S11 E1: [Ashley] Most Dangerous Time

[0] Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to something was wrong early and ad -free right now.

[1] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

[2] I'm Dan Tversky.

[3] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[4] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[5] What's the answer?

[6] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[7] Hysterical.

[8] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[9] Binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[10] Something Was Wrong is intended for mature audiences.

[11] Episodes can discuss topics that can be triggering, such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence, suicide, and murder.

[12] I am not a therapist or a doctor.

[13] If you're in need of support, please visit something was wrong .com slash resources for a list of nonprofit organizations that can help.

[14] Some names have been changed for anonymity purposes.

[15] Opinions expressed by the guests on the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself or AudioChuck.

[16] Resources and source material are linked in the episode notes.

[17] Thank you so much for listening.

[18] In 2019, a Department of Child Protection study found that the number of women murdered by an intimate partner had increased to an average of almost four women a day.

[19] It reflected a gradual rise in the figures since 2014 after a steady reduction over the previous four days.

[20] years.

[21] Of those killed by an intimate partner, about three quarters are female.

[22] Homicides occur in women of all ages and among all races and ethnicities, but young women of marginalized groups are disproportionately affected.

[23] Perpetrators of family and domestic violence can vary in age and be from any socioeconomic demographic, cultural background, ethnicity, or religion.

[24] They can occupy any profession or live in any geographic region.

[25] Perpetrators can be any gender, however, the vast majority are male.

[26] In 2015, homicide caused the death of 3 ,519 girls and women in the United States.

[27] Across all racial ethnic groups of women, over half of female homicides for which circumstances were known were interpersonal violence related, with about 90 % of these women being killed by their current or former intimate partner.

[28] I'm Tiffany Reese, and this is, something was wrong.

[29] You think you know me, you don't know me well at all.

[30] You think you know me you don't know me will.

[31] Today we'll hear Ashley Hall's story, told by her mother, Lucia, and her sister, Jessa.

[32] Please note, due to the public nature of this story, real names will be used for this episode.

[33] My name is Jessa McLean.

[34] My sister is Ashley Hall or Ashley Atherly, formerly known as that.

[35] She was my older sister.

[36] She's about six years older than me. And she is actually my half -sister, so growing up she was with us half the time, but I always considered her my sister because I felt like I was.

[37] was with her pretty often and pretty close with her.

[38] She was very outgoing.

[39] With her being six years older, of course, we did have that age gap.

[40] So I wasn't always on the same page as her, of course.

[41] But knowing her and knowing her friends, she was definitely like the life of the party.

[42] And everyone loved her.

[43] She was always just so sweet to everyone.

[44] I remember her being a part of best buddies and just knowing that she just had such a great heart and everybody loved Ashley.

[45] If you knew her, you loved her.

[46] So she was just such a bright light.

[47] Ashley met Edley in 2006 while working together at a bank.

[48] Here's Ashley's mom, Lucia.

[49] At that time, she was actually engaged in living with her fiancé at the time.

[50] Shortly after she started with the bank, she broke off her engagement with him, just kind of abruptly.

[51] And she moved back home.

[52] And then about two weeks later, she went out with another girlfriend to one of the local dance clubs.

[53] She didn't come home that night.

[54] I kept trying to call her and call her, couldn't get a hold of her.

[55] She was gone for the entire weekend to the point where her voicemail was full and we really were concerned.

[56] Long story short for that is that she was with Edley, this gentleman.

[57] He didn't want her to use her phone.

[58] He wanted her undivided attention.

[59] And that was pretty much how it was presented to us.

[60] So that was our first experience with that this was a new relationship.

[61] So it didn't start off very well for us in meeting him.

[62] I still feel like those days are a little bit blurry for me just because it was such a crazy start to their relationship with us not knowing who he was.

[63] And then all of a sudden they ran off together and that's kind of how we met him.

[64] Unfortunately, it kind of started out with a little bit of a bad taste.

[65] But once we met him, of course, we tried to start with a clean slate and just trying to get to know him.

[66] He was really nice starting out.

[67] He was nice to her.

[68] He was nice to us.

[69] He was outgoing.

[70] He was adventurous.

[71] They did a lot of fun things together.

[72] So I feel like starting out, he was very sweet and down to earth.

[73] They quickly continued their relationship.

[74] It moved very fast.

[75] He ended up moving in with her.

[76] We then found out that he actually was still married, although separated.

[77] And so that was a bit of a concern as well.

[78] But we saw some signs in the very beginning, although he was very charismatic, very nice guy, very well -spoken.

[79] He had a decent job, seemed educated.

[80] All of those things were right, and she definitely felt he was Prince Charming.

[81] There were still were some concerns because of how controlling he was about her and her time.

[82] Probably about six months later, they moved in together, and probably mid to late of that year, Ashley became pregnant.

[83] There were concerns regarding their relationship during that time, but for the most part, Ashley was happy.

[84] I still feel like there was a little bit of a cloud over it, but for the most part, I do remember it being more of an exciting time.

[85] She was finally becoming a mom.

[86] And I remember being super excited to know that I was going to be an aunt.

[87] And then we found out that it was a girl.

[88] It was even more exciting just because I could totally see my sister as a girl mom.

[89] But she was nervous for the typical mom things, not necessarily because of her relationship.

[90] I'm sure that that had something to do with it, but the typical just getting through pregnancy and having a healthy child.

[91] Two weeks before the birth of their daughter, Ashley and Edley got married.

[92] They got married in the courthouse.

[93] I was actually the person, their witness, so to speak.

[94] So I was the only one present when they got married.

[95] I'll be honest, I wasn't exactly happy, but it's what she wanted.

[96] They wanted to have the same name, so that way the baby's name on the birth certificate and everything matched, and so that was their decision.

[97] Shortly after their baby girl was born, their first child, the signs of domestic violence really started to surface.

[98] The very first time that it was probably, that there was physical abuse going on.

[99] Ashley had gone to dinner or something with a girlfriend of hers and she had come home.

[100] There was some type of an altercation with them and he had shoved her.

[101] And when he did, she pocket dialed the girlfriend that she had just finished having dinner with.

[102] The girlfriend overheard him screaming at her and pushing her and she called the police.

[103] The police came and they did arrest him for domestic violence.

[104] but she quickly dismissed the charges and he was back home.

[105] That particular situation uncovered that we had more serious, it wasn't just a thought or feeling.

[106] There was evidence now that there was physical abuse in the relationship.

[107] That's pretty much where the family and Edley's relationship really had some distance in it.

[108] I had many conversations with him from that day forward that we would coexist, so to speak, because of how he was treating her.

[109] That cycle of everything's great to the tension, to the abuse, continued on for the next year.

[110] At one point, he actually broke the baby's crib during one of the instances.

