A Clay County man has been charged with murder for allegedly murdering his wife in Kansas City's Northland and fled to Nebraska on Friday after police discovered a number of disturbing communications that appeared to reference the death. John Wonder was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of his wife, Ashli Ehrhardt, 29, who was discovered dead in their house. He is being jailed on a cash bond of $1 million.
According to a probable cause statement received from the Clay County Prosecutor's Office, Wonder allegedly stabbed and strangled Ehrhardt in the home where they lived with their two children. They both worked at the same company, and their boss was aware that the couple was divorcing.
Officers were called to the home around 10:30 a.m. Friday after their employer requested a welfare check after the two failed to show up for work. Wonder’s family met police outside the home and assisted them in getting inside. Ehrhardt's body was discovered on the lower-level laundry room floor with a belt wrapped around her neck.
Ehrhardt was naked from the waist down, and the word "Wonder" was written in blood on her leg, according to court documents. According to the probable cause statement, her left side was bleeding and seemed to have been penetrated multiple times. A huge butcher knife and a meat cleaver were discovered near her body. There was no one else in the house.
According to one of her parents, Wonder had dropped off the couple's two and four-year-old children at their house earlier that morning. He always brought them inside, but he left them on the porch this time and drove away in his red sedan. When Ehrhardt's parents learned about the welfare check call from the employer, they drove to the house and discovered Wonder's sedan in the garage, but not her daughter's rental Toyota RAV4. They attempted to enter via an internal door, but it appeared to be chained shut from the inside. They were eventually able to enter through a sliding glass door on the deck.
Another witness stated that Ehrhardt planned to leave the house on Oct. 1 as part of their divorce procedures. Police also spoke with Wonder's sister, who texted him the morning of the murder. She questioned where Wonder was about 10:42 a.m., according to a screenshot of the exchange she handed cops, and he responded, "Hey kiddo. Sorry about the mess. For the record: it’s way easier and much more satisfying than you can imagine. See you around."
Another witness told cops that Wonder left him multiple Facebook messages while he was at work, indicating he was ditching his phone and traveling north toward Fargo because he felt like "driving far, far away."
According to court filings, he later messaged the individual at 7:39 a.m., stating he hadn't cried and "still feel nothing" and that he had placed Ehrhardt's gemstones next to her body at 8:50 a.m. Wonder went on, "I'm in the car. I have no doubt I will be caught today. I keep thinking how she never screamed. Just handled it like a champ. What a gal. To honor her, I will not go out by a gunshot (suicide by police), but hopefully by a similar fate."
He sent the final message at 10:33 a.m.: "I'm guessing they'll be finding her body right about now. I started getting calls at 9:30 a.m."
Wonder was apprehended on Friday in Valentine, Nebraska, a town about 8 hours from Kansas City near the South Dakota border.
If convicted of murder, Wonder could face the death penalty or life in prison.
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