- 7 hours ago
Dateline NBC S30E02 The Bridge H 264
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00:00:09I'm Lester Holt. Tonight on Dateline, a mother makes a promise to her son, keeping it will be
00:00:16the hardest thing she'll ever do. I knew he was going to be out of the lake. I'm calling and
00:00:24we're getting nothing. Days and days putting out flyers and just searching. All I can think about
00:00:29is I want James. I'm pretty confident we've got blood spatter on the side window. The last person
00:00:38to seem alive, that's the key. You have not told me that truth as you walked in that door. He
00:00:43would post
00:00:44on Facebook different personas, homicidal highway. He will morph to survive. Why is he in a Bible
00:00:52college? They got a wolf in sheath clothing. So you talked about shooting people before? He's
00:00:57made it sound like that. He's now seeing a young woman. That terrifies me. We did not
00:01:02even have a body in the case. The evidence was not overwhelming. You literally cannot stop thinking
00:01:09about it. What keeps you going on these searches? My promise. It's all I got left to give him.
00:01:20And he's worth every mile.
00:01:33Here's Andrea Canning with The Bridge.
00:01:45What we're going to be doing is a foot search on each side of the banks of the river. What
00:01:50you're
00:01:51looking for is any sign of any remains that may be left. Don't leave any stone unturned.
00:01:58It was a long shot. A Hail Mary. One more look.
00:02:08Spring 2021. Search teams scoured the thick forest some 40 miles from Fayetteville, North Carolina.
00:02:17It's going to be difficult, but it's not impossible. Everything's possible.
00:02:23Among them, a devoted mother, relentless in the face of a shattering loss.
00:02:29She never stopped searching or believing the mystery could be solved.
00:02:34You have to be really careful when you pull it out.
00:02:36A mystery dating back seven long years when her son simply vanished.
00:02:42I love him. I promised him. And I'm here till we find him.
00:02:49Now, all this time later, could she and the others finally do it?
00:02:54Take a picture of that.
00:02:55And end the nightmare that's haunted his family for so long.
00:02:59I pray it's part of my son. If it is, a long time coming.
00:03:12It all started on a hot and humid afternoon in August 2014, when a weekend of fun awaited James Chambers.
00:03:20It was Friday. Payday. James' getaway day.
00:03:27He just wrapped a busy week, working for his dad Pete's construction company.
00:03:31On the weekends, he went down to Lake Layman in Wallace, North Carolina, and was on the lifeguard down there.
00:03:37That's where he was supposed to be headed that night.
00:03:39Had he always kind of had a love of swimming in the water?
00:03:42Yes. Loved it. And fishing. Yeah. I loved it.
00:03:46And everybody seemed to love James, says his mom, Rachel Wellhauser.
00:03:51He's 28. He's single. There's a couple of girls he's talking to. He's figuring out which direction he's going.
00:04:01He was good looking. He was popular. He was outgoing.
00:04:04Yes. He loved the women.
00:04:08A real people person remembers his close friend and roommate, Brandy Chagru.
00:04:14James was smart. He was very witty. He was caring. He cared about people.
00:04:21James' parents were divorced, but he remained close with both and always kept in touch.
00:04:27Pete Chambers says his son was someone you could count on.
00:04:30If he told you he was going to be there, he'd be there.
00:04:32Did you always kind of know when he was coming and going?
00:04:35Always. And he would call, text. He would do something to let me know where he was at.
00:04:39In fact, James spoke to his mom the day before he was supposed to leave for the lake.
00:04:44Do you remember how you ended the call?
00:04:47Like always. I love you. I miss you.
00:04:51Did you hear from him again over text?
00:04:54No.
00:04:57Neither did his roommate, Brandy, who said that by Sunday, James hadn't returned home.
00:05:03We all thought that James was off doing James things.
00:05:07He's found a girl he likes and he's just holed up somewhere for a few days and then he'll pop
00:05:11back up.
00:05:14But as a new week began, still no James.
00:05:18Monday morning, he's supposed to be at work.
00:05:20Yep.
00:05:20Doesn't show.
00:05:22Doesn't show.
00:05:22What's your first thought?
00:05:23No show. I tried calling him, texting him, never anything about him.
00:05:26So then I said, well, I'll just let it go for a day or so. And then Tuesday shows up
00:05:30and he's not here.
00:05:34Rachel was now in a panic.
00:05:35I started blowing up his phone. I left the message, Marco.
00:05:40Marco. That was her family's emergency code word.
00:05:44My daughter and my son and my husband and myself always knew we had to have a safety word to
00:05:52contact
00:05:53immediately. James didn't.
00:05:56That must have spoke volumes to you.
00:05:59I was screaming inside.
00:06:01Five minutes, 10 minutes, an hour goes away. James has always immediately responded to anything.
00:06:12By now, James's roommate Brandy was also worried and called his manager at the lake.
00:06:17The lake said he never showed up. I was kind of gobsmacked at that moment. I did. I was like,
00:06:22what do you mean he didn't show up? I was like, no, he didn't show up. So at that point,
00:06:27it was kind of
00:06:28a deer in the headlights moment.
00:06:32Especially when Brandy realized what James had left behind.
00:06:35His driver's license, his dog, at that point, that was when it said, hey, something's not right.
00:06:45Maybe James had suddenly changed plans about leaving for the lake.
00:06:49If so, he didn't tell Rachel or anyone else for that matter.
00:06:53I'm an absolute basket case because I know James.
00:06:59Were you holding out any hope that maybe he's been in an accident? Maybe he's not able?
00:07:03I was hoping that the vehicle was off on an embankment or somewhere, somewhere I could find him.
00:07:12And we hit the roads.
00:07:16Criss-crossing every back road in the county.
00:07:19Little did Rachel realize her journey to find her son was just beginning
00:07:24and would take her tens of thousands of miles to places she could have never imagined.
00:07:32What had happened to James? His parents take the next step when we come back.
00:07:38Kind of scary going to the police because you're almost sort of acknowledging
00:07:43Yeah.
00:07:43That this could be really bad.
00:07:44Yeah. All I want to know is where he was at.
00:07:46Would it be another dead end?
00:07:49Just not taking you seriously enough, is that how you felt?
00:07:51Yes.
00:07:52Like, how do you know he's not off on a trip somewhere?
00:07:55Yes.
00:07:55But I was screaming, I know my son.
00:08:15Where was James Chambers?
00:08:17The young man who kept in constant contact with his family had simply disappeared.
00:08:24I start getting in touch with different ones of his friends. No one has seen.
00:08:28Jessica, his sister, she is posting all over Facebook, trying to find where he's at.
00:08:33She's calling. I'm calling. And we're getting nothing.
00:08:39Five days passed, with hope fading that James would somehow show up.
00:08:44His father, Pete, made the one call everyone dreaded.
00:08:47Something's not right and I need to call and make a police report.
00:08:50Kind of scary going to the police, too, because you're almost sort of acknowledging
00:08:55Yeah.
00:08:55That this could be really bad.
00:08:57Yep. All I want to know is where he was at.
00:09:00The Fayetteville Police Department launched a missing person investigation.
00:09:04Pretty routine, but it was not routine for Rachel.
00:09:08Years earlier, she'd made a promise to James and was determined to keep it.
00:09:13I have a meeting. Pete has a meeting. We're all meeting with the police. I think we're driving the
00:09:18police crazy.
00:09:19Like most missing person cases, police believe James would eventually turn up.
00:09:24Just not taking you seriously enough. Is that how you felt?
00:09:27Yes.
00:09:28Like, how do you know he's not off on a trip somewhere?
00:09:31Yes. But I was screaming, I know my son.
00:09:35This wasn't the first time Rachel had felt so helpless.
00:09:39Six years earlier, she lost her younger son, Michael, to muscular dystrophy.
00:09:44Now, the prospect that James could also be gone was becoming a painful reality.
00:09:49I know when that word Marco came out and it did not come back, and there had been no report
00:09:56of an accident,
00:09:59I knew my son was not with me anymore.
00:10:05Two weeks passed. Still, no sign of James anywhere. So the missing persons unit turned
00:10:14the case over to the homicide division and veteran detective Mike Ballard.
00:10:18This is like he fell off the face of the earth. Based on my experience, we weren't going to find
00:10:23Mr. Chambers alive.
00:10:24You thought that very quickly after you got the case?
00:10:27Yep. When we found out there was no contact with family, I didn't think he would be found alive.