[111] The police were called, and because Ashley was not in the house when, the police came, she was given the option to leave.

[112] And at one point, she was made to leave the baby with him, even though he had just broke the crib.

[113] It was just really difficult to manage legally.

[114] So therefore, she always went back because she had that fear.

[115] As the relationship progressed, Ashley's family noticed Edley isolating her further.

[116] When they first started dating, I feel like we saw them a fair amount.

[117] But when it came to holidays, I remember when my sister first had her first daughter, she used to talk about how she wanted to teach them the history of all of the holidays, which I thought was kind of cool, but interesting, just because my sister was always really big on holidays growing up, just because that's how our family was.

[118] I feel like when she talked about how, like, for Halloween, she didn't want them to go trick -or -treating until they learned about the history of trick -or -treating and how that worked.

[119] So I thought that it was interesting to see that point of view.

[120] Looking back at it now, I'm sure that that was more on Edley, not wanting to celebrate it.

[121] So that was her excuse to stall celebrating the holidays.

[122] But at the time, I just thought that it was a different way to approach the holidays for her.

[123] He was just never really present at the holidays, and that's when we learned that he didn't celebrate them.

[124] After the birth of their first child, Ashley was laid off from her job at the bank.

[125] There was some cutbacks in her department, and she wound up leaving the bank for a short period of time and was going to go back to school and finish her degree.

[126] He still worked at the bank.

[127] During that time, she got pregnant again in 2010 with her second daughter.

[128] The cycle of violence continued.

[129] In fact, it started growing probably about every three months.

[130] There was a situation that had happened where she would move home for a couple of days.

[131] At one point, there was an incident where while she was pregnant with the second child, she was about five months pregnant, he locked her out of the apartment and would not let her back in and wound up shoving her.

[132] She had to make the decision whether or not she left or she endangered the child she was carrying.

[133] Unfortunately, that also meant if she left, she was leaving her other child with him.

[134] And that's pretty much what the police told her she had to make a choice.

[135] at that time she moved home with me for a very short period and when she went to see their child that was there with him she was locking herself in the baby's room to visit with the baby I was in a car downstairs he didn't know I was there they were having some discussion all of a sudden I saw bins of things flying over their third -story balcony onto the cars below and so she came running out of the apartment and jumped in the car and said, we need to go.

[136] And in the meantime, I called 9 -1.

[137] He then realized I was there, and he was ranting and raving and hitting the car and whatnot.

[138] But when the police came, once again, they just made him go back to his apartment and told her to leave.

[139] So it was very difficult.

[140] Of course, again, in fear of not having her daughter, she returned back to the situation once his apologies came.

[141] Jessa also recalls an alarming incident that occurred while Ashley was pregnant with her second child.

[142] She typically did not necessarily talk to me about the negative experiences between them, probably because she didn't want me to know that she was going through it, and I'm sure that she was ashamed, and having to tell her mom was enough.

[143] However, there was one situation that I still to this day can't believe I kept a secret from my parents for a while.

[144] She was probably eight months pregnant with the younger daughter.

[145] So this was her second pregnancy.

[146] And they had gotten into some sort of fight.

[147] I'm not sure if it was physical because, again, she didn't share all of the details.

[148] But I remember it was probably 9 or 10 o 'clock at night.

[149] And she called me asking if she could come over.

[150] And I lived with my parents at the time.

[151] So she asked if she could come.

[152] And I told her that I would come pick her up.

[153] But she didn't want my parents to wake up.

[154] So she actually walked from her apartment all the way to our house, which was already about a 10 to 15 minute drive, so probably over an hour walk.

[155] So this was 10 o 'clock at night, eight months pregnant, and she walked all the way to our house just to get away from the situation.

[156] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[157] She had been under the influence and then she left him there.

[158] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[159] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[160] What happens next depends on who you ask.

[161] Was it a crime of passion?

[162] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[163] This was clearly an intentional act.

[164] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[165] Or a corrupt police.

[166] cover -up.

[167] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[168] Everyone had an opinion.

[169] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[170] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[171] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[172] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[173] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

[174] I'm Dan Taberski.

[175] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[176] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[177] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[178] She's like, I can't.

[179] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[180] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[181] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[182] Everybody thought I was holding something bad.

[183] Well, you were holding something back.

[184] Intentionally.

[185] Yeah, well, yeah.

[186] No, it's hysteria.

[187] It's all in your head.

[188] It's not physical.

[189] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[190] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Salem?

[191] Or is it something else entirely?

[192] Something's wrong here.

[193] Something's not right.

[194] LeRoy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[195] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios.

[196] Hysterical.

[197] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[198] You can binge all episodes of Hiboneman.

[199] hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

[200] Once their second child was born is when he started more so the isolation from family.

[201] In this process, very shortly after their second daughter was born, I think she was only maybe two weeks old because I remember thinking she's just too young to be taking such a long trip, but they wanted to go to California to visit his family, which makes sense that he would want his family to see the baby as well.

[202] It just seemed very odd because the baby hadn't even had their regular first couple of weeks checkups.

[203] They were going to have to do it with some remote doctor in California.

[204] So they went to California with just a one -way ticket, which I found very strange and very alarming.

[205] Every time I would ask, when are you all coming back?

[206] There really wasn't a plan.

[207] They were gone for about, I'd say probably five or six weeks.

[208] When they returned, everything seemed to be fine.

[209] I was relieved at that.

[210] But then it reached a point where Ashley had gone back to work.

[211] So they were both working at the bank again.

[212] She had gotten a promotion and he had been passed on a few.

[213] He was getting a little restless in his job.

[214] In the latter part of 2012, she said, we have something we need to tell you.

[215] They announced that Edley had received a promotion and an opportunity to take this promotion, but it would be in California and that they would need to move by January.

[216] At this point, we had already made arrangements that we were going to have this holiday celebration.

[217] He didn't think that holidays were important.

[218] They didn't have any value to him.

[219] And so very early on, he would not attend holidays.

[220] She often came by herself until eventually he made it so difficult for her to come when she returned that she chose not to.

[221] And so that was very difficult because we're a very close family.

[222] We had already made plans for that particular Christmas in 2012 that I would have the girls for Christmas Eve and I was so excited.

[223] So now it meant even more to us because this might be our last Christmas with them at this point.

[224] So I was really sad, very concerned, especially given that just probably two months before this, she was at my house for one of those periods where she had moved in with us again and that they were looking into divorce and then had just returned.

[225] So this is just a few months after that and now they're talking about moving to California.

[226] We all did our best to talk to Ashley to say, why don't you let him go get settled and then go with the girls after because the plan was is that they would move there and live with his mom until they found their own place.

[227] But he wasn't going to have that.

[228] In fact, he started selling off all of their belongings, all of their furniture.

