him in

"on like four more questions.

"Call him back and ask
these four questions."

So, detective Kirshbaum
called him back

to try and ask the four
questions we had given him.

And when he called back,

we could hear screaming on
the other end of the line

and we could hear the Oklahoma
highway patrol officers

giving him commands.

Adam answered the phone
and we were hearing this,

and Adam said, "I said
I was coming back,

"I said I was coming back!

"What's going on?

"All these people have
guns pointed at me!

"They're all pointing guns
at me and screaming at me."

And detective
Kirshbaum told him,

"if they're giving you commands,

"you need to hang up the phone

"and comply with their commands.

"Do as they're
telling you to do."

- [Narrator] Winter
is taken into custody

and Adam is transported
to Pawnee county jail

to be interviewed about Ashley.

- He does not talk
to law enforcement.

He decides that
he wants to invoke

his right to remain silent.

He did talk, though, to
a social services worker.

(Brooding music)

- He gave the social
services worker

a little bit more information

and made some pretty
strong comments

that he literally could have
killed her and things like that

that, of course,
were very concerning.

- [Narrator] With Adam
confessing to a fight

between himself and Ashley,

FBI detectives examine injuries
he claims to have sustained.

- They were able to locate a
number of injuries on his body.

He actually had
quite a few injuries.

(Brooding music)

There was a pretty pronounced
bite Mark on his chest.

There was a bite Mark on
one of his inner thighs.

- He also had scratch marks
and just other markings

that looked like he had
been in a struggle as well.

- There was some redness

and possible swelling
on his knuckles.

He indicated that
he wanted to talk

and had a desire to talk,

but that he wanted to
have an attorney present

before he made any statement
to law enforcement,

so they didn't
have an opportunity

to ask him about the
source of those injuries.

- [Narrator] They also
find further evidence

of a struggle with Ashley.

- Ashley's phone had,

on the face of the phone or
on the screen of the phone,

there was a print on there
that was essentially a pattern,

and it kind of looked
like it was a footprint.

When Adam was arrested, he
was arrested wearing shoes

that had a pattern
on the bottom.

And when they turned
the shoes over,

they saw that the pattern
on the bottom of the shoes

looked almost identical
if not identical

to the face of that phone,

that print that was on
the face of the phone.

And what that indicated
to investigators

was essentially further evidence

that there was some
kind of struggle

that occurred at the apartment,

that Adam had stepped
on Ashley's phone

at some point prior to fleeing.

And also, the fact
that that phone

was left at the apartment
at all was significant.

- [Narrator] While
Adam is in jail,

Boulder detectives are advised

about a discovery in
Okmulgee, Oklahoma.

- I was sitting in a conference
room with members of the FBI

when they got a call from
their Oklahoma cohorts.

And at that point in time,
I heard them shocked.

I heard them say,
"are you kidding me,"

and I knew that
something had been found.

I knew that there was
a break in this case.

- He hung up the phone

and then conveyed to
us the information

that a torso had been located
in Okmulgee, Oklahoma,

in a suitcase in a
dumpster at a gas station.

- That was relevant to me

because we had been
tracking the phone.

Okmulgee is just south
of Tulsa, Oklahoma,

and so we knew this was an area

and a town that he had
just driven through

an hour or approximately
an hour before the stop

and when he was arrested
by highway patrol.

- The condition of
the torso was awful.

I mean, the person who found it,

when she saw it, initially
thought it was a pig,

but it was a woman who had

a cut into on her
torso on her stomach.

All of her organs
had been removed.

Her arms and her legs
had been removed,

her head had been removed.

I mean, it was something
that nobody should ever see.

- We were informed that
there would be an autopsy

on Thursday morning,

and detective Frenzen and
I got on a little plane

and flew to Tulsa for the
autopsy on Thursday morning.

- [Narrator]
February 15th, 2017.

Police in Oklahoma
discover a suitcase

containing body parts
of a young woman

in a small town of Okmulgee.

Boulder police are
desperately searching

for missing young
mother Ashley mead.

They fly to Tulsa, Oklahoma,

to coordinate with
local law enforcement.

- The coroner's really not
able to determine anything

at the autopsy.

With missing the organs,

with missing the
head and other limbs,

the coroner really
can't say anything

other than make visual
observations of the torso,

but can't tell us
how the person died

or why or under
what circumstances.

(Somber music)

- Ashley's mother told us

about a unique feature
that Ashley had,

and that was a sublime
tattoo that was on her back,

and that was a
gap-tooth sun tattoo,

and that was on the
center of her back.

When we identified the
tattoo and we observed that,

we knew that we most
likely had the right body.

We still had more work to do,
we needed to get DNA done,

but at the same
time we knew that,

just given all the
circumstances so far,

that we felt that
this was Ashley.

- Being there with two
very experienced detectives

from the Boulder
police department,

I think it's fair to say

that what we saw that
day shook all of us.