00:10:34Ballard kept that to himself as he started interviewing James's inner circle,
00:10:38quickly learning about the last day anyone saw him alive.
00:10:43Chambers went to work that day, the roommates took him to work, and Howard brought him home.
00:10:49Howard, as Detective Ballard discovered, was Howard Ashleman,
00:10:54a fun-loving 21-year-old co-worker of James's hired by Pete.
00:10:59He was a nice young boy. He was polite, respectful.
00:11:02This was a good employee. Yeah, he was. He worked out pretty good.
00:11:08Howard lived in this country house with an older couple named the Bensons,
00:11:12who knew his family and helped him get a job with Pete. In fact,
00:11:16Pete had asked Howard for a favor the day his son disappeared.
00:11:20I said, all right, Howard, do you mind taking James home? He said, no, I have no problem.
00:11:27So Detective Ballard wanted to learn more about Howard. Raised by a religious family in Illinois,
00:11:33Howard later moved to North Carolina. Turns out he had been interviewed by the missing persons unit
00:11:39several days earlier. So Ballard studied the tape as Howard discussed his relationship with James.
00:11:45Did you guys ever hang out after work? Yes, ma'am. How was that? Not bad.
00:11:51Howard was soft-spoken, polite, and seemed eager to help. You guys left work. Tell me what happened.
00:11:58Well, we went, and I stopped at the ABC store. How was work that day? Was everything good?
00:12:04Everything was great. Howard recalled how he took James to buy liquor,
00:12:10then went to James's house where they had some drinks. Howard said he left before it got dark.
00:12:17So this is the last sighting by anybody of James? All contact with family, social media,
00:12:23he disappeared from everything. Everything. Howard then detailed what he did the rest of the evening.
00:12:29When I left him, I went straight home. And the neighbors were having a barbecue across the street.
00:12:35So I stopped in there. Who was all at the barbecue? The people who were? Just them? Some friends.
00:12:45Surveillance video confirmed Howard's account of being with James Chambers that afternoon.
00:12:50But what happened after he dropped James off remained a mystery. Given their late start,
00:12:56homicide detectives were now playing catch-up, and it would cost them. We done lost a tremendous
00:13:02amount of time. We was behind the eight ball. But sitting just a mile from the police station
00:13:08was a strange but significant clue. If they could still find it.
00:13:16Coming up. I could just almost hear the desperation in her post. A stranger
00:13:23comes to a mother's rescue. She's like your guardian angel. Yes. When Dateline continues.
00:13:44Fayetteville police were chasing every lead. Checking locations. Interviewing virtually anybody
00:13:51who knew James Chambers, including his roommate, Brandy Chagru.
00:14:01James' mom Rachel and sister Jessica feared the worst. So they posted an urgent message on Facebook
00:14:07pleading for help. It was seen by people all over the country. A lot of people saying they were praying
00:14:14for us. And that meant so much. Someone is praying for your son to come home.
00:14:24That Facebook message just happened to catch the eye of a woman named Fran Funderburg.
00:14:29I could just almost hear the desperation in her post. As though I were hearing her voice
00:14:36to say, someone please just help us find James. Fran was a longtime volunteer with Class Kids,
00:14:45an organization that assists families whose children are missing or exploited.
00:14:49It was founded after the disappearance of Polly Class in 1993, a tragic story that captured
00:14:56worldwide attention. Police are searching for any sign of 12-year-old Polly Class.
00:15:04Fran reached out to James' family, then drove 90 minutes to Rachel's house.
00:15:09When I opened the door and she said, I'm with Class Kids and we are here to help you,
00:15:15I felt like a lifeline. You needed that at that moment.
00:15:20Oh yeah, because I was falling apart. One of the first things that I said to Rachel is,
00:15:27you, from this moment forward, you are the voice for your child.
00:15:35Fran immediately put a plan into place and gave Rachel a reality check on what to expect.
00:15:40This may not happen tomorrow and this may take years. Without her guidance, there is no way I'd
00:15:47have been prepared for this journey. She's like your guardian angel. Yes.
00:15:54Fran and Rachel circulated thousands of flyers and canvassed countless neighborhoods
00:16:01as search teams scoured the forest surrounding Fayetteville. We walked days and days putting
00:16:08out flyers and just searching anywhere we thought he might be. But nothing? Nothing. Nothing at all.
00:16:16It was around this time that Pete told Fran about Howard Ashleman. He had a hunch Howard might know more
00:16:22than he was letting on and suggested that Fran, who had experience with these types of cases,
00:16:27talked to Howard. So they met at this restaurant. What were your first impressions?
00:16:33Oh, he was charming. He was very cordial, very polite. We wanted to understand what his last encounter with James
00:16:43was.
00:16:46Once again, Howard gave the same story he told the missing persons unit. But to Fran,
00:16:51the way he answered her questions was a little strange. Sometimes he's very forthcoming and other
00:16:58times there's a long pause as though he's thinking of his answer. So that did make us concerned about how
00:17:08truthful he was actually being. Did you ever ask him, did you have anything to do with James's disappearance?
00:17:14Absolutely. What did he say? No. So they wrapped up the meeting, which ended as warmly as it started.
00:17:21When he left, we embraced. And I said, hang in there. When the police come to you, cooperate and
00:17:30they'll be done with you. But detectives weren't done with him, especially after they checked out
00:17:38something odd, Howard said during his police interview. It was about his truck, the one he gave
00:17:43James a ride home in. Not only sold it, Howard said he sold it to a scrap yard of all
00:17:55places.
00:17:57Sure enough, detectives found surveillance video that showed his truck being towed into the yard
00:18:02just five days after James disappeared. What was wrong with your truck?
00:18:07I blew it up. Blew it up, doing donuts and burning rubber on the road for fun.
00:18:16Howard said it wrecked the engine, so he scrapped the truck.
00:18:20All of which seemed very strange to Detective Mike Ballard.
00:18:24Why would you scrap a truck? If the engine locks up, you replace an engine.
00:18:29Once they crush it, it's gone. It just, it didn't make sense.
00:18:34But to Pete Chambers, it was starting to make sense. Pete remembered confronting Howard at work
00:18:41a few days after James disappeared. The very next day, Howard sold the truck. And...
00:18:47He never showed back up for work. That's odd. Yeah, very odd.
00:18:53Odd, yes. But incriminating? Not really.
00:18:57Detectives had nothing solid linking Howard to James' disappearance.
00:19:02But little did anyone know that a stunning list of new names would soon surface, leading to a prime suspect.
00:19:11Coming up, someone knew much more than they were saying.
00:19:16He was with Howard Ashleman on the evening that James Chambers was witnessing.
00:19:21But he didn't want to talk to police.
00:19:24This is not without a warrant.
00:19:25So something's up with him, you feel like?
00:19:27Something's up with him.
00:19:45Fall 2014 was approaching in Fayetteville.
00:19:49James Chambers had been missing for over a month.
00:19:53And while the weather was cooling, detectives and District Attorney Billy West were feeling heat from the family.
00:19:59At this point, we did not even have a body in the case.
00:20:03We didn't know if it was a missing persons case or a homicide case.
00:20:07And all we had were some stories from Howard Ashleman that did not add up.
00:20:12So detectives brought him in for yet another interview.
00:20:16Howard told basically the same story, but he did add a few intriguing new details.
00:20:22When you left James' house, where did you go?
00:20:25Home.
00:20:27Where were you at for the whole evening?
00:20:30I was at the house and my friends across the street.
00:20:35Except detectives had checked Howard's cell phone records.
00:20:39And they showed he was not exactly where he said he was.
00:20:42Your cell phone was pinging at this place for almost two hours.
00:20:47Okay, so that means you're within this three-mile radius.
00:20:51That means you're not at home.
00:20:54I think I can explain it.
00:20:56Okay, well explain it to me.
00:21:00Reno's house is in here somewhere.
00:21:02Okay.
00:21:04He had my phone on him when he went back home.
00:21:08Who was Reno and why would he have Howard's phone for two hours?
00:21:14Detectives learned his full name was Reno Parks and that he sometimes hung out with Howard.
00:21:19We didn't know a whole lot about him, but what really stood out was that he was
00:21:24with Howard Ashleman on the evening that James Chambers went missing.
00:21:30Then Howard admitted something else.
00:21:33He was with Reno Parks after that barbecue across the street.
