Body of woman missing for 2 years found under backyard firepit, roommate charged with murder
(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) — A South Carolina man has been arrested and charged with murder in the death of his former roommate who was missing for over two years before her body was found buried under a firepit earlier this summer, police said.
Penni Whiteside’s remains were discovered buried in the yard outside her home on June 12 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, according to a statement from the Myrtle Beach Police Department. She had been missing since the spring of 2022 when she was 51-years-old.
Neighbors told police that they had reason to believe Whiteside was buried under the firepit in the backyard of her home, where 54-year-old Sheridan Dirk Fogle was also living at the time, police said.
“As stated in the original report, the identified victim had been living with the offender. Further investigation revealed that due to statements made by her neighbors, there was reason to believe that she may have been buried near the residence, in the backyard under a firepit,” said the Myrtle Beach Police Department. “On June 12, 2024, investigators obtained a search warrant for the property in question. During the search, the victim’s remains were recovered and identified.”
Whiteside’s death was being investigated by authorities as a homicide when, on Thursday morning at approximately 7:30 a.m., an arrest warrant was served to Fogle in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in connection with a “missing person and murder case.”
Fogle was arrested in connection with the death of Whiteside on Thursday and has since been charged with murder, authorities said.
“This is a tragic loss of life and a senseless crime of violence. Please continue to pray for the family and friends of the victim,” authorities said. “The Myrtle Beach Police Department is committed to seeking justice and holding those accountable for those who do harm. Thank you to the U.S. Marshals Service- Carolina’s Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety for assisting with the arrest in this case.”
Fogle appeared in court on Friday and a judge did not set bond for the suspect, according to ABC News’ Florence, South Carolina, affiliate WPDE. The Myrtle Beach judge did confirm, however, that the case against Fogle would be referred to the general sessions court and that two future court dates on Oct. 25 and Dec. 13 have been scheduled.
The investigation is currently ongoing and authorities have said that no other information will be released at this time.
(NEW YORK) — Doug and Ashley Benefield seemed to have a fairy tale romance — a beautiful ballerina swept off her feet by a dashing older man, married only 13 days after they started dating. However, less than four years later, Doug would be dead, killed by Ashley in what she claims was self-defense.
The trial is playing out in a Florida courtroom, with prosecutors accusing Ashley of wanting sole custody of the couple’s daughter Emerson.
“This case is about a woman who, very early on in her pregnancy, decided she wanted to be a single mother,” prosecutor Suzanne O’Donnell said. “Her husband and everything she did from that point on was to attain that goal and she would stop at nothing to attain that goal. When there was no other option, she shoots him and kills him and claims self-defense.”
However, Ashley Benefield’s attorney argued that she was trapped in an abusive relationship, stating that Doug Benefield was a manipulative, controlling and abusive man.
Doug and Ashley met in 2016 at a political event. They instantly connected despite their 30-year age difference. Doug was a recently widowed father to a teenage daughter named Eva.
Doug went as far as reversing his vasectomy so he and Ashley could have a child together. However, their whirlwind romance started to crumble as the ballet company they started together failed, and Ashley claiming Doug became abusive.
“Ms. Benefield was alleging that Doug had been violent toward her,” Stephanie Murphy, a former attorney for Doug, said. “She alleged that he had hit the dog, fired a gun into the ceiling. The biggest allegation was that he was poisoning her and their child in utero with heavy metals.”
On May 6, 2020, Ashley filed a restraining order against Doug.
Things came to a head on Sept. 27, 2020. Doug was helping Ashley load a U-Haul at her mother’s house. They were planning on moving to Maryland, with Doug living separately.
According to court documents filed by the defense, Ashley claims Doug struck her, hitting her on the side of her head, and then tried to keep her from leaving the room.
“When I saw her after the incident, there was edema swelling on the side of her face,” Dr. Barbara Russell said.
Ashley claims she feared for her life, shot Doug multiple times in self-defense, and then ran to her neighbor’s house.
But Eva Benefield told ABC News’ 20/20 that she doesn’t believe it was self-defense.
“If it was self-defense, why did she shoot — why shoot multiple times?” Eva said. “If I was defending myself in a situation I would shoot once and I wouldn’t shoot to kill. I wouldn’t take a life away. And she clearly wanted to take my dad’s life away and ruin her own child’s life and ruin my life.”
