Episode 226 - Domino Effect - The Senseless Murder of Ashley Biggs
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The opinions expressed in the following episode do not necessarily reflect those of the Minds of Madness podcast. Listener discretion is advised. If you're a fan of Aesop's fables, you might be familiar with The Tale of Two Goats.

It's a cautionary tale about the consequences of inflexibility and the importance of compromise. The story goes like this: One day, two goats approached a narrow bridge from opposite directions. The bridge, spanning a fast-flowing river, was only wide enough for one goat at a time, yet neither goat was willing to let the other pass first.

When the goats met in the middle, head to head with horns nearly touching, their eyes locked in a stubborn standoff, with both goats refusing to back down, their pride preventing any compromise. Minutes passed like hours as they stood motionless, each refusing to retreat. Eventually, one goat driven by frustration charged at the other and drove it off the side of the narrow bridge.

But because their horns were locked in battle, the attacking goat was pulled off the bridge as well, and the two of them fell into the cold churning waters below, the current sweeping them away, leaving the bridge empty. In 2012, two couples in northeastern Ohio were engaged in a bitter custody dispute over a six-year-old child, unwilling to compromise.

As the court system dragged its feet while making its decision, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to take matters into their own hands. Join me now as we examine the shocking murder of Ashley Biggs, a mother and army veteran fighting for custody of her only child, when a bitter feud escalated into a deadly conspiracy.

You'll hear how investigators finally learned the whole truth about what had happened when the person who confessed to the crime began pointing the finger at somebody else. Five years later, few people know a city streets quite as well as a local pizza delivery driver. But it takes more than just knowing where a certain address is.

They need to know the fastest routes, the best shortcuts, and varying traffic patterns at different times of the day. And when it comes to reeling in the tips, speed is the name of the game. During the 1980s, the Domino's Pizza franchise became famous for its 30 minutes or less guarantee. While the marketing strategy was great for business, it also had a significant downside.

By the early 1990s, it was reported that Domino's delivery drivers had the same workplace fatality rate as coal miners. The pressure to meet deadlines had caused speeding and reckless driving. Even though the company would ultimately do away with their famous guarantee, getting hot pizzas out to customers as fast as possible has remained the heart of Domino's business model ever since.

In 2012, Matthew Travis was the general manager of a Domino's franchise in Green, Ohio, an affluent suburb in the Portage Lakes area just south of Akron. As general manager, it was Matthew's job to run a tight ship at the restaurant, where he was in charge of hiring and training staff, holding high expectations for them.

Once an order was placed, Matthew wanted the pizza out of the oven and ready to go within seven minutes. Then it was up to the drivers to do what they do best. Fortunately for Matthew, he'd hired an ace employee about nine months earlier, 25-year-old Army veteran Ashley Biggs. She was a delivery driver and the best delivery driver that I had. She would

Matthew met Ashley through a lifelong family friend, Brittany Dunson, who lived just across the street from Matthew's parents' house. And for the past several years, Ashley had been Brittany's partner.

I met her July 7th of 2009 at my aunt's house. She was just very fun, very easygoing, goofy. She was just fun to be around. Just over time, hanging out, it just kind of happened naturally. She moved in with me. It was probably around September-ish. As Brittany and Ashley started dating, Brittany learned Ashley had overcome a great deal of adversity throughout her life.

Mostly about she didn't get to grow up with her father, that her mom had some struggles, that she was raised by her grandmother, and about her being in the army, and about her daughter. When Ashley was still a junior in high school in 2004, she became pregnant at the age of 17 with her 22-year-old boyfriend at the time, Chad Cobb.

Within a few months of becoming parents, however, things between Chad and Ashley had completely fallen apart. That he was just very controlling and abusive towards her. That she didn't get to do a lot. I guess that she was afraid of him. It wasn't long after Chad and Ashley broke up that Ashley decided to join the army, leaving town when her daughter Grace was only two years old.

Which meant, for the next several years, Chad was given sole custody. When Ashley returned after being medically discharged, she tried seeking joint custody of Grace. Which, according to Brittany, had always been a verbal agreement between Ashley and Chad. But to do this, she needed to demonstrate to a family court that she had a stable job.