00:21:38He said Reno needed to treat a cut on his finger.
00:21:41So Howard went to the hospital with him around 3 a.m.
00:21:45As his story kept growing, so did detectives' suspicions.
00:21:49Howard, this is your out. I bring you in right now to tell me the truth.
00:21:54You have not told me that truth since you walked in that door.
00:21:57No, you have not.
00:21:59That's the only thing I want for you today, Howard, is the truth.
00:22:03I'm sorry. I mean, some of this stuff, it's not like it happened yesterday.
00:22:11For the rest of the interview, Howard didn't offer much more.
00:22:14But he did give detectives and the DA a new lead, Reno Parks.
00:22:20Reno spent quite a bit of time with Howard Ashleman. They socialized together.
00:22:26I think there maybe was some criminal record there.
00:22:29Reno Parks was now out on parole, but he was hard to track down.
00:22:33So Detective Ballard did a little research on when Parks would be at the probation office
00:22:38and paid him a surprise visit.
00:22:40He just lost all color in his face when he seen us walk in because he's been ignoring us and
00:22:44avoiding us.
00:22:45And we asked him if he would talk to us. He says not without a warrant.
00:22:49So something's up with him, you feel like?
00:22:51Something's up with Reno Parks.
00:22:52We felt like Reno Parks at this time knew something or had something to do with it.
00:22:58With Reno and Howard having clammed up, Rachel and Fran moved ahead with their own
00:23:04online investigation, hoping to learn more about who Howard Ashleman really was.
00:23:09I knew I was piecing together the personality of the person that was with my son last.
00:23:17And we started watching.
00:23:19Watching Howard by watching his Facebook page.
00:23:22I started to learn a lot about him. I was consumed by that.
00:23:27When you work on social media, it's like a spider trail. One person leads to another.
00:23:35And Rachel was doing the same thing.
00:23:37If I was awake, I was on social media.
00:23:40It kind of takes on a life of its own.
00:23:43It snowballs. You think you're looking at one person.
00:23:47But if you go from one person into their friends and you start tagging from friend to friend
00:23:53and you see the list there of names, that's how I found 12 Howards.
00:24:01Did you get that? 12 different Howards. 12 unique Facebook accounts,
00:24:07according to Fran and Rachel, each with its own persona.
00:24:10You know, it started out where he was doing a thuggish look.
00:24:14And then he transformed over to a intellectual college look.
00:24:20But all along, he's going under 12 different names.
00:24:24Howard Ashleman. He was Adrian Manson.
00:24:29Manson.
00:24:30There were just a myriad of different names and personas and photos that he would post on Facebook.
00:24:41And they also found one more rather chilling reference to Howard.
00:24:46Homicidal Howie.
00:24:48He's calling himself that.
00:24:50Yes.
00:24:51And Manson.
00:24:53These are very, very disturbing pages.
00:24:58Even more disturbing were some of the things Fran and Rachel believed Howard and his friends
00:25:02were sharing on Facebook.
00:25:04You want to read this one?
00:25:05Mm-hmm.
00:25:06This is one of the earlier post.
00:25:08I never knew much about people until I took one apart just to see how it worked.
00:25:15That's pretty daunting.
00:25:16This really became a job for you two, just scrolling and searching and looking for clues.
00:25:22Anything, just to try to find James.
00:25:26Some of the posts were bizarre, ranging from cannibalism to burning things.
00:25:32Fran also said there were references to violence and weapons.
00:25:35This is a post by Howard using his pseudo name.
00:25:40He says, you might shoot fast, but I shoot faster.
00:25:44Bust your, mm, ass like a big contractor.
00:25:49It was hard to make sense of what Howard was up to or why.
00:25:54Fran and Rachel wondered if they were just attention-seeking posts from a 20-something kid.
00:25:59Or maybe there were cryptic clues about what happened to James,
00:26:03like Howard's exchanges with his Facebook friends.
00:26:06Sleeping with the fishes.
00:26:08His friend posted that?
00:26:10Mm-hmm.
00:26:10We don't do drive-bys.
00:26:11We do walk-ups.
00:26:14Howard responded, you already know.
00:26:17And in your mind, are you connecting this to James?
00:26:21Yes.
00:26:24They turned the posts over to police.
00:26:26And even though detectives also believed they came from Howard,
00:26:30there wasn't much they could do with them.
00:26:32You can't arrest someone based on that Facebook post.
00:26:36It's not evidence.
00:26:38So the case sat on the shelf.
00:26:41Months passed.
00:26:43Then it was Christmas.
00:26:45The first Christmas without James.
00:26:48How are you coping?
00:26:50I'm not.
00:26:51I'm just desperate.
00:26:52I want James.
00:26:53James.
00:26:54And that's all I can think about is I want James.
00:26:58But the new year would bring stunning new leads.
00:27:01And a new investigator.
00:27:03Rico, find.
00:27:04Who you just might remember from Dateline.
00:27:08Smell something up here?
00:27:11Coming up, a local legend hits the jackpot.
00:27:15We start inspecting it.
00:27:17And sure enough, we've got blood spatter on the side window.
00:27:22And Howard Ashleman faces new trouble.
00:27:25He had beat the teeth off of her.
00:27:28When Dateline continues.
00:27:42Six long and painful months after her son James disappeared,
00:27:47Rachel Wellhauser and her second husband Dennis made a tough decision.
00:27:51They moved out of state.
00:27:53In trying to find James, Rachel was beginning to lose herself.
00:27:58I was obsessed.
00:27:59I'd have walked North Carolina looking for him.
00:28:03If I wasn't on the computer, I was looking.
00:28:07And my husband thought the only way I'm going to save me is to get me out of here
00:28:12where I'm not looking over every bridge, looking in every field.
00:28:15So he took me to Texas.
00:28:19Even 1,200 miles away in Dallas, the obsession didn't leave her.
00:28:23Rachel continued hunting Howard Ashleman on social media.
00:28:27Are you starting to become more suspicious of Howard Ashleman the more you learn about him?
00:28:32When I'm seeing some of the posts he's putting up, he's terrifying me because he's out there.
00:28:40Then, during the summer of 2015, came another post involving Howard.
00:28:46Only this one wasn't on Facebook, but rather the criminal court docket.
00:28:51Howard Ashleman was charged in a domestic violence incident with a young lady he was in a
00:28:58relationship with at the time.
00:29:00James' roommate Brandy was Facebook friends with the woman and clearly remembered the allegations.
00:29:06I wonder, you need to be careful. And that was when it came about that he had beat the teeth
00:29:13off of her.
00:29:15Howard was charged, a court date set, but...
00:29:19We were not able to proceed to trial and the case was ultimately dismissed.
00:29:24Dismissed because the woman didn't attend a pre-trial hearing.
00:29:28She was so scared of him, she was afraid to see him in court.
00:29:34The James Chambers case wasn't looking too promising either,
00:29:37even though the DA now considered Howard the prime suspect.
00:29:41We simply did not have enough evidence to charge him with any crimes related to the disappearance
00:29:48of James Chambers. We did not have a body to build our investigation upon, so it was going cold.
00:29:57But James' father, Pete, was hot, furious that the investigation had stalled.
00:30:02He desperately wanted fresh eyes on the case.
00:30:05My brother and I were talking one day and he said, let's contact David.
00:30:10David was David Marshburn, a private investigator Pete had seen on TV.
00:30:16Marshburn is known for finding missing people on his own time and own dime.
00:30:20He had become a local legend after cracking a cold case in 2014 involving a missing army medic.
00:30:26A story we covered on Dateline.
00:30:29How daunting of a task was it?
00:30:31It's not that easy to find it.
00:30:33Marshburn had secured a confession and even found the body.
00:30:38After hearing Pete's story about his son's disappearance, he signed on immediately.
00:30:44The James Chambers case seemed to be one that could be solved in a reasonable time.
00:30:52Marshburn got right to work.
00:30:54I asked Pete, could we get on the property of the Bensons?
00:30:57And that's where Howard was living.
00:31:00And Pete said, well, I think we can make that work.
00:31:05The Bensons were the couple who had taken Howard in after he moved to North Carolina.
00:31:11Happened to be Mr. Benson was not there.
00:31:14This Benson was.
00:31:15She didn't like Howard.
00:31:17She said, search all you want to.
00:31:19We get the dog out and have him start looking around.
00:31:22Your cadaver dog, Kaz, did Kaz hit on anything?
