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June 8, 2025 • 53 mins
In 2015, a Summerville mother of three was easing her way back into the dating scene. What started innocently enough, accepting an invitation to a party, turned terribly tragic.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
For over three hundred and fifty years, the state of
South Carolina has been the setting for some of the
most horrendous crimes ever committed. Some have gained global notoriety,
some have been forgotten, and others have been swept under
the rug completely. Now, two South Carolina natives and true

(00:26):
crime enthusiasts have teamed up to examine these heinous acts
in detail, giving their perspective of the evil that has
resided in the Palmetto State. You're listening to Carolina Crimes.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
And welcome back to Carolina Crimes, episode two twenty five.
I'm one of your hosts, Matt Hyres, and I am
joined now Danielle. She's not on administrative leave this week.
She's on sabbatical, we'll say that, but she will be
back next week. But wanted to introduce two friends that
I have in here, David and Teresa Rector Teresa mainly,

(01:06):
but thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Hale Halen out of the Pacific Northwest. And she is
actually the daughter of a homicide detective up in Oregon.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
Yeah, he's actually in the Hall of Fame out in Oregon.
He was He started as a regular patrol officer, actually
started at a fire department or ambulance service, went on
became a police officer. He worked with runaways, and he
became a homicide detective, and he finished his years as
a chief of police on the Oregon coast.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
All right, all right, and her wonderful husband, David joining us.
He's an affiliation with the police, not on the legal side.
I'm going to the police chief and the sheriffs.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yes they are aware of our existence.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
But he is a sod.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
What do you call it, enthusiast, enthusiast and local radio host,
golf coach, everything.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Everything, a lot of titles, hats.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
Yes, we had to stop calling him the guy who's
into grass because you know, we know the chief of police.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
And that's that's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, nevertheless, we're over the moon thrill that you joined
us here for episode two twenty five. Thank you so
much already for sitting in. Just a few housekeeping items
as we usually do before we get started. If you're
not already following us on social media, check us out
on Facebook Carolina Crimes Podcast. You'll be able to put
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(02:37):
little more information about the crimes. You'll get notifications each
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let us know a little something you like about the show. Also,

(02:59):
if you're looking to support the show monetarily and you
want to get some sweet Carolina Crimes paraphernalia for your
back that you can where about this summer, we'll get
directors hooked up with some of it here, but head
on over to Carolina Crimestore dot com and we greatly
appreciate it. So y'all were listening to some episodes before

(03:20):
you got in here, some local ones from around the
rock Hill area, and this one is actually going to
come out of the Low Country, so nowhere to local
kind of safe on that that on that front. South Carolina, good, yes,
still South Carolina. And we're going actually to Dorchester County,
South Carolina. And as most of you know, we give

(03:41):
a little brief history about the setting of each show
before we start, and we've been to Dorchester County several times,
so we'll just kind of gloss over some of the
high spots, let you know where we're going before we
get into this one. And it's going to be from
actually about ten years ago, a little over ten years ago,
in twenty fifteen. So Dorchester County, which is part of
the Low Country, is located just northwest of Charleston County,

(04:05):
South Carolina, and it's considered part of the Charleston North
Charleston metroplex and the County of Dorchester. It was actually established,
I thought it would be way earlier than this, but
established in eighteen ninety seven, So while it is still new,
its history goes back for centuries. It was only in
eighteen ninety seven that the county was created from portions

(04:28):
of Colleton and Berkeley County to make up what is
today Dorchester.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Now.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
In colonial times, Dorchester County was home to several plantations,
including Middleton Place, which can still tour today. And the
name Dorchester itself was taken from settlers that came down
to the area from Dorchester, Massachusetts. So we got a
county in South Carolina named after a town in Massachusetts. Today,

(04:55):
the economy of Dorchester County is driven by manufacturing, got
by the Chaion Group, but they do get a lot
of tourism spillover from Charleston proper, North Charleston a portion.
It's right there, most of Summerville of courses in there,
and some of the other communities in Dorchester County, Saint George.

