Little Rock man killed wife, set house afire while son slept, police say

Little Rock police investigate the city’s 10th homicide of the year Monday after a woman was found dead inside a home at 31 Redleaf Circle. Firefighters were initially called about 6:45 a.m. to the residence but then called police after finding a woman, believed to be in her mid-30s, dead inside the home, according to Police Department spokesman Steve Moore.
Little Rock police investigate the city’s 10th homicide of the year Monday after a woman was found dead inside a home at 31 Redleaf Circle. Firefighters were initially called about 6:45 a.m. to the residence but then called police after finding a woman, believed to be in her mid-30s, dead inside the home, according to Police Department spokesman Steve Moore.

A man is accused of killing his wife and setting fire to their Little Rock home as their adopted son was sleeping inside Monday, police said.

Doyle Levi Ashcraft, 32, was taken into custody shortly before 5 p.m. Monday on charges of first-degree murder and criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder, records show. He has pleaded innocent.

The body of 35-year-old Marjorie Ashcraft of Little Rock was found around 6:45 a.m. Monday after firefighters were called to a residence on Redleaf Circle, Police Department spokesman Steve Moore said. Officers responded about 10 minutes later.

A 14-year-old boy at the scene told authorities that he awoke to smoke in the house, at which point he unsuccessfully tried to alert his parents.

The teen was able to break a window, leave the residence and run to a neighbor's house for help, a police document filed in Little Rock District Court states.

A detective noted that the neighbor later kicked in the Ashcrafts' front door in an attempt to put out the blaze, but was stopped when fire and smoke drove him back.

Police said the 14-year-old's mother, Marjorie Ashcraft, was found inside a back bedroom "with injuries that were not consistent with a fire." She was removed from the home and pronounced dead at the scene, according to authorities.

[INTERACTIVE MAP: Search all killings in Little Rock, North Little Rock in 2018]

The police document stated she had "several apparent stabbing injuries." Her body has reportedly been sent to the state Crime Laboratory for an autopsy.

Doyle Ashcraft, who arrived on the scene as authorities responded, told police that he had returned from a 5:45 a.m. trip to Walmart to run an errand for his wife, "who had an upset stomach," court documents show.

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Doyle Ashcraft

He said there was a military style knife in the garage, along with some lighter fluid, according to the documents. An empty bottle of lighter fluid and a leather sheath for a knife were located inside the home, police said.

Police said the knife was missing.

An arrest report noted that Doyle Ashcraft is suspected of setting fire to the home "after disabling smoke detectors, while his son slept."

Detectives found several smoke detectors that had been "purposely removed from their mounts," according to the affidavit.

Doyle Ashcraft told authorities that the residence was secured when he left, and that neither he nor his son killed his wife, the documents said. Police said his statements were "inconsistent" with evidence found at the scene.

"[Doyle Ashcraft's] statements of his timeline suggests that there is no time for an unknown person to enter the secured residence, murder his wife without an apparent struggle, disable the smoke detectors, disable the cameras, set the living room on fire, and escape without detection from the sleeping son," the police document says.

The teen, who was treated for smoke inhalation and later released, said that he had seen his father testing and checking smoke detectors the day before and "knew they were on the wall and functioning."

Little Rock police had been called to the southwest Little Rock home before. In July, Little Rock officers went to the residence for a report of a disturbance, according to a police report.

Marjorie Ashcraft told police she was trying to talk with her son about a situation the day before involving him and his father. The teenager became "very angry" during the conversation and began throwing things in his room, the report said.

Marjorie Ashcraft's killing marked the 10th homicide of the year in Arkansas' capital city. Last year, Little Rock saw 16 homicides from the beginning of the year through March 28, according to a database maintained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Doyle Ashcraft remained in the Pulaski County jail on Tuesday afternoon in lieu of $1 million bond.

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Metro on 03/28/2018

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