00:31:26He did.
00:31:27The first thing he did was he went to these two abandoned vehicles.
00:31:32When Pete took a closer look, he hit the jackpot.
00:31:37You could see the expression on his face, oh, my God.
00:31:41I'm like, what?
00:31:42He said, these are the truck parts.
00:31:46These are all Howard's truck that he tore apart.
00:31:52Remember, Howard sold his truck for scrap right after James disappeared.
00:31:56But now it turned out he'd kept some parts, significant ones, like windows, the radio, even seat belts.
00:32:05That was like a gold mine.
00:32:08We started inspecting it.
00:32:10And sure enough, we've got blood spatter on the side window.
00:32:15It's still there.
00:32:17We've got blood spatter on the radio.
00:32:20So this is at least what you think it is.
00:32:22I'm pretty confident at this point in time because this is high-velocity spatter right here.
00:32:30Suggesting someone may have been shot inside the truck.
00:32:34Fayetteville police were also at the scene and collected the parts to have them tested for DNA.
00:32:39Maybe we have something now that we can prove that Howard did this.
00:32:44While they waited for the results, Marshburn had another idea, see if Reno Parks would talk.
00:32:52What was his reaction?
00:32:52Reno wasn't hard to find.
00:32:53He was locked up on a robbery rap.
00:32:56So Marshburn arranged a meeting at the prison.
00:33:00I said, Reno, I have this evidence.
00:33:03And he's interested now because he's like, wait a minute, what evidence?
00:33:07I thought it was all gone.
00:33:09I showed him a picture of the seat belt with the blood stain, the radio, and the windows.
00:33:15What was his reaction?
00:33:17He shook his head, looked at him, and I said, you can either be a witness or a defendant.
00:33:23It's up to you.
00:33:24Did he start talking?
00:33:25He looked at the pictures, looked down, and next thing I know, when he looks up, he's crying.
00:33:31He's got tears streaming down his face.
00:33:34And he said, what do you need to know?
00:33:36Nothing would ever prepare me for what would come next.
00:33:41Coming up, murder is one thing.
00:33:45This was the stuff of nightmares.
00:33:48I called the dad, and I said, Pete, you don't want to know.
00:33:54That's when he told me.
00:34:12Inside these prison walls, David Marshburn could feel it.
00:34:16He had Reno Parks primed and ready to reveal what happened to James Chambers.
00:34:21And I said, I need to know where this boy is.
00:34:24And is he, like, nervous?
00:34:25How's his demeanor as he's telling you this?
00:34:28He's nervous.
00:34:29He's just doing like this.
00:34:30And he'd look up at me and said, this boy did not deserve this.
00:34:37Marshburn had limited time with Reno, so he got him talking about how it all started.
00:34:43He says that Reno remembered hanging out at that barbecue across the street from Howard's house,
00:34:48when soon all hell broke loose.
00:34:52He said Howard stopped at the beginning of the driveway, got out of his truck,
00:34:57went to the back of the truck, lowered the tailgate, got out a gun, raised it up,
00:35:05and just shot right into the back window of his truck.
00:35:10This is huge.
00:35:11It is.
00:35:13He said, I saw him shot.
00:35:17Reno insisted he wasn't involved in the shooting, but his story was horrific.
00:35:22He said Howard first hid the body on the Benson's property.
00:35:26Then two days later, he tried to burn it.
00:35:29When that didn't work, Reno said Howard did the unthinkable.
00:35:34And he is bawling at this point in time.
00:35:37And he said, ma'am, please tell that mom and dad I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
00:35:42He said he cut him up.
00:35:45Cut him up, Reno explained, by actually dismembering the body and putting it into thick plastic bags.
00:35:56With his time in the prison running out, Marshburn still needed
00:35:59Reno to reveal the most crucial detail of all.
00:36:03What Howard did with James's body.
00:36:06As I'm trying to leave, I said, well, where did he put him?
00:36:10He said, over a bridge.
00:36:12It was concrete, had columns.
00:36:14Reno said he was with Howard when he threw the bags?
00:36:18Yes, he rode with him.
00:36:22Was Reno Parks' story for real?
00:36:24We tried reaching out to him, but never heard back.
00:36:27Reno, remember, had a rap sheet.
00:36:29How reliable was he as a witness?
00:36:33Marshburn believed him.
00:36:35And now, as he was leaving the prison, came the most difficult part of all.
00:36:40I called the dad, and I said, Pete, you don't want to know.
00:36:47That's when he told me.
00:36:48He told you what happened?
00:36:50That Howard had shot him.
00:36:53In the back, in the back of the head.
00:36:57And tried to burn him.
00:37:04Then cut him up into pieces.
00:37:10I'm so sorry.
00:37:15Cut him up into pieces and put him in bags and threw him in the damn river like he was
00:37:19trash.
00:37:24After 18 months, he finally had some answers, assuming Reno was telling the truth.
00:37:30If so, perhaps Pete and Rachel could bring their son home and maybe bring Howard Ashelman to justice.
00:37:39By now, there was a new Fayetteville detective on the case.
00:37:43Larry Donegan had taken the lead.
00:37:45I got promoted to homicide.
00:37:47It was one of those, hey, this cold case is yours.
00:37:52Detective Donegan later learned about that disturbing interview with Reno Parks
00:37:56and discussed the details with Marshburn.
00:37:59But Donegan wanted to conduct his own interrogation with Parks, on tape,
00:38:04to make sure it would hold up in court.
00:38:06He declined. He didn't even want to talk to us.
00:38:09Did you try to interview Howard again?
00:38:10Mm-mm.
00:38:11I wanted something new to throw in front of him to try and get him to a point like,
00:38:16uh-oh, they got me. That's what we tried to do to DNA.
00:38:20The DNA.
00:38:22Remember the truck parts that Howard saved?
00:38:24The ones which appeared to be stained with blood?
00:38:28Maybe that blood would match James' DNA.
00:38:32Detective Donegan expedited extensive tests at two different labs.
00:38:36The seatbelts were tested?
00:38:38Yes.
00:38:39And?
00:38:40Nothing.
00:38:41Nothing.
00:38:42Nothing.
00:38:43Too much time had passed?
00:38:45Yeah. Everything was inconclusive. Big. Big letdown. And it goes, you're back to square one.
00:38:51Possibly.
00:38:52Possibly.
00:38:52Digging deeper into the case file, Detective Donegan reviewed all those police interviews
00:38:57with Howard and all his suspected Facebook pages.
00:39:01Watching him change, he seemed to be an individual that can kind of move
00:39:06through different crowds. And everything just kept leading back towards Howard, that he was the primary key
00:39:13to the case.
00:39:17So Donegan went to the house where Howard lived with the Benson family for a look around.
00:39:22He found nothing, but he did encounter Ruth Benson.
00:39:25That's where I found out kind of Howard was a hunter. He had access to Mr. Benson's guns.
00:39:31And then she made a comment about Howard, where she refers to Howard as Homicide Howie.
00:39:38Mrs. Benson?
00:39:39Yeah.
00:39:39Is calling him Homicide Howie.
00:39:43That name, much like the one Rachel and Fran had discovered.
00:39:48Ruth Benson told us that she called him Homicide Howie because she said he had killed a friend's dog.
00:39:53But police suspected the nickname really referred to what Howard did to James.
00:39:59Did you start to feel like this is an open secret, how people feel about Howard and what he may
00:40:04have done?
00:40:05Yes.
00:40:06I believe the Bensons knew more and the same with his circle of friends.
00:40:11But the Bensons told detectives, and also us, they were unaware of any crime Howard might have
00:40:17committed against James. As for Howard, the day Detective Donegan visited the Bensons' property,
00:40:24he wasn't there. Turns out Howard would soon disappear and leave Fayetteville far behind.
00:40:33Coming up, a mother's vow to her son.
00:40:37He says, just promise. And I said, promise. Promise, James.
00:41:05It's a long drive from Texas to North Carolina. 20 tedious hours.
00:41:13But every few months, Rachel returned to the Carolina countryside to search for her son.
00:41:20Often alone, sometimes with her husband Dennis.
00:41:23This is where we started at today.
00:41:25Yeah, this is, need more here.
00:41:31Going off some of the grim details of Reno Parks' story and her own intuition,
00:41:36Rachel would tromp through the thick forest along rivers and streams, combing the brush,
00:41:43surveying every bridge, searching for any trace of her son.