That's when Ashley and Brittany turned to their good friend Matthew Travis at Domino's Pizza. I know Ashley Biggs very well. My daughter and her daughter used to be best friends and played together. I can recall a camping trip out in West Virginia. Four days out there, playing in the mud, having a good time. She lived right across the street. We were friends.

She told us, we used to talk about what she was doing and how she was going through trying to regain custody of her child. And I tried to help, I wanted to try to help her financially to be able to do that. I gave her the job so she could show the courts that she can financially support that child. June 20th, 2012 was a typical Wednesday night at the Domino's Pizza Shop in Greene.

Matthew and Ashley were both scheduled to work that evening until close. And as the night wore on and the dinner rush waned, Matthew started cutting drivers and kitchen staff, telling them they could go home. By 11 p.m., only Matthew and Ashley were left manning the shop. At this time of night, orders are few and far between. But it was their policy to take orders right up to the stroke of midnight.

And at 11:45, the last order of the night came in. A female caller, I believe the name was Jennifer that she gave me in a phone number, had ordered a pizza, took the address and she asked for it to be delivered to the back door. After receiving the order for a large half pepperoni half mushroom pizza, Ashley prepared the pizza and sent it through the oven.

Hoping it was her last delivery of the night, Ashley slid the pizza into her insulated delivery bag and walked out to her car, a Gray Ford Taurus. I was going to lock up the shop and go with her. I do that a lot, just training and just to know that my crew was doing what I wanted them to do. She wanted me to stay and start cleaning. She told me that the delivery is right up the road. She'll be right back, like 10, 15 minute stops.

When Ashley didn't return to Domino's after 20 minutes, Matthew became concerned and he made several attempts to call her cell phone. But when Ashley didn't pick up, he decided to go out looking for her. I lock up the shop and I go try to find her. I went to where she was supposed to be delivering the pizza. The address the caller had given was 647 West Turkey Foot Lake Road, only about five minutes away from the Domino's shop.

an address that belonged to a small single-story office building, surrounded on all sides by forest. When Matthew pulled into the parking lot, it was obvious the business was closed. All the lights were off and the lot was completely empty. Remembering the caller had asked the delivery to be made at the building's back door, Matthew drove around the side of the building to its rear parking lot. I pulled into the parking lot. The place was completely black.

I seen a bottle of blood, I turned around and I called the police. In the beam of Matthew's headlights, he could see a large pool of blood on the asphalt. There was also some loose change scattered around the area and it appeared as if a struggle had taken place. With bloody marks on the pavement indicating a body had been dragged. Matthew then drove back to the pizza shop and waited for police to arrive.

Summit County sheriffs were the first ones to arrive. I told them what was going on. I called Brittany Dunson and asked if she heard from her. And she told me no. I actually woke her up. She was sleeping. And I told her what was going on and Brittany immediately got up and came to Domino's and met me there. He had asked me if I talked to Ashley and I told him not for a little while. And he told me that she went on on delivery and that she didn't come back.

And I was obviously distraught, but I thought he was joking. I woke my mom up and we drove out to Domino's. There were police cars and I believe the police cars were coming back or at some point there were. Matt was just telling me what happened, that she went out on a call, that she did not come back. At that point, Brittany Dotson started talking to the officers.

About the custody battle and about Chad. She was in a custody battle with the father of her child, Chad Cobb. Because I know Ashley was afraid of him and because of everything that led up to that night as far as all the courts and just the relationship between them.

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Chad Cobb first met Ashley Biggs at a local roller rink when he was 22 years old. And despite the fact that Ashley was still in high school, her mother approved of the relationship and found Chad to be both polite and gentlemanly. Well, at least at first. Ashley was only 18 years old when she gave birth to their daughter Grace in July 2005. But within only a few months, her relationship with Chad had become extremely volatile.

Ashley's family claims that during this time, Chad had become physically abusive toward Ashley, and an undisclosed domestic violence conviction against him in 2005 seems to support those allegations. When Grace was only a few months old, her parents separated for good and initially shared custody.

