January 14, 2025 • 42 mins
Just after the new year Ashley Elkins leaves home early in the morning. Her family sees her leave, wearing a long black coat with fur around the hood and black leggings, with the light freckles on her face. Just 10 minutes after Ashley leaves her mother Monika arrives wanting to share a dream with her daughter.
Ashley Elkins leaves her home on January 2nd at 8:30 am. Her mother, Monika Elkins, arrives 10 minutes later, wanting to tell Ashley about a dream she had. Having just missed Ashley, Monika sends a text to her daughter about the dream she had involving Ashley taking her mom's truck while leaving her car in the driveway. Ashley replies to the description of the dream, writing "Awe, man." Monika feels this is a strange and uncharacteristic response for Ashley and attempts a "face time" call immediately upon receipt of the text from Ashley's phone. But Ashley doesn't answer the facetime
Family members reach out to Ashley Elkins with minimal success. Hours after sending a text but not answering a face-time call from her mother, another family member gets a text from Ashley, saying she is going to a beauty supply store. This isn't the way Ashley Elkins usually communicates with the family and her mother says Ashley's phone is turned off after the text about going to beauty supply store, before it is turned back on again.
Joining Nancy Grace today
- Maurice Morton - Uncle to Ashley Elkins
- Ben Powers - Criminal Defense Attorney, Facebook: Legal Powers PLLC, https://legalpowers.com
- Dr. Shavaun Scott - Psychotherapist, Author of “The Minds of Mass Killers: Understanding and Interrupting the Pathway to Violence”
- Brian Fitzgibbons - Director of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security, uspasecurity.com, Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security, Fmr. Marine and Iraq war veteran
- Scott Eicher - founding member of the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team (C.A.S.T); Historical Cellular Analysis Expert; Former FBI agent of 22 years; Former Police Officer and Homicide Detective with Norfolk Virgina Police Dept. Precision Cellular Analysis, https://www.pcaexperts.com/
- Alexis Tereszcuk - Crime Online Investigative Reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, the desperate surge for a
missing Warren mother of two, her car found abandoned. Where's Ashley?
I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories, Thank you for
being with us. A mom of two vanishes without a
(00:23):
trace after leaving her apartment. Family pleads for help. Where
is this beautiful Warren missing mom of two? Her mother
is tipped off, as we have seen most recently, with
a very odd series of texts that don't sound like her.
(00:43):
Let's start at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Just after the New year, Ashley Elkins leaves home early
in the morning. Her family sees her leave wearing a
long black coat with fur around the hood and black
leggings with light freckles on her fate. Just ten minutes
after Ashley leaves, her mother, Monica arrives.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
You know, the mom arrives just after she leaves.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
How many times have I heard witnesses family say I
just missed her or him, and that chance miss makes
all the difference. Listen, thanks her.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I had a dream of her car being stolen, and
she replied back, all men, which is weird to me?
So I Facetimer, She answered.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Well, talk about a mother's intuition. That's where my friends
at w x y Z in Detroit. So mom, believe
it or not, has an eerie premonition type dream for
her daughter's car. It gets stolen, so she tries to
(02:03):
go immediately visit to visit the daughter, she misses her
literally by minutes.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
She wants to tell her about the dream, so she.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Texts her and gets this odd response, going, oh man,
that doesn't sound like her daughter at all, so listen.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Monica Elkins arrives wanting to tell Ashley about a dream
she had, having just missed Ashley. Monica sends a text
to her daughter about the dream she had involving Ashley
taking her mom's truck while leaving her car in the driveway.
Ashley replies to the description of the dream, writing oh man.
Monica feels this is a strange and uncharacteristic response for
(02:47):
Ashley and attempts a FaceTime call immediately upon receipt of
the text from Ashley's phone, but Ashley doesn't answer the
FaceTime joining.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Me an all star panel including family of Ashley's first
I want to go to brianfa Is Gibbons joining me,
Director Operations USP, a nationwide security leading a team of
investigators to find missing people. And not only that marine
(03:16):
an Iraqi war veteran, Brian, thank you for being with us.
Nobody knows a child, and this is a grown child, Ashley,
this gorgeous young mom of two, like your own mother.