The high-profile case has been coined “the Black Swan murder trial,” named after the movie starring Natalie Portman. The movie tells the story of a tortured artist whose quest for perfection leads to mental instability. Ashley’s ballet background inspired the title.
“I think what it comes down to is that ‘the black swan’ has a catchy ring and it sensationalizes my life and my situation, and so they ran with it,” Ashley told ABC News before her trial. “And it’s sad to me that people who don’t even know me have this idea of a monster when they think of me.”
She decided to speak exclusively with ABC because she wanted to help other women who had gone through similar experiences.
“I am really doing it for other people because I know I’m not alone in this,” Ashley said. “There are women all over the country, all over the world, who have gone through or are going through hard situations behind closed doors. The statistic is like 1 in 3, 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence of some sort in their lifetime. And until you have been there or it’s someone that you know and care about, it’s not something that you think about.”
During testimony, Ashley alleged that Doug had been violent toward her.
In submitted text messages, Doug admitted to punching their dog and shooting a gun in the home, writing, “I shot the gun… How many times did I tell you I was having a nervous breakdown?”
Outside the court, advocates for survivors of domestic violence have rallied around Ashley, including her mother and 6-year-old daughter, Emerson.
The case is now in the hands of the jury of five women and one man. Ashley Benefield is facing 25 years to life in prison.
“It’s a horrible reality. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody,” Ashley said. “Emerson’s already been through a lot. I can’t imagine how this would affect her if things were to go poorly at trial.”
(LOS ANGELES) — One of the largest wildfires in California history, the Park Fire in Northern California, continued to rage Monday morning, racing across four counties and threatening more than 4,200 structures as thousands of firefighters struggled to increase containment lines, officials said.
The blaze, which authorities said was deliberately ignited Wednesday afternoon, had spread to 368,256 acres by Monday morning, or more than 560 square miles, through Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). Containment on the fire remains at 12%, officials said.
The Park Fire is the largest fire burning in the state and the nation right now, surpassing the 288,690-acre Durkee Fire in eastern Oregon, which was sparked on July 17 by a lightning strike and was 49% contained as of Sunday evening, according to the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office.
The Park Fire is now the seventh largest fire recorded in California history, officials said. It comes as the state battles 22 other fires, including some as small as 12 acres as of Monday.
More than 100 structures have been confirmed destroyed, and at least five others damaged, according to CAL FIRE. There have been no reports of deaths or people unaccounted for, officials said.
The Butte County Sheriff’s Office lifted some evacuation orders on Sunday. But evacuees like Nalley Orozco told ABC News they had nothing to return to but charred rubble.
Orozco, of the Butte County town Cohasset, was one of more than 3,800 people forced to evacuate as the Park Fire consumed her home and reptile-breeding business Killer Clutches.
“We left everything behind, all personal belongings, all of the enclosures, all the supplies,” Orozco told ABC News, adding that she was able to save all of her animals but lost her home and business.
The rapid spread of the fire is being fueled by an abundance of vegetation and one of the hottest and driest summers on record in the area, officials said.
Temperatures in the area, which have been in the triple digits, cooled slightly to a high of 92 degrees on Sunday in the Chico area, according to the National Weather Service. Winds also died down in the area, but gusts of up to 20 mph are expected on Monday.
In an updated statement Sunday evening, CAL FIRE said that the cooler night and morning temperatures of about 70 degrees moderated the fire behavior, “allowing fire crews the opportunity to actively combat the fire outside of the National Forest lands.”
“This proactive approach aims to safeguard the communities and ecological and cultural resources that may be at risk from the fire,” CAL FIRE said in its statement.
The high temperature on Monday in the fire zone is forecast to be 94 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. By the end of this week, temperatures are forecast to spike back into the 100s, according to the weather service.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Butte and Tehama counties due to the Park Fire, as well as Plumas County, where the Gold Complex Fire, which started on July 22, has burned more than 3,000 acres and was 50% contained on Monday.
Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, was arrested on suspicion of arson in the Park Fire after he allegedly pushed a burning car into a gully in Bidwell Park, near Chico, according to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. Stout, who is being held without bail in the Butte County Jail, is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday afternoon.
“I don’t know if I’d say I’m angry, but frustration and unnecessary, yes,” Chico-area rancher John Russell told ABC News of learning the fire was deliberately set.
Russell said the fire burned up to this property line but was stopped by firefighters who cut a fire line around his land with a bulldozer to save his barn and cattle.
