Ashton Schouten, 28, had reached her breaking point. On the night of August 27, 2022, after a heated argument with her husband Ryan Alexander, she quietly packed luggage for herself and their one-year-old twin boys and placed it by the front door — a silent signal that she was done.
She never made it out.
Alexander, 30, left the house briefly and bought beer at a nearby liquor store. When he returned and saw those bags sitting by the door, something inside him snapped. He walked up to Ashton and shot her once in the head. When she fell to the floor, he stood over her and kept firing — emptying the entire magazine into her head.
Then he called 911 and told police it was self-defense.
No one believed him. A Henry County jury took only a short time to deliberate before finding Alexander guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced the conviction, saying her office “remains steadfast in its commitment to accountability and public safety.”
Prosecutors say the couple had a troubled relationship, driven by Alexander’s controlling behavior and jealousy. Ashton had simply tried to protect herself and her children. Her sentencing date has not yet been set.
Ashton’s obituary remembers her as a woman who worked as a physical therapist since age 16 and had “an intense love of animals.” She is survived by her twin boys, her parents, and seven siblings — a family now left to raise two little boys without their mother.
Ryan Alexander now faces life in prison. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.