00:41:48Something she could bring back home to give James a proper burial.
00:41:52If I can't find him in 50 miles, I'll put 100 miles.
00:41:55You'll expand your grid?
00:41:57Yes, till I find him.
00:42:00Is this something you'll do until you just can't do it anymore?
00:42:03I'll do it till I die.
00:42:07What keeps you going on these searches?
00:42:10My love.
00:42:13My promise.
00:42:16Her promise.
00:42:18Remember when James first went missing and Rachel was frantically trying to fulfill a promise by
00:42:23finding out where he was?
00:42:24Turns out, that promise was one she'd made years earlier, when James' little brother Michael died.
00:42:31The day of the funeral, when we were walking away from Michael's casket,
00:42:37and James touched my arm and says,
00:42:40Mom, if something ever happens to me, put me by Michael.
00:42:46And I begged, I said, James, please, don't ask me that.
00:42:50You couldn't bear losing another son?
00:42:53No.
00:42:54And he says, just promise.
00:42:56And I said, I promise.
00:43:01Promise, James.
00:43:04So Rachel tried to fulfill that promise one step,
00:43:08one stream,
00:43:10and one bridge at a time,
00:43:13in all kinds of wilderness and weather.
00:43:17This rugged area makes searching very difficult.
00:43:21Thick forests, swampy terrain, wild animals, deadly snakes.
00:43:25Not to mention how many years have gone by.
00:43:31The region had also seen a major hurricane and several other severe storms,
00:43:35which could have washed away any trace of James.
00:43:39So it wasn't surprising that all of Rachel's searching led absolutely nowhere.
00:43:44Do you ever want to give up?
00:43:47No.
00:43:48I'll give up when we find him.
00:43:51I've had a lot of people say it's been too long.
00:43:54Not for me, it hasn't.
00:43:57I'm not giving up.
00:43:59I can't sit and wait.
00:44:03I want him now.
00:44:06So finding him would give you at least a piece of the closure.
00:44:10Yes.
00:44:11And to be able to go to his grave.
00:44:13And to know that's as close as I can be to him,
00:44:15because right now I'm living in the where.
00:44:17Where are you?
00:44:21When she wasn't searching, Rachel was clicking.
00:44:25Constantly checking Howard Ashelman's Facebook pages and comparing notes with her co-investigator,
00:44:31Fran Funderburg.
00:44:34Then, a couple of years after James disappeared, the two noticed something rather surprising.
00:44:40Howard's social media postings just suddenly stopped.
00:44:43Many of the postings that had been placed there in the year past were removed.
00:44:51It's quite the contrast from the Howard that you'd been investigating.
00:44:57It really was.
00:44:57And we were quite concerned when he went off the grid for a time.
00:45:02He stopped posting.
00:45:03We were concerned that maybe he was in the wind and would not be found anytime soon.
00:45:13Detectives and the D.A. also noticed that Howard seemed to just vanish.
00:45:17The homicide detectives certainly were watching his movements and whereabouts,
00:45:22although there was nothing to constrain him at this time.
00:45:25He sort of just dropped off the face of the earth, so to speak.
00:45:31Then, one day, several weeks after Howard had gone silent, a picture popped up on Facebook.
00:45:38It was Howard, in the last place you would ever imagine.
00:45:44Coming up.
00:45:46He will morph and change into whatever he needs to change into to survive.
00:45:52Like, why is he in a Bible college?
00:45:54Where he apparently found religion and a girlfriend, too.
00:45:58Who?
00:45:58She's standing there with evil.
00:46:16It was late summer 2016 when Rachel saw it.
00:46:21A new photo of Howard Ashelman.
00:46:23But it was the setting that really caught her attention.
00:46:27In the background, there's palm trees, a couple of buildings, license plates.
00:46:33He is now in Florida.
00:46:36Further through his page, there are pictures.
00:46:39And on the corner of a picture, there is Hope Sound.
00:46:46Hope Sound.
00:46:48Hope Sound.
00:46:49A quiet community near West Palm Beach.
00:46:51I start Googling, looking for Hope Sound.
00:46:54Hope Sound Bible College.
00:46:56Hope Sound Christian Church.
00:46:59All this is popping up in the area.
00:47:02And then her search revealed exactly what Howard was up to.
00:47:07He is going to a Bible college.
00:47:09What do you think when you see that, that he is attending a Bible college?
00:47:14He needed it.
00:47:15Perfect place for him, I thought.
00:47:18Yes, Howard Ashelman, a.k.a. Homicide Howie, was actually attending an accredited
00:47:24Christian college, whose mission statement in part reads, committed to preparing servant
00:47:30leaders who think biblically live spirit-filled lives.
00:47:35And here's Howard sporting a new look, dramatically different from his Fayetteville days, singing
00:47:42a hymn called Statue of Liberty, which was posted on social media.
00:47:56Singing those lyrics, Howard seems to be proclaiming his faith.
00:48:06Word of the new Howard spread fast to Fayetteville.
00:48:10It is definitely like two different people.
00:48:12It was quite confusing to us to understand what his motivation behind that was.
00:48:20It's divine irony for me, for somebody who's fleeing to go to Bible college.
00:48:26I wish I could explain the cluster cluckery that is Howard Ashelman's mind.
00:48:34Everyone now wondered, had Howard come here to find God, or find cover?
00:48:40I think he's remorseful at this time, and he wants forgiveness.
00:48:45I think it's eating him alive.
00:48:49Rachel amped up her internet search and discovered even more about Howard's new life on campus.
00:48:55Then I find out, going through different Facebook pages, he's now seeing a young woman out there.
00:49:05That terrifies me.
00:49:07Her name was Hannah Jones, just 17 at the time.
00:49:12She also attended the Bible college and sang in the choir, a high-profile school activity.
00:49:18The college posted videos of it on their YouTube account.
00:49:21I was genuinely worried about her, and I didn't know if she knew what she was standing next to.
00:49:30Through her eyes, she's standing there, you know, with...
00:49:33With Mr. Wonderful.
00:49:33With, yeah, her God-loving, clean-cut boyfriend.
00:49:36Through your eyes, she's standing there with a monster.
00:49:39She's standing there with evil.
00:49:44Panicked, Rachel called David Marshburn, the private investigator.
00:49:48And says, I need your help.
00:49:50I'm like, what's going on?
00:49:52Come to find out, Howard's at a Bible college.
00:49:55What do you think when you hear that?
00:49:57He's hiding. He's trying to play.
00:49:59I got away with it.
00:50:00I'm going to get into an environment that keeps me straight, so I don't mess up.
00:50:09Marshburn reached out to the college's youth pastor and shocked him with the news that Howard,
00:50:14the Bible student, was also Howard the murder suspect.
00:50:19He's like, well, not Howard. You know, he's in the choir.
00:50:23And I said, well, you obviously don't know Howard like we know him.
00:50:27I said, go online. Look at it. Look up James Chambers missing.
00:50:31I did remind him that his job was to take care of his flock.
00:50:35You got a potentially a bad sheep in the flock.
00:50:39Well, they got a wolf in sheep's clothing.
00:50:41Yeah.
00:50:43After alerting the Bible college,
00:50:45Marshburn spoke with the father of Howard's girlfriend.
00:50:48And I said, I believe that your daughter could be in danger.
00:50:52And he's like, I can't believe.
00:50:54I said, sir, it's just a matter of time.
00:50:57And your daughter's going to wind up hurt physically, mentally or something.
00:51:05By now, the Martin County Sheriff's Office was alerted.
00:51:09Detective Dan Dulac was assigned to what would quickly become one of the most
00:51:13memorable cases of his career.
00:51:15We were concerned for the safety of everybody in Martin County.
00:51:19We need to find out more about what's going on.
00:51:22So Dulac spoke with Fayetteville police to get the lowdown on the James Chambers investigation.
00:51:28Detective Donegan filled him in and shared his concerns about Howard.
00:51:32He's a true chameleon, and he will morph and change into whatever he needs to change into
00:51:38to survive.
00:51:39What is he up to?
00:51:40Like, why is he in a Bible college?
00:51:42Yeah, usually killers find God maybe once they're behind bars.
00:51:47Yes.
00:51:48So what's the end game to this?
00:51:52We were able to kind of get a background, an idea of the type of person he was
00:51:56and who we might be dealing with before we actually approach him.
