A HUSBAND'S SHOCKING DEATH KILLER BALLERINA?

BUSINESSMAN DOUG BENEFIELD WANTED TO MAKE HIS YOUNG WIFE HAPPY BY FINANCING HER DANCE COMPANY. THEN THE MONEY RAN OUT

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The hotel staff was starting to clean up the ballroom after a 2016 political fundraiser in Sarasota, Florida, when Ashley Byers and Dani Everette began chatting about what they wanted in a partner. “She said she was trying to network with men who could help her start her own ballet company,” remembers Dani, 30, a friend and business consultant. “I told her that I was looking for a man who was tall, dark and handsome, and she just smiled and said, ‘I don’t care about that. All I need is someone rich.’”

Several months later at yet another political fundraiser, this one at the Palm Beach mansion of former presidential candidate Ben Carson, Ashley, 24, seemed to find exactly that. While Doug Benefield wasn’t mega-rich, the 54-year-old navy veteran and technology consultant had started several successful businesses.

Sparks flew instantly – Doug was extremely lonely after the death of his wife, Renee, the previous year – and the couple married just 14 days after they met. As with the wedding itself, they wasted little time building a future together. Although she had only danced with small, regional troupes, Ashley wanted to build her own ballet company, and Doug happily footed the bill.

Not long after the 2018 birth of their daughter, Emerson, the marriage started to crumble. Doug began to run out of money and the ballet company fell apart.