- That was, it
was a shock to me,

just to see a human
body in that state.

Someone had gone to that length

to try to hide
what they had done.

And to just disrespect
and disfigure

and dismember somebody to
that extent just is pure evil.

- [Narrator] And the suitcase
also adds to the confirmation.

It is Ashley.

- Very quickly, one of
the things that jumped out

to all of us that were
standing there in the autopsy,

the purple suitcase contained
two baggage claim tags.

The barcode that's a
little sticky barcode

for when you travel

and an airline puts a baggage
claim sticker on there,

there were two barcodes.

And when we looked
closely at those barcodes,

they both had the defendant's
sister's name on 'em.

(Somber music)

- [Narrator] Detectives now
have to inform Ashley's family.

- From my perspective,

what I did is I put one
of the best people I know

on that task, which was
detective Sarah Cantu,

a very compassionate person,
and just simply asked her

to convey the necessary
information

to Ashley mead's parents

so that they understood what
happened to their daughter

without having to find out
about it through the media.

- It's very hard.

I think it's the hardest
thing I've had to do

in 20 years of police work.

I was thousands of miles
away, it was over the phone,

these people don't know me,
I'm a faceless stranger,

and I'm trying to
find the right words

to carefully tell
them this information,

and there aren't
the right words.

There are no words
to tell a mother

that we believe her
daughter is dead

and that only some of her
remains were recovered.

I don't actually
remember what they said.

I remember the emotions.

I remember that
they were so upset

and I felt powerless to
do anything to help them.

I couldn't even console
them over the phone lines.

So, I offered to have
victims' advocates

reach out to them
in Pennsylvania.

They had friends and family,
so they didn't want that,

but I worked with the
district attorney's office

here in Boulder so that victims'
services here in Boulder

could be in contact with
them and keep them apprised

of everything that was
going on at that time.

- [Narrator] Investigators
retrieve surveillance video

from the area around
the dumpster

and get crucial evidence.

- The Okmulgee police department
was absolutely amazing

in the assistance
they provided to us.

They pulled all of the
video from that gas station.

- After we reviewed the
footage from that gas station,

we saw that a white Volvo
pulled up to a dumpster,

the same dumpster that
the suitcase was found in,

and that a male matching
Adam's description

got out of that white Volvo

and dumped the suitcase
into the dumpster.

And so, from that,

we tracked his movements
after he left the dumpster,

which was across the parking
lot into a local Walmart,

which was just in the
same general parking area

as where the torso was found.

We were able to get a close-up
of Adam walking into Walmart

and he was carrying
winter Daisy.

It was clear that it was him.

And again, that was right
after he had just dumped

Ashley's torso
into the dumpster.

- [Narrator] At this stage,

detectives start to put
all the evidence together

and search Ashley's Volvo.

- We found glasses that
belonged to Ashley mead

that we had photos of, and
the glasses were broken.

- One of the earpieces
was broken off

and there was what appeared
to be paint transfer,

like the glasses on the lens
and the frames had a white,

like if you were
to take something

and smash it against a wall

or rub it against
a wall very hard

and the paint were to
transfer onto that.

- We also found there
were pools of blood

in the back-end of her Volvo

and there was
another pool of blood

in the left-rear
passenger seat area.

- [Narrator] By analyzing the
GPS on Adam's mobile phone,

investigators see he
made a stop in Arkansas.

- They were able to
access certain information

from Adam Densmore's phone.

And based upon that information,

it appeared that he had
driven up to a dumpster

near a gas station in
Morrilton, Arkansas.

And based upon that information,

I contacted Morrilton pd,

asked them to have an officer
go by that gas station,

try to obtain video
from that gas station

to help us determine what
Adam Densmore was doing there.

- [Narrator] Local
law enforcement

visits the gas station
and retrieves

the surveillance video.

- In that surveillance video,

it was seen that Adam actually
pulled up to a dumpster

and then got out of that Volvo
that he had been driving,

Ashley's Volvo, and put
something in a black trash bag

from the backseat and he
put it into the dumpster.

And based on the fact that there
were parts of Ashley's body

that weren't able to be
recovered up to that point,

there was a thought that
that black trash bag

contained parts
of Ashley's body.

- We knew specifically that
the contents of this dumpster

went to the landfill
for Morrilton, Arkansas,

so we began formulating a plan

to conduct a landfill
search at Morrilton.

- That was one of
those decisions

that it makes a Lotta sense,

but is also just
such an undertaking.

- We worked Monday
through Friday,

about 6:30 in the morning

'til 4:30 or 5:30
in the afternoon,

and we did that for five days
a week, five weeks in a row.

We were unfortunately unable
to locate any evidence

and we felt we didn't accomplish
what we went there for,

so it was very sad to leave.

(Tense music)

- [Narrator] Joy
Densmore, Adam's sister,

speaks with investigators
and tells them

Adam was acting strangely
at their parents' house.

