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00:00:00Tonight on Dateline...
00:00:05Ashley was just a really special mom.
00:00:08Nothing came between her and her kids.
00:00:11She was a sister, an aunt, a friend.
00:00:16He said she had been in a car accident,
00:00:19and I just remember screaming.
00:00:21He was a fire captain.
00:00:23His wife died in a fiery car crash.
00:00:26The single dad now raising two children.
00:00:29This was a man truly grieving.
00:00:33The fire itself was strange.
00:00:35It wasn't a crash that somebody should have died in.
00:00:38Was it something else?
00:00:40Was it murder?
00:00:42None of us would have thought this was going to happen to her.
00:00:46A secret comes out. Yes.
00:00:48There had been an affair.
00:00:50This takes the case in a new direction.
00:00:52Other possible suspects.
00:00:54Right.
00:00:55We have a video that shows a person running from the crash.
00:00:59We call him Running Man.
00:01:01Find this running man.
00:01:04Find your killer.
00:01:06A picture perfect couple.
00:01:08A mystery killer.
00:01:10What clues lie buried in the snowy blue mountains.
00:01:14I'm Lester Holt.
00:01:15And this is Dateline.
00:01:16Andrea Canning returns to her hometown for Running Man.
00:01:31In the silence of this once happy home.
00:01:37Photos reveal a life frozen in time.
00:01:43Christmas lights on the banister.
00:01:45A stuffed animal with the tag still on.
00:01:47It all looked very normal.
00:01:50What they don't show is the beautiful family that lived here.
00:01:54James and Ashley Schwamm and their two young children.
00:01:57Every day was like a dance party.
00:02:00There was love.
00:02:02Laughter.
00:02:03Very well-adjusted family.
00:02:06But everything was not as it seemed.
00:02:08There were secrets behind those walls.
00:02:11There were, yeah.
00:02:12Absolutely.
00:02:13That's like a whole new level of evil.
00:02:18It's horrible.
00:02:22Our story begins in the town of the Blue Mountains.
00:02:26A picturesque ski destination two hours northwest of Toronto.
00:02:30It's where I grew up and where I got my start as a reporter.
00:02:33Doing this series I've learned a lot about education over the last few weeks.
00:02:36Police are aggressively investigating the fatal collision looking for any clues.
00:02:40I never expected to cover a dateline here.
00:02:44It was January 26th, 2023.
00:02:48Just a few miles from my childhood home on a frigid, stormy morning.
00:02:53Just before dawn, volunteer firefighter Jordan Hagerman was driving to his job as a groomer on the ski slopes.
00:03:01There was not a single car on the road that morning.
00:03:03So as soon as I turned onto Arrowhead Road here, I noticed a glow.
00:03:09What did you think?
00:03:10I had a feeling that it was a fire right away.
00:03:13And you had just joined the volunteer fire department here?
00:03:16Yes.
00:03:17So as soon as I approached the bottom of the hill here, I could see the flames coming over the embankment.
00:03:22So as I drove up to the top of the hill, I could see down that it was a car.
00:03:29That's when I made my 911 golf.
00:03:31Fire department, what was your emergency?
00:03:32Hi, there's a fire on top of Arrowhead Road around the bend.
00:03:37It looks like a car went off the road and it seems fully engulfed.
00:03:40I'm not sure if there's passengers inside.
00:03:42And you don't know if there's anybody around?
00:03:44I have no idea.
00:03:45Okay.
00:03:46No footprints?
00:03:47It's too dark to tell.
00:03:50Where I was standing and the car was about 75 feet down off the road.
00:03:55I could feel that intense heat.
00:03:57Oh, wow.
00:03:58These flames were high?
00:04:00Yeah.
00:04:01About 30 feet high.
00:04:02He knew from his training that was unusual for a car fire.
00:04:06Did you fear that someone could be in there?
00:04:08I did, for sure.
00:04:09That's scary.
00:04:10Yeah.
00:04:11Tim Newton, a captain with the town of the Blue Mountains Fire Department, was jolted
00:04:16out of sleep.
00:04:17The tones go off on my radio around 6 a.m. that morning.
00:04:21So, you arrive here, what's the first thing you see?
00:04:24So, as we arrive on scene, I can see over to my left-hand side coming up the hill.
00:04:28It was a fully involved car.
00:04:30It was fully engulfed in flames.
00:04:32Tim and his fellow firefighters raced to put out the flames.
00:04:36We didn't have good visibility.
00:04:38I knew as soon as I could, I wanted to try to get a member of the crew to open at least
00:04:43the driver's side door and do a sweep of the seat.
00:04:46We conducted that and didn't find anything.
00:04:49No driver inside the charred Mitsubishi SUV.
00:04:53It appeared they'd escaped the flames.
00:04:55But when the firefighters checked the passenger side, a different story.
00:04:59And that's when we found the body.
00:05:01Could you not even tell if it was a man or a woman?
00:05:04You could not tell.
00:05:05It was that bad?
00:05:06Yeah.
00:05:07How did it appear to you that this car had ended up down there?
00:05:11Based on the condition of the guardrail not being damaged on first inspection,
00:05:15the only explanation was that it had made its way through this very narrow section into the gully below.
00:05:21You thought it just slid off the road in these conditions?
00:05:24That it was coming down the road, lost control and...
00:05:26Went through this opening?
00:05:27Yeah.
00:05:28And kept going?
00:05:29Firefighters were perplexed. Where was the driver?
00:05:33Police officers now on scene were asking the same question.
00:05:37They notified Detective Sergeant Jason Lloyd and Detective Constable Jeremy Shiffman with the Ontario Provincial Police, also known as the OPP.
00:05:47I was advised from the sergeant on the scene that they had a dead body inside the vehicle.
00:05:53And I just asked them to send me some digital photographs to my desk so that I could have a better idea of what it is that they were addressing at the scene.
00:05:59What's your first reaction when you see these photos?
00:06:01That there's one person in the car and the body was in the footwell area on that passenger side.
00:06:07They thought there might be an explanation for how the body got there.
00:06:11We looked at the angle, gravity and the fact that the fire department was putting the fire out and that those hoses would be pushing in that general direction.
00:06:20So the force of the water from the fire hose could have pushed the body into the passenger seat?
00:06:26Yeah, along with gravity.
00:06:28Whose car is it? How quickly do you figure that out?
00:06:32So because of it becoming a fatal collision, the OPP's traffic reconstruction team came out.
00:06:38They found the license plate in the snow had been clipped off the vehicle when it went down into the ditch.
00:06:43So we checked the license plate and it came back to James Schwamm.
00:06:47Motor vehicle records showed James Schwamm lived 10 miles west of the Blue Mountains in the town of Collingwood.
00:06:53Detective Schiffman along with two uniformed officers headed straight to his house and rang the doorbell.
00:06:59But no one was home.
00:07:01So I went back to my car and I did what a lot of us do and I pulled up my phone and I started my own quick search on Facebook.
00:07:08And I found James Schwamm's Facebook profile. His profile picture there has him on the front of a fire truck with his family.
00:07:18James was a firefighter. Based on the photo, it looked like he worked at a station just outside of Toronto. The detective had a friend who also worked there.
00:07:26So I called her, Brittany Holmberg. I'm like, do you know James? And she said, yes, I know James. The Mitsubishi car is his car.
00:07:35Take us to that moment where your phone rings and it's your friend, you know, from the OPP.
00:07:40Yeah. He was asking me immediately about James Schwamm. You work with James Schwamm? Yes. You're friends with James Schwamm? Yes.
00:07:48Would there be any reason that he'd be up near the ski hill? And I was like, yeah, there's some fresh snow to be had and he's probably out skiing or probably trying to get out there really early.
00:07:59Then the detective told her about the accident.
00:08:02I'm sorry to tell you this, but we have reason to believe that James Schwamm has passed.
00:08:08I remember hanging up and just having a panic attack, like had a full blown panic attack.
00:08:13She tried calling James, but he didn't answer.
00:08:17So I left this voicemail and it was like the saddest thing ever.
00:08:21What did you say?
00:08:22I don't remember. I was like sobbing at this point. And I just said, if you're there, pick up. Like people think you're dead and I hope you're not dead.
00:08:31Oh, my God. That is a horrible call to make and voicemail to leave because you're so in the dark.
00:08:38Time to track down James's wife, Ashley. What they would find would lead to more questions about how that SUV plummeted off the side of the road and who was inside.
00:08:49In one of the videos, it's crystal clear that it's a person running and they've got a backpack on. And in the background, you can actually see the fire from the car.
00:08:59Something was revealed right here on this beach.
00:09:02Happened just down there a couple of hundred yards.
00:09:05They said, I just want you to know that you will spend the rest of your life paying for this.
00:09:10Far more diabolical than you ever imagined.
00:09:12What we uncovered afterwards made it sick.
00:09:15Police believed 38-year-old James Schwamm had died in a fiery crash. They needed to talk to James's wife.
00:09:36So you're going to go find Ashley?
00:09:39Correct. We wanted to let her know that there's been a crash.
00:09:43Detective Schiffman learned from James's co-worker, Brittany, that Ashley worked for a high-end home builder. So they headed to Ashley's office.
00:09:51But when we get there, we don't find Ashley. She hadn't shown up for work that day. And very out of character, she missed a nine o'clock meeting.
00:09:59Is your mindset now shifting?
00:10:01Very much so. So James wasn't at home. Ashley didn't show up for work. A few minutes later, Brittany calls me back and says, Jer, I found him.