[229] He traded in her car and his car for just one vehicle.

[230] He slowly just removed everything from the situation.

[231] The original plan was they needed to be there January 1.

[232] And then about a week after they made this announcement said that that had changed and that they needed to be there by Christmas Eve.

[233] And so they would be leading on the 22nd of December.

[234] Of course, that was very disappointing.

[235] but even more concerning than anything is that they were going to be leaving.

[236] So I became very suspicious and very concerned.

[237] And so I had a conversation with Ashley prior to them leaving, just kind of questioning what this job was, what their plan was, why the rush to get there, that it was very odd for him to be starting a new position right before the holidays with a large bank as he worked for.

[238] in that conversation in really questioning and really asking about how his mom felt and this job and whatnot, I uncovered that he really didn't have a job yet.

[239] It was an interview.

[240] And so, of course, now I'm really pushing for let him get there, let him get settled.

[241] You can go after.

[242] But again, that was pushed back.

[243] And they left on the 22nd of December to get to California.

[244] I remember just being scared for her because at that point was when we knew that things weren't great between them.

[245] And I never expected it to get to the point that it did.

[246] But at that time, I knew that him isolating her all the way to California, the complete opposite side of the nation, I knew that that was not going to be good for her, especially because once they were there and they had the kids there, it was going to be a really sticky situation if she ever did want to leave.

[247] I remember being really upset when they finally decided to leave because I just knew that it was going to be a huge change.

[248] And I just hoped that she was going to be okay and that the girls were going to be okay with the transition as well.

[249] Ashley's mom again became concerned when she received a phone call from her one evening in February.

[250] And that came with a phone.

[251] phone call at about 11 o 'clock at night.

[252] And actually, it was a text message.

[253] And it said, Mom, I'm so stupid.

[254] I should have listened to everyone.

[255] And so, of course, I panicked a little bit and responded, Ashley, can we talk?

[256] And I said, where are you?

[257] She was in the bathroom, in one of the bedrooms at his mom's house, locked in the bathroom with her iPad.

[258] She had been on a FaceTime call with her younger brother.

[259] She was a half -brother that her dad has with his new wife.

[260] And he had just turned 10 years old.

[261] He had gotten an iPad.

[262] And so he was FaceTiming with Ashley and they were talking.

[263] And it's the first time they probably talked in a while because with this relationship with Edley, Ashley's relationship with her father was very strained because of it.

[264] So it was kind of a special moment for Ashley.

[265] But Edley walked in while they were on the phone and he got upset that she was still having a relationship with her family, even though they're over 3 ,000 miles away.

[266] And so evidently what had happened was, is there was some type of discussion or argument or whatever.

[267] She was holding both of the girls in her arms, and he grabbed a bottle of laundry detergent and dumped it over her head, and of course the girls as well.

[268] I didn't know this at first.

[269] At first, all I saw was a picture that she had sent me of herself with this blue stuff all over her shirt.

[270] And she looked so drawn and so thin and worn.

[271] And I said, Ashley, what is the blue stuff?

[272] Remember, this is all by text.

[273] And that's when she disclosed what had happened.

[274] I told her, Ashley, I'm going to need to call the police.

[275] You can't be there.

[276] And she said, oh, mom, please don't.

[277] Please don't.

[278] His mom will be so upset.

[279] I won't have anywhere to go.

[280] I said, you will have somewhere to go.

[281] I'm going to call the police.

[282] Well, during this last little bit of conversation.

[283] I started losing connection with her.

[284] She was having some internet issues and I was panicking because I didn't know if something had happened.

[285] One of my texts was, if you don't answer me in the next minute, I'm calling 911.

[286] And she didn't.

[287] And so I started calling the police to call in that there was an issue.

[288] And just as I'm talking to the dispatcher, Ashley responds and said, Mom, it's okay.

[289] His mom is here.

[290] She's going to keep him calm and I'm going to stay in the bedroom with the girls all night.

[291] I'll leave in the morning.

[292] I begged her to let me have the police come.

[293] She, of course, begged me not to that it would make things worse.

[294] Hindsight, of course, I wish I would have just gone through with it.

[295] At that point, she, after that altercation, moved from his mother's home in San Bernardino to in with his father that lived closer to Los Angeles.

[296] She moved there with the girls and Edley stayed living at his mom's.

[297] Between February and June of 2013, Edley slowly moved himself back into Ashley's graces and moved into his father's house where she had been living with their daughters.

[298] Ashley got a job back with the same bank that she had worked for in Florida.

[299] She had gotten a position in downtown Los Angeles and was working.

[300] This is when we found out that he had never gotten the job with the bank in California when he went.

[301] there, that he had some fail attempts of doing personal training, and he did not have employment since they had been there in December.

[302] June of 2013, Lucia got a distressing phone call from Ashley, saying that she needed to fly home to Florida.

[303] And I told her, you need to bring the girls with you.

[304] We'll buy you a ticket, and you need to come home then.

[305] And we'll deal with the legal and ramifications, whatever it needs to be.

[306] but she always believed he was a great father and that she didn't want to change that for the girls.

[307] I assured her that there were ways to work through that, but that she needed to have her support system.

[308] During that time, he actually even got on the phone and started screaming and yelling and blaming everybody else.

[309] What's your fault because you're talking to her?

[310] It's his parents' fault because they're doing whatever.

[311] the next day, Ashley flew home to Tampa with the two girls.

[312] I think she came on a Friday.

[313] During that time, I begged her just to not have any communication with him, take the time to figure out what she needed to do.

[314] We talked about getting her a job.

[315] We started doing that research.

[316] And then on Monday, I needed to go back to work.

[317] I got a text message about 10 or 10 .30 that morning that said, I know you'll be very mad at me, but I have to go back.

[318] I'm at the airport getting ready to take off.

[319] What had happened was that he had convinced her she needed to come home because he would say that she kidnapped the kids and that she needed to return.

[320] He sent a friend of his, he called it his cousin, to come and pick her up and take her to the airport.

[321] Of course, I was very upset.

[322] There was nothing I could do at that point because she's already boarding the plane.

[323] didn't really give us any option to how we could protect her.

[324] Ashley and her daughters returned to California, and about a month later, they moved into an apartment in San Bernardino with Edley.

[325] In the meantime, Ashley still had her job in Los Angeles.

[326] So she was taking the train from San Bernardino to Los Angeles every day for work.

[327] It took a couple of hours of riding the multiple trains.

[328] she would work and then she would be home late.

[329] In August, they got their own apartment and finally she talked to me and let me know she thought things were going well.

[330] Then in mid -September, she sent me a message asking how she could get her address changed on her driver's license, on her Florida driver's license.

