SETTING off to deliver a pizza one Wednesday night, ex-Army veteran Ashley Biggs had no idea the trip would be her last.
The midnight order had not been placed by a hungry insomniac, but rather her jilted ex-husband, who used the bogus request to lure her to her death as the pair were embroiled in a bitter custody dispute over their seven-year-old daughter.
After leaving the US Army, Ashley got a job as a delivery driver for a Domino's pizza joint in New Franklin, Ohio, as she needed the cash to fund a custody battle with her former partner, Chad Cobb.
Ashley had left Cobb after their daughter was born before beginning a relationship with Brittany Dunson, and in 2007 Cobb was awarded custody.
But by 2011, the former couple were locked in a custody battle in the courts as Ashley wanted to play more of a role in her child's life.
Cobb had a new wife, Erica Stefanko, and they had started their own family - but he feared he was going to lose his daughter and, feeling threatened in the custody battle, decided to take drastic action.
On June 20, 2012, Ashley was working a shift for Domino's when a late night order for a half-pepperoni, half-mushroom pizza came in.
She set off to deliver it to the stated address, but little did she realize it would lead her to a closed business in Akron.
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As the minutes ticked by without Ashley's return, her worried colleagues filed a missing person's report shortly before 1am.
Cops traced her steps and discovered a bloody scene with evidence of a struggle - but no sign of Ashley.
Her body was found the following day in the boot of her car, abandoned in a cornfield, and the horrific tale of her fate soon transpired.
At the request of Cobb, his then-wife Stefanko made a bogus pizza order under an alias, luring Ashley to the deserted car park.
Stefanko then left Cobb in the parking lot, where he ambushed his ex, the mom of his seven-year-old daughter, assaulting her before strangling her to death.
According to police, there was evidence of tasering while a 4ft zip tie was used to throttle her.
Cobb then placed Ashley's body in the back of her car and drove to a cornfield, with Stefanko, Cobb's daughter, and her four children following behind in her car.
He then ditched Ashley's vehicle and Stefanko drove them home, where they both showered to clean themselves of any evidence.
Police found Cobb hiding in a nearby wooded area and took him into custody.
BREAKTHROUGH
Cobb - who had a history of domestic violence allegation related to Ashley - pleaded guilty in the case in 2013 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, with Stefanko divorcing him while he was in jail.
But Stefanko wouldn't be arrested for her role in the sickening crime for another six years when police said new evidence came to light implicating her as an accomplice.
The breakthrough in the case came via a secretly recorded call between Stefanko and Cobb's mother, Cindee, who testified that Stefanko admitted to ordering the pizza and trying to cover up the killing.
Cindee made the recording in 2014, but didn't hand it over to cops until 2018 - leading to Stefanko's arrest late in 2019.
“Every time I hear a siren, I think, ‘They’re coming for me,’” Stefanko told Cobb.
“I carried out my part. I did exactly what he told me to do,” she continued, adding the pair plotted to kill Ashley to prevent her from getting custody of Cobb's daughter.
At one point in the recording, Stefanko alleged that Cobb told her he wanted to save Ashley's skull “as a trophy.”
Both Ashley's daughter, aged 15, and Cobb testified against Stefanko during her trial in November last year.
Cobb's daughter described Stefanko as mentally and physically abusive.
"She would tell me if I told my dad what she was doing to me, she would do worse,” the girl told the court.
"I remember she would hold me on the ground and she would hit me, and then she also before made me eat dog feces."
When asked by the court why, she responded: "Because she was jealous of my relationship with my father.”
The teen added that she had been in the backseat of a car in a "pitch black location" when she heard Stefanko place an order for a pizza under a fake name.
She said she fell asleep in the car and later woke up the next morning in her great-grandparent's house.
Stefanko was found guilty of murder and aggravated murder and was handed a life sentence at the end of her trial in July this year.
At her sentencing hearing, she spoke briefly to the judge insisting it wasn't "helpful" for Ashley's family and friends to allow Cobb to "place the blame on me for his actions."
"I was most certainly my worst self during my relationship with Chad. I've never been a hateful person. I would never want what happened to Ashley Biggs regardless of what people heard on [the secret recording]."
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She pleaded for leniency in her sentence adding through tears, "I'd like to be back with my family someday. I love my children more than life."
The judge handed Stefanko a sentence of life in prison. She'll be eligible for parole in 30 years.
Erica Stefanko says she has 'never been a hateful person' as she is sentenced to life in prisonWe pay for your stories!
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