SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Ashley Bird, a 35-year-old mother who worked from home, was in a Zoom meeting Tuesday morning. At one point, Bird told her coworker that someone was trying to break into her house. She never came back.
Allison Saefong, Ashley Bird’s younger sister, said the coworker contacted Bird’s mother, per a report from NBC San Diego .
“My mom called me just before 11 o’clock, and she was hysterical, saying, ‘She’s gone. She’s gone.’ I shouted, ‘Who’s gone? Who’s gone?’ She wasn’t giving me details. She said, ‘Ashley. Ashley’s gone, I just know it,’” Saefong said.
When nobody could reach Bird, her family called law enforcement to her home on La Presa Avenue in Spring Valley, Calif.
“Deputies entered the residence and discovered a female victim with head trauma,” shortly before 10:30 a.m., said a press release from the San Diego Sheriff’s Office . “Deputies immediately began life saving measures until relieved by paramedics. Unfortunately, the victim passed away on scene.”
In a follow-up press release , the sheriff’s office revealed that the preliminary cause of death for that victim – identified as Bird – was a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities said her death was a homicide and that the suspect was 39-year-old Christopher Bird, her estranged husband. He was found, deceased, inside his vehicle at Calafia Beach Park, in San Clemente, Calif.
“The manner and cause of his death will be determined by the Orange County Coroner’s Office,” said the sheriff’s department.
Saefong said that the couple, who share a 9-year-old son, were going through a divorce. Though she described Christopher Bird as “volatile,” Saefong said her sister denied that he was physically abusive.
He was served court documents regarding spousal and child support just days before the murder.
“We think the divorce may have sent him over the edge and then along with the custody battle that was finalizing at the end too,” Saefong said.
She also said the family is considering who will have custody of Bird’s son.
“I wish I would have called her more. I talked to her every day, but I still wish I would have had that one last chance to talk to her,” said Saefong. “It didn’t have to be anything elaborate. Just say hi, say I love you, give her a hug. Just those small, tiny little details that I would have been able to do on a daily basis and didn’t get to do that one last day. I’d just tell her how much I love her.”
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