But according to Chad, as the months went by, Ashley became less and less involved in her daughter's life, leaving Chad as Grace's primary caregiver. She started pursuing other relationships and Grace really just kind of seemed to be convenient for her whenever it was and if it wasn't, then she just wasn't around. She left us.

I know at one point in time, I know she joined the army. After Chad was given full custody of Grace and Ashley joined the army, Chad's mother, Cindy Cobb, recalls not seeing much of her. I believe the last time she seen her was like 2008 and then she exited Grace's life for over three years. No phone calls, no checkups on her, no nothing.

By this time, Chad had moved on with his own life and on New Year's Eve 2006, he met Erica Lyon. Like Chad, Erica had a child from a previous relationship who was the exact same age as Grace. And by the end of the year, they were both living together as a modern blended family. Chad and Erica would go on to get married and have a child. And by the fall of 2011, Erica was pregnant with their second.

Chad was also the proud owner of Cobb Cable, a telecommunication construction business where Erica worked alongside him as the receptionist. Because the business grew so rapidly, Chad and Erica were able to buy a nice home and cars and live their dream lives. But everything changed on October 5th, 2011, when Chad went to pick up 6-year-old Grace from school.

I went to the school to pick her up and when I went into the gymnasium, Drace wasn't there. There was a police officer standing there with some paperwork and she explained to me that a civil protection order was issued and I wasn't allowed to see or try to find out where Drace was and there was no contact to be had and it was

Chad's mother, Cindy, soon discovered who'd picked up Grace from school that day. I guess Ashley had gone to the courts to get temporary custody in October 5th, 2011. That was the first time we had heard anything from Ashley since 2008. She went to the school.

and collected Grace. Grace had no idea who Ashley was. We were floored. We couldn't believe that a magistrate would just hand over a child to a stranger virtually without any prior checking into anything. For the Cobb family, the family court decision to give custody of Grace to her biological mother had come out of nowhere.

But the truth was, Ashley had been trying to reach out and reconnect with Grace for well over a year. According to her partner Brittany, it had been Chad who'd been deliberately avoiding all communication during this time. She knew that she was with Chad, but she wasn't sure where. She didn't have an address or phone numbers or anything like that.

One day, Ashley received a letter in the mail from the Summit County Children's Services Board regarding Grace. As the child's biological mother, the letter was a formality to inform Ashley that Grace had been the subject of multiple inquiries regarding allegations of abuse or neglect. Brittany remembers that the letter didn't give any more information beyond that.

They weren't specific. It was just letting her know that there were cases opened and then closed, but there were no details of the cases. When she went into the court just to kind of get some information about the CSB reports and kind of what was going on, when it was looked into deeper, there was some discussion had between them, and she was given the temporary full custody because of so many cases that were open and closed.

Once Ashley was given custody of Grace, Chad and Erica hired an attorney and began fighting to regain custody almost immediately. When she came back and we had our first court hearing, I remember seeing her at the courthouse and it was truly the first time I'd seen her in three years. And I remember walking up to her and I extended my hand out and shook her hand. I was like, it's good to see that you're back. And I told her that...

How you went about getting Grace is kind of messed up. If she's going to be a part of Grace's life, let's just let everybody do the right thing and let's move forward and make it work. According to Chad, he invited Ashley and Brittany out for dinner after the first hearing to talk about the situation. No, no, she didn't take me up on my offer for dinner. And we continued through the very, very strange court process.

Over the course of multiple custody hearings, Chad learned for the first time that claims of child abuse had been reported to Children's Services. To his surprise, he learned the claims were being made against his wife, Erica. But even more surprising, they'd been made by Grace herself, and some of the accusations were downright disturbing.

Here's Grace at 18 years old describing what Erica had been doing to her. Erica was physically abusive. Sometimes she would just hit me. I'd have bruises all over me. I remember one time she was very upset. She had me like pinned to the floor. One of her knees was like on my chest and...

I can't remember, she had her hands around my throat or my mouth, but like I couldn't really breathe and I was crying. And she would tell me like in these circumstances, if I would tell my dad,

what she was doing to me, then she would do worse. So I just, I never told my dad about what was going on. I don't remember the exact date or time, but there was an incident where Erica had put dog feces, it was in blueberry yogurt, and told me to eat it. And I noticed that that was in there and it looked like it, smelled like it. Obviously I hadn't ever had it before, but once she forced me to eat it, I kind of knew. I mean, I haven't ever liked blueberry yogurt since then.