- When Adam's sister
learned that Adam

had essentially made this
surprise trip back from Boulder

to visit his
parents at haughton,

she decided that she was going
to surprise Adam and see him

because she hadn't
seen him in a while.

- She kind of happens upon him

in the back part of the house.

He seems like he's pretty
startled that she's there,

but she notices some odd
things about the house:

The smell of bleach, that
there's laundry going on,

he said that he was sick,

just things that didn't
seem right at the time.

- [Narrator] Investigators send
a forensics team to the home

and it quickly becomes clear

this is where Adam dismembered
Ashley mead's body.

- We found blood spatter
throughout that house.

We found all sorts of things

that we knew linked
Adam to a dismemberment.

- There was blood on the
ceiling in the bathroom.

There were some transfer
or smear-type bloodstains

on the shower wall around
the door, on some cabinets.

- That was determined by
use of two substances,

one called luminol and
one called blue star,

and those are both substances
that illuminate essentially

when they come in
contact with blood.

- When officers conducted
a search of a shed

in the backyard, they located
a large barbecue grill cover.

And when that grill
cover was opened up,

it had a considerable amount
of dried blood inside.

It was our belief that he
had used that grill cover

to transport Ashley's body
probably into the home

before conducting
the dismemberment.

- They found a saw
that ultimately had

the DNA of Ashley on
it that we suspect

and believe was used to cut
off her limbs and her head.

- [Narrator] Adam Densmore
is formally charged

with Ashley's murder.

But as they are
preparing for trial,

prosecutors face a few dilemmas.

- As we're building the case,

it makes total sense
that he did this,

but we're also running
into, just legally,

some issues about,
"well, how did she die?

"How are we gonna prove
that he killed her?"

Your mind thinks another thing,

and then as a lawyer
you're thinking,

"oh my gosh, how am I gonna
prove this to a jury?"

So, we were worried
that was Boulder,

was Colorado the right
place to try this case

or was it where
his parents lived?

We had a clerk who had seen him

down in the south Denver area,

was able to see him and see
that Ashley was not with him.

We were able to pull some
other video as we went

where he would stop for gas
or snacks or things like that.

There was a place
called the toot n totum.

Again, we're able
to see him pull in,

he's always driving,
Ashley is never seen.

She's never getting outta
the car to go to the bathroom

or to take care of winter Daisy,

so it's pretty clear that
she is not alive at that time

and not alive and with
Adam at that time.

(Uneasy music)

- [Narrator] Adam will
not tell investigators

where he placed the
rest of Ashley's body,

but prosecutors are confident

they have enough to convict him

by the time the trial starts.

- In the opening statement,
I tried to take jurors

through the timeline
of the investigation.

Essentially, there
ultimately was

sort of a dual
timeline going on.

There was both
what Adam was doing

and sort of when that began

and what investigators were
doing at the same time.

- We believe that
Adam killed Ashley

on Sunday, February 12th,
that he made a sudden decision

to drive to haughton, Louisiana,

drove all night,
arriving the next day,

approximately 16 or 17 hours
later, at mom and dad's house.

That woulda been the
13th, which was a Monday.

He spent the night at mom
and dad's house that night.

When they left to go to
work on February 14th,

he had the house to himself.

It was February 14th
or Valentine's day

that he dismembered his
ex-girlfriend's body

inside of his parents' bathroom.

(Somber music)

- Ashley's mom was
somebody who held out hope

'til the very end.

Claudia continued to hold out
hope that we got it wrong.

I remember very vividly

the day that we presented
the DNA evidence,

because ultimately the
identification of Ashley

was done by DNA.

When we finished the DNA
testimony in this case,

miss Bunce said to us, "so,
there's still a chance.

"There's still a chance
it's not my daughter."

Mary Sliker testified it was
only a 99.9999999999% chance

that this was Ashley's body,
and she still had hope.

(Somber music)

- Sentencing was gut-wrenching.

We all knew what the
outcome was gonna be.

He was gonna get life in prison;

that was a foregone conclusion.

But the trial is about the
facts and about what happened.

The sentencing is about how
this crime has impacted people

and what the judge should know

about how their family
has been devastated.

So, this was the time
for the family to come in

and not talk about the facts,

but talk about what
Ashley meant to them

and who she was as a person

and how devastating
their lives were gonna be

from there on out
without her in it.

He was sentenced
to life in prison

without the
possibility of parole,

and then he got some
prison on top of that

for those other charges, the
tampering and things like that.

So, life without the
possibility of parole,

plus 12 years on top of that.

- I think the biggest
takeaway was how well

we as law enforcement
worked together.

In Boulder, in Oklahoma,
in Louisiana, in Arkansas,

we've never met these people,
it's all through phone calls,

and we were able
to work as a team

and put this
investigation together.

- At the time that Ashley died,

she was just exploring who
she wanted to be in her life.

She was excited for the future,
she was trying new things,

and her life ended way too soon.