(05:17):
It's the county seat right off of I ninety five,
Harleyville and Ridgeville. Today, Dorchester County's home to just around
one hundred and seventy thousand residents, and some of the
more famous residents from Dorchester are Adam Miller. He was
a Navy vet, a writer, a poet, and a radio producer,

(05:37):
and he published the first collection of modern African American poetry.
Also the author of five books, so very accomplished. There
a name familiar to a lot of folks that are
fans of the show, Al Cannon, the former sheriff of
Charleston County and the Canon Detention Center there that some

(05:58):
fans and the listeners have been like not me, okay,
I was waiting on that. Also from Dorchester County, Samuel
Eugene Potit, a former senior executive for the CIA, Senator
Tim Scott, and Jasmine Camacho quinn an Olympic gold medalist

(06:20):
in the one hundred meter hurdles at the twenty twenty Olympics.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
So that's just a few of the famous folks from
Dorchester County. But now we're going to dig into the
story and we're going to start off in January of
twenty fifteen. We're going to be talking today a lot
about twenty eight year old mother of three Ashley Pegram.
She had two daughters with her first husband, Haley and Caitlin,

(06:48):
and one one year old son, Aaron, with her current boyfriend,
John Mitchell Junior. Now Ashley was described as an awesome
she did, took all of her motherly duties very seriously,
made sacrifices for her three children, would be a listening

(07:09):
ear and would help them any way she could. Now
by her side during all this, and we already mentioned
him was what was described as the love of her life,
forty four year old John Mitchell Jr. Ashley's mom. She
described John as her daughter's sunshine, the light of her life,

(07:34):
and Ashley she was extremely close with John and her family.
In fact, she and her children they lived with her
mother Ram a chance. They did have plans one day
to have a place of their own, of course with John,
and besides being so close with her mother, Ashley was
probably the closest to anybody in the world with her

(07:57):
sister Brandy, Brandy Chance, who was just a couple of
years older. Brandy she served to Ashley as an advisor,
a confidante, and of course like a big sister. You're
a big sister to Tony if he's listening out in Oregon.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
But I have a little sister.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
And she served as a protector for her, for her
younger siblings. Now the family themselves, the Chances and Ashley Pegram,
they were rooted in faith, love and they were hopeful
for a bright future. Well on Monday evening, January twelfth,

(08:39):
twenty fifteen, their lives would change forever. That afternoon, at
five seven pm, John Mitchell.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Ashley's light, her love.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
He was headed home from work and is Ford F
three point fifty traveling north on kne Hooy Road when
he was in a major automobile collision.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
He hit a tractor trailer head on.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
And despite wearing the seat belt, John Mitchell Jior, He
did not survive the crash. Back at home, Ashley had
been waiting for John. She had began to get concerned.
He wouldn't answer his phone, his text and she was
extremely worried, you know, pacing about as anyone would be,

(09:31):
and her mom, Raymond, was trying to calm her down
and say, you know, maybe he got caught up, maybe
battery on his phone died. But unfortunately, eventually that evening
police officers showed up and delivered the tragic news of
John's passing. Ashley, to say the least, was crushed, as

(09:53):
anyone would be. She had lost the love of her life.
She fell into deep grief and depression ensued, which is
expected and normal of the grieving process. It got so
tough that Ashley pegrim. She was prescribed medication to deal

(10:16):
with the depression, and she started kind of getting back
about her old ways and in a little bit of confidence.
And in the following months, Ashley she tried to cope
with the loss of John, but as a young mother
of three, it was extremely difficult. She grieved, but also

(10:37):
she wanted to move on. And that's a god I
hope I'm never in that position to experience a loss
of a loved one that closed a spouse or someone
very close to a spouse, like Ashley did, and there's
so many questions, you know, how do you move on?

(10:58):
When is it to soon move on? I mean she
had three children to worry about. Do you throw yourselves,
complete yourself completely into them or what do you do?
So a tough spot to be in. Well, she grieved,
but Ashley she also wanted more. She wanted hope for

(11:18):
a future, a sense of normalcy, even a distraction from
what she was feeling. And like everyone else, she wanted
to love and maybe find love again. So Ashley pegrim
she started to explore dating apps. That's nothing I'm familiar with. Yeah,

(11:43):
y'all you're shaking your head. They can't hear you. But yes,
I don't. I don't know about those or what goes
into it.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
Yeah we didn't, Yeah we did. Don't think did we
even have the internet when we got married.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, but I'm not familiar with them. So that's what
she started to do, kind of play around on theirs
and you know, if anything, it was entertainment, some sort
of a distraction. So aside from being a great mom,

(12:19):
a sister, a great daughter, Ashley was also a fun lady.
She was objectively a very attractive woman. So it was
no surprise that when she got on these apps, she
started to get a lot of attention, a lot of
men that were really eager to interact with her. A

(12:43):
multitude of guys reached out and Ashley she did end
up responding to a few, and mostly it was casual.
You know, hey, I like the way you look. You
got a pretty good description. Let's go grab a drink.
And some of them were nice dates for the most part.