Nobody knows you like your mother. The mom has this
(03:36):
eerie premonition dream and she doesn't just call. She goes
over to the apartment to Ashley's place to tell her, WHOA,
I had this crazy powerful dream. As she's not there,
she texts and then gets a text that she thinks
is off. How many times, Brian does the law enforcement
(04:02):
God bless them, they're the I'm the best witnesses ever
on the stand. Ignore hunches or intuition. I don't ignore it.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
We see it all the time, Nancy, in a number
of cases that you and I have discussed.
Speaker 7 (04:17):
In this case, Ashley's mother was immediately able to recognize
something that was deviating from Ashley's normal pattern of behavior.
That tech the lexicon used in that text, not answering
the FaceTime very concerning.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Also joining me Scott Iiker, founding member of the FBI
Cellular Analysis Survey Team. Let that say Ken founder founding
member of the FBI Cellular cell Phone Analysis Survey Team
Homicide detective twelve years missing People currently with precision Cellular
(05:00):
Analysis Scott, Isn't it true that the lexicon of vernacular
used in text can raise a red flag?
Speaker 8 (05:09):
Most definitely. That's one of the first things that we
try to do when we're dealing with a missing person
is deal with the last people that have talked to them.
Things that are important are is the phone ringing to
directly to voicemail? Is it going through a bunch of
rings and not being answered? I agree that that, you know,
(05:32):
not answering a FaceTime in an odd text back. We've
seen that hundreds of times.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well recently we saw it in a heartbreaking case of
Gabby Petito.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
On August twenty seventh, Potito and Laundry get into another
dispute in public. A witness says Gabby is crying and
Laundry is visibly angry. August thirtieth, Gabby Potito's mother gets
a text message where Gabby refers to her grandfather by
his name Stan. This text message was considered odd by
petita mother, Nicole Schmidt. Schmid tells police that Gabby never
calls her grandfather by his first name, and it doesn't
(06:05):
sound like Gabby calls to Gabby or in returned. On
September first, Brian Laundry arrives in Florida without Gabby Battito.
Gabby is missing, Laundry isn't talking. Patito's body has found
September nineteenth. She died from strangulation.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I mean joining me right now, is longtime colleague, investigative
reporter Alexis terrestruck crimeonline dot Com Alexis, come on, you
know my dad and my mom. What I've ever said,
ever said, Hey, mother, where's Walter Malcolm Gray Senior?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Of course that's not her texting.
Speaker 9 (06:38):
No, and that's what her mother knew immediately. Ashley's mom,
she knew that when she centered this thing. And it's
sort of a desperate message. I had this terrible dream
and the dream was so bad that I've come to
your house.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
You're not here.
Speaker 9 (06:50):
She missed her by ten minutes. Instead of running back,
you know, oh, Mama, that's I'm fine, I'm safe, don't
worry about it, and I have my car. All she
gets back is manned. That's not something that she would
ever have heard.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Well, here's another problem with sis. I better throw this
to our veteran trial lawyer, Ben Powers joining us. He's
at Legal Powers LLC. Hey, Ben, you know it would
be a cold day in HG DOUBLEL that I tried
to introduce something in front of a jury I couldn't prove.
That's why I've never even considered psychics, even though many
(07:27):
of them have actually helped find dead bodies and missing people.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
They have, but to tell a jury that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
They would possibly discount the whole state's case.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
If one of them is a non believer.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Same thing with premonitions or dreams like mom had, but
been powers. In this case, I think I'd bring it
on because not only did the mom have this premonition
dream about her daughter, she woke up and went, I'm
going over there. That's real.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It's not just something she made up.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Later she got in the car and went over there
to warn her daughter.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
It was that strong. I believe I would let that
into evidence.
Speaker 10 (08:12):
So I think that statement alone, Probably it is not
a good idea to bring into evidence by itself, but
it certainly tells the story and humanizes the story. You know,
it's a concerned mother. She has a bad feeling. She
texts her daughter. She gets an odd response. Ten minutes later,
her daughter's gone. And so then you anchor that to
the rest of the story through admissible proof, admissible evidence,
(08:36):
possible forensics. Selled out a I wouldn't make the whole
case a premonition case, but I would anchor that premonition.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
It would make the whole case a premonition case. I said,
I would, Hey.
