arning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
These are the daughters of 28 years old Ashley Fish.
In just a few seconds ,they’re going to lead the officer to their mother’s lifeless body inside the bathroom.
And as the oldest daughter bravely guides her siblings to safety, police are still unsure whether this was self- inflicted or if there’s a killer on the loose.
But they’d eventually discover that Ashley’s killer is closer to home than anybody expected, pulling investigators into one of the most tragic domestic dispute cases the state of Lousianna has ever seen.
On a quiet April evning in a small city of Derritter, Louisiana ,police received a terifying 911 call.
But what would shock the dispatcher is the eerie calmness of the caller,at this moment, the caller hangs up,leaving officers worried he might be in immediate danger.
Officer Josh Stanford rushes to the reported adress , unanware that he’s only moments away from discovering a scene more disturbing than he could ever imagine.
The women has a single bullet wound to the right side of her head and appears to have been dead for some time.
Yet ,the male caller is nowhere to be found.
But then , the officer remembers, there are still four young girls nearby who have just lost their mother.
In an unimaginable act of courage, the eldest daughter guides her younger siblings to safety, leading them to the neighbor’s, the neighbor bravely takkes in the four traumatized children, who would later turn out to be instrumental to the investigation.
Officers head back inside to try to locate the caller,completely unaware that he’s the one who pulled the trigger…
Officers find no one else inside ,leaving them still in the dark about who the caller is,they’d further look into the victims’s injuries and quickly realize there was almost no imminent struggle,leaving officers questioning whether the injuries may have been self- inflicted.
But before anything else, they still need to identify the victim and this is when the officer would make a devastating discovery.
Lead detective recognizes the name,28 year old Ashley Fish, he knew Ashley as a local ,someone who married her high school sweetheart and had only recently moved back to Louisiana from Texas.
Determined to find answers and uncover who murdered his friend,he turns to the neighbors for more information.
Meanwhile , other officers begin reviewing neighborhood CCTV footage,searchinf for anyone who may have been at the house besides Ashley and the children.
And they’re about to discover that someone else was indeed inside, someone who is already on the run …
Lining up with what the boy saw,another neighbor offers ring camera footage showing a black black truck leaving Ashley’s house just minutes before the 911 call .
Desperate to learn who was driving that truck , officers turn to the next neighbor,unaware they’re about to speak with the victim’s best friend and is someone who knows exactly who the driver is.
She would go on to identify their main suspect as 34 year old Tyler Derochwski, Ashley’s new boyfriend.
Detectives immediately begin digging into his history , gathering anything they can find and working to locate him as quickly as possible.
But just as they’re begin the manhunt,another 911 call comes in … and it’s from the killer himself.
Officers rushed to the addresss he gave, an empty parking lot, still baffled as to why he confessed and why it took him so long to come forward.
Knowing he likely killed the woman in fron of her children, they braced themselves, fully expecting anything go wrong at any moment or even an ambush.
With the main suspect arrested,officeres have no idea the investigation is moments away from taking another unexpected turn .
When they search his vehicle, they found no weapons.
But they do found multiple prescription drugs…
and vials of testosterone…
and syringes.
To their surprise , Tyler seems unusually calm for someone hwo just took a life and it would quickly become obvious that this calm, controlled demeanor is part of a plan,a plan to get away with murder
Tyler insists he shot Ashley in self- defense after she pulled the pistol on him immediately complicating the investigation.
Once he’s brought into the station, officers relay this information to the team at the scene , who would begin searching for anything that might support his claim.
And unexpectedly, they do find one piece of evidence in Tyler’s favor…
The murder weapon itself.
Detectives still find no evidence of a struggle ,but they do discover something unexpected.
After running the gun’s serial number,it comes back not to Tyler, but to Ashley herself,meaning his version of events may not be entirely false.
And with that, investigators begin to grasp just how little physical evidence actually ties Tyler to the shooting.
They then finish processing the scene…
…send Ashley’s body for autopsy, and her phone for forensic examiners to be unlocked.
Shortly afterwards, the grandparents arrive at the scene to pick up the four traumatized children into their care.
It’s at this point that it becomes clear, the oldest daughter witnessed something she will wish she never had,this brings a small sense of relief to the officers,knowing the children are finally away from the horrors inside,but now comes the most difficult part.
Calling Ashley’s ex-husband John and informing him that she is dead.
Lead detective asks john to come to the station for questioning as soon as possible and while Tyler anxiously wait for his chance to speak,detectives make a deliberate decision to start with John instead.
But The longer Tyler waits,the more agitated he becomes , and by the time they will finally sit down with him , he will snap …
One hour after Ashley’s deceased body was discovered , John arrives at the station, John explains that he and Ashley were together for over a decade.
They had their first child young and went on to raise four beautiful daughters .
For the detective,one question matters most ,what was John think of Tyler?
Is he capable of hurting Ashley?or was he simple in the wrong place at the wrong time?
But before that , something else weighs heavily on John, he still has to explain to his daughters why they will never hear their mother’s voice again.
On that devastating note, the detective would shift the conversation to the final moments leading up to Ashley’s death.
Tragically,Ashley seemed to sense That Tyler might harm her and just moments before she died ,she would make her final cry for help.
This is the moment at 6:55 p.m. John lost all contact with Ashley and with it the hope of ever rebuilding a future with her.