00:10:10She found James?
00:10:11She found James.
00:10:12I called him and he answered. At this point, I felt like you're just talking to a ghost, but I was just so happy that he was still alive.
00:10:21But they still hadn't found Ashley. Brittany told Detective Schiffman that James was at his part-time job at Walker's, a small engine repair business.
00:10:30And then we went to Walker's.
00:10:32He's there?
00:10:33He's there. We asked to speak to him in private in the back and leave the floor area to a smaller room.
00:10:40The officers broke the news that his car had been in an accident and they believed his wife was inside.
00:10:45James became emotional and he was crying. His face was running. His eyes were running. His nose was running.
00:10:52I mean, you've just told him his wife is very likely dead.
00:10:56That's right. There was no doubt in my mind or his mind at that time that that was Ashley in that car.
00:11:03When do you first hear that there has been a car crash?
00:11:072.15 in the afternoon, the phone rings and, hi, how are you? He's in tears.
00:11:14James's first call was to Ashley's father at his home in the Bahamas. Ian Milnes is a retired bond trader. His nickname for his daughter was AJ.
00:11:22Then he says that AJ was in a car crash. I sit up and scream through the phone, what are you talking about? And I said, I'm on my way home.
00:11:34Oh my gosh.
00:11:35And then is when I jump into action. I phoned around here to get a jet and I'm gone.
00:11:41While heading to Canada, Ian started making calls to his family. Ashley was one of four children. She had two older sisters and a younger brother. He reached all of them except one.
00:11:53After the screaming and crying and said, get over to Lindsay's house and tell her.
00:11:58Lindsay Milnes is Ashley's sister.
00:12:01I was in my bedroom and I looked out the window and I saw my brother-in-law's car pull up. And then my dad was FaceTiming me.
00:12:13And so I answered, I knew something was wrong when I saw my older sister get out of the car.
00:12:21You just knew.
00:12:22I didn't know it was her. I knew something was wrong. And he said, we lost someone today.
00:12:30And I just remember screaming and I asked him what happened. And he had said she had been in a car accident.
00:12:38It was terrible. That was one of the most painful experiences I've ever had.
00:12:47They all headed over to Ashley and James' house.
00:12:50I walked in the door and Jamie was standing there and I gave him a big hug.
00:12:56It was a long evening.
00:12:59They'd known James or Jamie for years.
00:13:02He and Ashley had met in their early twenties at Craigleith, a private ski club in the Blue Mountains.
00:13:07Both of their families were members.
00:13:09My brother was friends with Jamie.
00:13:12So I think it was just, they all ran around in the same circle of friends.
00:13:17Both families were prominent.
00:13:20James' mother had been an executive with Warner Brothers.
00:13:23Ashley's dad made his fortune in finance.
00:13:26James and Ashley shared a passion for hiking and exercise.
00:13:30They were a great match.
00:13:31The love of this area.
00:13:33Mm-hmm.
00:13:34Our families knew each other.
00:13:35So yeah, it made sense.
00:13:38After a few years of dating, in 2012 they married in a fairytale wedding at Craigleith.
00:13:44James was 28.
00:13:45Ashley was 30.
00:13:47Did you walk her down the aisle?
00:13:48I walked you down the aisle.
00:13:49Like the great dad?
00:13:51Yeah, and you know, it was fun.
00:13:53It was nice.
00:13:54It was everything she wanted and more.
00:13:58I mean, she came in on a horse and carriage.
00:14:01She was the picture-perfect bride.
00:14:03Glowing.
00:14:05It was a good day.
00:14:07They'd been living in Toronto, but shortly before their wedding, they decided to leave the big city to be near the Blue Mountains, nestled against Georgian Bay, part of the Great Lakes.
00:14:17It's a place I know very well.
00:14:19My grandfather founded this ski area in 1941 and I grew up right here on the mountain.
00:14:25Generations have come here to make memories, weekends filled with sledding and hot cocoa.
00:14:30James and Ashley, they moved here looking for a simpler life, a close-knit community.
00:14:35It wasn't long before they had children, first a boy, then a girl.
00:14:41In 2018, the family moved into this Tudor in an upscale neighborhood in Collingwood.
00:14:46Look down.
00:14:47They juggled parenthood with their thriving careers.
00:14:50James was promoted to captain at the fire department.
00:14:54Ashley oversaw the building of luxury homes with an eye for interior design.
00:14:58She just had this talent of seeing what something could be and really making things come to life.
00:15:07Carrie Dyson was one of Ashley's best friends. They too met at Craigleith Ski Club.
00:15:12We both liked to ski, loved to hike, play golf.
00:15:17And they had children around the same age.
00:15:20Ashley was just a really, really special mom.
00:15:22She was so dedicated and so loving. Nothing came between her and her kids.
00:15:28She would do anything for them.
00:15:30And if they needed something, the rest of the world stopped and she would be there for them.
00:15:37Carrie will never forget the moment she heard about the crash.
00:15:41A friend of mine called me the evening that it happened to tell me that she had passed away in a car accident.
00:15:49Devastating.
00:15:51Devastating.
00:15:53It was terrible.
00:15:56You can't brace yourself from hearing, for hearing something like that.
00:16:03And just to have it so sudden.
00:16:07While reality set in for Ashley's friends and family, investigators were just getting started.
00:16:14We had a reconstructionist team up there.
00:16:15They're still in the midst of doing their investigation.
00:16:17We have, you know, the body in the vehicle being transported up to the Center of Forensic Science at this moment.
00:16:24To Detective Schiffman, something felt off.
00:16:28He wondered why Ashley was out on the road so early on a snowy, icy morning.
00:16:33And why did the car burst into flames?
00:16:35We had no evidence of anything afoul happening.
00:16:39But it felt weird.
00:16:42There was no braking.
00:16:43There was no steering.
00:16:44There was no skid marks in the snow.
00:16:46And it really looked like it was pointed right there, intentionally driven off.
00:16:49The day after 40-year-old Ashley Schwamm was found dead in her charred SUV, her father Ian Mills took charge.
00:17:09We're into protection mode.
00:17:12He made sure his son-in-law James and their two small children were surrounded by family.
00:17:17Ian gathered everyone together in his chalet at the mountain.
00:17:21He was especially worried about James, thrust overnight into the role of grieving single dad.
00:17:26He went right in my arms, crying, saying, I'm so sorry.
00:17:31And I just, I mean, I don't know, you know, I said, Jamie, whatever we can do, we're here.
00:17:36He's a fish out of water.
00:17:38Dad with two kids and now he's got to deal with that and we've got to help him and all this stuff.
00:17:43Detectives were now piecing together the hours leading up to the crash.
00:17:47When they talked to James at the shop, he told them it was just a normal morning.
00:17:51The children, who were nine and six, were asleep.
00:17:53He left the house at 5.14 a.m. to walk the dog.
00:17:57He didn't have his phone with him.
00:18:00So when he got back about an hour and 15 minutes later, he had a text from Ashley saying, hey, I went for a hike.
00:18:04The kids seem fine.
00:18:06I'll basically see you later.
00:18:09A hike he thought Ashley had planned the night before.
00:18:12She wanted to go out to the ski hills.
00:18:16Near their ski club, about a 10-mile drive, James pulled out his phone and showed them home security video from that morning.
00:18:22One was him going for a walk with the dog, walk out the driveway and turning down the road.
00:18:27And then a few minutes later, there was a video of the Mitsubishi pulling out of the garage.
00:18:33He went one way and she went the other.
00:18:35James also showed detectives other texts.
00:18:38He said Ashley sent that morning.
00:18:40One read, ew, I left the gas cans in my car and it smells.
00:18:44I have to drive with the windows open.
00:18:46And it's so cold out.
00:18:48I had a text that talked about gas.
00:18:50It links to a big fire and maybe that's a reasonable explanation.
00:18:53That's a piece of the puzzle right there.
00:18:54It was a piece of the puzzle and Ashley told me this.
00:18:57Another text suggested why Ashley might have lost control of her car.
00:19:01She had vertigo. She wasn't able to hike and she was just going to come home and work out in the basement.
00:19:06Did Ashley suffer from some type of vertigo?
00:19:08Yes. Yes, she did.
00:19:10That means she would call and complain and talk about it.
00:19:13She had a vertigo attack in the grocery store and my brother had to go get her.
00:19:16To the family, everything pointed to a tragic accident.
00:19:20Accidents, unfortunately, they happen everywhere, but we know that they can happen here with these roads.
00:19:25Yeah, and there was a snowstorm the night before.
00:19:27This is just really bad luck.
00:19:29That's what we thought.
00:19:31I know firsthand just how treacherous these roads can get in the winter.
00:19:35My own grandfather died in an icy crash not too far from here.
00:19:39But for investigators, something wasn't sitting right about the scene.
00:19:43Clues that were telling them Ashley's death may not have been an accident.
00:19:48There was no braking, there was no steering, there was no skid marks in the snow leading to it.
00:19:53They could tell that the tires were rolling as it went off the road down the embankment.
00:19:58And it really looked like it was pointed right there, intentionally driven off.
00:20:03You describe it as threading a needle almost.
00:20:05Threading a needle.
00:20:06Because that's such a narrow opening.
00:20:07There was not a lot of space between the guardrail and where these rocks are, like this rock face.
00:20:15The team also told them it was a survivable crash.
00:20:18And there was more.
00:20:20Another thing that came to light was that one of the witnesses initially came by the scene.
