What Happened to Ashley After Forensic Files?
(“Driven to Silence,” Forensic Files)
A decade after her mother’s homicide, Ashley Satterfield unwittingly helped catch the killer.
And it’s a good thing she did. After murdering hair salon owner Dana Chyleen Satterfield in 1995, teenage felon Jonathan Vick went on to accrue a lengthy police record.
Epilogue on a child. His 2005 arrest and subsequent conviction stopped what would have undoubtedly turned into an even longer streak of violence. It also provided some consolation to Dana’s family.
Forensic Files viewers will remember that the victim’s mild-mannered daughter, Ashley, appeared on “Driven to Silence,” the episode about Dana’s murder. It was produced and first broadcast back in 2008, so an update on the woman who lost her mother at age 8 seems in order.
But first here’s a quick recap of the episode along with additional information drawn from internet research:
Spotted fleeing. On July 31, 1995, a 17-year-old South Carolinian named Jonathan Vick bragged to his buddy that he planned to snag a date with Dana Satterfield. His friend thought he was a little out of line to assume a married — albeit separated — 27-year-old mother of two would take an interest in a teenage boy.
Little did the buddy, Michael Pace, know that his friend wasn’t just arrogant. He was a psychopath, who later that evening entered Dana’s South Carolina business, Roebuck Hair and Tanning Center, and raped and strangled her. He left her body hanging from a water heater in the bathroom.
Diane Harris, a door-to-door saleswoman who had earlier that day sold Dana a bottle of cleaning fluid, saw a man jump out of the window of the mobile home that housed Dana’s salon.
Mystery informant. While running to summon help, Diane Harris (it’s not clear whether that’s her real name or a pseudonym) came face to face with the escapee for a moment and was thus able to help police work up a sketch.
Michael Pace tried to assist investigators, too — he just didn’t try quite hard enough.
He anonymously called the sheriff’s office multiple times to suggest checking out Jonathan Vick, but Vick’s fingerprints didn’t turn up at the murder scene. And an unnamed tipster’s claims don’t constitute enough evidence for an arrest.
Spotlighted on TV. Meanwhile, police had already ruled out the default suspect — Mike Satterfield, Dana’s estranged husband.
Anyone with two eyes could see that a mountain of a man like him would have trouble fitting through the door of a mobile home let alone a window. And he had an alibi anyway.
In 1997, Unsolved Mysteries produced a segment about Dana’s murder, but it didn’t yield any solid prospects.
The case went cold until 2005, when Ashley Satterfield, then around 18, inadvertently revved up the idled murder investigation.
Scurrying about. Michael Pace worked at a station that Ashley visited for an oil change. After seeing Ashley and learning she was Dana Satterfield’s daughter, he contacted authorities again — but this time he revealed his identity and gave them enough information to force Vick to submit a DNA sample.
It matched genetic evidence found at the crime scene.
Vick had long known that he was a suspect in the case and had changed his address twice to avoid the police, according to an AP account.
But that didn’t mean he stayed on his best behavior. By the time police hauled him in on Oct. 24, 2005, in Greenville, he was a married father with arrests for domestic violence and vandalism. Vick also had a history of antagonizing co-workers and being fired from jobs. And yikes, one of his girlfriends dropped out of sight in an unsolved disappearance.
Hair of a chance. Authorities charged Vick with murder, kidnapping, and criminal sexual conduct for his attack on Dana Satterfield.
At the trial, the prosecution’s arsenal included genetic evidence, at least one eyewitness account, and damning admissions Vick had made to a fellow detainee.
The defense didn’t have a lot of ammo but hoped that a hair belonging to someone other than Vick that was found on Dana Satterfield’s body would become the bombshell that blew up the case.
Escapes executioner. But evidence showed that the killer had dragged Dana across the floor of the salon where she had spent all day cutting and styling hair — of course stray hairs ended up on her clothes and body.
In November 2006, a jury convicted Vick of Dana Satterfield’s murder. Because he committed the crime at 17, he wasn’t eligible for the death penalty. He got life instead.
So what has happened to his victim’s daughter since she appeared on Forensic Files?
24/7 job. Now known as Ashley Arrowood, she went on to have two children of her own and dedicate herself to helping survivors of horrible crimes.
She became a victim advocate for the Spartanberg County Sheriff’s Office. In an interview with the Spartanburg Herald-Journal in 2016, Ashley said she makes herself available at all hours for victims in need of someone to talk to. She attends bond hearings with them and encourages them to draft impact statements and read them at sentencing hearings.
She also started a jailhouse program to make inmates aware of the effects their crimes have on victims’ friends and family.
Perpetrator still denying. Entrepreneurial like her late mother, Ashley operates her own photography business.
In an interview with Channel 7 wspa.com, Ashley said that she hasn’t started forgiving Vick yet, because he’s still denying his guilt.
Vick continues to maintain that an unknown assailant killed Dana Satterfield. Meanwhile, he has proved himself a rough customer while incarcerated. On one occasion, he threatened the life of a Spartanburg County detention officer. That got him an extra three years.
Parole possibility. More recently, Vick landed himself in the special management unit — which means 23 hours a day in the cell — for six months as punishment for attacking a fellow inmate at Lee Correctional Institution.
Today, Vick resides in Lieber Correctional Institution, a maximum security facility in Ridgeville.
Ashley Arrowood’s knowledge of the criminal justice system should help her make a good case against granting Vick parole when he becomes eligible for review in 2035.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
