The order placed at Domino’s was for a half-pepperoni, half-mushroom pizza to be delivered to a business address at midnight. It was 20 June 2012 and the driver who would fulfil the order was Ashley Biggs.
The 25-year-old had been in the US army and now worked for the pizza chain in New Franklin, Ohio.
She needed the money as she was in the middle of a custody battle with her ex, Chad Cobb, with whom she had a seven-year-old daughter.
Ashley had met Cobb at a roller rink in 2003 after he’d returned home following a six-month stint in the military.
They developed a relationship, but Ashley left Cobb after their daughter was born, later joining the military herself and starting a romance with a woman.
Cobb was awarded full custody of his daughter in 2007, but Ashley decided she wanted to play a part in her child’s life.
By October 2011, they were fighting each other through court orders.
Ashley complained that Cobb had changed his phone number, which violated the court agreement, while he said Ashley was trying to alienate him from his daughter.
Ashley accused Cobb of taking their girl out of the state – also against their agreement – but he said that was a lie. It was getting messy.
Cobb was now married to Erica, who he’d met online, and they had started a family of their own, having two children. Cobb also had another child from a previous relationship and, of course, his daughter with Ashley.
But after raising her, Cobb now feared he was going to lose his little girl.
Meanwhile, Ashley continued her job at Domino’s and fought to see more of her daughter.
When the order for the half-pepperoni, half-mushroom pizza came in, Ashley headed off to deliver it.
The destination would turn out to be a closed business in Akron with a deserted car park.
It was an incredibly unusual place for a pizza to be delivered but customers often had unusual requests.
Only this time, Ashley didn’t return from the drop-off and when colleagues couldn’t get hold of her, they filed a missing person report at 12.45am.
Police traced Ashley’s steps to the remote area and found evidence of a struggle, with large amounts of blood on the ground. They started to fear for Ashley’s safety.
It seemed she had been lured to that deserted spot and then ambushed. But where was Ashley – and her car – now?
A search began and Ashley’s girlfriend was frantic with worry. Tragically, just a few hours later, her body was found in the boot of her car, abandoned in a cornfield.
There was evidence of Tasering and once incapacitated, she had been strangled. The killer used a 4ft zip tie – and straight away that gave investigators a clue. Cobb owned a cable installation company that regularly used zip ties.
Officers found him hiding in a nearby woodland area and arrested him.
In February 2013, Cobb, 38, pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of parole.
His wife Erica divorced him while he was incarcerated and married one of his friends in 2015, becoming Erica Stefanko.
Perhaps the wedding angered Cobb, because he started to change his story. At the time of his arrest, he didn’t implicate his wife – but now he was.
For seven years, police watched Erica. They suspected she knew more about Ashley’s murder than she was letting on.
Then it transpired that Cobb’s mum Cindee had recorded a phone call with Erica, during which she’d allegedly admitted to placing the pizza order and covering up the murder.
“Every time I hear a siren, I think, ‘They’re coming for me,’” she was recorded saying. “I carried out my part. I did exactly what he told me to do.”
Erica also said the murder was to stop Ashley getting custody of her daughter.
“Do I feel bad about what happened to her?” Erica said. “No, I really don’t.”
Erica even said that Cobb had talked about keeping Ashley’s skull “as a trophy”.
Cindee made the recording in 2014 but didn’t give it to the police until 2018. In November 2019, Erica was arrested.
Investigators were confident that Erica had assisted with the murder – that she had lured Ashley to the car park, then helped Cobb dump the body.
They believed she then returned home with Cobb, where they washed away evidence. Erica received multiple charges, including murder and kidnapping.
Her trial last year, dubbed the “pizza delivery murder”, received national attention and was streamed live. The prosecution said she played a vital role in Ashley’s death and was, in fact, the brains behind the plan. She’d been the one to place the fake pizza order.
They said Cobb had Tasered Ashley, then beaten and strangled her. Erica had then followed Cobb as he’d driven Ashley’s body to the cornfield near his parents’ house, then she’d driven him home. It was all because of the contentious custody battle.
Cobb and Ashley’s daughter, now 15, testified in court – and it was damning. Identified simply as “GC”, she recalled how, when she was seven and sitting in the back seat of a car, she heard Erica place a fake pizza delivery order to an empty parking lot.
The teen said she couldn’t remember the alias used, or where they were, as it was “pitch black”.
She had then fallen asleep and woken the next day at her grandparents’ house. GC admitted that she didn’t have any memories of her murdered mum and that although there were times when she got on with her stepmum Erica, she said she “didn’t treat me right and nobody really knew”.
She said Erica was jealous of her relationship with her dad and was mentally and physically abusive.
“She would tell me if I told my dad what she was doing to me, she’d do worse,” GC testified. “She’d hold me on the ground and hit me, and then make me eat dog faeces.”
The defence argued that GC was too young at the time of the murder to take the stand.
But the court allowed it – and her testimony matched that of Cobb, who insisted that Erica had placed the bogus call for the pizza and he had then lain in wait, dressed in camouflage.
“Ashley did not leave that parking lot alive, did she?” the court put to Cobb. “No, she did not,” he replied, via video link from prison.
Cobb said that after killing Ashley, he’d taken a shower to wash off the blood and then he and Erica went back to the crime scene to clean up the blood there – with all four of their children in the car – but saw the police were there and kept driving.
Erica’s defence argued that Cobb was trying to implicate her in an attempt to get out of prison and that he was annoyed she had married a man he considered to be a best friend.
“Here’s a person who’s admitted his guilt, admitted that he beat, admitted that he strangled Ashley Biggs… and yet now, he’s trying to get out of it,” they said. “How credible is that kind of person?”
But the jury believed him.
In the November, Erica was found guilty of murder and aggravated murder. She looked visibly shocked. Her legal team requested a new trial because of a procedural error and due to pressure on the jury to reach a decision amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The bid delayed sentencing but it was ultimately denied. In July this year, Erica, 38, was sentenced to life in prison. She was told she would only be eligible for parole after serving 30 years.
Finally, both of Ashley’s killers were behind bars. Tragically, her quest to be part of her daughter’s life again had sealed her fate.