(13:03):
But the more she started doing this, the more she said,
you know, some weren't so great. It ended up being
a mixed bag for well, Ashley, she ended up running
into some very uncomfortable situations on some of those dates. Now,
one potential suitor, a guy named Kyle. He said, hey,

(13:25):
let's uh, let's go to a party some of my friends.
It's a it's a house party. And she hadn't been
to a party and forever, I mean, with with three children.
And she's like, okay, well, you know they're we're all
around the same age.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
I'll go over there.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
And it was like most people would think of part y'all.
Are y'all are house party people?

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (13:48):
And uh, you know, she was there. She had a
few drinks, was having fun. A lot of people were
there and she unattention unintentionally disrespecting another male party goer.
It was depicted they've they've gone over this crime. I
believe there's a show on Oxygen where she may have
stepped on his foot or tripped over something, something pretty minor. Well,

(14:12):
Ashley in this other partygoer, this male they got into
kind of a confrontation and you know, name calling, kind
of had to be separated.

Speaker 4 (14:20):
She was a little fiery, so maybe she was standing
her ground.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yes, and I think she was. That's how it was depicted.
But when the confrontation was over, she said, look, I'm
head to the restroom. Got am I need to chill
out a little bit. So Ashley went to the restroom
and the guy that she had had a problem with earlier,
he actually followed her in there. He held a handgun

(14:49):
to her head in the bathroom at this house party,
and he was telling her that in so many words,
that she was no longer welcome there. I mean, your
first time meeting somebody, this guy you're going to date
with Kyle some of his friends, and this guy follows
you to the bathroom, puts a gun to your head,
and so she asked her date, in not so many words,

(15:11):
that they should leave, and they went ahead and fled
the party, which is probably a good thing.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Kyle, Yeah, where were you? Yeah? Now that's right.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Uh Now, Ashley, she got home, composed herself and she said, Okay,
you know, I might have been in the wrong too.
Thought through it, and she thought better not to call
the police. You know, I'm not gonna make this situation
any worse or bigger. It was awful pointing presenting a firearm.

(15:49):
That's a crime, but she decided not to call the police. Well,
a few weeks later, on the same app, Ashley she
started a real connection with this guy by the name
of Shane York. They really hit it off, and at

(16:09):
the beginning of April she agreed actually to go on
a camping trip with Shane. Her mom was going to
watch the kids. She was gonna go camping. You know,
maybe this was the start of something special and the
things in the woods. They were off to a good
start until Shane. He took a brief trip inside the tent.

(16:32):
He was secure in supplies or checking on something, and
when he was looking through his things his gear inside
the tent, he noticed that his wallet was missing, so
he came out of the tent. He said, well, Ashley,
you were just in my tent and now my wallet's missing.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Where's my wallet? Where'd you put it? And she said
she didn't have a clue.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
She genuinely didn't, but Shane didn't believe her, and he
kept on berating her that you know, you stole my wallet.
I can't be with a thief or somebody that's dishonest.
So this trip's over and they packed up all their
things and they left, and she still had no idea

(17:21):
and he had no idea where his wallet was. But
they left. So at this point Shane was done. He
packed up all the year. He dropped Ashley off at home,
and she was disappointed. She was mad at being falsely
accused of stealing this guy's wallet, and she just wanted
to blow off some steam. I mean, she already had

(17:43):
kind of a free free weekend or mom was gonna
agree to take care of her kids there at the house.
And that's when she remembered a guy that she had
connected with on them meet Me app and they had
messaged each other a couple times on some kick k
I K. Yeah, y'all are throwing your hands on like

(18:05):
I don't know, but I mentioned it to Madison, my daughter,
and she was like, oh, yeah, kick, and I know
what that is.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
And that's.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Kind of a messaging app I guess, like I think
we had at instant Messenger Windows or AOL something like that.
But I just think this is a souped up version now,
so wanting to kind of get out of the situation,
go have some fun clear head. On Friday, April third,

(18:33):
Ashley Pegrim she reached out to this guy she had
been messaging who went by the name.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Of E Money Bonds.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Choose Yeah, E Money Bond, and she asked, you know
you want to hang out? Well if poor Ashley, she
thought that she had had some tough experiences lately with
both Kyle and Shane.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
She really had no idea of the evil that was
coming to her.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
And after this short break, we're going to get back
to this story out of Dorchester County that will unfortunately
end in tragedy. Folks will be right back after this
quick word from our sponsors, and welcome back to Carolina Crimes,