[331] And I said, well, I don't know that you're going to be able to change it to a California address, but she really wasn't telling me why at that point, but with a little bit of conversation found that what she wanted to do is she wanted to get a bank account, and she needed her driver's license to be updated.

[332] I didn't get all of the information, but come to find out she had made the decision that she was going to leave him, and she had made an arrangement with one of his aunt, which was his mom's sister, to hide her.

[333] So for a time period, she left him late September of 2013.

[334] I don't know what conversation or argument led to that happening, but I do remember him trying to strangle her and her having bruises on her neck.

[335] I do believe this is another time that she took a picture of the evidence and sent it over to my mom so that she had it, but she definitely had marks on her neck to prove that he had tried to strangle her.

[336] That was her final straw that she realized that she just could not be in that type of situation anymore, and she couldn't have her girls around that as well.

[337] He would not let her take the girls.

[338] And so the aunt actually gave her this mechanism that you can put on a bedroom door lock that would allow you to lock yourself in a room.

[339] And so she would go there for the weekend to be with the girls, but she would lock herself in this room.

[340] Some of this I found out after the fact.

[341] She did this for several weeks, and during this time, what she was telling him was is that they needed to work through their differences, they needed to see a therapist.

[342] So evidently, they started seeing a therapist, and they continued through the process.

[343] During those therapy sessions, she asked for a divorce.

[344] So divorce papers were filed, and that was underway.

[345] After Ashley filed for divorce, she got her own place in the Los Angeles area.

[346] At this point, she was pretty much supporting the girls from a distance because I think he had a part -time job for some warehouse at some point, but nothing that was substantial.

[347] And so that was the reasoning that she gave is that she was supporting them and that she was going to have them move with her.

[348] And so the beginning of November, the girls went on the train with her and went to her apartment and they moved in with her.

[349] Between the beginning of November and Thanksgiving, he really didn't see the girls.

[350] But as they approached Thanksgiving, he wanted to see the girls.

[351] Now, mind you, holidays were never a thing for him.

[352] And so it was a bit odd, but it was always a matter of convenience for him.

[353] him of when he would celebrate or how he would celebrate something.

[354] And so the plan was that they would meet and eat at a local restaurant for dinner.

[355] Jessa recalled speaking with her that Thanksgiving.

[356] I remember that she had actually called us because we were at my parents' house for Thanksgiving.

[357] We were just about to eat dinner, I believe, and she called us just to say happy Thanksgiving.

[358] So it was a really quick phone call.

[359] But I remember talking to her and the girls, and we were able to tell them happy Thanksgiving and that we loved each other.

[360] And then we both kind of went off the phone to go have dinner or celebrate Thanksgiving with the people that we were with.

[361] It was very short and sweet conversation.

[362] That was actually the last time I got to talk to her.

[363] It was on Thanksgiving Day, and I remember it was around 1 o 'clock Eastern time.

[364] So it was rather early in California.

[365] But I remember realizing that she wasn't in her.

[366] apartment and I asked her where she was.

[367] She said she was in San Bernardino.

[368] I made the assumption she was at his mom's house, but come to find out they were actually at their old apartment, which is where he was living in San Bernardino.

[369] The day after Thanksgiving, I tried to text her to see whether or not she had sizes for the girls because I was doing some shopping.

[370] And she didn't respond to my text.

[371] And I didn't think anything of it.

[372] I just figured maybe she's working.

[373] And so I really didn't think much of it.

[374] I actually did CrossFit with one of Edley's cousins that Saturday she had called me. It was more towards the evening.

[375] She called me and just asked if I had heard from Ashley or Edley.

[376] And I told her that the last that we had spoken to her was on Thanksgiving.

[377] She was concerned because the babysitter Edly's cousin in California that had the girls hadn't heard from Ashley or Edley.

[378] and they had dropped the girls off on Friday morning, and now it's Saturday afternoon, and they hadn't heard from either of them.

[379] So the concern kind of arose, wondering what had happened, or if their phones had died, or what was going on.

[380] I had told the cousin that had called me, Edle's cousin, that I would ask my mom if she had spoken to her.

[381] And when I called my mom, I remember that Saturday, she was over at a neighbor's house.

[382] So Jessa, of course, called me and I said, well, let me see what I can do.

[383] Ashley did have a second job that she had gotten for some extra money at a hookah lounge as a waitress with some people that she worked with at the bank.

[384] And so I was going on Facebook trying to figure out who those people were and trying to reach out.

[385] I was putting urgent messages on her email and on her Facebook and on our text message.

[386] I need you to call me right away.

[387] I wasn't getting any responses.

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[397] On Sunday, my mom and I actually spent the day together and when we got back to the house in the afternoon, I do remember spending the next probably, it feels like forever, but probably the next few hours, messaging anybody on Facebook that might have heard from her, trying to text anybody who might have had any contact with her, just anybody.

[398] And as the time went by, I remember our hope.

[399] kept getting lost, and we were really struggling with what the end result was going to be.

[400] But we just kept hoping that we would get a hold of a hospital or get a hold of a hookal lounge that had heard from her between that Thursday and that time.

[401] And we weren't having any luck.

[402] Nobody had her checked into a hospital.

[403] Nobody had heard from him.

[404] And then, of course, at that point, everybody that I'm messaging is telling me, please let me know everything's okay.

[405] I called the cousin back and said, have we heard from Ashley or Edley?

[406] they said, no, actually, they had heard from him, evidently on Saturday, or they weren't really clear about what the timing was.

[407] But the only phone call, only communication they had received was from Edley at one point that was a very confusing conversation.

[408] He had called his dad and said something about a coffin and something about a hospital, but really couldn't make out what was going on.

[409] And so, of course, that was big red flags for me, like what is going on.

[410] And so they were having difficulty putting in a missing persons for her because I guess in California, somebody must need to actually sign off for it.

[411] And so I asked the cousin if she would go ahead and put in the missing persons.

[412] While we were in the process of putting in the missing persons and we were speaking to the LAPD, I received a phone call.

[413] from a detective out of San Bernardino.

[414] I remember this very vividly.

[415] My mom was out in the backyard and just crying, not knowing what was going to happen.

[416] And then I remember she was in the bedroom when she finally got the phone call.

[417] And my brother and I were there.

[418] My dad was there.

[419] I remember when she got the phone call, we knew exactly what happened because she just fell to her knees screaming.

[420] It was very emotional at that point because we knew what they had just told her.

[421] I remember my brother being super angry and we didn't really know what to say.

[422] So at that point, I remember calling my then -boyfriend now husband and was just like, I need you to come here.

[423] You need to leave work.

[424] So he came as fast as he could.

[425] And then I just remember the next hour, we just had friends and family just pouring into our house because the news had gotten out.

[426] and it was just such a crazy blur that entire day and that entire night was just so insane once we finally found the news.