Speaker 11 (08:49):
O J.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Simpson case, the timeline started with a dog akda wailing
in the background. The neighbors described it as a plaintive. Well, okay,
that's when the timeline started. Okay, in this case, when
the mom goes over there, goes to the daughter's place
(09:10):
after a bad dream, it was so vivid. That's where
I would start my timeline right there. And uh, do
you recall the name Kelsey Beareth ben Powers. Do you
know that name? Just be honest, I don't know that name. Okay,
I will never forget it because Kelsey Beareth, I believe,
(09:35):
was not only a murder victim, but her phone had
been taken by the purpse and a series of fate
messages were sent.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Listen, Patrick Frasey receives a short text from his fiance
Kelsey Beareth's phone that simply says do you even love me?
Phrasey replies, why would I bend over backwards and stand
behind you through everything if I didn't? So to answer
your question, yes I do. Turns out those messages were
and sinned. Three days after Patrick Frasey had murdered Kelsey Beareth,
(10:04):
and he was in the middle of covering up the
crime with the help of his mistress turnstate's witness, Crystal Lee.
Prosecutors proved Phrasey beat Beareth, his fiance and mother of
his child, to death on Thanksgiving Day. He has sentenced
to life without parole.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
In joining me is doctor Chavon Scott, doctor Scott's psychotherapist
and author of the Minds of mass Killers, Understanding and
Interrupting the Pathway to violence. If that didn't give you
a nightmare, I don't know what would, But doctor Scott,
aside from the mom's premonition, I'm moving on. Why do
(10:41):
people believe they're the smartest one in the room. They
can now smart everybody. I go into the room thinking
these people know more than I do about this topic. Okay,
that's a given, But why do people think Three days
after Kelsey goes missing, they can send a series of
(11:03):
fake text messages and fake everybody out. Why are people
that arrogant? Yeah?
Speaker 12 (11:12):
Yeah, you're really describing somebody with what we call the
cluster B disorders, right, and that's somebody with a criminal mind,
and they do tend to be very arrogant. You see
this with so many different kinds of murderers, including the
serial killers, where they really think they're going to outgame
everybody and get away with it. So it really is
an aberrant type of personality that, unfortunately, we see in
(11:37):
these kind of cases all the time.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Well, mom doesn't just knock at the door and then
go back to business as usual.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Listen.
Speaker 13 (11:45):
During the day of January second, family members reach out
to Ashley Elkins with minimal success. Hours after sending a
text but not answering a FaceTime call from her mother,
another family member gets a text from Ashley saying she
is going to a beauty supply This isn't the way
Ashley Elkins usually communicates with the family, and her mother says.
(12:06):
Ashley's phone is turned off after the text about going
to the beauty supply store, before it is turned back
on again.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
This beautiful young mom of two I mean, she's gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
She doesn't even look real. She's so beautiful. Where is Ashley?
So Mom beside herself.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Listen, So I said, how you know, just be mindful
of watches around and your pants where you're going. And
she didn't call back. That's not like her has She
never called back and she never takes back.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I don't know how mom is even able to speak
right now, Ashley gone, can't find her.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
The two little children want mommy.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh, by the way, that's where our friends at WXYZ Detroit.
So let's move forward. She goes to the house, knocks
on the door. She can't find Ashley. The family joined
together to start looking for Ashley.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
This is so uncharacteristic. Listen.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Monica Elkins gets a text reply from her daughter Ashley,
but the text isn't consistent with the way Ashley texts. Later,
when another text is received from Ashley's phone is not
sending the way Ashley normally text. Family members are concerned
when they can't get Ashley to answer the phone, so
they use the find my iPhone app to locate her phone.
Speaker 14 (13:36):
According to Ashley's phone, her last known location was in
the twenty nine hundred block of Pinehurst Street in Roseville.
By the time family members drive by, there is no
sign of Ashley Elkins or Ashley's twenty ten gray Chevrolet Malibu.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
So what exactly is a ping? What does it mean?
And how reliable is it? Scott Iiker, founding member FBI
Cellular Analysis Survey Team.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
What is a ping and how reliable is it?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Pings are things that you can see.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
Well, let's start with find my iPhone, because that's very important.
People can do that for their family members if they
have that set up, that's very important to get a
more quicker look at it before they get the police involved.
If they're just trying to find their friend or family member.
You can get pings from the phone companies themselves. Now
(14:35):
that takes a quarte order, that takes information that someone's
missing or endangered, but we can get that also. Now,
the accuracy of the pings does depend on the terrain
and what type of systems being used to do it.