The assuming custody battle between Chad and Ashley became extremely contentious, with Chad leveling his own allegations of abuse against Ashley and Brittany. I mean, poor GC would have bruises or white marks or tattoos over her private areas and...

As Grace's case dragged on through the courts, Chad and Erica were awarded partial custody while the magistrate tried to determine whose side of the story she believed.

But by June 2012, the court's decision regarding permanent custody of Grace was still in limbo. When police arrived at Domino's Pizza in the early morning hours of June 21st, they were well aware it wasn't entirely uncommon for delivery drivers like Ashley to fall victim to crime, which usually didn't amount to much more than robbery.

But when the officers drove over to the delivery address and saw the pool of blood in the parking lot, they realized something more nefarious than robbery had occurred. They feared Ashley may have been kidnapped. Or worse, after being told about Ashley and Chad's contentious history, officers were immediately dispatched to locate Chad and speak with him.

But when they arrived at Chad and Erica's house, the couple was nowhere to be found. Officers then went to Chad's grandmother's house, located only a few minutes away from the Domino's Pizza shop, arriving around 4:30 in the morning. But it wasn't until they drove to the back of her property that they discovered a very peculiar sight. The Kopp family's Lincoln Navigator parked behind a barn with the engine running.

Inside, they found Erica, Grace, and her three siblings, the youngest only two months old. Shining their flashlights to look around the area, police soon found Chad hiding in the woods nearby. Obviously, police found it incredibly suspicious that Chad and Erica had their entire family hiding behind a barn so early in the morning. They decided it was time to bring them in for questioning.

But when asked about Ashley Biggs, both Chad and Erica refused to cooperate. As the sun rose over Northeast Ohio later that morning, a Wayne County woman named Patricia Ware woke up at a rural home about 20 minutes away from the Domino's Pizza Shop. As she began her morning routine, she noticed something strange in her neighboring cornfield about a quarter mile away.

I let the dog out the back sliding door and I noticed that there was like a red light flashing kind of. I waited for my husband to get up. I talked to him. He said, oh, it's probably somebody cutting wood or hunting or whatever. I went about my day, did my chores, came back, noticed that it was still there, said something again and realized that

There's nobody moving around back there. There's no sound coming from back there. It shouldn't be there. Eventually, Patricia realized the object was a vehicle parked in the far corner of the field next to a wood line. When it hadn't moved by midday on June 21st, she reported the suspicious vehicle to police. I was dispatched in regards to a suspicious gray car parked in an agricultural field.

She noticed the car then. She thought it was odd that it was parked in an agricultural field that she knew had been planted in corn. I advised her that I would make contact with her after I looked into the suspicious vehicle. And then I walked down the access lane and noticed tire tracks in the lane that were fresh. Followed those tracks into the field for some distance.

While walking through the cornfield to the abandoned vehicle, the officer received a call from dispatch informing him that police in Summit County were actively looking for a car in regard to a potential homicide case. They explained a little bit more detail to me as far as a missing vehicle. They gave me the license plate, which I wrote on my palm of my hand, and then they

As I began to approach the vehicle, I looked at the front license plate and observed the plate. I looked at my hand and the plates matched. As I got closer, the driver's side window was down. Looking through the window between the front and back seat, I could see what appeared to be skin between those two seats. I then re-approached, coming up from the passenger side rear window.

Upon looking in, I observed an individual in there. The individual's face was very dark purple. I can still picture that. There were taser wires coming off of the individual. She had on a Domino's shirt, tan shorts, a leather belt, white tennis shoes. There were zip ties around her hands or wrists and what appeared to be zip tie around her neck.

The homicide victim inside the car was soon determined to be Ashley Biggs, and the ensuing autopsy by a medical examiner revealed the horrifying details of her murder.