Shortly thereafter ,detective wraps up his interview with John ,who hs made one thing clear, Ashley was a loving mother,incapable of harming anyone, and she deserve justice.
Still not ready to begin Tyler’s interrogation,fully aware that physical evidence against him is alarmingly weak, the detective instead brings in Ashley’s other relatives to give them their statements ,hoping to better understand Tyler’s character and whether he truly is a cold -blooded murderer.
And it doesn’t take long for one thing to become clear,every one of them deeply distrusted Tyler to the point of even threatening his life,fearing he might one day snap…
…and hurt Ashley.
It quickly becomes clear to the detectie that Ashley’s relatives all wish he had stayed with John instead of Tyler , A walking red flag fully capable of snapping at any moment.
But everything else investigators have is still circumstantial.
Still , there’s hope,police did find some concerning item in his car.
Multiple anabolic drugs known to affect mood , judgement, and irritability,however, even with these findings,detectives are grasping its straws.
Yet, with time slipping away detective knows he can’t wait any longer,it’s time to come face to face with their killer,hwo by this point has been waiting for hours growing increasingly impatient to speak with the right lawyer ,he has a real chance to walk free without one, a single wrong word could now cost him his freedom for life.
For detective cooley ,this isn’t just another case, Ashley was his friend,someone he had known for years. now he has to sit across from the man who has already confesssed to killing her …
From the outset ,detectives suspect Tyler has a plan and that turning himself in may have been his first step in trying to appear more innocent.
And as the interrogation unfolds, that plan becomes crystal clear.
Everything that happened that nigh was, according to him , Ashley’s fault.
In Tyler’s own words , the shooting was merely an altercation,but what stands out even more is how he refers to Ashley only as a woman, never as his partner or ex.
Up to this point, Tyler has not shown any emotion when talking about Ashley.
But detectives can sense something beneath the surface.
Tyler avoids eye contact, he rambles,fidgets,and appears restless, almost like he’s on the verge of a breakdown.
And the moment detectives ask about Ashley’s children Tyler vould finally crack.
This is the first real emotion detectives have seen, but they needed to to determine whether this is genuine guilt, a calculated tactic, or emotional instability tied to his anabolic substance abuse.
Aware that Tyler could shut down the interview at any moment, detective cooley grows more cautious, so he starts carefully probing Tyler about any problems in his relationship with Ashley and this is when Tyler would slip up.
According to Tyler ,he felt guilty and was planning to walk away from the relationship, but detectives already know this isn’t true.
Ashley’s ex-husband has already shown investigators messages in which she repeatedly complained that Tyler refused to leave,detectives uncovered love letters exchanged between Tyler and his ex-wife.
Proof he wasn’t trapped at all.
It’s clear to the detectives that Tyler left his marriage by choice and could have gone back at any moment,so ,detective cooley would push further to the dynamics of their relationship, asking whether things had ever turned abusive.
It’s at this moment that Tyler’s mask would slip ,revealing a deep insecurity about his masculinity and a resentment towards Ashley he can no longer hide.
But now Tyler would inadvertently reveal something far more distrubing about himself.
As part of their custody agreement , Ashley wasn’t allowed to have anyone stay overnight, including Tyler, a rule he knew very well .
And as soon as their relationship began to fall apart Tyler’s first instinct was to expose that violation to her ex -husband.
Knowing full well it would cost Ashley custody of her children.
Tyler has just shown how quickly he can retaliate and how easily he could justify harming Ashley ,whenever he felt the need to do so.
But according to Tyler,what happened next,wasn’t just another argument,he claims that Ashley suddenly escalated the situation to a deadly level by pulling a gun on him.
According to Tyler , this chaotic struggle wasn’t aggression , it was survival .
Detectives continue to press for details about what happened in the bathroom and what Tyler would say next would either support his self- defense claim or unravel it completely.
Tyler is becoming increasingly more agitated,forcing detectives to call a short break , concerned that pushing any further would cause him to shut down completely.
But the moment they step outside the interrogation room- everything changes.
New evidence come in and it directly contradicts Tyler’s story.
Tyler claims Ashley had her gun in her hand and they were fighting over the weapon, but when Ashley’s body was discovered, her phone was still in her right hand,her dominant hand,meaning she hadn’t been holding a weapon in the moments before she was shot.
Then came the most damning detail , Ashley’s hair was found inside the barrel of the gun, combined with skull fracture patterns , it proved the weapon had been firmly pressed against her skin when fired.
This wasn’t self- defense, this was acoldblooded execution and this was exactly what detectives needed.
Armed with this evidence, detective Cooley re- enters the room and this time he’s ready to confront Tyler about his story .
But to the detective’s suprise ,his controlled demeanor has disappeared…
… and Tyler is about to lash out.
Tyler’s words no longer sound like the frustration of a man defending himself,they sound like hostility towards someone he blames for everything that happened.
But this is when Tyler would start to realize he isn’t coming across the way he hoped.
And when detectives press a little harder,they ‘re about to make their biggest mistake,pushing Tyler to shut down completely.
It’s at this point that Tyler refuses to answer any more questions until his lawyer arrives, but with the evidence stacked against him.
Tyler would ultimately be charged with second -degree murder and four counts of child abandonment, he would go to trial maintaining that he acted in self- defense .
But the state ‘s case would be overwhelming, Tyler would be found guilty on all charges and sentence to life in prison with no chance of parole.