Naman Shrestha
Investigation Discovery’s ‘Cabin in the Woods: Desert Manhunt’ transports us to the Californian wilderness as the focus is on Benjamin Peter Ashley, a suspect in the kidnapping case of three young men, the murder of a retired dentist and injuring a few officers. Since both the crimes took place in the cabins in the woods, the investigators launched a manhunt for the alleged criminal, who was on the run. The episode also features an interview with one of the kidnapping survivors, Jonathan Perez, who gives a detailed account of the entire incident from his perspective.
Alleged Kidnapper and Killer Benjamin Peter Ashley Was Shot to Death in Combat by the Police
According to his mother, San Diego native Benjamin Peter Ashley was diagnosed with multiple mental disorders, like bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia, soon after he graduated from high school. Not long after, he decided to stray away from society and started living alone in the depths of the Californian wilderness. In June 2013, Benjamin got in trouble with the law when he allegedly camped in a public space in Santa Monica and got arrested for it. However, the charge was later dismissed. A few months later, in November 2013, he was taken into custody for “resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer” after residents of the Glendale neighborhood reported seeing a suspicious man in the neighborhood.
While an arrest warrant was out for him in Glendale, Benjamin was again reported as a suspicious man in the Kern County community of Bear Valley Springs in October 2014, after which he was taken into custody. However, he was released soon due to a lack of bed space in the prison. Then, over a couple of weeks in the summer of 2015, Benjamin wreaked havoc in various parts of California before getting confronted by the cops. It started on July 28, 2015, when three friends, Jonathan Perez, Keyton Cornelius, and Will Kleier, went on a hunting trip to a cabin east of Bakersfield, California. What promised to be a fun getaway for the boys turned into something traumatic when a man, suspected to be Benjamin, armed with a sawed-off shotgun ambushed them on the property and held them hostage.
Somehow, the trio convinced him to take their belongings with him and spare them. Luckily, they made it out alive of the life-threatening situation and reported the incident to the police. Unfortunately, two days later, Benjamin allegedly shot down a 64-year-old retired dentist named David Markiewitz in a different cabin in Jawbone Canyon. When the police were informed about the murder by the victim’s daughter, Kristi Kerr, and her husband, Ryan Kerr, the manhunt for the alleged murderer and kidnapper was launched. On August 1, 2015, the SWAT members got a lead on him and went to search a secluded cabin in Kelso Valley.
During the search, two of the SWAT team members were shot and wounded, seemingly by Benjamin Peter Ashley, who managed to flee into the forest. A couple of weeks into the manhunt, on August 15, 2015, the police received a tip from an anonymous source that the suspect was outside Brady’s Mini Mart in Inyokern, California. Following up on the tip, around 5 pm in the evening, the patrol officers confronted Benjamin, who was walking alone on a dirt road half a mile west of the Inyokern convenience store. When he pulled out a gun on the officers and ignored their commands to put it away, they opened fire on the suspect and shot him down, putting an end to the 18-day manhunt.
Jonathan Perez Has Made His Family His Topmost Priority
Jonathan Perez is one of the three individuals who were held hostage in his friend’s cabin deep into the woods in 2015. As per his account, after Benjamin Peter Ashley left the cabin, all three friends ran for their lives in the hopes of finding some means to get back home safely. As they were running around looking for help, they spotted a car and asked a man for help. Fortunately, the car owner turned out to be a familiar face — a friend’s father who happened to be in the area that day. Although the trio escaped a brutal fate, they were traumatized. Once back home, he was enveloped under the warm blanket of love and care by his beloved parents, Martin and Hope Ramos-Perez, and loving sisters — Jenn Haro and Syleena Perez.
Following the ordeal, Jonathan, who was just 19 years old at the time, developed a completely transformed outlook towards life. He began cherishing the little things in life and expressed gratitude for everything and everyone he holds dear. The same appears to be the case with Keyton Cornelius and Will Kleier. It has been nearly a decade since the incident, but the close brush with death seems to have bonded the trio for life. The Bakersfield, California resident is still great friends with Keyton and Will. Jonathan keeps most of the details about his personal as well as professional life under wraps, but it looks like he was working at Adventist Health Bakersfield Hospital at some point in his life. In matters of the heart, Jonathan is admittedly single and focused on living his life as per his heart’s desire without any inhibitions.
From what we can tell, Jonathan is particularly close to his mother, Hope. On his 23rd birthday, she penned a heartwarming wish for her son that read, in part: “…you are amazing, sensitive, loving, hard working, handsome, and very determined to be stable and to get your career on tract (track). you will make some woman proud someday in about 30yrs. you have made your dad and mom proud we love you, and want you to be happy and do well at.” He is highly passionate about baseball and once served as the first hitter for Baseball Pro Players. In his downtime, he enjoys playing online games with his friends. As of writing, the 28-year-old is busy furthering his career and building a great life for himself and his family, whom he loves and cherishes so much.
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