[427] The detective said that they had found Ashley in his apartment and that she had been killed and that he was nowhere to be found.

[428] It was kind of like we turned into zombies.

[429] That evening, my mom and dad and then my sister's dad and stepmom bought tickets to fly out the next morning to California because that was the soonest they could get out.

[430] But the only airport that they could get out of was Orlando.

[431] And we lived in Tampa.

[432] So they bought those tickets.

[433] And I remember my dad saying he didn't know if he could do it, but he was going to try.

[434] So they all drove out the next morning.

[435] And when they got to the airport, my dad decided that he needed to be home with my brother and I. At the time I was, so that was 2013.

[436] At the time I was 22 and my brother would have been 23.

[437] So when that all happened, yes, we're older and we're adults, but we also just lost our sister.

[438] So my dad felt as if he needed to stay home with us and he didn't know if he honestly had the strength to go through all of that because the reason why my sister needed somebody to come was to identify her body and then go through all of the legal things that needed to happen.

[439] When Lucia landed in California, she was able to gain a little more insight into the last moments of Ashley's life.

[440] From what we found out is that Thanksgiving, she had spent the day with the girls and him.

[441] He had changed the plans that they would have dinner at his apartment.

[442] He had borrowed his cousin's truck to drive there.

[443] Evidently, when the evening was done, he wouldn't take Ashley home.

[444] And so she ended up spending the night there Thanksgiving night.

[445] She had worked the next morning.

[446] And so that was part of the reason not to spend the night there in addition to the safety issue.

[447] But the next morning, he drove her to Los Angeles.

[448] We're not sure whether or not he dropped off the girls at the cousin's house before he dropped her off or after.

[449] was unclear.

[450] But he took her to work.

[451] According to co -worker, she was very disheveled when she arrived.

[452] She was wearing a men's t -shirt and the jeans that she was wearing from the day previous.

[453] They could tell that she was not freshly dressed as she normally would be.

[454] She was then around 11 o 'clock seen taking a phone call and exiting work very quickly.

[455] And one particular coworker noticed because he had plans to do lunch.

[456] with her.

[457] She was quickly walking and he was trying to get her attention and she just went.

[458] She didn't take her scarf with her.

[459] She didn't take her purse with her.

[460] She didn't take her wallet with her.

[461] She just was going down into the parking lot.

[462] She was seen getting into a dark colored vehicle car, which was known to be the aunt's car that she frequently borrowed.

[463] But there was somebody else driving, which we later discovered was Edley driving the car.

[464] It was noticed that the person opened the car door from the inside for the passenger's side and summons her to get in and then left.

[465] And that's the last time she was seen.

[466] When she was found in her apartment three days later, she was found in the bathroom.

[467] He had killed her with a knife.

[468] The knife is believed to have been from her apartment.

[469] I say believed because during the trial they were unable to necessarily prove that, but they did have pictures of her apartment knife drawer where, of course, she had only lived there six weeks or whatever it was.

[470] And when you opened up the drawer, there was only one knife missing, and it was the knife that would be the same positioning of the knife that she was killed with in his apartment.

[471] So it's believed that when they left her office, that he then took her to her apartment, she was found with a prodding knife mark in her back, along with a hole in her shirt.

[472] It's believed that that's where he switched from the aunt's car to the vehicle that he had barred from his cousin, and they drove back to San Bernardino.

[473] She also had multiple injuries that occurred in the vehicle both of her eyes were crushed her nose was broken she had contusions in her mouth area and was heavily beaten in her face ultimately she died from the knife wound to her neck and that happened in the living room but she was found in the bathroom she was covered in a sheet it's believed that he actually murder her on Friday the day after things Thanksgiving sometime that evening.

[474] When the father received the odd phone call that he did saying something about the hospital and the coffin and whatnot, it's alerted for some of the family members, including his mother, his aunt, which is the aunt that had harbored Ashley, and the cousin that had loaned him, the vehicle, went to at least apartment in San Bernardino to look for them.

[475] when they arrived they saw the cousin's car there and they noticed that there was blood inside they knocked on the door and he did an answer so the mother and the aunt had gone to get the manager to see if they could let them in and while they were gone what we learned in the trial at least was that edley had come to the door and the cousin had motioned him to run so by the time the mom and the aunt came back to the apartment with the manager, Edley was gone.

[476] And of course, the manager mentioned that they needed to call for a wellness check.

[477] The police came.

[478] They went to do a wellness check.

[479] And when they opened the door, is when they had found Ashley deceased inside.

[480] A lot of things had to happen because we had two little girls that now have lost their mom, ultimately have lost their dad.

[481] And so, as I mentioned, my sister, myself, and my ex -husband all flew to California.

[482] that Sunday night, Monday morning of December 1st because we needed to identify Ashley's body and we needed to make arrangements for the girls.

[483] Unfortunately, all three of us had to fly on different airlines because it was Thanksgiving weekend and we had to fly into San Diego because it was the closest we could get to all flying into one airport and then driving together.

[484] So, as you can imagine, that was quite of an emotional six -hour journey on a plane.

[485] When we arrived there, I remember coming down the escalators and opening our phones to seeing that already an article was posted with her picture and identifying her.

[486] And we hadn't even identified her yet.

[487] So that was quite alarming and quite disturbing at the same time.

[488] And there were details that were already being disclosed about how she died that we hadn't even discussed with the corner yet.

[489] So again, very disturbing.

[490] Police are looking for the husband of Ashley Atherly after she was found stabbed a death in her apartment in San Bernardino.

[491] He has not been seen or heard from since, and so police are now looking for him for questioning and do consider him a suspect.

[492] Authorities are asking anybody with information to not confront him because they do consider him dangerous.

[493] We immediately drove to San Bernardino and connected with the police, as well as with his family in order to make arrangements with the girls.

[494] They did determine that his family said they were fine with us taking the girls.

[495] They did not give us any pushback, which was a blessing.

[496] During this time, he was still missing, though.

[497] And so there was a lot of fear and a lot of risk that he would come for the girls.

[498] And we really didn't know where he was.

[499] And whether or not he was being hidden by somebody or what.

[500] And so we ended up having to stay in California, the three of us and the two girls, for about 11 days.

[501] One reason why we had to stay that long was because we weren't allowed to immediately meet with the coroner for the first 24 hours.

[502] They asked us to wait.

[503] I happened to have a ID card that they give in school where they do the kids' fingerprints and their pictures.

[504] I was able to bring that with me from her medical file at home and was able to provide that to them for identification.

[505] I actually did not have to identify her body in person and they were very, very kind and very, very compassionate in not wanting me to see her in her current state because of the amount of time that she had been left in that apartment in her condition.

[506] So her identity was confirmed by her fingerprints as well as a tattoo that she had on her back.