00:20:24They thought that there could be track marks in the snow in the area of the road that curve there.
00:20:28You mean like footprints?
00:20:30Well, and that's just it. We weren't sure.
00:20:32There was a footmark of some sort of thing in the snow.
00:20:34We didn't have like what we would be looking at, an actual footprint with tread markings.
00:20:39It just seemed as though there could have been tracks in the snow.
00:20:42Could someone have run away from the crash and left Ashley inside the car?
00:20:46Investigators' suspicions were growing.
00:20:49And they weren't the only ones.
00:20:51A few days after the crash, Ashley's big sister had a feeling she couldn't shake.
00:20:54I knew something, like, really wasn't right. And I didn't, I mean, I thought I literally was going crazy.
00:21:02She said it was like Ashley was in her gut, screaming for her to do something.
00:21:07On an impulse, Lindsay drove over to the police station and spoke to a detective.
00:21:11I said, I just need you to find her phone.
00:21:13I said, if you find her phone, then you'll find things on it.
00:21:17You need to see like more like phone records.
00:21:21I just, the first thing I think I had said, if you can show me one text or tell me that you've spoken to one person that she was supposed to meet going hiking, then that will be that.
00:21:36It's enough.
00:21:37Because then I know she was actually going. I said, but if you can't, I said, it doesn't make sense why AJ would be hiking at that hour in the dark by herself because she was scared of her own shadow.
00:21:48Detectives never found the phone, but they were able to access Ashley's hiking history.
00:21:53She used a fitness tracking app called Strava.
00:21:56And so we were able to look through her Strava accounts to find out when she would do her hikes.
00:22:00One of the interesting things that did come out of her history was that she was never up at Craigleith Ski Club at 5.50 in the morning to go hiking at any time.
00:22:12They could see that her hikes were always close to home and started after 7am.
00:22:17So it's not a smoking gun, but it sure does look suspicious.
00:22:21It certainly does.
00:22:23They needed to talk to James again.
00:22:25Was this argument more than what we're talking about here?
00:22:27No, it's just a dicker.
00:22:44Ashley Schwamm's neighbors were devastated at the news of her death.
00:22:48Anne Lockhart, a friend of mine from high school, lived next door.
00:22:51Tragic. And the whole neighborhood was reeling in it and the disbelief and, you know, the heartbreak for these kids and for this husband.
00:23:04She saw James the morning of the crash before anyone knew what had happened.
00:23:08I vividly remember looking out the front window and I saw James walking the children to school.
00:23:13Now their lives were upside down. She wanted to give them space. She couldn't understand why police weren't doing the same.
00:23:21I was walking my dog at night. It was around nine o'clock. And there was a police car sitting at the end of our street. It just was an eerie feeling and I couldn't understand what's going on. It was just a car accident.
00:23:33Are you all starting to talk like, hey, is there something more here that we're just unaware of?
00:23:40Yes.
00:23:42The neighbors didn't know that police were taking a closer look at the accident and had called in a veteran detective.
00:23:48This is a small area, you know, and you've been doing this a long time. There's a higher level of experience there.
00:23:52I get assigned to obvious homicides and also suspicious deaths. And this would have been a suspicious death.
00:24:00Detective Inspector Sean Glassford directed the team to get on the record statements from key people like James.
00:24:07So you asked James to come in for an interview?
00:24:09He had spoken to us at Walker Small Motors, but it wasn't a formal statement. And now we needed that formal statement from him.
00:24:15Two days after his wife's death, James was sitting across from Detective Schiffman, who immediately let him know they had suspicions about the crash.
00:24:25The worst thing that any person could have done in this situation is to have killed her. I have a lot of questions. And that's why you're here.
00:24:32I need you to sort of just take yourself back to Thursday morning.
00:24:38He recounted a conversation he and Ashley had about leaving their kids alone while he walked the dog and she went out on a hike.
00:24:53Well, I know that morning, Ashley was upset that I was going for her. We're trying to get better at using our calendars to plan stuff. And I guess, you know, we talked about how important it's for you just to have it on time. So she was a, it was a little argument in the bedroom about people for the walk.
00:25:12Argument? The detective wanted to hear more.
00:25:14Was this argument more than what we're talking about here?
00:25:18No, it was just a scheduling thing. Me taking him for a walk and her wanting to go somewhere in the morning or wanting to do her hike before work. I just chalked up there's nothing. It was just a nothing fight.
00:25:31Okay, so do you know there was nothing? This was just, this was okay? This wasn't a big deal?
00:25:35Yeah, it wasn't. It was just a dicker.
00:25:41The detective moved on and asked James about the route he took walking the dog.
00:25:45We've come out around Christo.
00:25:49I gave him a pen and said, here, trace your route for me. And he did.
00:25:54I took the trail through here over to the crosswalk.
00:26:02He accounted for about an hour and 15 minutes. And this is in town. There's cameras. I'm like, all right, this is great, James.
00:26:10We'll find you here. And then really, we can rule you out as being somebody who had anything to do with that crash at that time.
00:26:17Do you know if she was supposed to meet anybody that morning? I'm sorry, I don't.
00:26:22He pivoted, asking James if he knew of anyone who might have had a grudge against Ashley.
00:26:26She had a contractor into the family, Shelley, to do some repairs. And they had an argument and disagreement about how much that was going to cost.
00:26:35The detective planned to track that man down. As he wrapped up the interview, he asked James if they could take a look at some things.
00:26:42In this course of the investigation, there's going to be things that we want to look at. The car's one of them. Your phone might be another. Of course, yeah.
00:26:52And to provide us his blink camera system so we could download those images as well. And he agreed.
00:26:57This is like a doorbell camera. Yeah, a doorbell blink camera.
00:27:00The other thing that the team would like to do is to just go into your home. Yeah, of course, absolutely.
00:27:06He gave us his phone. He gave us his blink. He's invited us into his home to take a look around.
00:27:11Which is what you would expect, like from someone who has nothing to hide. Take whatever you want.
00:27:16That's right. He's an emotional wreck.
00:27:18I'd get myself composed and then someone would come through the door and...
00:27:22This is going to be a rollercoaster of emotions. Yeah.
00:27:27And it's going to hit you when you don't expect it. And it's...
00:27:32Sorry, I thought I had there for a second. Yes, there's no one.
00:27:36When the interview was over, Schiffman and his team drove to James' place to begin their search.
00:27:42And we do the walkthrough through his house and his house looks normal, clean. It all looked very normal.
00:27:49As he left, the detective wondered if he'd gone down a rabbit hole.
00:27:53Maybe Ashley's death was just a terrible accident.
00:27:57I'm heading back to the office and Sean calls me. He says, where are you?
00:28:03I'm like, we've just left. I'm coming back. He's like, get back here now.
00:28:07He was sure the boss was about to shut down the investigation.
00:28:10Like everything checks out.
00:28:12That's not why he wanted him to come back.
00:28:14The pathologist had the results of Ashley's autopsy.
00:28:18Did your jaw just drop in that moment?
00:28:21It did. And she added to the fact that she would have been dead before the fire was even lit in the car.
00:28:26James Schwamm's friends were worried about him in the days after Ashley's death.
00:28:44I was like, let's be supportive.
00:28:46Jordan Paris and others reached out to him to offer condolences.
00:28:50This is just me saying that I'm thinking of you, praying for your comfort, praying for your, I'm here.
00:28:56And if you need me, I'm here. But please, no stress.
00:28:59But James rarely responded.
00:29:01I had reached out like many times, just checking in constantly and trying to like go over there and help him out and reconnect.
00:29:08They assumed he was deep into his grief.
00:29:11Can I get you anything else?
00:29:13Do you want to take a break?
00:29:15But unlike James's friends, Detective Schiffman was not convinced Ashley had died in an accident.
00:29:20As he interviewed James about the crash, Detective Lloyd was two hours away in Toronto waiting for the results of Ashley's autopsy.
00:29:27The body was very badly burned.
00:29:31It was badly burned.
00:29:32The autopsy lasted all day.
00:29:34When it was over, the pathologist pulled the detective into an office.
00:29:38And she posed the question, like, are you guys homicide detectives?
00:29:41And I'm like, yeah, we are.
00:29:43And she said, well, that's good because I really believe you have a homicide.
00:29:47And I was actually, I was, I was taken back by it.
00:29:50It's chilling.
00:29:51She said Ashley did not die in the car fire.
00:29:54There's no soot in the airways and there was no carbon monoxide in her blood.
00:30:00And she explained to me that she died from neck compression.
00:30:04She had a broken neck.
00:30:06And it wasn't broken during the crash.
00:30:08The doctor was sure of it.
00:30:10So what was it?
00:30:11It was caused by either legature strangulation or manual strangulation.
00:30:16So whether it was done with a strap or a belt or.
00:30:19Did your jaw just drop in that moment?
00:30:21It did.
00:30:22And she added to the fact that she would have been dead before the fire was even lit in the car.
00:30:27In the span of two days, Ashley's death had gone from tragic accident to clear-cut murder.
00:30:33We know the vehicle's gone to the ditch.
00:30:36We know that there's a fire.
00:30:37We know that there's a dead body.
00:30:39Who was driving that car?
00:30:40We know it wasn't Ashley.
00:30:41We're confident it's not Ashley.
00:30:43Of course, the police wondered if it could be her husband.
00:30:46But James had already shown them doorbell footage from his house that morning.
00:30:50He left to walk the dog.
00:30:51Ashley's car pulled out shortly after.