00:51:59Like, how dangerous could this guy potentially be?
00:52:01And that's the concern is how do we need to deal with him?
00:52:06Detective Dulac now found himself knee deep in a homicide investigation.
00:52:10And soon he would be sitting face to face with the man at the center of it all.
00:52:16Do you have any idea why you're here right now?
00:52:20Coming up, Howard's girlfriend Hannah would also soon be meeting with police.
00:52:26So you've talked about shooting people before?
00:52:31He's made it sound like that.
00:52:33Was Hannah in danger?
00:52:35She was concerned that if he found out that she had been talking to law enforcement already,
00:52:40would his demeanor change toward her?
00:52:43When Dateline continues.
00:53:00Hope Sound, Florida bills itself as a charming little beach town with understated elegance.
00:53:06But in January 2017, there was nothing understated or elegant about what was going down at the
00:53:14Martin County Sheriff's Office.
00:53:16How long have you known Howard?
00:53:20Since late August.
00:53:23That's Hannah Jones, Howard's Bible College girlfriend,
00:53:27with her parents undergoing a probing police interview.
00:53:30What have you been told by anybody?
00:53:40Is there some way that you can use Hannah to try to get something out of Howard?
00:53:45Yes. The first plan with Hannah was just to get information from her,
00:53:49to find out what Howard had told her about his life in Fayetteville.
00:53:53And according to Hannah, Howard admitted he was no choir boy in Fayetteville.
00:53:58He mainly sold drugs and he was in some gangs.
00:54:06And he didn't care a lot about what people thought.
00:54:10If they didn't do what he wanted, they would just shoot him.
00:54:14So he's talked about shooting people before?
00:54:19He's made it sound like that.
00:54:21I don't know if he came out.
00:54:21My impression from Hannah was that it almost seemed like this is someone who
00:54:25was broken and needed help and fixing.
00:54:29It was apparent that she truly was in love with this guy?
00:54:32Hannah seemed to be on the fence about Howard.
00:54:37She wasn't sure how she was going to be able to break it off with him.
00:54:40But Hannah's parents feared their 17-year-old daughter was now in danger.
00:54:44Yeah, but we obviously don't feel comfortable with her hanging out with Howard.
00:54:48I don't know when he might snap or change who he is as a person,
00:54:54and she'd be right in the middle of it.
00:54:56Mm-hmm.
00:54:56And that concerns me as a dad, so...
00:55:00Hannah seemed to think that Howard didn't pose any kind of threat to her,
00:55:04but she was concerned that if he found out that she had been talking to law enforcement already,
00:55:10would his demeanor change toward her?
00:55:15Detective Dulac needed to get to Howard quickly before he discovered police were poking into his past.
00:55:22Howard was at work, but agreed to come in for an interview.
00:55:25I don't want to go through that.
00:55:28Well, I understand, but we need to try to...
00:55:31What kind of person do you think he was? What impression were you getting?
00:55:35It was just really hard to read him. He wasn't giving me a lot to work with. He was very
00:55:39evasive.
00:55:39He didn't want to talk.
00:55:42Especially about his troubled time back in Fayetteville.
00:55:45I've tried to erase it out of my mind because it was traumatic for me.
00:55:49Right after that, I started using drugs real heavy.
00:55:52Mm-hmm.
00:55:53And I kind of fried my brain.
00:55:58Okay. But I'm sure you still remember.
00:56:00I remember it a little bit and stuff.
00:56:03But Howard offered no specifics about the murder.
00:56:06You asked him straight up if he killed James Chambers.
00:56:10I did. And I told him, I said, I have no doubt in my mind that James is dead and
00:56:15that you know
00:56:17something about what happened to him.
00:56:19Howard wouldn't say.
00:56:21Dulac even tried appealing to his newfound faith.
00:56:24You have made a decision to be a different person, to be a good Christian, to be a leader of
00:56:30the Christian faith.
00:56:32He's here at the Bible college. He's trying to be a pastor. He's learning about Christianity.
00:56:37You're really trying to play to the new Howard.
00:56:41Yes.
00:56:41Yes.
00:56:42Not the old Howard.
00:56:43I knew that the old Howard would never talk to me.
00:56:46But in the end, the new Howard wouldn't talk either.
00:56:49I'm about to get up and walk out.
00:56:52After that police interview, Howard went to see Hannah.
00:56:56And she had a conversation with Howard and she recorded that conversation.
00:57:01Did she tell you she was going to do that?
00:57:03She did not tell us she was going to do that.
00:57:05Hannah didn't tell Howard either, as her cell phone secretly recorded their conversation.
00:57:11She had to know, was her boyfriend also a killer?
00:57:15Well, who got killed? Whether it was you or not, who got killed?
00:57:21Did you do something there?
00:57:25Maybe.
00:57:26What?
00:57:28You want to tell him?
00:57:30I can't.
00:57:31As the conversation continued, Hannah kept urging Howard to give up his horrible secret.
00:57:37Did you kill the person?
00:57:39Tell me.
00:57:40I don't have to do that.
00:57:42No, you don't have to.
00:57:44Are you sure of me, Hannah?
00:57:46If you didn't, you tell me you didn't.
00:57:51You did?
00:57:53When Hannah said, did you kill someone?
00:57:56And he nodded his head. She tells us later that he nodded his head. Yes.
00:58:00Even though he's not giving a full out confession, he's really like coming right up to the line.
00:58:06Yes. Clearly, the facts of the admissions that he's making lined up with the facts of the case of James
00:58:13Chambers being missing. Clearly, this was going to be strong evidence in the case against him.
00:58:19Hannah's mother later turned the recording over to the sheriff's office, but not before yet another bombshell.
00:58:26A couple hours later, my supervisor is calling me saying, hey, Howard wants to confess to the murder of James
00:58:33Chambers.
00:58:33What are you thinking when you hear that?
00:58:35I was like, that's amazing. Over the course of one day, we went from having never even heard of this
00:58:39case before to him coming in and now confessing to this murder.
00:58:45Detectives in two states couldn't crack Howard, but it seemed his devout and determined girlfriend had finally done it.
00:58:53A meeting was hastily set up in this Walgreens parking lot with Howard and the Jones family.
00:58:58I told them, okay, I'm all ears. Tell me what you want to tell me.
00:59:01I'm definitely going to do the right thing. I'm not trying to run or nothing, you know.
00:59:07Okay, I can blame you.
00:59:09But that was it, because...
00:59:12The Jones family actually said he needs a lawyer before he says anything.
00:59:17A Florida public defender soon arrived and advised Howard to hold off on talking.
00:59:23So, no confession.
00:59:25That was a huge letdown. I wanted to call Fayetteville and tell them, hey, we have a confession, we've got
00:59:32him here in custody.
00:59:33So, he just drives away?
00:59:35Yes. We parted ways with Howard.
00:59:38The Bible College also parted ways with Howard.
00:59:41The college declined our request for an interview, but its president provided a video statement about their former student.
00:59:47When he shared the incident with us, we realized it was very serious, and we told him that he could
00:59:54no longer continue as a student at Hope Sound Bible College.
00:59:58We urged him to go back to North Carolina and make confession to the proper authorities.
01:00:06Whether it was pressure from the college, Hannah, her parents, or his own conscience, Howard decided to head up the
01:00:13highway to Fayetteville and finally confess.
01:00:15Yes. As that was happening, District Attorney Billy West was finalizing a plea deal with the Fayetteville public defender assigned
01:00:23to Howard's case.
01:00:24Howard Ashwin would plead guilty to second-degree murder. He would get a sentence of 15 to 20 years.
01:00:30We thought that we'd get some justice for James and his family.
01:00:34And maybe even find James.
01:00:37But then, a snag. A big one.
01:00:43Coming up, more pain for James' parents.
01:00:47You must have been so mad.
01:00:49Oh, man. Yeah, livid.
01:01:08When Howard Ashwin returned to Fayetteville to meet with his public defender and law enforcement to confess,
01:01:15it seemed too good to be true.
01:01:17Turned out, it was.
01:01:21He basically got cold feet and left the area and did not enter into the plea.
01:01:28No plea meant no deal, no confession, no justice.
01:01:35And most importantly, no James.
01:01:38His father, Pete, was devastated.
01:01:41What I was told by Fayetteville PD was the public defender told him,
01:01:45they don't have anything on you.
01:01:46They thought that they were looking out for his best interest.
01:01:49Right.