So sometimes they're very accurate. They use GPS, we can
get it down to like ten meters, very accurate. Sometimes
(14:59):
those pings are very large, thirteen hundred meters stuff like that.
So it really just depends on the type of technology
is being used, and where the phone is at that
point in time. Of course, it has to be on
to be able to opin it.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Where is this gorgeous mom of to her family? Distraught
and speaking of family joining us right now?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Is her uncle.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Maurice Morton coincidentally a former Wayne County homicide prosecutor. Mister Morton,
thank you for being with us. Ashley's family mom, siblings
get in touch with you almost immediately.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
What was their state of mind at that time?
Speaker 11 (15:45):
They were fransic. I mean they were very upset. You know,
Ashley was missing. At this point. They were asking me
about the forty eight hours, right, They're like, oh my gosh,
you know, we know that after forty eight hours, you know,
things tend to go south. And they had a lot
of questions about, you know, these type of investigations. They
wanted my assistance at that time dealing with the police
(16:09):
and the media because at that point, you know, the
police weren't convinced anything had occurred, and the media.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Was not no, no, no, mister Morton, please don't tell
me when they contact police that police say, oh, she's
just off with her boyfriend, or oh she's a single mom.
Maybe she needed alone time. We don't think she's really missing.
Did they do that? I almost hate to ask the question.
Speaker 11 (16:36):
They absolutely did that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Oh okay, I'm gonna need an aspirin. Guys, what happens next?
The mom's so distraught about Ashley being gone, she reaches
out to brother, attorney Maurice Morton. The family now taking
the search into their own hands.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Listen.
Speaker 13 (16:55):
After failing to find Ashley Elkins or even have a
meaningful communication with her, on January second, her family reports
her missing in Warren, Michigan. On January third, investigators confirmed
her last known location is Roseville and say they are
canvassing area businesses for video and using digital forensics in
the case to try to track her whereabouts. Ashley Elkins
(17:18):
is a thirty year old mother of two young boys.
She is five foot two to five foot three, a
black woman, weighing around one hundred and fifty pounds, and then.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
What they think is going to be a break listen.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Conducting video, canvases and examining digital evidence, Investigators are interviewing
friends and family members as they try to locate Ashley Elkins.
On Tuesday, January seventh, authorities find Ashley Elkins car abandoned
a few miles from her ex boyfriend's Roosevelt apartment. After
locating Ashley's twenty ten Chevy Malibu, investigators go to Booker's
(17:54):
apartment with a search warrant.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
The discovery of a missing person's car usually is a
huge break in the case.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
What if anything will it reveal?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Is their blood?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Is their fingerprints?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Is the car simply out of gas or with a
flat tire that could indicate where is Ashley? We just
covered this in the case of missing mom Niki Chan. Listen.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Eight days pass from when Niki Chang Sale McCain was
last seen by her family and the day her truck
was found abandoned into Hamma County. The two thousand and
two avalanche is found on the side of the road
in a remote area, doesn't appear to have suffered any damage.
Investigators aren't saying as the vehicle was operational when abandoned,
or if it simply ran out of gas.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Alexis terreschut. In our case in chief, Ashley's car is found,
where was it?
Speaker 9 (18:49):
Her car was found about a six minute drive away
from her home, so about three miles away.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Still this we're saying, Brosefield.
Speaker 9 (18:58):
This is a suburb of Detroit. Detroit is a very
big city, just a few miles away from a lake.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
This is but still a very urban center.
Speaker 9 (19:08):
Found there. But you know what was not found in
her car. Her pocketbook was not found in her car.
Her cell phone was not found in her car. But
her car was found back.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
To Ash's uncle, Maurice Morton joining us. Maurice, so her
pocketbook and cell phone missing from the car. Let me
ask you a couple of questions regarding Ashley's car found
about six minutes away from her home.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Did I have a flat tire?
Speaker 7 (19:35):
No it did not.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Was it out of gas?
Speaker 11 (19:38):
No it was not.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Had it been in a fender bender or any accident
at all, No it had not. So six minutes away Ashley,
we're supposed to believe Ashley just gets out of her
car and walks away. I mean, her mother must be
like a knife in her heart. Ashley would never do that, Maurice,
(20:01):
just get out of the car and walk off.