(19:39):
Episode two twenty five and this story emanating out of
Dorchester County, South Carolina, and we had talked about the
tragedy that had befell Ashley Pegram with her very serious boyfriend, love.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
Of her life.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
He lost his life in an automobile accident, and she
was dusting herself off and getting back on that horse
and trying the dating scene again, trying some dating apps,
and she'd had some you know, minimal success, some really
traumatic things that happened to her, accused of stealing Shane's
wallet and the gun being pulled on her at one party,

(20:20):
and she was kind of looking for an outlet and
just somebody to go have fun with, you know, no strings,
Let's just go have a good time. And she decided
on this guy she had been speaking to on the
meet me app and on kick went by the screen
name of E Money Bond, And so that evening Friday,
April third, E Money Bond he went and picked up

(20:43):
Ashley at her home. Now, Ashley, they had a kind
of a unique situation when it came to devices and phones.
She and her mom shared one. I think she had
maybe some other ones that did her dating apps on,
maybe like an iPad or something like that, but she

(21:05):
and her mom they shared a phone, and so she left.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
The phone with her mother. She was watching the children.
I believe it was her.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
And this date was a little different because usually when
Ashley would go out with guys as normal, they would
come to the door and introduce themselves or at least
knock on the door and pick her up and wait
for her and say hello to anybody else that was there.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
But on this night, E Money Bond, he stayed in
the car. Did he honk his horn? I don't know.
That was not that was not.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, disclosed, but we'll quit calling him E Money Bond,
as ridiculous as that sounds. But his real name was
Edward Bania, so he I guess he thought he had
money and Bond Bania. And the plans for that night
they were going to go to a party over in

(22:05):
Goose Creek, South Carolina, at the home with Lindsay Diaz,
who was dating Edward's stepbrother Anthony. So these were people
he was familiar with, and he took Ashley over there.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
They had sounded like a nice night. It was.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
They had a bonfire, it was at ping pong table
set up in the garage, a little bit of drinking
and just get together.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
Get together. Well.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
The next day, the morning is Saturday, April fourth, Ashley's mom,
Rama Chance, she awoke and oddly Ashley wasn't home. Now,
she hadn't relayed her plans that hey, mom might not
come home tonight. I'm gonna stay out the evening. So
this was this was a strange situation. Now, Rama, she

(22:55):
went and checked that shared cell phone that they had
and she saw a message from E Money Bond at
three twenty nine am, and the message read still awake.
I hope you made it home safe. Sorry for leaving
you at the gas station, but you were drunk and
too hard.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
For me to hand.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
So Rama, not really knowing what to do, she called
what kind of seemed as the glue of this family,
big sister Brandy, Brandy Chanson. It's like, hey, this is
what's going on. Got this message is kind of weird,
and she didn't return home. So they're getting a little
concerned at this time. And so the two ladies, Rama

(23:39):
and Brandy, they started to call Ashley's friends, but no
one had seen her. Now they tried to reach out
to this guy they only knew by the screen name
E Money Bond, but there was no answer. And then
they started trying to call him from alternate numbers, and
finally he answered. He told Brandy Chance's real name, Edward Bania,

(24:04):
and he seemed genuinely concerned. He said, hey, Brandy, you
know Ashley. She had been extremely drunk and confrontational, and
I didn't want anything, you know, to happen there that
I was uncomfortable. So I had no choice but to
drop her off at the Sonoco station right there near

(24:28):
I twenty six on College Park Road. I think that's
the the exit where Charleston Southern University is tried it
in hospital. I believe that's the one. But he said, hey,
I left her at this gas station. You know, I
want to leave her in a welllit area. What can
I do to help find her? And they said, you know,

(24:49):
just tell us everything, you know, give us the rundown
of the night. Yeah, we went to the party. He
stuck to the story. You know, she was intoxicated. I
pulled a and had to leave her. So, without hearing
back from Anny Ashley's friends, Brandy she had no choice
but to call the Dorchester County Sheriff's office and she

(25:12):
reported her sister, Ashley Pegrim missing. At this time, now
it had been less than twenty four hours since they
had seen Ashley and she had left home. So the
Sheriff's department, they said, you know, and unfortunately she is
an adult. Maybe she will come back. It hadn't been

(25:33):
I know, it seems like it's been eon since she's
spoken to her. But in all actuality, she'll probably turn
up soon and we'll have an officer check back in
with you Monday. So here in that news, big, and
I don't say this mockingly or in any way, I've