00:30:54On top of that, he'd given them everything they asked for.
00:30:57His grief seemed genuine.
00:30:59In fact, one of the officers said if he's faking, he deserves an Oscar.
00:31:04You had no idea the road you were about to go down with this case?
00:31:07No.
00:31:08No.
00:31:09Not at all.
00:31:10The dog's turtle was keeping a lid on what they were finding.
00:31:13They didn't want word getting out that this was now a murder investigation.
00:31:16But Ashley's dad wanted an update.
00:31:19They kept things vague and didn't reveal the results of her autopsy.
00:31:22They came over.
00:31:23I think there's three of them.
00:31:24So we're all sitting in our little living room area.
00:31:27And they said, I don't want to get you riled, but we see some inconsistencies.
00:31:32This is Saturday, two days after.
00:31:34Inconsistencies?
00:31:35Well, like things just don't add up.
00:31:37I immediately jump into, what are you talking about?
00:31:40What are you thinking?
00:31:41So the police are...
00:31:42So they're protecting everyone.
00:31:43They're just saying, everyone cool it.
00:31:45Let us work and let's figure out exactly what happened.
00:31:49By then, police were already knocking on doors in the Schwams neighborhood and beyond.
00:31:54My girlfriend said to me, did you get the police bring your doorbell last night?
00:31:58A lot of the neighbors had the police come to their house asking if they have surveillance video.
00:32:02We live in a video world.
00:32:04Cameras everywhere, doorbell cameras, security cameras.
00:32:07Is that one of the first things you do is say, let's find out if we can see cars coming and going around the time of the accident?
00:32:16Because you have a really good timeline of when this happened.
00:32:19Absolutely.
00:32:20In particular, officers looked for cameras along the 10-mile route from Ashley's house to the crash site, searching for her car.
00:32:27They quickly hit pay dirt at a ski club in town, not far from that ditch.
00:32:32You find video here at the Alpine Ski Club that seems to be connecting to your investigation.
00:32:38That's right. We found a video of showing a car parked in the lot minutes before the crash.
00:32:43It's sitting here by itself.
00:32:45We can see what we believe to be somebody walking around, walking around the car.
00:32:48Can you make out a face?
00:32:49No, no.
00:32:50Is it a man or a woman?
00:32:51It's quite a distance.
00:32:53The camera's way back on the building, so it just shows the parking lot.
00:32:56The police were pretty certain the car was Ashley's Mitsubishi.
00:33:00It had pulled into that lot at 5.42 a.m. and pulled out three minutes later at 5.45.
00:33:07At 5.54 a.m., the volunteer firefighter who first spotted the crash called 911.
00:33:13Three minutes after that, at 5.57, this camera picked up a figure running away from the scene as the car was in flames.
00:33:21It's crystal clear that it's a person running, and they've got a backpack on.
00:33:26And in the background, you can actually see the fire from the car.
00:33:31So this video doesn't show a face either?
00:33:34No.
00:33:36Another camera farther from the crash caught what appeared to be the same person still running.
00:33:42Moments later, this camera caught the figure yet again.
00:33:45Neither offered a clear view of the runner's face.
00:33:48That's part of the things when you're doing your canvas.
00:33:51You don't always get what you're looking for as far as really good finite resolution.
00:33:56So you work with what you have.
00:33:58So they had a faceless figure running from the crash site.
00:34:02Find this running man. Find your killer?
00:34:05Perhaps. Is it a guy out for a jog at the same time? We don't know.
00:34:09All the set of facts come into play to build the picture as to what happened.
00:34:15As to how Ashley's body came to rest in that ditch?
00:34:18Perhaps detectives needed to look closely at Ashley herself.
00:34:22When they did, their investigation got a lot more complicated.
00:34:26I had heard it from local friends very early on.
00:34:29The affair?
00:34:30Yeah.
00:34:31So the rumors were starting to swirl?
00:34:33Yeah.
00:34:34Yeah.
00:34:35While detectives were investigating Ashley Schwamm's death, they heard something that pricked up their ears.
00:34:54Rumors around town about trouble in her marriage.
00:34:57We had information that there had been an affair months earlier.
00:35:01They learned Ashley had gotten involved with her boss, Steve McDonald, at the home building company.
00:35:06A short-lived romance that ended when his wife, Alexandra, discovered the affair.
00:35:11When it was discovered in April of 2022, Ashley was actually visiting her father in the Bahamas.
00:35:17She'd been here for a week with her girlfriends, celebrating her 40th.
00:35:22She got a call that morning by this guy's wife and said,
00:35:29you were with my husband.
00:35:30You're a cheating bastard.
00:35:32If you do not tell your husband when he flies down today, I will.
00:35:38Oh.
00:35:40James and the kids arrived in the Bahamas just as Ashley's friends were leaving to go home.
00:35:45Jamie comes with the kids and everything's bubbling and lovely and she says,
00:35:49let's take a walk on the beach.
00:35:50Oh, this is hard to imagine.
00:35:52It's frightening.
00:35:54Ian stayed back with the kids.
00:35:57Ashley and James went outside to talk in private.
00:36:00Something was revealed right here on this beach.
00:36:03It happened just down there a couple of hundred yards.
00:36:06And that's when AJ told Jamie that she had had a one-time affair with this guy and that was a problem.
00:36:16Ian didn't think his son-in-law would be able to get past it.
00:36:20Jamie's the kind of guy I could never forget.
00:36:22And I knew that the second he was sitting here talking to me about it.
00:36:27What did he say to you about it?
00:36:29He wanted to know, did you know?
00:36:32Did you know?
00:36:34At this time we didn't have any idea.
00:36:36None.
00:36:37Zero.
00:36:38Zip.
00:36:39He understood James's shock.
00:36:41With me, I couldn't repair it.
00:36:43If it happened to me, telling you truthfully, I'm gone.
00:36:47Ashley waited a bit before telling her sister Lindsay.
00:36:51How do you find out about this, that this has happened?
00:36:54I think it was three, four days after and she was crying.
00:37:00I remember her telling me and my reaction was so, I mean, you screwed up.
00:37:05Yeah.
00:37:06I mean, I'm your sister.
00:37:07I love you.
00:37:08This isn't going to make me hate you.
00:37:10Affairs happened because something is usually not great.
00:37:13I think maybe she was lonely, but I wasn't up here.
00:37:16So, I don't know.
00:37:19It's one of those things that I kind of wish I had asked her.
00:37:22But I remember I did say to her at the end of our conversation, I said, I just want you
00:37:27to know that you will spend the rest of your life paying for this.
00:37:32The weeks that followed were agony for the couple, privately and publicly, especially
00:37:37for James, a proud firefighter and leader.
00:37:39I had heard it from local friends very early on.
00:37:42The affair?
00:37:43Yeah.
00:37:44The rumors were starting to swirl.
00:37:46Yeah.
00:37:47Yeah.
00:37:48I was just in the town and I felt like horrible for him.
00:37:52I even noticed like a disconnect with him as a friend.
00:37:56And it was just, I think, because I knew what was going on in his personal life.
00:38:01And he didn't want to bring it up.
00:38:04Firefighter Jordan Paris remembers one day on the job when James was struggling.
00:38:09He had a moment in the live fire tower where he came to me and he was like, straight up,
00:38:13you could tell this, his day was over.
00:38:15And I thought it was maybe he was injured.
00:38:18But he was like, no, I'm not injured.
00:38:20He sat in the stairs and his eyes welt up and he says, I'm having a rough time here.
00:38:24So I said, okay, what's happening?
00:38:26He says, there's a lot going on at home.
00:38:28I don't know.
00:38:29There's just things breaking down and I got to get some kind of help or something.
00:38:32At home like with Ashley?
00:38:34And so that's all he said.
00:38:35Lindsay says the couple did seek help.
00:38:38I think the first few months were hard for both of them.
00:38:42But I mean, they were both hell bent on it working and they wanted to.
00:38:46And so, you know, I think they did counseling separately.
00:38:49They did it together.
00:38:51Ashley wanted to save her marriage.
00:38:52Absolutely.
00:38:53Absolutely.
00:38:54She loved those two kids.
00:38:55I mean, that was what she wanted her family back.
00:38:58She didn't want that to ruin it.
00:39:01To ruin it.
00:39:02In fact, they were still in counseling when Ashley died.
00:39:05Dad, we're trying to fix it.
00:39:06I said, if you can't fix it, you move out with the kids.
00:39:10You go to the chalet, leave him the house.
00:39:13Just do it.
00:39:14You're there to support her.
00:39:16100%.
00:39:17She's my AJ and I'm supporting both.
00:39:21James had been open about the affair with detectives.
00:39:24He said the counseling was going well.
00:39:26This was working for you guys.
00:39:27Yeah, it was really working for us.
00:39:29I wish we did it before, but it was good.
00:39:32Yeah.
00:39:33He also told police that Ashley agreed to find a new job.
00:39:36Part of the deal was that she would stop working for me.
00:39:40Ashley wanted things to work so much that she quit her job.
00:39:44I remember when she told me and I thought, great.
00:39:47I mean, you're doing everything to make things right.
00:39:50But now she was dead and detectives needed to know more about that affair.
00:39:55When you hear a detail like that, how does that now factor into your view on this case?
00:40:02It's another piece of the puzzle.
00:40:03It's just another part of the story.
00:40:05Obviously, we want to talk to the person that she had the affair with.
00:40:08We wanted to know where he was at the time of the crash.