[507] It was a cross with a drop of blood that said, I live for him, he died for me. Lucia quickly met with the district attorney in California to offer any details that might be helpful in their search for Edley and worked with the courts to try and get custody of her grandchildren.

[508] We did meet with his cousin and father to get the girls from them.

[509] The girls stayed with us in a local hotel for those days until we could get approval from family court to be able to take them back to Florida for a short period of time.

[510] So the judge did grant us 29 days, which was considered grandparent visitation at the time, but when they returned, they would need to be in foster care or with his family, which his family had not shown any interest in that, and I was grateful for that.

[511] And so I have one aunt and uncle that live in the San Francisco area, and they were loving enough to offer to be their foster parents there in California.

[512] When I had to return in January with the girls, we moved to San Francisco area and lived there for a couple of months until Florida and California could make the arrangements to allow them to live in Florida.

[513] Florida.

[514] And so during that time, we of course needed to bury our daughter.

[515] And so her body needed to be shipped back to Florida.

[516] That was part of the time.

[517] It took us 11 days to get a lot of that settled before she could be brought back to Florida.

[518] In the meantime, Jessa, my youngest daughter, was graduating from college.

[519] So literally, we had her sister's funeral one day and her graduation the next.

[520] I still had classes that I need to finish.

[521] So I had to email all my professors and most of them gave me a pass on my last assignment because that's where we were at was the very end.

[522] I remember the one class that made me take my last exam was an online course on domestic violence, which I still cannot believe was the class that I had to finish.

[523] So I had to take that last exam and I remember reading the questions and immediately relating them to my sister and thinking, wow.

[524] I finished out that course and I remember it was such a weight off my shoulders to be done with my college courses, knowing that I was going to be graduating.

[525] I think my mom made it back like a day or two before my graduation.

[526] I remember her being a complete zombie, but I was kind of excited at the same time because my nieces were able to be there at my graduation, which was a blessing in disguise.

[527] So those two weeks were really just kind of a whirlwind and just trying to figure out what our new normal was going to look like.

[528] And on top of that, this is now in December, and then a week or two later, we had Christmas.

[529] So that 29 days did allow us for that time and allowed us to be back as a nuclear family, which was good.

[530] But then, as I mentioned, we did need to take the girls back to California.

[531] So I returned to California with them.

[532] While I was in California with them, he was still on the run.

[533] Edley ran for approximately 45 days.

[534] He was listed as one of the FBI's most wanted.

[535] There was all kinds of law enforcement looking for him, both in California, in Belize, which is where his family is originally from and has some connections to in Florida because there was comments throughout that 45 -day period that he was coming to Florida to come harm our family.

[536] He was a coward.

[537] I mean, that's the easiest way to explain how we felt towards him fleeing.

[538] And of course, we have no idea what really was going through his head, but we aren't sure if someone was helping him.

[539] We have the assumption that there has to have been a family member or a friend that was helping him to not get caught.

[540] He was spotted a couple times because his name was out there.

[541] His picture was out there on the news.

[542] So in California, people were keeping a lookout, especially security guards.

[543] I remember he wasn't supposed to be able to get on any flights out of California.

[544] I remember being very scared because we had no idea.

[545] what he was capable of at that point.

[546] We had an idea of what he was capable of because he did it to my sister, but we didn't know if that anger was going to go onto anyone else.

[547] So we were very nervous.

[548] My thought process when he was on the run was that he wanted to at least see his girls, whether that was to say goodbye or to try to take them.

[549] So it was definitely a scary month and a half.

[550] I had to leave to return, to California after that 29 days, I believe it was like the 9th of January 2014 that I had to return.

[551] But it was just a few days before that I had received a phone call from that original cousin that called Jessa saying that they couldn't find Ashley and Edley, the one that went to school with her at USF, asking if she could meet me and Jessa to see the girls.

[552] And I thought it was really odd because it had been a few weeks after Ashley had been killed and hadn't heard from her.

[553] And out of the blue, she's asking for us to meet.

[554] At that point, of course, they were really considered words of the state of California.

[555] And so I called the social worker and talked to her about it and explained that I was a little uncomfortable and that I didn't really understand the relationship here and had some concerns.

[556] And so she asked that any other contact other than my family, immediate family, needed to go through her for approval.

[557] And so I gave the cousin, the social workers' information to contact, but she never did contact them to make the arrangement for us to meet.

[558] Once he was found in Florida weeks later, I question whether or not maybe that was part of the plan was for him to be part of that meetup.

[559] But we don't know how long he was in Florida.

[560] We do know that the reason he turned himself in was that one of his relatives was planning on revealing his work.

[561] whereabouts to claim the reward money that was up for his capture.

[562] And that's when he turned himself in with an attorney to the FBI.

[563] I want to say it was the 18th of February, if I'm not mistaken.

[564] He had crossed the country.

[565] We've never really known exactly how he crossed other than what he's revealed and he says he hitchhiked.

[566] But he made his way across the country and ended up in Tampa.

[567] Shortly thereafter, Edley was extradited from Florida to California.

[568] He was charged with first -degree murder and was given a $1 million bail but never posted bond.

[569] The trial would not occur until October of 2015.

[570] So it was two years before we went to trial.

[571] During that time, I continued to work with both California and Florida in getting custody of the girls.

[572] in order for them to move forward with their lives.

[573] When we were in California, those very first few days, we contacted a group here in Tampa called Suncoast Kids Place that do trauma, counseling, grief counseling for children.

[574] And they were very, very helpful and instrumental in helping us deliver that news to the girls of what had happened in something that they can understand and also deal with.

[575] And so I'll be honest, I was not able to utter the words myself, my sister.

[576] Kathy actually ended up having to tell the girls.

[577] But the message to them was is that Daddy hurt Mommy and Mommy went to heaven.

[578] And that's pretty much what they knew for quite a while.

[579] And to this day, they don't know exactly what happened.

[580] They only know that Daddy killed Mommy.

[581] Once we came back to Florida, we reconnected with their therapists and kept their therapy going for their grief and for just dealing with this new life that they had.

[582] In the process, we did need to remove his rights, his parental rights.

[583] I know that seems like why would we need to remove them?

[584] He obviously did something terrible, but in our country, you're innocent until proven guilty.

[585] The criminal portion of it and the family portion of it legally were two separate entities.

[586] And so the family court system, of course, gave him parameters he had to meet if he couldn't meet them, slowly it chipped away at his parental rights.

[587] It took a full year to the day for his parental rights to be removed.

[588] And so December 1st, 2014, his parental rights were vacated.

[589] And we were able to move forward with adoption proceedings.

[590] And so my husband, Rick and I, filed for adoption for both girls.

[591] We did need to do that through the state of California with the compact agreement with Florida.

[592] It took until August 12th of 2015 to get their adoption finalized.