(25:55):
got a lot of admiration for this young lady, but
Big Sister of the Year is what I've near.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Brandy.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
She started playing detective, and she said, Okay, if you're
not gonna not gonna work with us right now, I'm
gonna go ahead and try to find it.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
That's what I would have done.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yes, So Brandy went to the Sonoco station looking for clues.
She mentioned she said, I was looking for her shoe,
earing anything that could have been hers. She looked in
the dumpsters everywhere, but no sign of Ashley. She went
to nearby fields, empty lots. She had an SUV and

(26:34):
sheid she even stood on top to get a higher
vantage point to try to see anything, but nothing. So
she started searching these fields on foot, some of these
wooded areas, and she came upon a foul smell, a
riting odor, and she feared for the worst, but luckily

(27:00):
she found that it was just a riding deer carcass,
so that she said that it scared her and let
her breathe easy and say, Okay, there's hope, you know,
there's you know, we're not going to walk up on
anything awful. So they searched that Saturday afternoon and Sunday
for Ashley, and nothing came up. Searched to no avail. Well,

(27:24):
Sunday evening, they were at Rama Chance's house and headlights
illuminated the driveway. They said, oh, man, Ashley finally, man,
we're gonna we're gonna kick her ass, you know, for
putting us through all this. So Brandy and Rama they
ran to the front door, but it wasn't Ashley. It

(27:47):
was Shane York, the guy from the camping trip, and
they said, well, what are you doing here? And he said, well,
I just came to apologize to Ashley. I found my
wallet and I was a jerk and just wanted to
say I was sorry. See how she was doing. And
they said, well, funny, you should stop by because actually, Shane,

(28:11):
she's missing, and he was taken aback. He said, well,
what do you mean, and they explained the situation and
he said, look, I'm just coming by. I'm trying to
apologize for falsely accusing her of taking my wallet. I
don't know anything about this. So the women asked him.
They said, okay, well do you have any clue where

(28:34):
she might be or have you seen her or heard
from her at all? And he said no, I haven't
heard from her since I dropped her off from the
camping trip. But unfortunately things kind of ended bad and
I was a butthole and I'm sorry, but I'll try
to help you well. Brandy and Rama they thought the

(28:54):
visit from Shane was odd considering the current situation, and
the following day, Monday, April sixth, twenty fifteen, they had
a chance to discuss that and let Detective Andy Martin
with the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
Know what had happened.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
So off of the initial story that he was being
told Detective Martin there were two people that he wanted
to speak to very badly, Shane Yorke and Edward Bania.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
Shane. He was asked, first, you know.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
You two had this dispute, you had this little beef,
then all of a sudden, you're showing up. You didn't
make a phone call or anything. Where were you during
Ashley's disappearance? And he said, well, I was at work.
I know nothing about it. And the alibi was checked.

(29:55):
They called his place of business and yeah, Shane was
clocked in. He was he was clear, there was proof,
there was surveillance video, there was everything. He was actually
just trying to do the right thing when he showed
up that Sunday night to apologize. So Shane, he was out.
And next up was thirty year old Edward Bania. Now,

(30:20):
when the detective Martin talked to him, Edward, he told
the story of the party and there was a bonfire,
ping pong, a little bit of drinking, and he said,
you know, we ended up stopping at the snow Co
station so Ashley could use the restroom, and then she

(30:40):
got kind of unruly in the car with me, so
I dropped her off. Yeah, I told her family I
dropped her off the snow Co station, But you know,
going back and thinking about it, I actually dropped her
off in front of Summer Village Mobile home park because
she was so drunk that I couldn't handle her. So

(31:05):
he even agreed to take Detective Martin to the front
of the neighborhood where he dropped her off, and sure,
you know this is this is the spot. You know,
that's that's all the information I have. So Detective Martin
started going through just regular things. You know, where do
you live, what's your address, what's your occupation, And Edward said,

(31:26):
you know, I've been out at work for a little while,
having an ankle injury out on a worker's comp so
haven't haven't been worker working in quite a while.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
Now.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
After the interview, it was it was interesting because Edward
Bania he was actually picked up at the Dorchester County
Sheriff's office by his mom, and also with his mom
was his girlfriend, Jasmine. So did Detective Martin his next

(32:01):
course of action. He said, I'm gonna go over to
where this party was. I'm gonna go to Lindsay Diaz's
house and see what actually went went.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
Down that night.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Well about the activities at the party, her story matched up.
She said she was a little surprised when Edward showed
up with Ashley and not his girlfriend Jasmine. You know,
they were close knit family. They all knew who was
Dayton who. But Jasmine didn't show up with Edward that night.

