Fire captain was ‘inconsolable’ when his wife was found dead in a burning wreck… then the chilling truth emerged

At first glance, it appeared as if the mother of two had lost control of her car late at night and driven down a steep slope in the bitter cold of the snow-covered road.

The vehicle burst into flames, killing Ashley Schwalm, nee Milnes, 40, in an apparently tragic accident that shocked friends, family and community.

Her husband of 10 years, James Schwalm – a firefighter – was inconsolable and left to raise their two children, aged six and nine, on his own.

The heartbroken trio moved in with his late wife’s family as they picked up the pieces of their shattered lives.

Only Schwalm’s grief was a cruel lie.

Police eventually determined that he had strangled his wife in their three-bedroom home in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, while his children slept.

He then staged the entire crash site as part of an elaborate murder plot.

Schwalm, a captain with the Brampton Fire Department, dressed his late wife in hiking clothes for the first time after the murder.

James Schwalm was a captain with the Brampton Fire Department. He and his wife shared two young children, ages six and nine

He then left his sleeping children home alone and drove the body in her 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander SUV to a quiet area near the Alpine Ski Club in the Blue Mountains.

At around 6am on July 26, 2023, he doused the vehicle with petrol and set it on fire with the body inside using a lighter with his own initials on it – JWS – which he left behind amid the flaming wreckage.

Surveillance footage shows a person running away with a large backpack.

Schwalm, 40, then methodically began an elaborate cover-up to hide his tracks.

He used his mother’s car, which he had parked nearby, as a getaway vehicle after staging the fake accident.

He also sent a series of text messages to himself from his wife’s phone to pretend she was still alive.

In one text, he asked her to fill gas bottles for a snow blower.

Then, as if he were her, he wrote, “Okay, I’m going out, I think the kids can sleep well.”

In another, as the woman he had just murdered in cold blood, he texted, “Eww, I left the gas cans in my car and it stinks.”

Another said, “Oh, I have dizziness. I’m going home as soon as possible.’

Later, as he took them to school, he told his two children that their mother had left to go for a walk.

Ashley Schwalm, a project manager, was identified through dental records. An autopsy revealed that his wife had died from strangulation and that she had been dead before the fire.

Two days after the death, Schwalm made a statement to Ontario Provincial Police officers, saying he had been walking the family dog ​​in the neighborhood when his wife apparently crashed her car.

He turned over surveillance footage from their home’s security camera, which he said showed him leaving the property with their pet, but police later determined the film was “intentionally fabricated.”

Schwalm had discovered his wife’s affair with her work boss in 2022. She changed jobs and the couple tried marriage counseling, hoping to save the marriage.

In the days leading up to the murder, Schwalm searched the word “alimony” online. He also typed questions in ‘can you see iPhone history after deletion’ and ‘does a road torch completely burn’

Schwalm was eventually arrested on February 3, 2023.

The fairytale wedding began when the couple got married at Craigleith Ski Club, with the bride arriving by horse and carriage.

“I’ve been imagining that moment since I was a little girl,” she told Wedding Bells magazine in 2012.

‘I really felt like a princess and isn’t that how you should feel on your wedding day?’

A misspelled 2013 Valentine’s Day tweet to his wife read: “A lot of people can tell you’re beautiful when they meet you. Guys at the bar say you’re pretty, but I can call you beautiful every day.’

But the fairy tale began to crumble. Schwalm had discovered his wife’s affair with her work boss in 2022.

She changed jobs and the couple tried marriage counseling, hoping to save their relationship.

But he secretly “fostered” an affair with the ex-wife of her former boss. Days before the murder, he had told the woman that he had strong feelings for her, and the woman responded that she felt the same about him.

In January 2023, a court heard, he also told a girlfriend he would do whatever it took to make himself happy “regardless of whether Ashley still wanted to make their marriage work.”

Ultimately, they were heading for divorce and on the evening of January 25 last year they had an angry argument.

In the days leading up to the murder, Schwalm searched online for “alimony.”

He also typed the questions ‘can you see iPhone history after deletion’ and ‘does a road torch completely burn out’.

Schwalm told investigators he was concerned about the potential costs of a divorce.

During a social gathering, he asked a doctor present if it was possible to kill someone by breaking his neck, as actor Steven Seagal’s character does in his films.

It turned out that his wife had a $1 million life insurance policy of which he was the sole beneficiary. There was also a $250,000 policy for their children in the event of her death.

During a court hearing on November 25, family and friends made 21 impact statements before sentencing.

They said “AJ” was a beloved role model, wonderful mother, friend and confidante to many.

Her sister described how the family had supported him when he moved in with them after the alleged accident.

“James deceived us. “No amount of justice will ever be enough for the monstrous act he committed,” she said.

“He sat here broken and sad as we comforted him, even though he knew what he had done.”

Schwalm dressed his late wife in hiking clothes after the murder. He then left his sleeping children home alone and drove the body in her 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander SUV to a quiet area near the Alpine Ski Club in the Blue Mountains.

Her father branded Schwalm a “pure narcissist,” adding, “This selfish act has only benefited you, Jamie. This was perpetrated by a smart man, a leader, a first responder.”

A family friend said: ‘How on earth can he do this to his own children?’

A cousin said Ashley was “killed by the one person who was supposed to protect her.”

A family friend described how her four-year-old son happily hugged Schwalm after his wife’s death because the younger “trusted firefighter Jamie.”

Then Schwalm picked him up and gave him a long, tight hug.

‘This image will haunt us for the rest of our lives. We let the hands that had just killed our friend hold our child.

‘I don’t understand how he could have done this to anyone, let alone the mother of his children, a beautiful soul who was loved by so many people.

In June of this year, Schwalm pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder but admitted to first-degree murder.

Prosecutor Lynne Saunders told the court it was an “extremely” brutal murder, “thought through, considered, weighed and executed.”

Her counterpart, lawyer Joelle Klein, told the court: “This was not the act of an otherwise unreliable and violent man.”

Schwalm automatically faces a life sentence. In February, Judge Michelle Fuerst will determine how long Schwalm must serve behind bars before he is eligible for parole, which could be up to 25 years.

Weeping, Schwalm said in a written statement: “I despise my actions and am pained that they continue to hurt the people I loved and cared about most. I’m ashamed.

“This is where I need to be, I deserve to be.”

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the grieving children.

It says Ashley was “an amazing mother, friend, sister and daughter.” She was a valued resident of Collingwood and an exceptional member of the Brampton fire community.

‘Her greatest joy was her beautiful children. Their worlds have both been turned upside down and they need our support, stability and care now more than ever.”

Her brother and his wife are now their legal guardians as “they pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the devastation.”