00:40:25With the murder investigation into Ashley Schwamm accelerating, Detective Glassford and his team created a war room, a white board at the center.
00:40:34We jot things down just to keep track of things.
00:40:38As we talk, we come up with things we'll need to do.
00:40:41There was a picture of Ashley beside the board.
00:40:44And we never lose focus that that's who we're working for, also for her children and her family.
00:40:50One thing on their to-do list was speak to Ashley's former boss, Steve McDonald, the man she'd had the affair with.
00:40:57They learned he'd since gotten divorced.
00:40:59We need to determine if he had anything to do with her death or if he's innocent.
00:41:04Yeah, I mean, he could be very angry with her.
00:41:07She broke off the relationship to try to make things work with James.
00:41:11Sure.
00:41:12Maybe there's something going on we don't even know about.
00:41:14Do you bring him in?
00:41:15Is that the next step?
00:41:16Do you bring in the-
00:41:17Yeah, we got a hold of him.
00:41:18He came in right away.
00:41:19What was his story?
00:41:21He was with a new girlfriend.
00:41:23He said he was with her at her place in Toronto.
00:41:25Then we went and got the videotape of the parking garage at her condo.
00:41:29And sure enough, his car's there.
00:41:31I think he had to pass in and out, and so we were able to prove that too.
00:41:35We were very satisfied that he was somewhere else at the time of this death.
00:41:39They also questioned McDonald's now ex-wife, Alexandra.
00:41:43She was angry with Ashley.
00:41:46She called her out on this Bahamas trip, told her to tell her husband or else she would.
00:41:53Absolutely.
00:41:54We checked into her as well.
00:41:56We found out she was on an airplane coming from a ski trip in Austria right at the time.
00:42:00Literally when this happened.
00:42:01She had an alibi.
00:42:02She was in an airplane.
00:42:03Detectives were being careful not to have tunnel vision, looking into every possible suspect.
00:42:10They'd even checked out the contractor James said Ashley had a dispute with.
00:42:14There was some nasty emails back and forth.
00:42:17We interviewed that person as well and were quite satisfied they had nothing to do with Ashley's death.
00:42:22So detectives decided to take another look at James.
00:42:26His story about where he was at the time Ashley's SUV went off the road and burst into flames never changed.
00:42:32And he accounted for every moment he was out that morning.
00:42:35So just walk me through the route and sort of just trace it, okay, if you can? Sure.
00:42:40Remember, James had drawn the route of where he said he walked the dog.
00:42:44I gave him a pen and said, here, trace your route for me.
00:42:48If he was being truthful, surely neighborhood security video would confirm his story.
00:42:53Would you say this investigation at this point is as much to rule him in as it is to rule him out?
00:42:58Yeah. If we found him walking the dog, then he didn't have anything to do with her death.
00:43:03Officers scoured through hours of footage and noticed something was missing or someone.
00:43:10That canvas team that was now looking for his route, they don't find him.
00:43:16They didn't spot James anywhere.
00:43:19They wondered if perhaps the cameras simply weren't pointed in the right direction.
00:43:23To test it out, Detectives Lloyd and Schiffman headed to the Schwams neighborhood.
00:43:27The two of us actually walked his route.
00:43:30We set off at five o'clock.
00:43:325.14.
00:43:335.14.
00:43:34And we started at his house and it was snowy just the same.
00:43:39And we walked the track that he said that he walked, the two of us.
00:43:43This time, when they looked at the videos, they did see something themselves.
00:43:48There they are walking the route James said he took.
00:43:51We're there, but when we compared to the day that he walked it, he was not.
00:43:56Nothing.
00:43:57So the absence of video, the absence of evidence is not looking good for James Schwam.
00:44:05They thought back to a moment in his interview that now seemed telling.
00:44:09I'd love to find someone who saw you there.
00:44:10Yeah.
00:44:11That morning.
00:44:12Yeah.
00:44:13And then all those other questions, which almost don't matter, don't matter at all.
00:44:18Do you know what I mean?
00:44:19Yeah, sorry I didn't put it together.
00:44:22This was a moment during the interview where he had a real visceral reaction.
00:44:29He had a tick with his lip and it twitched and it twitched.
00:44:34It became very evident that there was some kind of stressor going on.
00:44:39And he said at one point he didn't realize what we were going to do.
00:44:42What does that mean?
00:44:43I don't think he thought we'd be checking his story.
00:44:46I think he thought he'd tell us what happened and we'd just believe him.
00:44:51He was a fire captain.
00:44:52He was a fellow emergency responder.
00:44:55And we would just accept that as the truth.
00:44:59Later, Detective Lloyd put something else together that was telling.
00:45:02It was when police first went to James' house.
00:45:05I knew that Jeremy and the other officers had gone to his house initially to do the death notification.
00:45:12The detective looked at the video from James' work at that very moment.
00:45:16And I can see him reach into his pocket and I can see he's studying this phone.
00:45:22So James is seeing you at his door?
00:45:25He's seeing them at the door.
00:45:27He could have asked them, like, hey, officers, what are you doing at my door?
00:45:30Instead, he ignored them.
00:45:32And he puts the phone back into his pocket.
00:45:35They also discovered this from Walkers.
00:45:37James with what looked like a laptop.
00:45:40Like an iMac type thing.
00:45:42He grabs onto this computer, I believe to be a computer, and he throws it into a trash can.
00:45:47And then he walks out to the dumpster out back and he comes in with an empty trash can.
00:45:52And then when we went down to try to recover the laptop from the dumpster, it was gone.
00:45:58It was gone.
00:45:59It was gone.
00:46:00Detectives now suspected James had killed Ashley and staged the crash.
00:46:04One problem.
00:46:05The timing of it all was baffling.
00:46:07How did he pull it off?
00:46:09How does he get home and get the kids to school in time?
00:46:13That was a question we had to go answer.
00:46:15We've got this very small window.
00:46:18Very small.
00:46:19We picked one of the fittest individuals we know in the office.
00:46:22So this is a little experiment here.
00:46:24Can he do it?
00:46:25Ashley's family was hunkered down at her father's chalet.
00:46:42Lindsay had a growing unease about James.
00:46:45It was almost like he wanted to just put it behind him.
00:46:48That it was done.
00:46:49That it happened and we just, we need to move on with things now.
00:46:53Did you think, well, maybe this is his way of handling this?
00:46:56That's what I thought.
00:46:57Everyone grieves differently.
00:46:58And there were two kids involved, right?
00:47:00Like he cannot fall apart.
00:47:02It didn't feel right, but at the same time I didn't, I mean, no one's gone through something like this.
00:47:08Lindsay didn't know it yet, but James Schwamm had become suspect number one in the murder of his wife Ashley.
00:47:14But detectives were scratching their heads wondering how he could have pulled it off.
00:47:18If he drove Ashley's SUV to the mountain and crashed it, how did he get back to his house without a car?
00:47:24It's 10 miles away.
00:47:26You know, there's one vehicle involved in this potential crime here.
00:47:31How does he get home and get the kids to school on time?
00:47:36That was a question we had to go answer.
00:47:39So we had a hard time with this one.
00:47:41Detectives took another look at the timeline.
00:47:44We have the 911 call at 5.54.
00:47:48Then at 5.57 a.m., they had that footage of a man running from the crash site.
00:47:54And they'd since discovered another video, something damning.
00:47:58This one, more than an hour later, miles away in Collingwood.
00:48:02At 7.07 a.m., a home security camera captured someone running toward James' house.
00:48:08It's the same person that ran from the scene.
00:48:11He had the same backpack on, and it actually looks like he's carrying some boots in one hand.
00:48:17And he turned onto Chris the Court, James' street.
00:48:22If the running man was James, police figured he had about an hour and 15 minutes to make the 10-mile trip home.
00:48:29James was in great shape.
00:48:31True.
00:48:32So we decided we were going to have one of our members do the run.
00:48:38So we picked the...
00:48:39One of your colleagues.
00:48:41Correct.
00:48:42We picked one of the fittest individuals we know in the office.
00:48:46So this is a little experiment here.
00:48:48How long...
00:48:49Can he do it?
00:48:50It's a long run.
00:48:51It's a long run.
00:48:52He set his watch, and he picked a route to go back.
00:48:56And it took him an hour and 25 minutes.
00:49:00That's a long time.
00:49:02Long time.
00:49:03So that wouldn't be feasible then?
00:49:05That doesn't seem like that would be how he got, if he did this, how he got back to Collingwood?
00:49:10So he's off by about 10 to 15 minutes.
00:49:13They wondered if maybe James had ridden a bike.
00:49:16They knew Ashley's dad's chalet was not too far from the crash site.
00:49:19Maybe he just left a bicycle there, and maybe he rode back.
00:49:23So we had someone else get on a bike and do the same thing.
00:49:27That would shave a lot of time off.
00:49:29It did.
00:49:30A lot of time.
00:49:31So what was that one?
00:49:3245 minutes.
00:49:33But they didn't find any video of a guy on a bike.
00:49:36They set that puzzle piece aside and turned their attention to another lead.
00:49:40They'd been notified about a call that came into the police department hours after the murder.
00:49:45The caller was a first grade teacher worried about a student.
00:49:58Well, she said that she didn't have a very good night last night.
00:50:02She was woken up to her parents fighting.
00:50:05And then she proceeded to tell me that her mom had fallen down the stairs.
00:50:10Okay.
00:50:11And so I asked her if she had, you know, seen her mom, and she said no.