(32:33):
It was this new girl, Ashley, And she said, you know,
she was nice, and she remembered her being there and
participating in a little bit friendly girl said, you know,
she didn't have much to drink, She wasn't drunk. But
when it got around, you know, eleven thirty at night,

(32:53):
Edward started really pushing her to leave. It was time
to go, and she remembered actually not wanting to leave.
The said, I'm having a good time, you know, let's
let's hang out, but Edward insisted, so they left.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
They also asked Detective Martin. He said, now, Edward, what
is he what's his normal routine? Like, I know, did
he used to work? Where did he work? And she said, oh,
well he works now. In fact, he works with my boyfriend,
his step brother Anthony, for a flooring company here. So

(33:31):
this started sending up some red flags in Detective Andy
Martin's mind. He says, folks, he said, he claimed he
didn't work. Now I found out he's working for a
flooring company. He changed the story about where he had
dropped Ashley off that night, and things weren't adding up.
So we're gonna take a quick break right now, and

(33:51):
as soon as we get back, we're gonna dig deeper
into this story about Edward Bania and the whereabouts of
Ashley Pegram. Folks will be right back and welcome back

(34:17):
to Carolina Crimes, Episode two twenty five. And this tale
is that's starting to unravel about Ashley Pegram. There are
there were some suspects to be looked at, talked about
poor Shane. He's just a good dude trying to do
the right thing. And uh, now all of these is
inconsistencies that are popping up about Edward Bania's store from

(34:41):
that night. Now, Detective Andy Morton, he thought his next
course of action should be to call this flooring company
that Edward Bania and his step brother worked at. He
spoke to the owner of the company and he said, well, Edward,

(35:01):
you know how much work has he missed?

Speaker 3 (35:03):
And the owner didn't know what he was talking about.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
He said, so he hasn't had a worker's comp injury
or anything. He said, no, he's perfectly.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
Fine, and he's over there fixing the floor.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah, he said, well he's working there. Yeah, yeah, that's
it's a half truth. But the owner also ended up
adding he said, well let me know. Let me tell
you something strange that happened. Since we're talking about Edward,
he said, you know, I provide most of my guys

(35:39):
with work vans, he said, and they're they're more than
welcome to drive them home at night. You know, they
can just get ready if they're working on a long
term job and just go straight to the job site
instead of wasting time coming in here. Then they can
go with all their equipment. And Edward did that. He
had access. He drove his work van home every night.

(36:00):
And uh, it's weird because that van that he normally drives,
it's been parked back here since Saturday and locked up
with some of the other vans. So Detective Martin here
in that, he said, don't you let under any circumstances
Edward Benia near that van.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
He called some units. He said, you need to head
over to this flooring company with holding their name because
there we talked about that before the episode. You know,
these are innocent folks. But he said, you need to
head over this flooring company there's this van here, and
don't you dare let anybody put a handle that van
around this time? And you asked during the break, Theresa,

(36:46):
you said, review the Sonoco surveillance footage April third, about
this same time it came in Detective Martin, he was
actually able to look at that, and he saw right
around midnight, Ashley Pegram she walked into the Sonoco station.

(37:06):
She went down the corridor where the restrooms were. She
walked out at twelve twelve a m. And got into
a blue Hondai Sonata that Edward Benil was in as well.
Now he also thought it odd. He started thinking back
on this mobile home park that Edward said he had

(37:27):
dropped her off at. The mobile home park was approximately
one mile from Ashley's home, so Edward he had picked
her up that night from her home. He knew where
she lived, so he had to know they were close by.
And if he had such a hard time handling her,
why drop her off a mile from her home? Why

(37:50):
not just take her all the way home and drop
her off? Said, you know, that's that's odd too. So
back to the flooring company units. By this time we're
arriving out there, they said, they had to look at
the van well uprolls Edward Bania as well in an suv,
and he said that I need to get in my

(38:12):
work van. I left something in there and forgot it,
and the units they radioed back to Detective Martin, who
was on his way, and he told them, don't you
dare let him touch that, and that's when he cut
on the lights and flew to the scene as well.
When he got there, he spoke to the company owner

(38:35):
and they went over to Bania, who was sitting in
the suv, and they said, Detective Martin said, I thought
you said you you weren't working. You had an ankle
injury when we talked earlier this week, and Bania said,
right in front of his boss, he said, uh, oh,
I just I just got this job, you know, two
days ago. So Detective Martin turned to his left asked

