Ashley McArthur Is Behind Bars After the 2017 Murder of Taylor Wright

For decades, Dateline has featured some of the most heinous and heartbreaking crimes that have happened in the United States. The 2017 disappearance of Taylor Wright is the subject of the April 23 episode of the investigative series. Correspondent Keith Morrison will speak to Wright's loved ones and to her co-workers about who the private investigator was as a person. He'll also detail all that transpired once she went missing.

Ashley McArthur, the last person to be seen with Taylor Wright, became a person of interest in the case almost immediately. When Wright's body was found, she was arrested for her murder.

Keep reading to find out where Ashley McArthur is now, and for more information on what exactly happened to Taylor Wright.

In September of 2017, the 33-year-old private investigator went missing in Pensacola, Fla. At the time, Wright was going through a difficult divorce, and she had just moved in with her girlfriend, school administrator Cassandra Waller.

On Sept. 8, Wright got together with a friend, Ashley McArthur, and she was never seen in public again.

After Waller attempted to contact her girlfriend, she reached out to McArthur. She shared that Wright had been emotional while they were together, and that she needed time alone. 

Waller then received a mysterious text message from Wright, which reiterated the same sentiment.

Though Waller knew that Wright had been going through a tough time and that she could use her skills as a private investigator to go off the grid, she believed that something was wrong.

After all, Wright left without contacting her young son. She also hadn't told her ex-husband, Jeff Wright, that she was going to take off for a few days.

Waller eventually reported Taylor Wright missing. The authorities focused on speaking with the last person who had seen Wright alive: Ashley McArthur.

They eventually learned that Taylor Wright had given McArthur over $30,000 from the joint account she had shared with Jeff Wright. According to the former crime scene technician, she was in charge of holding on to the money until the divorce was finalized. 

When McArthur's home was searched, Wright's passport and money were found. They also discovered that McArthur had a gun in her home with a bullet missing, and that she had deposited $34,000 into her own bank account. 

Her phone had pinged several times in a farm area that was owned by her family on the day that Wright went missing. 

Wright's remains were eventually found on that farm property. She had been shot in the back of the head, and her body had been buried under concrete and soil.

Ashley McArthur was arrested in October of 2017.

Upon her arrest, McArthur was charged with first-degree premeditated murder. She went on trial in 2019, and she was ultimately found guilty. She is currently serving a life sentence in prison.

Many suspect that Wright had confronted McArthur about the money on the day of her murder. McArthur had already spent some of it, and she had put it into an account that Wright could not access. 

McArthur had other legal issues aside from the murder charge; she had previously been arrested for racketeering and for fraud. She was also found guilty, and she sentenced to another seven years in prison.

The murder of Taylor Wright will be featured on the April 23 episode of Dateline, which is entitled "The Necklace." It airs at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.