A Stokes County man accused of killing Ashley Denise Ward had threatened her last year, and he told authorities at that time that she had threatened his wife and him, court records show. Joshua Allen Bolen, 25, of Walnut Cove was arrested in Richmond Sunday and charged with murder. Ward, 24, of Mount Airy, whose body was pulled from a pond next to Belews Lake in northeastern Forsyth County on June 2, died of head injuries.
Court records show a troubled relationship between Bolen and Ward, who had a 15-month-old son together. Bolen's wife, with whom he has three children, currently lives in Thomasville.
According to a domestic-violence protective order signed the day before Ward's body was found, she had taken the toddler to visit Bolen on May 28 and stayed with him.
Ward's mother, Judy Ward Padilla, had asked a district-court judge for the order, saying that Bolen had sent Ward a threatening text message in May that said: "If you move to Goldsboro with your father, you are setting yourself up to be killed."
"The mother cannot be found now, and the father will not return the child to the plaintiff (Padilla)," the court document said.
In the order, the judge instructed Bolen not to commit any further acts of abuse or threaten Padilla. The judge also ordered Bolen to return the toddler to Padilla's custody.
On June 2, the same day that Ward's body was found, Bolen took the child to the Stokes County Sheriff's Office, where he told a deputy that he had last seen Ward alive on May 30 when she got out of his vehicle on U.S. 52, about four miles from King.
Bolen agreed yesterday to return to North Carolina, said Maj. Durwood Bennett, the chief deputy of the Stokes County Sheriff's Office.
Padilla reported her daughter missing on May 30.
The next day, a fire gutted the mobile home in Walnut Cove where Bolen lived. Authorities said that Bolen will be charged with second-degree arson and burning personal property, in connection with that fire, when he returns to Danbury.
Other court records show that:
o In February 2008, Bolen and Ward both were charged with making harassing phone calls to each other, two warrants show. Bolen was accused of threatening to kill Ward, and she was accused of repeatedly calling to harass Bolen.
"She constantly calls and harasses me and threatens to bust up my things, and hit me in my head and fight my wife," Bolen said in a court document.
Ward was acquitted of the harassment charge, and a prosecutor dismissed a similar charge against Ward, court records show. She was ordered not to harass or threaten Bolen.
o In March 2008, Bolen was charged with a misdemeanor violation of a domestic-violence protective order by creating a sexually provocative My-Space page with Ward's contact information, another warrant says. Other men used the page to harass Ward by e-mail and telephone.
The prosecutor determined that the accusations against Bolen didn't violate the domestic-violence protective order.
o In September 2008, a prosecutor in Surry County dismissed a charge of cyberstalking against Bolen and ordered him not to harass or threaten Ward. Bolen was accused of making false and harassing statements about Ward on the Internet, an arrest warrant says.
■ John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.
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