(38:59):
the owner. He said, is this true? And the owner
said hell no. He said, Edward, you know he's been
working with us for about eight or nine months. So
just under the suspicion, they couldn't do anything much there
and Benil was allowed to leave without getting in the van,
and Detective Sergeant Adam Smith he actually started the search

(39:21):
of the van. He was looking in the front and
once a Detective Martin got over there with him, they
opened the side panel that the sliding door on the van,
and very obvious there was blood, blood spatter on the
roof and the interior of the van. So they said, okay,

(39:42):
this is this is beyond our expertise.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Let's call in the crime seam lab.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
So when they came, they used bioluminescence the attack to
kind of like a black light went all throughout the van.
Blood was everywhere in the van. So at this point
they had enough to issue a warrant for Edward Bania,
not for murder but for obstruction of justice. And it

(40:09):
took a Martin said, I just wanted to know where
this guy was at.

Speaker 3 (40:13):
You know, we needed to get out because we got
to do a little deeper digging here.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
We got to find out some more facts before we
can charge him with something more serious. But obstruction of justice. Hey,
we got him on that, let's pick him up. So
Detective Martin and the officers they went over to Bania's
home and he was actually in the act of lugging
a large suitcase out to the Blue Sonata well he

(40:39):
was placed under arrest and the Sonata was impounded. When
it was taken inside to be investigated, blood was found
in the trunk of the blue Sonata and all a
polyurethane can The blood was taken just like the blood
in the van. It was sent off for analysis. And

(41:01):
by getting this Sonata impounded, now, Dorchester County Sheriff's deputies
they had a tag.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
Number off the Sonata, so they ran that through.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Their kind of fancy down there Charleston North Charleston area,
and they have tag readers on their red lights.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
So the tag number on that Sonata.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
It had popped up about six miles away from Benita's
home at one twenty one am on April fourth, so
they knew that he was going away from his home
at that time. Now, surveillance footage from around the area
started being gathered and they got some from a school

(41:50):
that was near Benia's home, and at two thirty five am,
surveillance cameras from that school picked up the white work
van company headed away from Bania's home. At six twelve
am that same morning, they saw the same van going

(42:11):
back toward Bania's home. After seeing this and knowing that
he was changing vehicles, coming and going all through the night.
The DNA results came back in and the blood in
the van and in the Hyundai Sonata did.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
Belong to Ashley Pecker.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
A search in a reservoir near Benia's home was looked at.
They had divers drug it. They were able to find nothing,
and on April thirtieth, Detective Martin he brought the already
in custody Edward Bania in to question.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
Him and he just laid it all out on the table.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
For he told Bania, he said, you know, in about
a week and a half, mother's days coming up, Ashley
was a mom, her.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
Sweet mother, Rayma. She deserves to know.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
So you had better tell me the whereabouts of Ashley
Pegrim's body. We already have this blood evidence. We know
you're connected to something, something happened to her. Tell me
where she is or you're going to face the death penalty.
So he quietly left the interrogation room back to his
cell and a week later, through his attorney, Edward Benia

(43:36):
gave the location of where Ashley Pegrim could be found.
So it was a rural area off of Brown Town
Road in Harleyville, north of Summerville there in Dorchester County,
and we're gonna take our last break and come right
back and tell you exactly how this story ends.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
We'll be right back, folks, and.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Welcome back to Carolina Grimes, episode two twenty five from
Dorchester County, South Carolina. And a bombshell was dropped when
we right before the break, when Edward Beneath, through his attorney,
finally sent word to Detective Andy Martin at the Dorchester
County Sheriff's Office as to the whereabouts of Ashley Pegram's body.

(44:41):
He said that she could be found off a Browntown
road in a wooded area. So canine bloodhounds were sent
out to the area and officers were sent to search,
and they did indeed find a decomposing body. The wrist

(45:02):
and ankles they were tied, and a red bra was
twisted around the body's neck and the pants were down.
The body was about had been out there about a month,
so it had been decomposing and the tissue was breaking down.
But the dental records did confirm that this.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Was the body of Ashley Peckron.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
She was sent for autopsy and it was discovered that
she had suffered serious head trauma, a neck fracture, and
toxicology reports reported back alcohol in her system and psycho
bends a dream which was a muscle relaxer.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
A doster.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Funny you should say that because guess who had been
dealing with back spasms and it had been described Psycho
Benza dream, not Edward Bania, but his girlfriend Jasmine. Police
suspected a sexual assault, but the tissue was too decomposed

