5 chilling details about Ashlea Harris' suspicious murder

The Dateline episode Black Friday revisits the shocking 2014 murder of Ashlea Harris, a 31-year-old assistant manager at American Eagle Outfitters. Originally aired on November 10, 2017, the episode retraces how firefighters responding to a blaze at Harris’ Fort Worth apartment uncovered a chilling scene.

They discovered Ashlea Harris on the floor, bound, beaten, and killed before her home was deliberately set on fire to hide the crime. As investigators unraveled the case, they discovered a disturbing story of betrayal and revenge linked to two of Harris’s former coworkers. The gripping episode is scheduled to re-air tomorrow on Oxygen.

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Ashlea Harris' murder: 5 details explored

Details of Harris's murder explored (Image via Getty)

1. Discovery of the murder

On November 28, 2014, firefighters responded to a blaze at the River Ranch Apartments in Fort Worth, Texas. Inside, they discovered the body of 31-year-old Ashlea Harris, who worked as an assistant manager at American Eagle Outfitters. Harris was found lying on her bedroom floor with her hands and feet bound by duct tape.

As per the investigators, she had suffered blunt force trauma and was strangled to death. They also concluded that the fire had been deliberately started using rubbing alcohol to destroy evidence of the crime. While Harris's apartment showed no signs of forced entry and her truck was still parked outside, her keys to the Hulen Mall store where she worked were missing.

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2. Identification of suspects

As detectives pieced together Harris’ final hours, they discovered that she had been working long shifts in preparation for the busy Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping period. She returned home around 3:30 AM that morning, and a downstairs neighbor reported hearing a loud thump, screams, and heavy breathing around 7:30 AM.

He called 911 and also recalled seeing a black Infiniti G35 leaving the parking lot at the time. This description of the vehicle matched the car driven by Carter Carol Cervantez, a former colleague of Ashlea Harris who had been fired months earlier.

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3. Motive for the crime

Cervantez had allegedly been involved in an $18,000 store burglary in August 2014, and she was accused of leaving a back door unlocked. Her boyfriend, Clarence David Mallory Jr., who also worked at the store, was similarly terminated after the burglary and barred from working for the company again.

According to police, it was Harris who had identified the pair as suspects in the theft, due to which Cervantez and Mallory harbored resentment against her. When authorities searched the couple’s apartment, they reportedly found receipts for duct tape, gloves, shovels, and other suspicious purchases.

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4. Incriminating evidence discovered

The investigation gained momentum when surveillance footage from the Hulen Mall showed Cervantez attempting to use Harris’ keys to unlock the American Eagle store the morning after the murder. But the locks had already been changed by then. Footage also showed Mallory waiting in the black Infiniti for Cervantez outside.

Moreover, a search of their vehicles and apartment uncovered further incriminating evidence like knives, a loaded gun bearing Harris’ DNA, blood traces in Cervantez’s car, and text messages discussing burial plans.

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5. Arrests, trial, and sentencing

Both Cervantez and Mallory were arrested in early December 2014 and charged with capital murder. Prosecutors described Cervantez as the mastermind who orchestrated the plot, with Mallory assisting her. During the trial, Ashlea Harris’s autopsy results were presented as evidence.

In May 2016, Cervantez was found guilty, and she was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Mallory went to trial the following year and received the same verdict and sentence in August 2017. While the convictions brought justice, Ashlea Harris’s family expressed that they had hoped prosecutors would seek the death penalty instead of accepting the life sentences imposed by the court.

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Catch more about the case on Oxygen tomorrow.