[593] And so August 12th, we legally adopted the girls.

[594] In the meantime, starting in probably January 2015, every couple of months, there was a new date set for the trial.

[595] It would be scheduled and then canceled and then scheduled and then canceled.

[596] Finally, in October of 2015, the trial began in San Bernardino.

[597] The trial lasted about six weeks ending the day before Thanksgiving, ironically.

[598] It was probably the most difficult process to go through.

[599] I, myself, my husband, Ashley's dad, my ex -husband, and his wife, attended every day of the trial.

[600] We moved to California for those six weeks.

[601] It was very difficult because the criminal, and I can call him a criminal because he was convicted, has a lot of rights.

[602] And so a lot of things don't get disclosed to the jury.

[603] And so that's hard to watch knowing some of the things that are being held back.

[604] So it was very difficult in that way.

[605] The only time I did not stay in the room as when they should pictures, her autopsy pictures.

[606] We had a wonderful district attorney.

[607] She had told me that she did not want me to see those pictures and that she would have the judge stop the trial if I wouldn't leave the courtroom.

[608] And so I obliged, although I did stay in the earshot, I didn't look, but I did hear what was going on in the trial.

[609] I did not attend the trial since it was such a long trial and we didn't know how long it would be.

[610] They shared all the information with us that they were able to while the trial was going on.

[611] I'm glad that I wasn't there for the entire trial because I know that pictures were shown and a lot of evidence was brought to light that would have been really tough to see.

[612] So it definitely took a lot of strength from my parents to be there for that.

[613] Ultimately, he was convicted of second degree murder, primarily because, remember I said there was those pictures of the drawer at Ashley's apartment in Los Angeles, where that knife was missing, and also the car of the aunts that he picked her up at her office in.

[614] Those pictures that were taken that day were taken on an iPad.

[615] Unfortunately, when it came time to trial, they were unable to extract the pictures that were taken from that part of the crime scene.

[616] So none of those pictures were able to be shown in court, and the only reference to the knife at her apartment was from an officer that gave his recanting of the scene.

[617] And so those were some key factors that would have possibly helped the jury to see the premeditation piece of it.

[618] He was convicted of second -degree murder with a knife in the state of California that is considered 15 to life plus one additional year for the knife.

[619] And so he got 16 to life for his time.

[620] Of course, by this point, he had already served two years.

[621] And so he is up for parole based on some of the credits that California gives to their inmates.

[622] He is up for parole for his first parole in 2026, I believe.

[623] And so that is, of course, just around the corner.

[624] We are told that it is very unlikely that he would get parole, at least his first time applying, but it's still a process that we're going to need to go through.

[625] And we will be there to assure that he does not get released.

[626] When they had the final sentencing in December, I knew that I wanted to be there for that because I did want to see him.

[627] I wanted to see his face and see his reaction to his final sentencing.

[628] and I wanted to be able to speak.

[629] So I had the opportunity to make an impact statement and speak technically to the jury, but he heard everything that I said.

[630] And it was just nice to know that even though I'll never really have full closure, it was nice to know that I got to say my piece and that he didn't have an option but to listen to it.

[631] And so that was almost two years from when Ashley was murdered in November 2013.

[632] And so right after the adoption was finalized in August of 2015, I had my break.

[633] I guess is the easiest way to say it.

[634] I was holding this wall up or facade that said, I have to be strong because if I'm weak, then they may not let me have the girls.

[635] And I just had all of these terrible emotions running.

[636] But once the adoption was finalized, late August, I had a little bit of a breakdown emotion.

[637] emotionally.

[638] So I did take some time off of work at that point and stayed out of work up until after the trial was completed and we were back.

[639] The rest of the family, we kind of took turns with how we dealt with the emotional side of it.

[640] The girls, there comes in waves.

[641] Right now, they're not in any intense therapy.

[642] They're doing really, really well.

[643] But early on, the youngest one was only two and a half when their mom was killed and their dad was no longer in their life.

[644] The older one was five and a half.

[645] They're now 10 and 13.

[646] And so a lot of eight years have almost passed.

[647] But the older one has some memories of her mom.

[648] The younger one has none of her own memories.

[649] We do everything we can to make sure that they know who mommy is.

[650] They don't call me mommy.

[651] They call me, Mimi.

[652] That doesn't change.

[653] We talk about mommy all the time.

[654] It's a free conversation.

[655] They don't ask about their dad.

[656] If they were to ask me a question, I would find a way to talk to them about it.

[657] It's not like it's a taboo thing to talk about.

[658] They just don't.

[659] And so we don't initiate it.

[660] They might ask something about daddy's looks or something like that.

[661] And we just answer those questions because it's part of them.

[662] We do recognize that as painful as it is.

[663] But overall, they're doing fantastic as they can.

[664] It's difficult.

[665] And there's always those little challenges that they run into the Mother's Day things and how will to explain it to their friends and things like that that will be a challenge throughout their life.

[666] We know that there are going to be times in their life where more therapy is going to be necessary around milestone parts of their lives.

[667] But we do have a very strong family network and also extended family network that has been just amazing.

[668] And I don't think that we would have gotten through without it for sure.

[669] Well, they are so incredibly lucky to have you in your support system.

[670] What do you hope that others can gain from hearing Ashley's story?

[671] Thank you for asking that.

[672] I grew up in an abuse of home.

[673] My dad abused my mom.

[674] And so I was not foreign to recognizing what domestic violence looked like.

[675] In addition, my sister used to work for the Spring of Tampa Bay, which is our local domestic violence shelter.

[676] Our mother, in fact, she was a client at the Spring of Tampa Bay at one point.

[677] And so that is kind of how we keyed into that we saw some of those qualities in their relationship.

[678] That first incident in February where the laundry detergent was poured over her head, I had a conversation with her, and I gave her information of the local shelter in Riverside, California.

[679] I gave her the website.

[680] I talked to her about putting together a bag that had a quick change of clothes maybe and all of the documents that she needed for her and the girls.

[681] Again, this was back in February, and if you remember, she didn't have to be a bag.

[682] actually leave to come home at that point, she wound up moving in with his father at that point.

[683] When they were seeing that therapist and she was filing for divorce, I begged her to come home and do the divorce from here and all of that.

[684] But other than that, we really hadn't talked about this safe pack, so to speak.

[685] When I arrived in California after she was murdered, we connected with her job at the time.

[686] The police, of course, had gone there first, and there was a a satchel that they had found at her office underneath her desk and the police acquired it and then they gave it to us.

[687] And in that satchel were all of the documents that I would need or that she would need for the girls and for her.

[688] So security numbers, birth certificates, school records, you name it, it was in there.

[689] And so I just broke down because it meant she was listening.

[690] And so we took that and actually with a local attorney here in Tampa, he heard that part of the story.

