The Black Swan Murder?
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(upbeat music) - I started working on a story about a scandal in the ballet world. My name is Alice Rob, and I'm a contributing writer for Vanity Fair. It was a business story about a ballet company that turned into a murder investigation. (dramatic music) - In 2016, Ashley married a much older man. Together, they made a plan to start a new ballet company. - Ashley's dream was to create a ballet company that would be a home for dancers who were unconventional. - She didn't want a cookie cutter company. She wanted girls that were tall, girls that were short. - You know, I am taller, so I thought that this would be a great fit for me. I don't know, the dog could spell ballet before he met Ashley, but when you love somebody, what do you want to do? You want to make her happy? - Ashley was 24, and Doug was 54. They knew each other for approximately 13 days before they got married. Ashley was sending photographs of herself to Doug. Constantly, she was a bikini model at some point, and she knew how to work it. She knew how to use it. - His major concern is, how's he gonna introduce Ashley to Eva? - I felt like Ashley was taking my dad away from me. - Ashley wants to win total affection. She wants to be number one. - She would go through periods where she was just raging at Doug. - She flip-flops between he's a great guy who everybody knew him has, or he's evil. Good or evil, good or evil, good or evil. - She goes to live with her mother and effectively cuts off all communication with Doug. - He's begging her to talk about things, give him another chance. Meanwhile, she accused him of trying to poison her. - She's accused him publicly of murder, attempted murder. Was Doug Banifield dangerous? - They both had a lot of guns, and there was an incident where, during an argument, he shot a gun into the ceiling. After the case with the poison allegations I saw, a picture of the two of them,
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A former ballerina shoots her husband. Did she kill to save herself or was it out of spite? "48 Hours" contributor Jim Axelrod reports.