Two days ago, HBO premiered A Killer Among Friends Season 2. The new chapter revisits the chilling disappearance and murder of a 33-year-old private investigator and Jacksonville Police Department’s former officer, Taylor Wright. According to the department’s Deputy Chief, A. Malfitano, Wright was a spirited and brave young officer who was welcomed back into service upon her return in 2012.
Wright’s domestic partner, Cassandra Waller, reported her missing case to police on September 14, 2017. According to the findings of the investigators, Wright had sent Waller a text message stating she wanted to leave for a few days. The police further received numerous reports from people who believed that they had seen her after her disappearance.
In August 2019, prosecutors opened their case by stressing that McArthur was the last person to see Taylor alive. Investigators also believed that McArthur had killed her because they saw surveillance footage of McArthur buying soil and cement, which they argued was later used to hide Taylor’s grave.
Continue reading more about the story.
A Killer Among Friends Season 2: How did Taylor Wright become a police officer?
Taylor Wright’s childhood was full of hardship, but she entered the foster care system at 13. Her life started changing when a neighbor named Nancy Murchison decided to adopt her. When Taylor was young, she met a North Carolina Marine named Jeff Wright and quickly fell in love. Their first date ended with a knife-throwing moment at a dartboard.
While Jeff served on combat tours, Taylor built her own career and later became a police officer in Jacksonville. She often wore a necklace with a bullet as her signature piece. Her best friend and supervising officer, Barbara Evanson, described her as an amazing person who wanted to be friends with everyone.
How did Taylor disappear?
In A Killer Among Friends, the private investigator Taylor Wright vanished in September 2017 after her breakup with Jeff. She moved with her girlfriend Cassandra in Pensacola, Florida. Before her disappearance, Taylor had been under immense stress due to a court order demanding $25,000 in cash.
Waller explained to investigators that her friend went out to run errands with her friend and a former crime scene partner, Ashley McArthur. When Taylor failed to return after several hours and missed the birthday dinner planned for Waller, her concern began to grow.
Ashley claimed that they went horseback riding, and later Taylor left alone. However, phone records showed Ashley was present at her family’s farm. Detectives found no Uber records and later discovered Taylor’s remains buried at the farm, with a gunshot wound to the skull.
A Killer Among Friends: The murderer of Taylor Wright
In A Killer Among Friends, the investigators found that Ashley killed her friend after misusing $34,000 that Taylor had trusted her to hide during her divorce. Six weeks after Ashley’s horseback riding story, police found Taylor’s remains buried in concrete and potting soil with her bullet necklace and a gunshot wound on her head. During the trial, Ashley’s defense attorney, John Beroset, said,
“There will be no physical evidence introduced in this trial to show you that Ashley McArthur had anything to do with the death of Taylor Wright.”
Ultimately, the jury supported the prosecution, and Ashley was found guilty of first-degree murder. Evidence showed that Ashley tried to poison Taylor’s beer with cocaine, but when that failed, she shot her instead to keep the stolen money hidden.
Follow Soap Central for more updates on A Killer Among Friends.
Edited by Aratrika Baidya