Welcome to Arrest Stories. A forty-four-year-old Aurora man has been charged with first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing his ex-wife to death at her Oswego home while her current husband watched the attack unfold on home surveillance cameras. Here's what may have happened.
On Tuesday, January twenty-seventh, at approximately one ten in the afternoon, Oswego police received a disturbing nine-one-one call from a man in the four hundred block of Valentine Way. The caller reported that he believed his wife was in danger after observing, via home surveillance, a male subject run after his wife into their garage. The caller believed the male to be the wife's ex-husband.
According to police reports, Ryan D. Dodd had followed Ashley Stewart as she entered her home that afternoon. Dodd then chased Stewart into her residence and attacked her with a knife. The victim's current husband witnessed the terrifying scene through his home security system as Dodd pursued his wife into their garage.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found Stewart unresponsive inside the home. Despite emergency response efforts, Ashley Stewart was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy later revealed that Stewart died from multiple stab wounds inflicted during the attack.
Following the incident, witnesses reported seeing Dodd running southbound across Wolfs Crossing Road after the attack occurred.
Two days later, on Thursday, January twenty-ninth, the Oswego Police Department announced that Ryan D. Dodd had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder, home invasion, armed violence, residential burglary, and aggravated stalking in connection with Stewart's death. Dodd is currently being held without bond.
Family members remembered Ashley Stewart as a devoted wife and mother. One relative stated, "She was a devoted wife and loving mother, and her loss has left an immeasurable void in the lives of those who loved her." Another family member described Stewart as "a beacon of light" who "really, really loved her family."
All suspects presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Do not take this report as factual, always verify facts. Thanks for watching Arrest Stories.