00:50:15But my dad yelled up and said she was okay.
00:50:18Okay.
00:50:19She said she couldn't sleep, so she made a necklace, like an elastic band necklace.
00:50:24And then I said, well, could you see your mom in the morning?
00:50:27She said no, that her mom had gone for a long hike.
00:50:31And what's the mom's name? Do we know?
00:50:34Her name is Ashley.
00:50:35It was Ashley's six-year-old daughter's teacher.
00:50:38It's what changed the perspective.
00:50:41James had mentioned an argument to the detectives, but he downplayed it.
00:50:45Now his daughter's story was making it seem much bigger.
00:50:48A few days after that call, they asked James to bring his children in for an interview.
00:50:53That's so delicate.
00:50:55Very delicate.
00:50:56He was so young.
00:50:57They told James it was just routine.
00:50:59Is he in the room then?
00:51:00No.
00:51:01He allows the children to do interviews alone?
00:51:05Yes.
00:51:06What do you learn from the kids?
00:51:07There's a girl and a boy.
00:51:09They're how old at this time?
00:51:10Six and nine.
00:51:11Okay.
00:51:12So what are they telling you about that night?
00:51:13The night before their mom's death?
00:51:15They really didn't give us anything of any value.
00:51:21We never heard about a fight.
00:51:23We didn't hear about a fall down the stairs.
00:51:25Kids were nervous.
00:51:26Kids were uncomfortable.
00:51:28Kids were grieving.
00:51:29And the daughter just didn't repeat what was potentially, I guess, a bad memory of mom after just losing mom.
00:51:38But detectives couldn't dismiss that call from the teacher.
00:51:41To them, a clearer picture of Ashley's final moments was emerging with James squarely in the frame.
00:51:47On your whiteboard, you had one side of why he might have done this and another side of why he might not have done this.
00:51:54That's right.
00:51:55And as we go about our investigation, the things on the side that he didn't do it start to disappear.
00:52:02And the things on the side that he did it starts to get longer.
00:52:07You recover something that is like right out of a Hollywood script.
00:52:12It really was remarkable.
00:52:13And James was in for a big surprise.
00:52:16What's his reaction?
00:52:18What's going on?
00:52:19I don't understand.
00:52:32Even though detectives had gathered a long list of evidence pointing to James Schwamm murdering his wife,
00:52:38it was still hard for them to wrap their heads around.
00:52:41Look down.
00:52:42He was a well-respected fire captain.
00:52:44Don't be too bouncy.
00:52:45I'm trying not to be bouncy.
00:52:47A man whose job was saving people.
00:52:49Where'd he go?
00:52:51He does have instant credibility being a fire captain.
00:52:54We're going to find out how much a firefighter weighs with all of their gear on.
00:52:58He's devoted his life to service and he works with police and, you know, he's in a very distinguished position.
00:53:06Correct.
00:53:07Correct.
00:53:08And we run these people through our systems.
00:53:10There was no history with either James or Ashley.
00:53:14No, no 911 calls to the house or claims of domestic violence, anything like that?
00:53:20Nothing.
00:53:21Detectives even discovered a post James had shared supporting domestic violence awareness.
00:53:27Still, they scheduled a meeting with the prosecutor to go over the evidence.
00:53:32This is a very circumstantial case at this point.
00:53:36Yes.
00:53:37Were you concerned?
00:53:38No.
00:53:39If you had enough?
00:53:40No.
00:53:41We were comfortable with the fact that we had enough evidence to not only arrest but to prosecute for second-degree murder.
00:53:49Detectives had developed a theory of what happened between James and Ashley during that January snowstorm.
00:53:55We believed that this was a fight that went bad.
00:53:58His daughter heard an argument that night.
00:54:01Then mom fell down the stairs.
00:54:03Something happened in that house and it just ended in a tragedy.
00:54:07And then this is more of a cover-up.
00:54:09He kills her.
00:54:10He's panicked.
00:54:12What do I do?
00:54:13And he comes up with this story.
00:54:16The story of Ashley going on that early morning hike.
00:54:19And the cover-up, they say, was elaborate.
00:54:22During the autopsy, the pathologist noticed something that hadn't burned in the car fire.
00:54:27The shoe was actually a specific snow hiking shoe with metal studs in the bottom.
00:54:34So he redressed her to get her set up so everything looked the part.
00:54:40So you think after he killed her, he dressed her to look like she was going for a hike?
00:54:45He did.
00:54:46After he dressed her, detectives believe James put Ashley's body in her SUV.
00:54:51But how did he make it look like she left the house alive?
00:54:54Remember that video of James leaving to walk the dog?
00:54:58And Ashley's SUV leaving just minutes later?
00:55:01He went one way and she went the other.
00:55:04Their theory was that James used his phone to remotely turn the camera off.
00:55:08Long enough to circle back, drop off the dog, get into her SUV and drive it away himself.
00:55:14They also think he sent those texts from Ashley's phone about the gas cans and vertigo.
00:55:20Right there, it's the explanation for the crash.
00:55:23The cover-up continued when he arrived at Alpine Ski Club parking lot.
00:55:28We think this is James getting the vehicle and Ashley ready for that crash.
00:55:35He doused her in gasoline.
00:55:37He doused the car in gasoline and drove it into the ditch and then set it on fire.
00:55:43You recover something that is like right out of a Hollywood script, a piece of evidence.
00:55:50Correct.
00:55:51So the vehicle was removed from the scene and then it was taken back for a forensic examination.
00:55:57And when they're sifting through the passenger compartment of the vehicle, they found a Zippo lighter with the initials JWS, James William Schwamm.
00:56:09He's thinking this fire is going to consume everything that's there.
00:56:13She's going to be consumed.
00:56:15That lighter is going to be consumed.
00:56:17There's going to be nothing left.
00:56:18Do you feel now with this lighter, with all the things you've learned, that there is enough to make an arrest of James Schwamm?
00:56:24Yes.
00:56:25Where does this happen?
00:56:26So we had surveillance on him and they had him coming back towards his house.
00:56:32And we arrested him basically right outside of his driveway.
00:56:36It was one week after the murder of his wife, February 2nd, 2023.
00:56:41We took him out of the vehicle and told him that he was under arrest for murder.
00:56:46Second degree murder and indignity to a body.
00:56:49What's his reaction?
00:56:51Jeremy, what's going on? I don't understand. What can I do to help?
00:56:55That's a first.
00:56:57It was a very odd reaction.
00:56:59I've never heard a response like that after or during an arrest.
00:57:04Me neither.
00:57:05And what do you say?
00:57:06I think it's him implying that we got it wrong.
00:57:09As James was led away, they could see his children in the car.
00:57:13And the children are watching this arrest?
00:57:15Yeah, the kids are in the backseat.
00:57:17Yeah.
00:57:18That's really heartbreaking.
00:57:20Yeah.
00:57:21That they had to see that.
00:57:22Yeah, it is and it's unfortunate it happened that way.
00:57:26I still think about the boy, the little boy. I went up to the car and the little boy asked me if he'd ever see his dad again.
00:57:34That kind of drives it home. That there are other victims here.
00:57:42Detectives called Ashley's dad Ian.
00:57:44They say, we want to talk to you. Us? You know, Jamie, just our family.
00:57:49Is this at the chalet?
00:57:50They come to us and they said, we just want to let you know we've just arrested Jamie for the murder of Ashley.
00:57:57What is the expression on everyone's faces?
00:58:00Lindsay bursts into tears and you go, Jesus.
00:58:03If the police are right and Jamie did this, this is the ultimate betrayal.
00:58:09Yeah, he does betrayal. He does it well.
00:58:13I mean, the lying, the tears, the work that went into this.
00:58:21And then you realize he hasn't watched enough of Dateline because he screwed up in so many ways.
00:58:30There was a lot of crying, a lot of shock.
00:58:34It was really hard and I, for like a moment, I remember I felt bad for him.
00:58:41And I think that's one of the most screwed up things for me because I had just heard he had killed my sister.
00:58:49But he was family, right?
00:58:52Firefighter Jordan Paris saw an announcement pop up on his phone.
00:58:56Social media posts went out and said, former fire captain James Schwamm no longer works for Britain.
00:59:02I was like, they said the word former, so I took offense.
00:59:06How dare they put the word former, meaning he's basically guilty.
00:59:11And I was like, no, that's not how it works.
00:59:13That didn't sit right with you. Like, hey, give him a chance to explain.
00:59:16Both he and Brittany held out hope that maybe James was innocent.
00:59:20It's just so, like, surreal.
00:59:23Yeah, I didn't see it coming.
00:59:25No history, no, you know, no.
00:59:28It didn't make sense to you.
00:59:29No, it did not make sense at all.
00:59:30And I'm like, why aren't there more people, like, defending him?
00:59:33Today, detectives weren't sharing any information about the murder.
00:59:36They continued to gather evidence and were about to learn.
00:59:40The plot was more diabolical than they imagined.
00:59:43That's like a whole new level of evil.
00:59:45It's horrible.
01:00:00News spread quickly about James Schwamm's arrest.
01:00:03Schwamm's arrest came a week after Milne's body was discovered in the early morning hours of January 26th.
01:00:09This was the number one story in Canada.
01:00:12Mike Arcelides is a reporter for CTV.
01:00:15He covers the Collingwood area.
01:00:17This didn't just make news in Canada.
01:00:19This made news around the world.
01:00:21This isn't a guy you would think would turn to murder.