(46:18):
to prove.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Bania.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
When questioned about this, he said, well, her pants they
came down because I was dragging her.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
Now, this is what the case.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
That police set out and looking at the surveillance and
the timelines, they were kind of able to decipher what happened.
They believed that he had killed Ashley outside of the
Hyundai Sonata and put her in a trunk, but soon
realized that he was really low on gas, so he

(46:55):
dropped her on a front edge road. Bania then went
home and exchanged the Sonata for his work van because
it had more gas, and he went back to the
frontage road and loaded Ashley in. Somewhere on the way
to Harleyville. He realized she was still alive. That's when

(47:17):
he beat her, possibly with the polyer athane can that
had blood on it, causing the blood spatter inside.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
The van on the roof of the walls.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Bania he then took Ashley into the woods in Harleyville
and sexually assaulted or killed her, finally with the bra
around her neck, and on May fifth, twenty fifteen, Edward
Banella was charged with murder. On August tenth, twenty sixteen,

(47:50):
his trial for first degree murder came around, and to
many surprise, Edward Bania decided he was going to take
the stand. His explanation of the night's events were that
he said, yes, Ashley did die. I was with her,

(48:10):
but it was an accident. He said he had pulled
over to allow her to go to the bathroom, even
though they were just at the Sonoko station where she
used the bathroom. He didn't put the car in park
and accidentally nudged Ashley. She got infuriated and ended up

(48:31):
attacking him. He said he tried to restrain her in
what he called a bear hug, but he must have
just been too strong. And now he's five to eight,
you know, about two hundred pounds, not exponentially big, but
he must have squeezed her so hard. That she passed

(48:51):
away in his arms. He said he panicked, he left
her and went and got in his van. By saying
it was an accident, he didn't take any responsibility for
his actions. He didn't show any remorse in court. He
just decided to continue victim blaming Ashley, who had done

(49:13):
nothing wrong. And this really it really hurt her mother, Rayma,
and her sister Brandy, and.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
As it would anybody.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
I mean, you lose your loved one, and you have
this person on the stand, not taking responsibility for what
he did and making this kakumami story up about hey,
this is an accident. He also did admit to sending
the false kick message asking if she was awake, if

(49:47):
she was okay, you know, just checking on her, even
though he knew she was already dead. He was trying
to throw her family and investigators off of his trail
for the murder, and on August eleventh, twenty sixteen, the
following day after the trial started, Edward Benia was found

(50:11):
guilty of murder and sentenced to life without the possibility
of parole. He did appeal in twenty nineteen, and the
appeal was denied, and he is now serving his life
sentence at Perry Correctional Institution in the upstate of South Carolina.
So that is that's how this tragedy ends. And unfortunately,

(50:37):
You've got three children, had a sweet mother that did
think the world of them, was trying her best at
making away in life, and.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
She lost her life to this guy dirt bag. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Possibly, possibly she was drugged with the cycle Benz train.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
While he was trying to get her to leave because
he thought it was kick in before they left.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, and popped something or drink and thought, hey, maybe
maybe I can do this or you know, just I
hate to play devil's advocate in these things. Maybe he
overdosed her and she did pass out and he panicked
and killed her.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
But he restrained her. Yeah, her wrists and ankles.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Were pretty Yeah, that's pretty. I mean, that's not an accident.
But I don't I'm trying to think of any anything
that could have.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Proved his story, but there's nothing.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
I mean, you're that's one day, basically one day, come back,
you're guilty in the courtroom.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Yeah, that's a quick trial.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
When they say it's quick jury deliberations, that's usually not
good for the.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
Well, he was accidentally bear hugging her with love. Her
hands became bad.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
And Brah twisted around her neck and yeah and taken somewhere.
So that's the tragedy that we covered this week. David Teresa,
thank y'all so much for sitting in. It's good to
have a sounding board saying it's.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
Like having front row is absolutely riveting.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yeah yeah, yeah, VP job. Thank you and everyone listening.
You are a vi P two and next week Danielle
will be back. I promise we're gonna have a Father's
Day episode for everyone. So if your dad's a fan
of the podcast, head on over to Carolina Crimestore dot

(52:41):
com uh to see some pictures from this week's episode.
Check us out on social media on Facebook at Carolina
Crimes Podcast. Also over on Twitter at sc crimes pod,
and check us out if you're on Apple iTunes, Spotify,
or Apple Podcast. Thou is a five star review and
we'll have a lot of thank yous to dole out

(53:01):
next week here on Carolina Crimes.

Speaker 3 (53:04):
So we'll see you next week. Thank you so much
for listening.
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