01:01:50He don't care about the parents of the guy you killed.
01:01:52You must have been so mad.
01:01:53Oh, man. Yeah.
01:01:54Livid.
01:01:56Livid.
01:01:59So was James' mother, Rachel.
01:02:02Just hours earlier, it seemed like she was on the verge of getting all the answers about her son's murder.
01:02:08Did you just want to give up at that point?
01:02:10No.
01:02:12One thing Howard wants me to do is give up, walk away, lay down and grieve.
01:02:17One thing I want is James.
01:02:22Without a confession, the case against Howard collapsed.
01:02:26District Attorney Billy West had to let it go.
01:02:29The evidence was not overwhelming against Howard Ashland.
01:02:33We were confident that he was responsible for James' death.
01:02:37But we did not feel like that we were in a position right then to proceed towards trial or the
01:02:45case.
01:02:47It seemed like he got away scot-free.
01:02:49He walked off skipping and whistling.
01:02:53Howard returned to Florida and continued his relationship with Hannah Jones.
01:02:58What about the Jones family?
01:02:59Were they accepting Howard back into their lives?
01:03:02Yeah, from my understanding, he was still very close with the Jones family.
01:03:05I believe he was staying with them.
01:03:08And they were very tight-knit still.
01:03:11So, like, after all they learned about him, they were still...
01:03:15They were still very supportive of him.
01:03:18It appeared Howard, the murder suspect, was back to being Howard the boyfriend.
01:03:23We tried asking Hannah and her parents to explain their 180.
01:03:27They declined.
01:03:29Detective Dulac, though, had a theory.
01:03:31Something happened that made them change their opinion of Howard.
01:03:35I don't know if they were just that forgiving, if they really just saw a lot of good in him,
01:03:40or what was really going on there.
01:03:44But back at the Fayetteville Police Department, Detective Larry Donegan's opinion of Howard hadn't changed.
01:03:49Even though his case had gone from solved to shambles, Donegan still believed he could nail him.
01:03:56We're starting from scratch all over again.
01:03:58So, how much pressure are you feeling to catch Howard now?
01:04:02It's there, because now he's back in Florida, but is he going to uproot and disappear?
01:04:10Or perhaps do something even worse.
01:04:13I was terrified he was going to do this to someone else.
01:04:18And are you tracking him again daily?
01:04:21I'm still watching him.
01:04:23Yes.
01:04:24Because we're worried about the people around him.
01:04:29Detective Dulac also feared the worst.
01:04:31We would keep an eye on what was going on,
01:04:35and hopefully that he would go back to North Carolina very quickly before anything else would happen.
01:04:42Months passed.
01:04:44Howard laid low.
01:04:47Did you start to worry that he would never be charged?
01:04:49I mean, there was no solid evidence. There was no body.
01:04:52No. I was told early on, get prepared. This could take years.
01:04:58Those words just stuck with me. This could take years.
01:05:03But little did Rachel know, Detective Donegan was continuing to compile a case against Howard.
01:05:09I went back through the case file, start looking over stuff.
01:05:13We have a statement here. Check. We have the stuff that he talked to Hannah. Check.
01:05:16We have statements over there. Check.
01:05:18It's not perfect, but is it enough now?
01:05:21Yes. It's to the point where I can charge him.
01:05:25The case against Howard included that secret tape from Hannah Jones,
01:05:29which DA Billy West hoped would help sway a jury.
01:05:33We're going to get this case ready.
01:05:35We're going to make sure that we've got evidence beyond a reasonable doubt,
01:05:38and then we're going to proceed.
01:05:42December 2017.
01:05:45It was almost a year since Howard's plea deal went sideways.
01:05:49Billy West called a meeting.
01:05:51I remember looking at Detective Donegan, my homicide team, and said,
01:05:56we're going to charge him with murder and proceed to trial.
01:05:59If he will not accept our plea agreement, that's what we're going to do.
01:06:05They contacted Howard's public defender.
01:06:08Between the public defender and the prosecutor's office up here, things were worked out.
01:06:13A deal was worked out?
01:06:15Yes. First, he had to confess to everything.
01:06:18Then, after the confession, he had to work with us in an attempt to find James.
01:06:26Once again, Howard returned to Fayetteville.
01:06:29He showed up.
01:06:31More or less, here I am.
01:06:33Did you arrest him?
01:06:35No, no. I charged him.
01:06:37So Howard was supposed to come confess.
01:06:41As part of the arrangement, we were going to let him leave.
01:06:44He would return back the following day, and then the process more or less would start.
01:06:50But then, it was deja vu all over again.
01:06:54Poof. He's gone again.
01:06:58Coming up, Wedding Bell Blues.
01:07:02Why do you marry somebody that you know killed somebody?
01:07:06When Dateline continues.
01:07:21First, he was a murder suspect, then a Bible college student, and now Howard Ashleman was a fugitive.
01:07:29Just a day after he promised once again to confess, Howard was missing, which had D.A. Billy West worried.
01:07:37We didn't know where he was. People can try to, you know, drive several states away,
01:07:42or take a flight to another country, sort of go underground.
01:07:48The D.A.'s office called the Public Defender's Office, which didn't know exactly where Howard was either.
01:07:55So, Detective Larry Donegan moved into manhunt mode.
01:07:58I conferred with the violent criminal apprehension team. They went and did what they had to do to track him
01:08:04down.
01:08:06And it didn't take long. Using cell phone records, they located and then arrested Howard some 48 hours later,
01:08:14near the tiny town of Randleman, North Carolina.
01:08:16I just don't know where they plan on going from there.
01:08:21Perhaps on a honeymoon, because...
01:08:25Howard Ashleman had married Hannah Jones.
01:08:30That's right. Hannah, now 18, was Mrs. Howard Ashleman.
01:08:36Just a few days before Howard's arrest, the two had driven to another county and tied the knot at this
01:08:42local courthouse.
01:08:46When Pete Chambers got word of the wedding, he wasn't exactly celebrating.
01:08:50Why do you marry somebody that you know killed somebody?
01:08:55Why do your parents let you marry them? Couldn't believe it. Why?
01:08:59But yet they run off and get married.
01:09:03And then, apparently celebrated their marriage in rural North Carolina.
01:09:08So there's not going to be a tropical honeymoon in this case,
01:09:12when he's got a one-way ticket to the big house.
01:09:15No. I don't know if his intention was to just give me some time with my new wife,
01:09:19and then I'll come and take the plea deal. But it was the craziest thing I've seen.
01:09:27Or maybe not crazy. Maybe it was calculated.
01:09:31Was it a strategic move, did you think? Why now?
01:09:35That was, I think, to keep her quiet.
01:09:37So she won't have to testify against him if they're married?
01:09:39Once they're married, she can claim special immunity. I'm not going to speak. He's my husband.
01:09:45And would their marriage also prevent the prosecution from presenting Hannah's secret recording?
01:09:50There certainly was a bit of a concern from a legal point of view.
01:09:55Are they trying to make some type of move where the evidence that Hannah has
01:10:02is not presented to a jury if this case should go to trial?
01:10:07So now it was critical to establish a timeline of Howard and Hannah's relationship
01:10:12and get a window into their private lives. So Detective Donegan got a search warrant for
01:10:17Hannah's cell phone and downloaded hundreds of pictures. Sure enough, there was Howard proposing
01:10:23and their wedding at the courthouse, plus a collection of photos of the loving couple
01:10:28throughout their relationship. How did those photos of Hannah and Howard really help your investigation?
01:10:35It gave us a little more insight of their relationship. My concern was that potentially
01:10:44Hannah could disappear, just like James. By going through the photos, looking at their life together,
01:10:51their relationship time frame, it appeared more that he actually truly cared about her.
01:10:58After researching North Carolina's spousal privilege laws, D.A. Billy West was confident Howard's tacit
01:11:05confession could be used in court because it was recorded by Hannah before they were married.
01:11:11So detectives hauled Howard into an interrogation room while attorneys finalized his plea deal,
01:11:17which included several more months of prison time to make up for that year of freedom he enjoyed
01:11:22after nixing the first deal. He pled guilty to second-degree murder and essentially 15 to 20 years.
01:11:30And also he agreed to a full debriefing about what happened between he and James.
01:11:41It was such a sense of relief that he was finally going to answer for what he had done.
01:11:53You needed one more thing though? Mm-hmm. James. Just want James.