01:00:25You hear about a car crash, you hear about a fire, and then the man accused of murder is a firefighter.
01:00:31It's the same community I once covered as a young reporter.
01:00:35And to protect your valuables in general, you may want to have an alarm system installed.
01:00:40I covered fires and accidents and everything in between, but never a story like this one.
01:00:46Ashley's murder shook the community to its core.
01:00:49There was one night, our kitchen was lit up with flashlights in their backyard.
01:00:54And it just was like, how is this my house?
01:00:56It feels like it's out of a movie.
01:00:57It's a crime scene.
01:00:58A crime scene.
01:00:59Literally a crime scene.
01:01:00And it was just an eerie, awful feeling.
01:01:03Police believe the couple had a fight and James just snapped.
01:01:07Until a man walked into the police station.
01:01:11I'll never forget that day.
01:01:12I was sitting in my office and one of our staff members comes to say to me that there's a doctor in the front office that wants to talk to you about the homicide that you're working on.
01:01:24He speaks about being at a party with James present.
01:01:29James had asked him about breaking necks like they do in the Steven Seagal movies.
01:01:34You know, the big twist and all that stuff.
01:01:36And the doctor was like, well, I don't know.
01:01:37Maybe something you don't think too much of, right?
01:01:40Because...
01:01:41Maybe not at the time.
01:01:42But now it was raising the detective's eyebrows.
01:01:45He knew Ashley's neck had been broken.
01:01:47But this is something that no one else knew, right?
01:01:51You had not released this detail.
01:01:53No, we consider that hold back evidence.
01:01:55We keep it close to us.
01:01:57Because only, really only the killer knows.
01:01:59It turned out James had been asking a lot of questions in the weeks leading up to Ashley's murder.
01:02:04There were searches about alimony and that kind of thing, right?
01:02:09Like, how much is it going to cost?
01:02:10He was talking to some colleagues that had been through a divorce.
01:02:14Like, how much did this cost you?
01:02:16Yeah.
01:02:17And then there was a transition into, you know, doing Google searches on,
01:02:21can the police see what I'm looking at?
01:02:23Can the police find deleted information?
01:02:25This story is about to take a major turn.
01:02:28What we uncovered afterwards made it sick.
01:02:32The evidence now suggested to detectives that James planned Ashley's murder.
01:02:37Take those gas cans that caused the SUV to erupt in flames.
01:02:41The day before the crash, James texted this to Ashley.
01:02:45There are two gas cans in garage and workbench.
01:02:48Please, please, can you fill them up?
01:02:50I forgot to bring down here.
01:02:52In his police interview, he implied that Ashley did just that
01:02:56and had forgotten to take the cans out of her car.
01:02:59So, when she leaves that morning,
01:03:02she leaves with the cans still in the car is what I'm getting at.
01:03:06Yeah.
01:03:07Why would she do that?
01:03:09I almost don't know.
01:03:12They were certain he was lying.
01:03:14They knew Ashley never filled those gas cans.
01:03:17We looked at all the gas stations in Collingwood
01:03:20and it's another thing of what wasn't there,
01:03:22and she was never there getting gas.
01:03:24Detectives believed that gas can text was just a ruse
01:03:28to fool police into thinking Ashley put them in her SUV.
01:03:32In truth, they said, James got the gas two days before the murder.
01:03:37When he was on his way to the fire hall to start his shift,
01:03:41he actually puts a gas can, a Red Jerry gas can in his car,
01:03:46and off he goes.
01:03:49They thought he filled both those cans and later planted them in the back of Ashley's SUV.
01:03:54This is looking like premeditation now to you.
01:03:58This was the first bit of planned and deliberate.
01:04:03The more they looked, the worse it seemed for James.
01:04:06Days before the murder, cameras captured him adjusting the home's security system.
01:04:11And he moves the camera system from inside the garage to the back of his house.
01:04:17It's full of snow.
01:04:19The detectives could think of only one reason why he'd want that camera out of the garage.
01:04:24So that he can load his wife's body into the vehicle inside the garage,
01:04:29concealed from everybody so nobody can see him, drive her up to the mountain.
01:04:34He had a plan.
01:04:36That he appeared to fine tune in the run up to his wife's murder.
01:04:40While examining James' vehicle, we found a dash cam that he had set up in that car.
01:04:46We have video of him the day before her death driving into this parking lot with his young son.
01:04:57To detectives, it looked like James was scoping out the lot near the crash site.
01:05:01Like he's planning on where to park and where to get ready to do what he's going to do the next day.
01:05:10We never see his face in any of these videos.
01:05:13But you could clearly hear him talking with his son in that video.
01:05:20And at one point you could see the profile as his son walked by in front of the car.
01:05:26That's like a whole new level of evil if you're bringing your son along for the pre-planning of his mom's murder.
01:05:35It's horrible.
01:05:36Then they say James roped in his unwitting parents.
01:05:40We found evidence of a phone call that James made to his mom.
01:05:45And she told him that her car was now available for him to use the day before the crash.
01:05:52A new car entering the picture.
01:05:54A car that's never been part of our investigation.
01:05:56But it was now a pivotal discovery.
01:05:59After talking to his parents, detectives learned that the night before the murder, James parked his mom's car near that ditch.
01:06:06The next day, immediately after setting fire to Ashley's SUV, he ran to the awaiting car.
01:06:12We found it all.
01:06:13We found the car leaving his parents' house.
01:06:16They found the car coming to the parking lot.
01:06:19We found the car heading back to Collingwood after the murder.
01:06:23Police figured out where he dropped the car off.
01:06:26They found a text his mother sent him.
01:06:28She said, James, just so I'm clear, my car is at the kids' school.
01:06:35And he texts back, yes.
01:06:37From there, police said cameras picked up James again, running from the school back home.
01:06:42Finally, they had an answer to a question that had nagged them from the start.
01:06:46How James got back to Collingwood so quickly from the scene.
01:06:49He had a getaway car.
01:06:51But why?
01:06:52Why would he do this?
01:06:54That, potentially, the next Mrs. Schwamm was getting lined up.
01:07:01And you won't believe who it was.
01:07:18Detectives were convinced James Schwamm had planned his wife's murder.
01:07:22But they wanted to know why.
01:07:24Her father, Ian, believed the affair was the catalyst.
01:07:27He was never, ever going to forgive AJ for doing what she did, embarrassing him.
01:07:36That kind of, that's his mantra.
01:07:40He's very huge and really big in other people's perception of him.
01:07:46I really believe that it was a huge blow to his ego.
01:07:49After speaking to his firefighter friends, he was going through a lot of emotional withdrawal.
01:07:55They also learned he'd been asking his fellow firefighters for advice on divorce.
01:08:00I think he was worried, ultimately, that if he and Ashley divorced, that he would be losing some of those fighter things.
01:08:10The house, child support, alimony, and all of his stature.
01:08:17And we know he spoke to work colleagues about that very thing.
01:08:21Yeah, so if Ashley's gone, he gets the children, gets to keep the house.
01:08:25Is there life insurance involved?
01:08:27There's life insurance.
01:08:28There's two policies.
01:08:29How much?
01:08:30One was for a million dollars, payable to him.
01:08:33And the other one was for $250,000 for the children with him as the executor.
01:08:40In the event, in the event of Ashley, Ashley's accidental death.
01:08:45Wow. That's, uh...
01:08:48It's interesting.
01:08:49Yeah.
01:08:50It certainly pops out off the page when you look at stuff like that.
01:08:53It certainly suggested money was a motive for the killing.
01:08:56Then, police discovered another one.
01:08:59He developed a friendship with Alex McDonald.
01:09:02Alexandra, the woman whose husband had that affair with Ashley.
01:09:06James had her name listed under an alias in his phone.
01:09:09Detectives could see that shortly after the affair was discovered,
01:09:12James and Alexandra began texting each other.
01:09:15It was very...
01:09:16They were flirtatious, but not overt.
01:09:19And maybe that's not even the right word.
01:09:22They were just connected.
01:09:24They were two people who had both, I think, had their serious problems with that affair
01:09:30who were now together sharing things.
01:09:33They asked her if there was more to the relationship.
01:09:36She acknowledged that they were...
01:09:38They had developed a friendship, a relationship,
01:09:40and that they had mutual feelings for each other.
01:09:43But they could tell James wanted more.
01:09:45When we looked at his phone,
01:09:47he had over a thousand messages with her in the month of January.
01:09:51The month Ashley died.
01:09:53Five days before the murder, he texted this.
01:09:56I wish you were here, but you're with the wife.
01:09:59Not really. She's here, but we're not.
01:10:02I'm happy with my decision, but no one else knows it's what I want.
01:10:06Please don't tell anyone.
01:10:07He said, I'm going to do what's going to make me happy without any details.
01:10:12Leaving detectives to read between the lines that James wanted Ashley gone so he could start a new life.
01:10:20And that potentially the next Mrs. Schwamm was getting lined up.
01:10:26It was clear from the text that Alexandra didn't know what decision James was talking about.
01:10:32There was no indication from his phone or anything that they had been, you know, even if it was cryptic, that there was something going on with the planning.
01:10:40Not at all.
01:10:42They ruled out the possibility that she was part of the plan.
01:10:46Two weeks after James' arrest, the prosecutor upgraded the charge against him to first-degree murder.
01:10:52For friends like Anne Lockhart, certain moments took on a new, darker meaning.
01:10:57I have two little chairs and a table in our front patio.
01:11:00I said to Ashley, do you want to sit and have a glass of wine?