The autopsy of Ashley Biggs demonstrated a tightly secured ligature around her neck associated with deep muscular neck hemorrhages and florid facial and scalp petechiae. She also had multiple blows to her head and evidence of electrical restraint. With the zip tie around her neck that is going to compress the blood vessels in her neck,

and in doing that it will render her unconscious relatively quickly. It will still take a period of minutes before her brain actually completely shuts down. She has injuries around where the ligature is, where there are some abrasions, which likely are her attempting to dig at the ligature itself and remove it.

Ashley had been tased by a stun gun, hit in the head, and ultimately strangled to death by a four-foot cable tie around her neck.

Similar cable ties were also discovered around her wrists, knees and ankles, but these were determined to have been placed on Ashley's body post-mortem. Within hours of finding Ashley's body, police executed a search warrant at Chad and Erica's home. On a workbench in the backyard, detectives discovered a stun gun along with a pile of four-foot cable ties matching those found at the crime scene.

They also found a camouflaged backpack containing duct tape, face paint, a mask, gloves and a spare cartridge for Chad's stun gun. But most damning of all, the blood-soaked t-shirt they found. Chad's t-shirt. They also found blood on one of Chad's socks, which later confirmed to be Ashley's. With the overwhelming physical evidence against Chad, he was charged with a litany of crimes.

from aggravated murder to kidnapping to abuse of a corpse, among others. But without any direct evidence against Erica, Summit County police were forced to release her. While Grace Cobb was placed into the custody of her grandmother Cindy, Erica's other three children were returned to live with her. Over the coming months, Ohio prosecutors announced their intention to pursue the death penalty case against Chad.

After hearing this, Chad decided to take a plea deal in February 2013. In exchange for life without parole, Chad pleaded guilty to all the charges. Although Chad never once implicated Erica in Ashley's murder, detectives always suspected Chad must have had help. After all, it had been a female voice who ordered the pizza that night from Domino's.

But without any evidence to prove who the caller was, the search for Chad's accomplice went cold. Throughout the first six to seven months that Chad had been kept behind bars, Erica played the role of a dutiful wife, visiting him in jail, talking to him on the phone, and swearing she'd never leave him. But on the very day Chad was sentenced to life in prison, Erica showed up to the courtroom pregnant with another man's child.

It was then Chad learned Erica had become romantically involved with his lifelong best friend, Mike Stefanko. Not only had Chad grown up with Mike, but he'd also given Mike a job at his company. Chad would soon learn that not only had Mike impregnated his wife, he'd also moved into his home just two months after he'd been arrested. Needless to say, Chad was furious about the affair.

Especially when he realized Mike had essentially replaced him as the father figure inside his own home. By 2014, Chad and Erica were officially divorced, and Mike and Erica were soon married. After that, Erica became less and less inclined to allow Chad's children to visit him in prison. And for Chad, this became the final straw.

In late December 2017, the lead detective in Ashley Biggs' homicide case received an unexpected letter in the mail that read, Dear Detective Hitchings, Hello and good holidays to you. My name is Chad Cobb. Years ago, you asked me about Erica. This is the reason I'm writing you.

The letter went on to offer a full and detailed confession of what Chad claimed had really taken place on the night Ashley had been murdered. According to Chad, Erica had orchestrated the entire conspiracy to murder Ashley, believing that getting rid of her was the only way to end the bitter custody dispute over Grace. Chad claimed that on the night of the murder, Erica drove the entire family to an office building on Turkey Foot Lake Road,

Along the way, Erica drove past Domino's Pizza to make sure Ashley's car was in the parking lot. Knowing that Ashley would be the only delivery driver remaining on staff that night, Erica used a prepaid cell phone to order a pizza while giving a fake name, a ruse to lure Ashley into a trap. Chad's letter to the police stated, "I can still see that smile as she talked on the phone. That sick smile."

After placing the order, Chad claimed Erica drove away with the kids, leaving Chad alone in the dark parking lot. About 20 minutes later, he said Ashley arrived and got out of her car to deliver the pizza. That's when Chad said he attacked her by attempting to taser her in the back, but the taser didn't work.

Ashley tried fighting Chad in the parking lot, even landing several blows. But Chad eventually overpowered her. Chad said he then called Erica, telling her to drive back to the parking lot. When she arrived, Chad said he lifted Ashley's body into the backseat of her delivery car.