01:12:00That depended on Howard and his confession. Would he finally reveal what really happened to James that
01:12:07hot August afternoon? And would he share the secret of where to find him? I was scared. I didn't know
01:12:13what to do.
01:12:16Coming up, tracing a killer's footsteps to try to find James. We walk to the edge of the bridge,
01:12:23he looks, and he's looking, he's like, this is familiar.
01:12:44You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can't...
01:12:47Finally, after nearly four years, the man who morphed from Homicide Howie to Bible College student
01:12:53to newlywed... Yes, sir.
01:12:55...was ready to confess and solve the mystery of his own making
01:12:59about what happened to James Chambers and where his body was hidden.
01:13:03I don't know why... I did what I did.
01:13:10Howard showed little emotion as he started spilling his dark secret,
01:13:14which first began when he gave James a ride home in a truck similar to this one.
01:13:20Later that afternoon, Howard took James to the Benson's house where he lived.
01:13:25Howard recalled during the drive, James said he wanted to go see a guy to collect a debt
01:13:29and would beat him up if he didn't pay, which Howard didn't want to do.
01:13:34Howard said James got upset, things got heated, then got ugly.
01:13:40I just wanted to scare him and tell him to back off, basically.
01:13:44Went in the back of my truck, and I picked up the rifle,
01:13:50and I didn't even look through the scope or nothing.
01:13:53I just raised up and squeezed the trigger off.
01:14:02I was waiting for him to come out yelling at me and say,
01:14:06you just tried to kill me, but nothing happened.
01:14:10You know, then I realized...
01:14:15I was in trouble.
01:14:18He alludes to the fact that shooting James was perhaps an accident.
01:14:22Yeah.
01:14:23Did you buy that?
01:14:24No.
01:14:25No, not one bit.
01:14:27You don't grab a hunting rifle and accidentally shoot through the cab of the truck.
01:14:34I put my hand up there, and there was no pulse or nothing, and he wasn't breathing.
01:14:40James died instantly.
01:14:44Howard detailed how he dumped the body in the woods behind the Benson's house.
01:14:49Hours later, Howard said he and his friend, Reno Parks, went back to where he left it.
01:14:55There, in the dark woods, Howard lit a campfire so he could see.
01:14:59Then he admitted he tried to burn the body, but it didn't work.
01:15:05So Howard said Reno helped him bury it.
01:15:09Then, some two weeks later, when Howard learned detectives were zeroing in on him,
01:15:13he said he got nervous, dug up the body, and dismembered the remains.
01:15:20You put the body in three bags?
01:15:22Yes.
01:15:23And I wanted it to be able to be easier to handle.
01:15:30Easier to handle, said Howard, when he took the bags and drove with Reno to a rural bridge,
01:15:35where he tossed them into a creek below.
01:15:38It was that weekend.
01:15:40Yeah.
01:15:40When Detective Donegan read the transcript of Howard's grim confession to Rachel,
01:15:45it instantly triggered memories of all those Facebook posts she'd seen.
01:15:49As he was reading it, I went, he posted that.
01:15:53He posted that.
01:15:55Fire, dismember it.
01:15:59He had been giving you all along a road map.
01:16:01Yes.
01:16:02To what had happened to James.
01:16:04Yes, he had.
01:16:06Everything except for one.
01:16:09The one crucial detail, where was James?
01:16:13Howard, as part of his plea deal, was supposed to help detectives find the remains.
01:16:19A week after the confession, Donegan took Howard and his attorney to the scene of the crime,
01:16:24the Benson property.
01:16:26How deep did you go in?
01:16:28Nothing of note turned up there.
01:16:31So now, they headed off, looking for the bridge where Howard said he dumped James' body.
01:16:38Does he know where to go?
01:16:40Completely clueless.
01:16:42He just knows it is a bridge in Sampson County that's concrete.
01:16:48How many bridges are like that?
01:16:50We narrowed it down to 12 to 15 bridges.
01:16:55For a week, they crisscrossed the rural county, surveying every bridge.
01:17:00We went by probably about 10 or 11 bridges, and it was all, well, no, no, no, no, no.
01:17:06Then, a local deputy gave Donegan the location of a bridge that seemed to match Howard's description.
01:17:12We walked to the edge of the bridge, he looks, and he's looking, he's like, this is familiar.
01:17:17They searched the area, but some four years after the murder, there was no trace of James.
01:17:27Soon after the search, Howard was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison.
01:17:32At his court appearance, covered by local media, Howard was actually caught on camera, smiling.
01:17:39If I could have got to him, I'd be in jail.
01:17:43Because I lost it that day, because now here he is actually confessing in front of me to killing my
01:17:48son.
01:17:49Did he apologize? Did he show any remorse?
01:17:51No, never. Never turned around and looked at anybody. Cold.
01:17:56A few months later, another search was done around the bridge that Howard had seemed to remember.
01:18:02But again, nothing.
01:18:07Another year passed. Still, no hint of James.
01:18:12Time didn't heal the pain for his parents, who vowed to keep searching.
01:18:17I'm still not going to stop until my son's laid to rest.
01:18:19Was it kind of the first thing you thought of when you woke up, the last thing you thought of
01:18:23when you went to bed?
01:18:23This day, it's that way.
01:18:28Before I go to bed, when I wake up. It's all day. You literally cannot stop thinking about it.
01:18:36But maybe there was someone who could help.
01:18:39Someone who drove with Howard to the bridge where he threw those bags with James' remains into the creek below.
01:18:44It's going to be Reno and Reno only that can get us to the bottom of it.
01:18:51Reno Parks. Remember, P.I. David Marshburn interviewed him three years earlier.
01:18:57Now, Marshburn knew that Reno's statement about the murder was very similar to Howard's confession.
01:19:02So he went to visit Reno in prison again to get specifics on the bridge where James' remains were dumped.
01:19:08You remember the bridge you talked about with solid concrete? Was it like that?
01:19:14No, it was solid concrete.
01:19:16But there was no metal guardrail?
01:19:18No, there was no guardrail.
01:19:20That's the Keener Bridge.
01:19:23The very same bridge Howard seemed to recognize.
01:19:27Now, Marshburn and others wanted to check it again.
01:19:30So another search was mobilized in April 2021.
01:19:39For two long days, search teams tracked both land and water looking for any remnant of James.
01:19:45There were a few findings, like this cell phone.
01:19:48ZTE, can you see what year it is?
01:19:50But it didn't belong to James.
01:19:52A bone?
01:19:53This big?
01:19:55Yeah.
01:19:56Neither did this bone, which turned out to be from an animal.
01:20:03As the sun began to set, reality set in too.
01:20:08James still wasn't coming home.
01:20:10Not on this day.
01:20:13Do you still believe that you can find him?
01:20:17Yes.
01:20:17They find missing people all the time.
01:20:19He'll be found.
01:20:21What keeps me going is the fact that my son is laying in a creek bed somewhere.
01:20:28Like a piece of trash.
01:20:31And that's not going to happen.
01:20:37We reached out to Howard in prison to ask if he remembered any more about where he hid the remains
01:20:42of James Chambers.
01:20:44He never responded.
01:20:46If he knows, he's not saying.
01:20:49Who does this?
01:20:52The confession means that you tell the truth.
01:20:54That I don't think he has.
01:20:56And I think he knows that he hasn't.
01:20:59But in the end, Carmen drives a big bus and she knows everybody's address.
01:21:07Even without Howard's help, David Marshburn remains optimistic and promises more searches.
01:21:14He's even hoping that Reno Parks, who is now out of prison, can be convinced to help confirm
01:21:19exactly where Howard dumped James' remains.
01:21:22We'll keep coming back and coming back.
01:21:24It might take five more years, seven more years.
01:21:28But it's all in God's time, not ours.
01:21:34For Rachel, those long drives to North Carolina to search for her son continue.
01:21:40A promise is a promise.
01:21:41And one she intends to keep until she can bring James home and bury him next to his brother.
01:21:49Every step I take out here, I'm walking with grief.
01:21:53To finally take away the where are you is when our peace and our healing will begin.
01:22:01You'll keep making those 20-hour drives?
01:22:03Mm-hmm.
01:22:05That's all I got left to give him.
01:22:07And he's worth every mile.
01:22:15That's all for this edition of Dateline.
01:22:17We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 central.
01:22:20And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News.
01:22:23I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News.
01:22:27Goodnight.
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