Ross Butler was jailed in Florida after investigators said his wife’s reported suicide was staged.

BUNNELL, Fla. — A Virginia man accused of strangling his wife in 2021 and making her death look like a suicide was arrested in Florida after a grand jury indicted him on murder and strangulation charges, authorities said.

Ross Butler, 56, was taken into custody May 27 in Flagler County, Florida, after authorities in Chesterfield County, Virginia, secured charges tied to the death of 36-year-old Ashlee Butler. The arrest moved a case that began as a reported suicide into a new stage, with Butler held without bond while Virginia officials seek his return for prosecution.

The case began Dec. 20, 2021, at a home in the 5500 block of Alberta Road in Chesterfield, an unincorporated area southwest of Richmond. Police found Ashlee Butler there after her death was reported as a suicide. Authorities later said the scene and her injuries did not match that report. Chesterfield police said relatives, witnesses and people who knew Ashlee Butler brought forward concerns about what had happened. A police spokesperson said she had gone home to pack belongings because she was preparing to leave her husband. Investigators now allege Ross Butler strangled her during that period and staged the home afterward to mislead police.

A Chesterfield grand jury indicted Butler on May 18. Florida authorities said he was wanted on a fugitive arrest warrant connected to first-degree murder, first-degree murder through abduction, felony homicide and strangulation. Some reports described the Virginia indictment as including murder and strangulation charges, while Flagler County officials listed the fuller warrant language used for the arrest in Florida. The case remains at the charging stage, and Butler is presumed innocent unless convicted. Virginia court proceedings are expected to determine which counts move forward and how prosecutors frame the evidence from the 2021 death scene.

Investigators have said the death raised questions from the start. The Florida sheriff’s office said the case involved suspicious circumstances and that detectives later concluded the evidence at the scene and Ashlee Butler’s injuries were inconsistent with suicide. Chesterfield police said there was a history of domestic violence in the home. The public record released so far does not give a full account of the injury findings, the physical evidence recovered from the house or the forensic steps that led detectives to present the case to a grand jury more than four years later. Officials have not said whether a medical examiner’s final findings changed during the investigation or whether new witness statements played a central role.

The arrest in Florida unfolded over two days. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said its Criminal Intelligence Unit was contacted May 26 to help find Butler, who was believed to be living in Flagler County. Detectives with the Flagler Beach Police Department had identified a local motel as part of the search. Authorities then learned Butler had been admitted to AdventHealth Palm Coast. Deputies waited for his release and stopped him outside the hospital May 27. He was taken to the sheriff’s operations center in Bunnell, where Chesterfield County detectives interviewed him before he was booked into the county jail.

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly framed the arrest as a joint effort by local and Virginia investigators. “This case is an excellent example of teamwork and serves as a warning to fugitives that you can’t avoid the long arm of the law, especially in Flagler County,” Staly said. He said Butler “thought he could get away with murder and live the rest of his life at the beach.” The sheriff credited his agency’s Criminal Intelligence Unit and Fugitive Apprehension Unit, the Chesterfield County Police Department and the Flagler Beach Police Department with locating Butler and making the arrest.

The Florida arrest also closed one part of the case that had stretched across state lines. After Ashlee Butler’s death, Ross Butler had been living in Florida, and authorities said he was known to be in Flagler County when Virginia sought help finding him. Local records reported by Flagler-area news outlets show Butler had prior arrests in Flagler County unrelated to the Virginia homicide case, including traffic and drug-related matters. Those earlier cases are separate from the murder allegations. Investigators did not describe him as publicly hiding under another name, but Staly said he had been “hiding out” until deputies located him.

Ashlee Butler’s death also left a digital trace. A fundraiser was created after her death for cremation and expenses, and reports said Ross Butler requested that help. The fundraiser is now paused. The existence of that page is part of the public history around the case, but authorities have not said it is evidence in the criminal prosecution. The central claim remains that the death scene was staged and that Ashlee Butler was killed while preparing to leave. Officials have not released a complete timeline of her final hours or named all witnesses who raised concerns with police.

The legal path now runs through extradition. Butler was held at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility in Flagler County with no bond while awaiting transfer to Virginia. Once returned, he is expected to appear in Chesterfield court on the charges listed in the warrant and indictment. Prosecutors will have to show probable cause through court filings and hearings before any trial. Defense filings, plea decisions and future evidence motions could shape how much of the four-year investigation becomes public.

For Chesterfield investigators, the arrest came after years in which the case remained open. For Flagler County deputies, it became a brief fugitive search centered on a motel, a hospital and an arrest outside a medical building. For Ashlee Butler’s family and friends, it marked the first major public turn since police said they received information challenging the original account of suicide. The next milestone is Butler’s extradition to Virginia, where the allegations will move from investigation to court.

Author note: Last updated June 23, 2026.