He then got into the driver's seat and headed down the road toward his family's farm, with Erica following behind, with the four kids still inside her Lincoln Navigator. When they came to a remote cornfield, Chad said he drove Ashley's car to the furthest corner before abandoning it. He then walked back through the field to where Erica was waiting to pick him up.

Knowing police would need corroborating proof of his story, Chad informed the detective that his mother, Cindy Cobb, was in possession of a secret recording that would prove his story. When authorities arrived to speak with Cindy Cobb, she admitted she'd once secretly recorded Erica while she and Chad were in the process of getting a divorce.

Off and on through the years, we would have issues. If she got upset about something, she would withhold the kids from us. It would be, you know, until we can sit down and talk, the kids aren't going to be able to come over. This happened several times. We had just come back from vacation.

And she wanted to meet with me to talk. And it was during this time where Chad was wanting the divorce. And I decided I was just going to record, tired of always being called on the mat and always having the kids withheld from us. She was upset because he felt she, he, Chad, was giving her ultimatums about stuff being his way or something.

What the detective learned through Chad and Cindy was that Erica was playing a dangerous game of leverage ever since Chad's arrest. Because of her involvement in Ashley's murder, Erica knew that Chad could get her arrested at any moment by revealing the truth.

Chad used this leverage to manipulate Erica from behind bars, and in doing so, Erica decided to retaliate by withholding his children from visiting him or his parents. But it was only a matter of time before this ticking time bomb of mutually assured destruction was bound to go off. The letter Chad had written to Detective Hitchings was the match that lit the fuse.

But Cindy's secret audio recording of Erica in 2014 was the sound of the bomb exploding.

He said, this is your part of it.

Throughout the three-hour recording, Erica admitted to being the one who made the phone call to Domino's on the night Ashley was murdered. She further stated that Erica had believed it was a perfect plan, but it didn't go the way it was supposed to go. She also admitted to Cindy that, quote, "...if everything had been told exactly as it happened, we would both be in prison right now. That's totally the truth."

Every time I hear a siren, I think they're coming for me." Looking further into Erica's involvement, police were able to confirm that Domino's phone call had been made from a burner phone with only 15 prepaid minutes. They also found surveillance footage of Chad and Erica at Walmart just two days before Ashley's murder. They're only purchased that day, 15 prepaid cell phone minutes.

Erika Stefanko, formerly Erika Cobb, was indicted by a grand jury for the aggravated murder of Ashley Biggs in November 2019. At her trial in 2020, Erika pleaded not guilty and adamantly maintained her innocence, claiming that Chad was trying to frame her out of revenge. But even her defense team was surprised when Chad took the witness stand.

Not only did Chad testify that Erica had orchestrated the entire murder plot, but he also implied she'd been the one who strangled Ashley to death. Was Ashley in the car? Yes, sir. Was Ashley already dead? Yes, sir. Did you strangle her? I'm not the one who strangled her, sir. Would you please repeat that? I am not the one that strangled her, sir. I see. So now you plead guilty...

Due to legal rules regarding spousal privilege, Chad was not allowed to say anything more about Erica's alleged direct involvement. Needing more than just the word of a convicted murderer to make their case, the prosecution called Grace Cobb to the stand to confirm that Erica had made the fateful call to Domino's Pizza that night.

So the night of my mother's death, I remember waking up and I was in a vehicle. I don't know what vehicle it was. I was just in the back of it. I remember it was dark outside.

And I can't remember if Erica was in the driver or the passenger, but I remember she was in the front seat. But I remember Erica making the phone call. It was her voice and she used a different name to order. And I remember it was a pizza, but I don't remember what she ordered on it. And at that time, I didn't really, I guess I didn't really think anything like of why she was using a different name.

One of Erica's best friends also testified that Erica had hacked Ashley's online passwords to spy on her during the bitter custody dispute over Grace. She had talked about, and I don't know how anybody could do this, but she talked about how she had gotten into her email and social media accounts and she could see what Ashley was doing, what she was saying, what she knew, things like that.

Perhaps the most shocking moment of the trial occurred with this same witness, who claimed Erica admitted two horrible things after Ashley's death. She really kind of expressed her hate for her. She did say that after everything had happened, that she would visit Ashley's grave. And at one point, I know that she had said that she had defecated on her grave.

