Naman Shrestha
When a construction worker named James Chambers vanished out of thin air in 2014, his family and the entire community were shocked by the unexpectedness of his disappearance. As his family searched for answers, the detectives left no stone unturned during the investigation to get to the bottom of the case. In ‘Dateline: The Bridge,’ we are provided with all the intricate details regarding the disappearance case of James Chambers, accompanied by interviews with his family members and investigators who were in the thick of it.
How Did James Chambers Die?
James Allan Chambers II was born on July 8, 1986, to Pete Chambers and Rachel Wellhouser. At the time of his demise, he had been residing in the town of Fayetteville in Cumberland County, North Carolina. According to his loved ones, James was a selfless son and friend with a great sense of humor. He reportedly held two jobs; while he primarily worked as a civilian construction worker at Fort Bragg, which is now referred to as Fort Liberty, the 28-year-old also served as a lifeguard. The day of August 15, 2014, started like just another one for James as he went to work as usual at his fundamental place of employment near his hometown.
While he was expected to arrive at the lake to serve his duties as a lifeguard, James didn’t turn up. Unfortunately, that particular afternoon was the last time James’ former girlfriend or anyone who knew the man saw him alive and well. Since James had a habit of keeping his family informed about his daily activities, his failure to show up for his second job set the alarm bells ringing in the minds of his loved ones. Everyone started to grow increasingly worried as time passed and they could not garner any updates on his whereabouts. Soon, they began to inquire about the young man, and after about 10 days, they turned to the officials for help by filing a missing report.
Since the authorities didn’t have much to go by, they didn’t waste any time and swiftly launched an investigation into the matter. As time progressed, the hopes of finding him alive diminished and the officials started to look for a potential perpetrator who would’ve harmed James. Years went by before the authorities finally managed to find the truth regarding his fate — he was murdered. They nabbed the killer who confessed to shooting James to death and proceeding to burn his body. To avoid capture, the killer buried his remains deep into the ground. Not just that, James’ remains were also dug up, dismembered, and then thrown off into a river by the perpetrator.
Who Killed James Chambers?
When the search for the missing James Chambers had gotten stale and not seen any development, a clue emerged from his father who testified that his co-worker named Howard Adrian Ashleman had taken James home on the fateful day. At the time, Howard was 21 years old and was considered a friendly and laid-back guy. However, there was allegedly bad blood between the two co-workers for reasons unknown. This animosity supposedly became the reason for James’ disappearance and murder.
During the interrogation, Howard was cooperative and stated that he dropped James off at his house and didn’t have any clue about what happened to him. Everything seemed to have added up but as soon as he mentioned selling his truck to a scrapyard, the investigators knew something was up. Although the authorities had Howard’s name high up their suspect list, they had no concrete evidence against him. When there were no further developments in the case, it began going cold. Several years later, the detectives found out about a key witness named Reno Parks who claimed that he saw Howard shoot James.
Meanwhile, Howard moved to Florida and developed strong religious beliefs, after which he began feeling guilty about killing James. He allegedly talked about it with his future wife, who recorded him and told the Florida police about her husband’s deeds and confession. When the police interviewed him, they still couldn’t get a solid confession from him, which made his arrest complicated. However, in January 2017, Howard got himself a lawyer in Florida and so began the negotiations for him to plead guilty and surrender.
After several negotiations failed, Howard was finally arrested on February 12, 2018, in Randolph County. It only took a few days for Howard to plead guilty to second-degree murder. As part of his plea deal, he even agreed to take the investigators to the bridge from where he dumped the body. In his confession, he claimed that he stopped the truck and fired a shot into the cab just to scare James off, but it accidentally hit him and killed him. He told the authorities that he burned and buried James’ body in Cumberland County’s Wade area, but later dug the body back up to dismember it and dropped it down a remote bridge into the Cape Fear River.
As the detectives pieced the puzzle together, they found out that the alleged bridge from where Howard threw James’ body was Keener Bridge in rural Sampson County, which is nearly 40 miles away from Fayetteville. Then, in Spring 2021, the authorities conducted a thorough search of the area for a couple of days on horseback and foot, but to no avail.
Soon, he was sentenced to at least 15 years and six months for the murder of James Chambers. Despite not being able to recover James’ body, Howard was convicted of murder, which is an uncommon instance. Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West had a few words to say about this, “I have seen it on occasion, but it is certainly the exception and it’s certainly very rare. It’s just hard to prove the case if you can’t prove the person is actually dead, and certainly, the best way to do that is to have a body and a medical examiner and all that, and we never had that in this case.”
Read More: Ted Shaughnessy’s Murder: How Did He Die? Who Killed Him?
