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Dateline NBC dropped a two-hour special episode titled Running Man on November 14, 2025, at 9 PM Eastern. The episode revolved around the murder of Ashley Schwalm.
If you missed the live airing of the episode, it is set to stream on Crave the next day.
Andrea Canning, the reporter who has local roots, came back to her old stomping grounds to dig in. She talked to everyone about the case: detectives, Ashley’s friends and family, even the journalists who covered this case from day one.
This Dateline episode walks you through the brutal details: Ashley’s husband, James Schwalm, used to be a fire captain in Brampton. He strangled her. Tried to stage it as an unfortunate accident, then set her car on fire.
He later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and now he is locked up for life with no shot at parole for 20 years.
Meanwhile, Ashley’s family is taking her name and doing something with it: raising money to help people trapped in the nightmare of domestic violence.
Dateline: Who was Ashley Schwalm, and what happened to her?
Ashley Schwalm was the glue of her family; everyone in Collingwood knew her, or at least knew of her. Toronto Life describes her as:
“An avid hiker, runner, golfer, tennis player, and Green Bay Packers fan, she was a warm young woman with an electric smile and unwavering optimism.”
However, a tragedy unfolded in January 2023 when she was found dead. One morning, a driver spotted an SUV on fire, ditched somewhere by the Blue Mountains. At first, the scene looked like a terrible accident. But when they actually checked it out, they found some human remains. And soon, it turned out to be Ashley’s SUV.
As the news spread and law enforcement dug deeper, something about the accident suggested foul play, as shown in the Dateline episode.
Ashley’s brother, David Milnes, told CBC:
“All she ever wanted was for them to be safe and have a wonderful life. That was all taken away on January 26 because of greed, narcissism, lack of empathy and selfish behaviour. How does a father kill their children's mother and do it with them in the house? I hope her screaming haunts him constantly.”
It was not long before the forensic team figured out that Ashley was already dead before her car even caught fire. She had actually been strangled to death. Additionally, near the crime scene, there were some footprints on the snow, which suggested someone else had been lurking around, as seen in Dateline.
The investigators also found a lighter right by the scene, which had “JWS” scratched into it. While double-checking with medical and dental records, it was confirmed that the human remains were indeed those of Ashley Schwalm. What started out looking like a tragic accident flipped into a full-blown murder case.
After that, the entire situation spiraled way out of control. Investigation surrounding Ashley revealed that she had an extra-marital affair with her boss back in early 2022, according to Dateline. Moreover, her husband, James, had an affair with the boss’s ex-wife.
On January 25, 2023, tension was buzzing in the Schwalm household. Dateline reports that neighbors and James and Ashley’s own kid heard the couple fight. The kid heard the shouting and saw his mother scrambling for her phone, probably trying to dial 911. And in the heat of the moment, everything snapped. James ended up strangling Ashley that night.
James Schwalm killed Ashley right there at home, then tried to pull off a cover-up. He dressed her in hiking gear, loaded her body into her Mitsubishi Outlander, and hauled her out by the Alpine Ski Club, as shown in the Dateline episode. Then, he shoved the car off the road and lit it up with gasoline.
However, the autopsy and forensics blew his story to pieces. The cops didn’t buy his alibi, and after some rough interrogation, he finally admitted what he did. James was arrested, charged with second-degree murder, but then the prosecutors looked at all the evidence and upgraded it to first-degree murder.
Ashley’s sister-in-law, Tia, was quoted as saying by Global News:
“James took Ashley’s life in the most brutal, senseless way, leaving all of us shattered. James deceived us saying she died in a car accident. We sat there broken and grieving while consoling him even though he knew he was the one who killed her. No amount of justice will be enough for the monstrous act he committed.”
Fast forward to June 2024, and James pled guilty to second-degree murder anyway. The judge handed him life in prison, no parole for 20 years.
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Ashley’s friend, Carrie Dyson, told Toronto Life:
“Ashley was someone you could talk to about what was going on in your life. She made everyone feel like the most special person in the world.”
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