Erica's defense team attempted to challenge the circumstantial and sensational nature of the prosecution's case by claiming there wasn't a single piece of physical evidence linking Erica to Ashley's murder. Erica decided not to testify in her own defense. At one point during the trial, proceedings had to be delayed for medical reasons.

Ashley's mother, Kimberly Biggs, fainted at the sight of seeing her daughter's crime scene photos for the first time. In November 2021, the jury found Erica Stefanko guilty of aggravated murder after only two hours of deliberation. But in 2022, Erica's conviction was overturned on a technicality.

An appellate court ruled that because Chad Cobb had been permitted to testify via video link during COVID-19 protocols, this violated Erica's right to a fair trial. Erica would have one more chance to fight the charges at a retrial in January 2024 when she decided to take the stand and tell her side of the story. According to Erica, the plan had never been to kill Ashley that night.

Because if it had been, Erica would never have agreed to it. Instead, Erica asserted their plan had been to secretly plant meth inside Ashley's car when she got out to deliver the pizza. Afterward, they would call the cops, hoping to get Ashley busted for drugs, which would help them get full custody over Grace.

Eric claimed this building was at a property adjacent to the parking lot where Ashley would later be murdered.

Did you in fact make the call, the fateful call to Domino's that night? Yes, I did. Did you give a fake name? Yes, I did. And did you order a pizza? Yes. Okay. And what name did you give? Jennifer. When you make that call, what does Chad do? At that point, that was when he went back into the woods. After you make the call and he walks off, what happens after that?

So I waited for the call. It seemed like it was getting to be an awfully long time. But then ultimately I did get a call from him. Where were you going to pick him up? He was just going to return. Okay. At that business? Yes. Okay. About how long do you think elapsed before you get that call from Chad? Maybe half an hour. He tells me to meet him at his bridge.

Erica stated she knew exactly which bridge Chad was referring to because it had been one of his favorite spots near the farm where he'd grown up. According to Erica, she'd never even stepped foot on the property where Ashley had been murdered.

She also testified that she didn't know what happened to Ashley until Chad walked back to the bridge to meet her. Once he'd abandoned Ashley's car in the cornfield. What is Chad's demeanor when he gets up to the car? He's not himself. In what way? He's like shaky, fidgety. He's normally like a really fluid, calm guy, even when he's angry.

Did you find out what the hell happened? I know for a fact what happened back there. Did you learn that Ashley was dead? Yes. And what was your reaction to that? I felt like I had been hit with a ton of bricks. Okay. I felt like I was going to be sick. Erica claimed that her version of events also explained everything she'd been recorded saying by Cindy Cobb in 2014.

When she talked to Cindy about the "plan", she testified she was merely referring to their attempt at planting meth inside Ashley's car. Erica went on to claim that she and Chad had already planted marijuana in Brittany's car months earlier. On that occasion, Erica had called the cops and the drugs were discovered by police. But Brittany was never charged with any crime.

But the prosecution believed Erica's story was simply a carefully crafted narrative to explain away the damning secret recording made by Cindy Cobb. So based on your testimony, it basically sounds like this is all just a big misunderstanding, right?

Big misunderstanding? How do you mean? Well, I mean, we're here on an aggravated murder trial, but apparently the three-hour conversation you had was not about killing Ashley Biggs. It was about a meth...

planting meth? That's true. All right. So really, had you come to us in 2012 and mentioned that to us, we'd never even be here, right? Not today, no. Right. And a matter of fact, it's been 12 years since she's been killed. And today is the very first time you've ever mentioned meth.

You're very aware that all the crimes that you've admitted to today are no longer prosecutable against you because of the statute of limitations. You cannot be prosecuted and punished for it. Is that fair? That's fair. Okay. So all your admissions were without any type of repercussions? You could say that. Despite this carefully constructed story, the prosecution was able to start poking some fairly obvious holes in her story.

Why in the world, if he was going to plant meth in her car, like how did this practically work? So he's going to have you load up all the kids at 1130 at night to drop him off in a place where he could have parked himself. Why? You have to ask him that.