[691] We put together what we called Ashley's SafePack.

[692] He's an estate attorney and he had a system, I believe it was called Safe Lock, if I'm not mistaken.

[693] It's a virtual system where you can upload all of your legal documents and then have a passcode system in order to actually access them.

[694] So the thought was, is that if you had this service available to domestic violence victims, that they could upload all of this information to this virtual safe, and they could give that passcode to someone that they trusted, their mom, their grandmother, their best friend, whoever.

[695] And if anything ever happened to them, that person would have access to it.

[696] Or better, yet, even if something didn't happen to them, they wouldn't have to take anything with them.

[697] They could leave and they could have access to that information when they needed it.

[698] Because one of the things that happens in a domestic violence situation is, first of all, the most dangerous time is when the domestic violence victim leaves.

[699] It's the most dangerous time.

[700] The difficult thing is, is a lot of people don't leave because their abuser keeps things like passports and birth certificates and things so they can't access them so they can't leave.

[701] And so we worked with this attorney to create Ashley's SafePack, and it was giving domestic violence victims this tool to use.

[702] And we've worked a lot with the local domestic violence shelter here in Tampa to tell Ashley's story to really help in any way we can with educating.

[703] We started a Facebook page very early on, and mostly it was put together to find him.

[704] right, because he was missing, similar to what you see with the Gabby Petito, where they're looking, and so they're using this as a vehicle.

[705] And so once he was found, it turned into a vehicle to allow us to continue the message about domestic violence awareness and education, especially in the month of October, several of us every day post educational material in there for everyone to see.

[706] and there's a couple thousand or so members in that group.

[707] It's called Justice for Ashley Stop Domestic Violence.

[708] We just do everything that we can.

[709] I have spoken on many occasions at local schools and events as much as I can to just get her story out there because it can happen to anyone.

[710] I have had a couple friends reach out ever since everything happened with my sister, either about their own situation or about a friend that has red flags in their relationship and they have asked me my thoughts and my opinion and for resources.

[711] I am honored to know that I can help and hopefully make a difference in other people's lives.

[712] I hate that I know information about this, but at the same time, I'm glad that I do because unfortunately it's a very real thing in the world right now.

[713] And it's happening more and more often.

[714] So just me sharing what happened to my sister and what could happen, even if it didn't end the way that it did what she went through and how much she changed because of everything that he did and said to her and belittled her.

[715] To me, that's just enough to share with someone else to hopefully help them to never be in the same situation that she was in.

[716] I am thankful to know that I have the resources and I know what to look for and I'm able to share that with other people that maybe don't have the information that I have.

[717] I'm so incredibly sorry for your loss.

[718] Thank you.

[719] How do you hope that others remember Ashley and how do you remember her?

[720] I hope that the girls remember her as an amazing mom because she is.

[721] She was such a great mom to them and she would have loved.

[722] love to see them now.

[723] So I, of course, first and foremost, want to always remember her as the amazing mom that she was for the five years for the older one and the two years for the younger one.

[724] And then, of course, I always want people to remember her as a positive person that always saw the best in people.

[725] Even if that led to what happened to her, she still was trying to see the best in every situation and was trying to make the best of every situation.

[726] I just hope that everybody always remembers that she isn't who she became.

[727] She is the person that she was before him.

[728] And she tried to be that person through and through.

[729] He just didn't allow it.

[730] So I want everybody to always know that she still was that positive person, no matter what was going on in her life, she would have loved to see her girls grow up.

[731] And I would have loved for her to meet her nephew that I now have, she was not able to meet and he was not able to meet her.

[732] Ashley was, oh gosh, she was just so beautiful.

[733] And I'm not just talking about physically.

[734] She was physically beautiful.

[735] She was tall, blonde hair, green -eyed.

[736] She was beautiful.

[737] But she had such a beautiful spirit about her, such a beautiful heart.

[738] She wanted to be a teacher.

[739] She had just finished getting her associate's degree before he moved them to California.

[740] In fact, she had just gotten accepted to University of South Florida to finish her education degree.

[741] And of course, they moved.

[742] And so she wasn't able to finish pursuing that.

[743] But she loved children in high school.

[744] She wanted to work with the Best Buddies program, which is with kids with special needs.

[745] She participated in their prom, creating a prom opportunity for them.

[746] She just had such a great heart.

[747] and she was just so full of life and love.

[748] She brightened a room.

[749] When she was little, we would go to amusement parks or whatever, and I remember she would always, you know, widen up her hands and a hears, Ashley.

[750] She just was such a performer.

[751] She was a dancer.

[752] She was just beautiful.

[753] In every way, she was a great daughter.

[754] She was a good sister.

[755] She was just so beautiful and full of life.

[756] that's probably what crushed us the most was is as we watched through this process of him slowly tearing down her self -esteem was is that we always made the mention that he had stripped her of everything Ashley to where he had taken away all of those, that joy that she exuded from her life and that was about she saw such good in everyone and she wanted to fix him because of who she was she just could not see the evil in him.

[757] One of the things that when I speak about domestic violence is it's really important that as supporters to a domestic violence victim is that we don't take their choices away.

[758] And if I could change anything, that would be one of the things I would change is I felt like I was telling her what she needed to do versus letting her make those choices on her own.

[759] I think that's really important is that a victim needs to make those choices because their abusers already taken away their choices.

[760] They don't need anybody else to do that.

[761] And I do believe that she felt she was making her own choices in those last few weeks of her life.

[762] And so that was not in vain.

[763] And it saddens me that she didn't get to continue to spend her life with her girls.

[764] But I do believe that she was doing what she needed to do for Ashley and for her girls.

[765] by being as strong as she was in the end.

[766] I remember those last three weeks of her life when she had finally gotten her apartment.

[767] I remember telling my son, I think we have Ashley back because they would say, do you think she's left for the last time this time?

[768] And I said, I think she has.

[769] I hear Ashley again.

[770] I hear her making plans for the future.

[771] I hear the joy in her voice.

[772] And I do believe that before he killed her, she got her back again.

[773] Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to share Ashley's story and your story with us.

[774] I'm so incredibly sorry for your loss.

[775] Thank you.

[776] If you or someone you know is experiencing interpersonal violence, please reach out for help.

[777] The Domestic Violence Hotline offers free and confidential support 24 -7 at 1 -800 -7.

[778] or text start to 887888 or chat with someone confidentially at the hotline .org.

[779] Thank you so much for listening.

[780] Stay safe, friends.

[781] Something Was Wrong is an Audio Chuck production, created and hosted by Tiffany Reese.

[782] Our theme song was originally composed by Gladrags, covered this season by Kenna and the Kings.

[783] So what do you think, Chuck?

[784] Do you approve?

[785] If you like something was wrong, you can listen early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

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