Strange chat leads cops to slain Peabody woman

PEABODY – Twenty-eight-year-old Peabody resident Ashley Fernandes pleaded innocent in Peabody District Court Monday to charges that he killed his live-in girlfriend – a murder that possibly could have been avoided.The body of Jessica Herrera, 25, was found Sunday afternoon in her 7 Oak St. apartment wrapped up in a blanket and tied with rope in a room located off the master bedroom.Fernandes confessed to the killing to Peabody police after the department, working on a tip from Beverly police, found Herrera’s body.According to Beverly officer Sean Connelly, Kenneth Morse contacted him early Sunday morning after having a brief and strange encounter with Fernandes at an Indian restaurant in Beverly Saturday night. Morse said Fernandes told him he would be “reading about him in the newspaper” within the next 15 days. Fernandes allegedly told Morse he had killed his girlfriend, retracted his statement, saying that he was “just kidding,” then later said his “girlfriend was dead in his apartment.”Prior to leaving the restaurant, Morse said Fernandes had scribbled several notes on a piece of paper that included his parents’ address and phone number in his native India. Morse turned over the note to police and the investigation began.The Peabody Police Department learned that Fernandes was not licensed to operate a motor vehicle and initiated a motor vehicle stop after watching the suspect leave his apartment Sunday afternoon. When stopped, Fernandes asked the officer if this was about his girlfriend and offered police the right to look at his apartment.During the search police found Herrera’s body. According to police reports, when approached by officers, a shaky and teary-eyed Fernandes claimed to have no idea what they could have possibly found.Fernandes later confessed during an interview at Peabody Police Headquarters to killing his girlfriend, Herrera, stating that he strangled her on Saturday. He has been charged with murder and operating a vehicle without a license, and will be held without bail until his probable cause hearing scheduled for Friday, May 9 at Peabody District Court.Fernandes had a pending case involving Herrera on charges of domestic assault and battery and intimidation of a witness, stemming from a January 4 assault in Peabody. He was scheduled for a bench trial on those charges this Friday in Peabody District Court.When Fernandes was in court in January for the previous incident with Herrera, where he allegedly punched and strangled her to the point she blacked out twice, the District Attorney’s office recommended Fernandes be held without bail.According to police reports from that Christmas-morning incident, Herrera said, “The next thing I remember, I was being held on the floor with him punching me, slamming my head into the floor?He strangled me. I blacked out two times.” She said she was choking to the point of near death and foam came from her mouth.Herrera suffered a black eye to her left eye, which was also blood red, and bruises to her leg, hip, and chest. She said Fernandes accused her of cheating on him some months prior and told her he would kill her. After pleading for her life and the future of her small children, Fernandes eventually let her go.Judge Robert A. Brennan denied the January request three days after it had been filed on the condition that Fernandes have no contact with Herrera.Herrera, who at the time had a restraining order against Fernandes, vacated her request on February 14 claiming that she was no longer in fear of him and said they were “going to get back together.”