So according to you, Bad Cobb was going to go plant some meth in a car. Yes. Now, would you agree this is a pretty elaborate plan to go and call her up, have a pizza delivered to a location, which, by the way, is closed, right? Yes. Okay, so the plan was you were going to make a call next door. She was going to come, and then when she drove up and got out of the car...

And the business is closed. When was he going to sneak the drugs into the car? You could not get into a car by that back door without being seen. During closing arguments, the prosecution theorized that the plan between Chad and Erica was to kidnap Ashley and murder her somewhere else. They could have taken her 100 miles away. And for a long time, people had thought, hey, she just took off again.

Nobody would know and quite frankly the fact is his but for Ashley spilling blood that night Because probably it seems like what happened was when he tased her it didn't work He must not have made a good connection maybe because the clothes were there or whatever But you can see there's two marks on her back, but only one stuck in so when he tases her it doesn't work That's where it went awry and she fought back and blood was spilled

Now that whole plan of just getting rid of her without leaving any evidence in that location changes things. And now everything goes awry because why? Now there's potentially blood on him, right? If not, he could have gone. I mean, and think about it. Even with all that, the only evidence that we had linking him physically to that was some blood on his sock. If it wasn't for the blood on his clothing, there would be no DNA.

There would be no DNA. He could have gotten away with this. He, if she had been tased, incapacitated, he could have put her in that car, dumped her anywhere, and we would have never, well, we would have suspected him. But what would have been the evidence? It wouldn't have been. That would be a perfect plan. Because Erica admitted to being the one who called Domino's Pizza that night, the entire trial would come down to one question. Was Erica attempting to plant drugs in Ashley's car that night?

Or did she know Chad was planning to murder his ex-partner? If she did know, under Ohio law, she was also guilty of aggravated murder. After spending eight hours in deliberations, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty.

When the judge announced that 41-year-old Erika Stefanko would be sentenced to life in prison, the gallery inside the courtroom cheered loudly in support of the sentence. It had been 12 long years since Ashley's senseless and brutal murder, and for Ashley's friends and family, the verdict was a relief and an end to a horrible chapter in their lives.

During victim impact statements, Grace Cobb delivered a scathing speech to her former stepmother. I have to grow up with no mother. I can't celebrate Mother's Day. I can't be with my mom on the holidays. I can't call my mom when I have something exciting to tell her. I can't relate to her when something happens. I can't relate to anything that has to do with having a mom because I don't have one here to relate to.

Erica, you killed my mother, yet you have shown absolutely no remorse for your actions. Not once have you apologized to the ones you've impacted. Not once have you shed a tear for just feeling a slight bit bad for what you've done. And we were all supposed to be a family. Never did I think I would have to go through the Disney experience of having an evil stepmom, but it turns out nothing is like the movies. You are untrustworthy, you're a liar, you're sickening.

but worst of all, you're a killer. You and Ashley were both supposed to be my mom. Now I have neither. As you sit in prison, I hope you think about all the people you have hurt and all the remorse that you have yet to show. I can't forgive you for what you've done, and I have no reason to. You don't even ask for forgiveness. And I hope you pray every single day to God for forgiveness because you won't find that out here.

The final person to speak on Ashley's behalf was her mother, Kimberly Biggs. My daughter was the most caring and loving person that I have ever met. She cared for other people's needs to be for her own. She was the most selfless person. Even as her mother, I'll never even deserve my own child. No parent should ever have to bury their child. And because of your evil doings, Erica...

I had to do just that. I had to bury my baby. And her daughter will never have her mother for her wedding. No mother and daughter talks. Grace will never have her mother beside her when she has her first child. You made my granddaughter believe.

She wasn't loved by her mother, wasn't cared for by her mother, nor loved or cared for by her own grandmother. I hope they're always out of your favorite things in commissary. I hope you try to call home. You land on everyone's voicemail. I hope when you try to write home that only pens you have have no ink and every pencil breaks with each new sentence.

I hope those around you who finally got to see the real Erica for the second time will remove you from their life. And yet, that's still not good enough. You took everything from me. The day you took my only child. I miss you, Ashley. I did this for you.

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