01:11:03We hardly sat down and James came out and said, Ashley, let's go.
01:11:06And she said, I'm just going to finish this wine and we'll be along.
01:11:09And not a few moments later, James came out and he seemed angry.
01:11:13And he was, Ash, time to go. Right now, let's go.
01:11:17It was that one moment of control that I saw.
01:11:20I felt like sick.
01:11:22You're like, wow, like, I was hugging and holding this person, like, hours after he, like, killed his wife.
01:11:31I went quick to anger.
01:11:33You took away a mother from their children, you took away the love of your life, a beautiful marriage they had,
01:11:37and you jeopardized, you selfish.
01:11:39Lindsay couldn't believe her family once loved and trusted this man.
01:11:44To know that he planned this.
01:11:47This wasn't like he woke up and then just killed her.
01:11:50He planned this.
01:11:52I think that is one of the hardest pills to swallow.
01:11:56You all are bracing for a trial.
01:11:59Absolutely.
01:12:00And it could be a big one.
01:12:01Mm-hmm.
01:12:02With all the evidence and, I mean...
01:12:04Yes.
01:12:05The trial we knew wouldn't be for, I think they had said, two years.
01:12:10Oh.
01:12:11Police had released few details about how James killed Ashley.
01:12:15You're hearing so many rumors about what happened, like, ridiculous stuff.
01:12:20I couldn't wait for the trial because I just wanted all the evidence and the facts, like, in front of me.
01:12:25And then I could finally eliminate the idea that he had some good in him somewhere.
01:12:30There is a lot of work to be done.
01:12:32Absolutely.
01:12:33They say most of the work starts when you make an arrest and you're getting ready for the trial.
01:12:38Then his phone rang.
01:12:41So you get some news out of the blue that James Schwamm wants to talk.
01:12:48More than a year had passed since the death of Ashley Schwamm.
01:13:05Prosecutors were building a case against her husband James, hoping to convince a jury that he'd carefully planned and carried out her murder.
01:13:13Ashley's children had begun opening up about that night, about their mother's final moments.
01:13:18They went to counseling.
01:13:20They started to speak more about what they experienced that night.
01:13:26Her son remembered being awakened by his parents arguing and stepping out of his room.
01:13:31The son was able to say that Ashley had asked him to bring her a phone.
01:13:37Her son said she was going to call the police.
01:13:40The last thing she said to her son was get my phone.
01:13:45Ashley never made that call.
01:13:47The son said his dad told him to go back to bed.
01:13:50I mean, that just honestly gives me chills hearing that.
01:13:54It should.
01:13:55It's really hard to hear that.
01:13:57That's really awful.
01:13:59Later, he heard his father crying and talking to Alexa, the virtual assistant.
01:14:04What time is it?
01:14:05And he heard three o'clock.
01:14:07When he woke up a few hours later, his mother was gone.
01:14:10The family feared Ashley's son would have to tell that story on the stand.
01:14:15Then things took a dramatic turn.
01:14:17You get some news out of the blue that James Schwamm wants to talk.
01:14:24It started with him waiving his preliminary hearing.
01:14:27And then shortly after that, he made it known through his counsel that he wanted to talk.
01:14:34James had been sitting in jail for more than a year.
01:14:37Now he was asking for a deal.
01:14:39The prosecutor reaches out to you with some big news.
01:14:42Yes, the whole investigative team and my whole family that Jamie would plead second degree.
01:14:50They said he's going to plead.
01:14:52And this is the deal he wants.
01:14:54But you guys decide.
01:14:55So they took it to you.
01:14:57Oh, 100%.
01:14:59They said, guys, you decide.
01:15:01The family was willing to consider it to spare the children.
01:15:05James had been charged with first degree murder.
01:15:08In Canada, that means he was facing life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years.
01:15:14Now he was hoping for a lighter sentence.
01:15:17One of the big concerns with second degree is, you know, he could be eligible for parole as early as 10 years.
01:15:24It's crazy.
01:15:25Potentially.
01:15:26You're at the mercy of the judge.
01:15:29But Ashley's family felt confident because of the callousness and planning that went into this murder.
01:15:34The prosecution could convince a judge James deserved the harshest sentence possible.
01:15:41So the family agreed to the deal.
01:15:44In June 2024, a year and a half after James murdered his wife, Ashley, he was led into a courtroom ready to admit what he had done.
01:15:53He introduced himself.
01:15:54I'm James Schwamm.
01:15:56And he gave his date of birth.
01:15:58He was respectful.
01:16:00Mike Arcelides covered the hearing.
01:16:02He noticed the courtroom was divided down the middle with Ashley's family and friends on the left side.
01:16:08And just a small showing for James on the right.
01:16:11It was two or three people on one side of the courtroom and about 50, 60 on the other.
01:16:17And it felt like a funeral in there.
01:16:18The Schwamm family's good name has now come down to this.
01:16:22Yeah.
01:16:23As part of the deal, James had signed an agreed statement of fact confirming all the evidence uncovered in the investigation.
01:16:30All the disturbing details were true.
01:16:33So this is essentially showing, even though this is second degree, this is telling you how diabolical it was.
01:16:39And I think it also shows that, yeah, okay, so he's pleading, but we gotcha. We got ya.
01:16:46The courtroom fell silent as the prosecutor read aloud, step by step, how James murdered his wife.
01:16:52Brittany couldn't believe she'd ever defended him.
01:16:55I feel so guilty for it now.
01:16:58I just wish I had the opportunity to apologize for her.
01:17:01Aww.
01:17:02The judge invited Ashley's friends and family to speak.
01:17:07You gave a very powerful victim impact statement.
01:17:10What was your core thought that you wanted to get across?
01:17:14She didn't have to go, and it wasn't right. I just want him to pay for what he did.
01:17:26She just wasn't some victim. She was a sister, an aunt, a friend, a mom. She was amazing.
01:17:35Yeah.
01:17:36He took her from you?
01:17:37Yeah.
01:17:38He shattered your family?
01:17:40He did. He did.
01:17:43Everyone was crying. Aunts and uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters, trying to make sense in their heads of what exactly happened here.
01:17:52Does it look like Jamie Schwamm is absorbing any of this?
01:17:55None. None whatsoever. He showed no emotion. He didn't cry. He looked very stoic.
01:18:01Ashley's father, Ian, gave the final impact statement.
01:18:04He looked at me and I looked at him as I talked.
01:18:07What did you want him to know in that courtroom?
01:18:10Well, how cowardice the move was. It was just so cowardly done.
01:18:17Ian had always thought James cared more about his reputation and his image than anything else.
01:18:23I wanted to cut that. And the way you cut that is to say you were hired to be a protector, a fireman,
01:18:33so you always want praise and medals and things. Just think what you're getting now. This is the worst of all things happening to you because the world knows. You'll never escape. Yeah.
01:18:48Is this the ultimate embarrassment for him?
01:18:51Oh, God, if there's anything worse, you let me know.
01:18:54James Schwamm was the last person to speak. He told the judge that he is exactly where he needs to be because of his terrible, awful actions.
01:19:03He said he is haunted by what he's done and how it continues to hurt the people he loves the most.
01:19:09His attorney tried to plea for leniency, saying that he was taking responsibility. He pled guilty.
01:19:16Yeah. Who gives a crap? He did it for no other reason than to serve himself.
01:19:24What did you hear in that courtroom?
01:19:26What I didn't hear was an apology. I didn't hear him say he was sorry.
01:19:31The judge gave James Schwamm life in prison with a chance of parole in 20 years. He will be 58.
01:19:38It's the longest sentence in Canadian history for a person with no prior record. The judge also prohibited him from having contact with his children until they turn 18.
01:19:49The judge gave this unprecedented sentence. Did that bring you some peace knowing that the judge really listened?
01:19:56Yes, it did. Nothing, nothing brings her back. But I felt like the judge heard us.
01:20:06This past September, Ashley's family had a memorial in her honor.
01:20:10You held an event, a very special event for Ashley in conjunction with my friend's house, which is a domestic violence shelter here in the area.
01:20:19It was amazing. We could finally celebrate her after two years.
01:20:26As one of her favorite pastimes was hiking, we did a memorial hike for her.
01:20:31And sunflowers.
01:20:33And she loved sunflowers. And there was a local man who donated all the sunflowers. And it was absolutely beautiful. And she would have loved it.
01:20:46They expected 100 to 125 and they got 175. And people stayed right to the end. And I think they got a whole bunch of dough, I hope.
01:20:58In addition to celebrating Ashley, the event raised money for a fund created in her memory.
01:21:04The Sunflower Fund is for children of victims of domestic violence and abuse. And it's to help them with their camps and their therapy and all of that.
01:21:18Yeah. Something that Ashley would want to focus on.
01:21:22Absolutely. She would have loved it. Yeah.
01:21:25The best part for us was seeing the kids again. To see how happy the kids seem. I could see the love that is surrounding them.
01:21:33And it's very obvious they're in good hands and thriving.
01:21:37Ashley's children, now 11 and 8, are being raised by her brother and sister-in-law. What is the future for all of you?
01:21:46I mean, we have to move on, right? And she would not want us sitting here being upset and doing this, you know?
01:21:53Ashley lives on through her children and they are in amazing hands. She would be so proud of those kids.
01:22:00She would be very proud.
01:22:07That's all for this edition of Dateline. And don't forget to check out our Talking Dateline podcast, which will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the Dateline feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
01:22:23We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 central. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.
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