At first glance, it looked as if the mother of two had lost control of her car late at night and veered off the snow-covered road in the bitter cold down a steep embankment.
The vehicle burst into flames, killing 40-year-old Ashley Schwalm, née Milnes, in an apparently tragic accident that shocked friends, family and the community.
Her husband of 10 years, James Schwalm, a firefighter, was inconsolable and had to raise their two children, ages six and nine, alone.
The heartbroken trio moved in with his late wife’s family as they picked up the pieces of their shattered lives.
Except Schwalm’s pain was a wild lie.
Police eventually determined that he had strangled his wife in their three-bedroom home in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, while their children were sleeping.
He then staged the entire crash site as part of an elaborate murder plot.
Schwalm, a captain with the Brampton fire department, dressed his dead wife in hiking gear for the first time after the murder.
Ashley and James Schwalm were married at Craigleith Ski Club, with the bride arriving by horse carriage.
James Schwalm was a captain in the Brampton fire department. He and his wife shared two young children, ages six and nine.
He then left his sleeping children home alone and drove the body in his 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander SUV to a quiet area near the Alpine Ski Club in the Blue Mountains.
At around 6 a.m. on July 26, 2023, he doused the vehicle with gasoline and set it on fire with the body inside using a lighter with his own initials, JWS, which he left amid the burning wreckage.
Surveillance footage captured a person with a large backpack fleeing the scene.
Schwalm, 40, methodically embarked on an elaborate cover-up to cover his tracks.
He used his mother’s car, which he had parked nearby, as a getaway vehicle after staging the fake accident.
He also sent himself a series of text messages from his wife’s phone to pretend she was still alive.
In a text message, he asked her to fill gas cans for a snowplow.
Then, posing as her, he wrote: “Okay, I’m going out, I think the kids will be fine sleeping.”
In another, as the woman he had just killed in cold blood, he texted: “Eww, I left the gas cans in my car and it smells bad.”
One more said: ‘Oh, I have vertigo. I’m going to run home.’
Later, while driving them to school, he told his two children that their mother had gone on a field trip.
Ashley Schwalm, project manager, was identified through dental records. An autopsy revealed that his wife had been strangled and was already dead before the fire.
Two days after the death, Schwalm gave a statement to Ontario Provincial Police officers, saying he had been walking the family dog in the neighborhood when his wife apparently crashed their car.
He provided surveillance footage from his home security camera that he claimed showed him leaving the property with his pet, but police later determined the footage had been “deliberately fabricated.”
Schwalm discovered his wife’s affair with his boss in 2022. She changed jobs and the couple tried marriage counseling in hopes of saving the marriage.
In the days before the murder, Schwalm searched the Internet for the word “alimony.” He also wrote questions: “Can you see iPhone history after deleting it?” and “Does a road flare burn completely?”
Schwalm was finally arrested on February 3, 2023.
The fairytale marriage began when the couple tied the knot at Craigleith Ski Club, with the bride arriving in a horse-drawn carriage.
“I’ve been imagining that moment since I was a little girl,” she told Wedding Bells magazine in 2012.
‘I really felt like a princess and isn’t that how you’re supposed to feel on your wedding day?’
A misspelled tweet from Valentine’s Day 2013 addressed to his wife read: “A lot of people can say you’re pretty when they meet you. Guys at the bar say you’re sexy, but I can call you beautiful every day.”
But the fairy tale began to fall apart. Schwalm discovered his wife’s affair with his boss in 2022.
She changed jobs and the couple tried marriage counseling, hoping to save their relationship.
But he was secretly “nurturing” an affair with his ex-boss’s ex-wife. Days before the murder, he had told the woman that he had strong feelings for her and the woman responded that she felt the same way about him.
In January 2023, a court heard, he also told a friend he would do whatever it took to be happy “regardless of whether Ashley still wanted her marriage to work.”
Finally, they were heading towards divorce and overnight on January 25 last year they had a furious fight.
In the days before the murder, Schwalm searched the Internet for “alimony.”
He also wrote the questions “can you see iPhone history after deleting it?” and “Does a road flare burn completely?”
Schwalm told investigators he was concerned about the potential cost of divorce.
During a social gathering, he asked a doctor present if it was possible to kill someone by breaking their neck like actor Steven Seagal’s character does in his movies.
It was learned that his wife had a life insurance policy worth US$1 million (US$712,000) of which he was the sole beneficiary. There was also a $250,000 policy for his children in the event of his death.
During a court hearing on Nov. 25, family and friends provided 21 impact statements prior to sentencing.
They said ‘AJ’ was a beloved role model, an incredible mother, friend and confidant to many.
His sister described how the family supported him when he moved home after the so-called accident.
‘James tricked us. “No amount of justice will be enough for the monstrous act he has committed,” he said.
“He sat here broken and grieving while we comforted him, even though he knew what he had done.”
Schwalm dressed his late wife in hiking clothes after the murder. He then left his sleeping children home alone and drove the body in his 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander SUV to a quiet area near the Alpine Ski Club in the Blue Mountains.
His father called Schwalm a “pure narcissist” and added: “This selfish act only benefited you, Jamie.” “This was perpetrated by an intelligent man, a leader, a first responder.”
A family friend said: ‘How on earth could he do this to his own children?’
A cousin said Ashley “was murdered by the only person who was supposed to protect her.”
A family friend described how her four-year-old son happily hugged Schwalm after his wife’s death because the young man “trusted firefighter Jamie.”
Then Schwalm picked him up and gave him a long, strong hug.
‘This image will haunt us for the rest of our lives. We allowed the hands that had just murdered our friend to hold our son.
“I cannot understand how he could do this to anyone, let alone the mother of his children, a beautiful soul who was loved by so, so many people.
In June of this year, Schwalm pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and instead admitted to second-degree murder.
Prosecutor Lynne Saunders told the court it was an “extremely” brutal murder, “thought out, considered, weighed and executed.”
His counterpart, defense lawyer Joelle Klein, told the court: “This was not the act of a violent and untrustworthy man.”
Schwalm automatically faces life in prison. In February, Judge Michelle Fuerst will determine how long Schwalm will have to stay behind bars before being eligible to apply for parole, which could be up to 25 years.
Weeping, Schwalm said in a written statement: “I despise my actions and am tormented that they continue to hurt the people I loved and cared for the most.” I’m ashamed.
“This is where I need to be, where I deserve to be.”
A GoFundMe page has been created to help grieving children.
He says Ashley was “an amazing mother, friend, sister and daughter.” She was a valued resident of Collingwood and a special member of the Brampton firefighter community.
‘Her greatest joy was her beautiful children. Both of their worlds have been turned upside down and now they need our support, stability and love more than ever.’
His brother and his wife are now his legal guardians as they “pick up the pieces after the devastation.”