“I know I’m being recorded, so I won’t say obviously, I’ll put it tactfully… Our cattle survived. We can go on. We can fix the rest. But truly, the real damage and sadness and anger would come from the people who have lost everything,” Russell said.
There are more than 4,700 personnel, 16 helicopters and 337 fire engines assigned just to the Park Fire, officials said.
“Numerous firefighting air tankers from throughout the state are flying fire suppression missions as conditions allow,” according to CAL FIRE.
A fire burning near the Sequoia National Park, the 2024 SQF Lightning Complex Fire in Tulare and Kern counties in Central California, is the second largest blaze burning in the state, having consumed 82,699 acres since starting on July 13, according to CAL FIRE. The blaze was 33% contained on Monday.
The heavy smoke from fires in Northern California and Oregon is spreading across several states, including Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. By Monday afternoon, some of the heavy smoke is expected to reach as far as the Dakotas and Nebraska.
ABC News’ Mola Lenghi and Jaclyn Lee contributed to this report.
(OROVILLE, Calif.) — A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting a massive Northern California wildfire in July that destroyed 26 homes and businesses and prompted the evacuation of nearly 30,000 people, officials said.
Spencer Grant Anderson of Oroville, California, was arraigned on Monday on charges of arson of an inhabited structure, arson of forest land and arson causing multiple structures to burn, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.
Anderson was ordered to return to court on Wednesday after he has a chance to speak to his court-appointed attorney, prosecutors said.
“It was a long-term investigation. There are a lot of moving parts. Right now it’s an accusation and everybody has a right to a trial,” Anderson’s attorney, Larry Pilgrim, told ABC News on Tuesday as he waited at the Butte County Jail to speak to his client for the first time.
Pilgrim said he plans to ask for a continuance in the case to allow him to review the evidence. He said Anderson will enter a plea at a later date.
Investigators from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) identified Anderson as a possible suspect a day after the Thompson Fire ignited near the town of Oroville on July 2, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said at a news conference on Monday.
“For 50 days, Cal Fire devoted four to six investigators per day, brought in from around the state, to continuously watch Anderson as other investigators meticulously built the case,” Ramsey said. “If Anderson had chosen to light another fire, we were confident the surveillance personnel would be able to detect and stop the fire before it could get out of control.”
Anderson was taken into custody on Aug. 22 when Cal Fire investigators executed search warrants and “located evidence further implicating Anderson in starting the Thompson fire,” prosecutors said in a statement without elaborating on the evidence.
Ramsey said that on the day the fire was ignited, Cal Fire investigators pinpointed the area where the fire started near the intersection of Cherokee and Thompson Flat roads in a rural area northeast of Oroville and quickly determined the “fire was caused by an intentional human act.”
“Arson by its very terms is a very difficult crime to solve because it burns up the evidence,” Ramsey said, praising the work of investigators on the case.
Ramsey said several 911 callers and witnesses in the area at the time the fire started reported seeing a blue Toyota driving in the area and investigators determined the fire was most likely started by a flaming object thrown from the Toyota as it drove southbound on Cherokee Road.
Using automatic license plate readers in the area, investigators were able to identify the Toyota and trace it to Anderson, Ramsey said.
“Anderson was arrested and questioned. He admitted that on the morning of the fire, he purchased fireworks from a firework stand in Oroville, then went up to Cherokee Road to ‘test one’ by throwing it out his car window,” prosecutors said in the statement.
In addition to destroying 26 structures, including 13 homes, the Thompson Fire damaged eight structures and burned 3,789 acres before it was fully contained on July 8, according to Cal Fire. Two firefighters were injured battling the blaze, Cal Fire said.
If convicted of the charges, Anderson faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison, according to prosecutors. Anderson has been ordered to be held without bail at the Butte County Jail.
The Thompson Fire was the second wildfire deliberately set in Butte County in July. On July 24, the Park Fire was deliberately started in Bidwell Park near Chico and spread to more than 429,000 acres across Butte, Tehama, Shasta and Plumas counties.
Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, was arrested on a felony count of arson of an inhabited structure or property, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office. Stout has pleaded not guilty.
Stout was allegedly spotted pushing a car that was on fire down a gully called “Alligator Hole” in Bidwell Park, igniting the Park Fire, now the fourth largest wildfire in California history, according to prosecutors.