Speaker 11 (20:02):
No, she wouldn't. And the mother was very clear about
that that all of these actions, you know, would have
been uncharacteristic of Ashley. She always kept in touch with
her family. She had a ten year old and seven
year old children who she cared for regularly. In fact,
the seven year old is autistic. Ashley loved her children
(20:26):
to death. She was always there.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
She would have never done this.
Speaker 11 (20:29):
She would have never just walked away.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And you know, Ben Power is joining me veteran trial
lawyer at legalpowers dot com. You said, can't build a
case on the mom's premonition about the car, Well, I
think you have to introduce that at the get go,
because the car is a recurring thread in this. Now
we've got the car abandoned on the side of the right.
(20:53):
There's nothing wrong with it, not out of gas, no
fender bender, no flat tire, nothing. So you think Ashley
just got out said hey, I think I'll go for
a little walk.
Speaker 10 (21:05):
Bs, I think you're gonna need to be able to
establish why she and the car are no longer connected.
You know, why the car is six minutes away from
her house, and who or what caused her to leave
her car if she didn't leave voluntarily. Otherwise it's speculation
as to why her car is by itself.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Okay, yeah, you just tell that to a jury.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
You ask any woman on that jury, she's gonna park
her car on the side of the road and take
a walk. Okay, you're gonna get nowhere with that Crime
stories with Nancy Grace. Another question for Maurice Morton. This
(21:46):
is Ashy's uncle joining us. Maurice, what about the keys
to the car? Were they ever recovered?
Speaker 11 (21:52):
You know, we don't know that at this time. So
we know that we heard that the keys were not
in the vehicle, but we don't know if they were recovered.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
To Ryan Fitzgibbons, I want to talk to you about
potential evidence found in a car. And to Scott Iiker,
I'm going to bring up the specter of Alex Murdoch
and what all we learned from his vehicle, the suburban
he drove away from a murder scene the night his
wife and son were murdered by him. But to you,
Ryan Fitzgibbons joining us a veteran, veteran when it comes
(22:25):
to searching for missing people, normally you can get.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
A treasure trove of evidence from a car.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Absolutely, Nancy and police are going to be pretty tight
to the chest with this. You know, they are likely
finding a tremendous amount of forensic evidence in there.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
You know.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
This could be fingerprints, this could be DNA evidence, This
can be items that corroborate a timeline or refute statements
made by the family or those texts. So there's going
to be quite a bit of information gathered from this vehicle.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Well, I'm thinking about blood.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Maurice Martin, let me know, were their forensic forensically viable
probative they proved something fingerprints, blood, hair, sign of a struggle.
Was the front seat pulled back too far? I know
that you recall Maurice the case of missing teacher Tara Grinstead.
(23:21):
In her case, her car was found right where it
should be, parked in her garage. But she, Maurice was
neat nick, complete neat nick. When I went into her home,
it looked like a model home out of a magazine.
But then her mother took me out to look at
her car. You know those cars that people keep smelling
like a new car. Her car smell like a new car,
(23:43):
but the sides were covered in mud and the front
seat was reared back, so somebody six feet or taller
could drive, and Tara was very petite.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So there's all kinds of evidence you can get from
a car.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Do we know if the driver's seat was pulled back
for a taller person.
Speaker 11 (24:06):
We don't know. Unfortunately, you know, the police have not
given us a whole lot of information about the vehicle.
What they have this said, though, interestingly, is that there
is substantial evidence. And they use the words substantial without
getting into detail, and they use those words quite a bit.
So you know, we're you know, we're guessing that there
(24:28):
was you know, possibly quite a bit of evidence.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Scott Iikerr, you're hearing what Bryan Fitzgibbons and Maurice Mortner's saying.
But I want you, founding member of the FBI Cellular
Announced team, I want you to think about what else
we can learn from this car. This car was of
a model and make that should have some sort of
(24:52):
NAV system, navigation system in it. As you recall from
the Alexi murda On double murder trial, learn more about
NAV systems than we ever wanted to know. For instance,
we know exactly when Alex Murnaud cranked up his suburban
and left the murder scene. We know that he scratched
(25:15):
off that he and we learned all this from the
nav system, that he lowered the window electric electric windows
right where Maggie, his wife's cell phone was thrown out
on the side of the road, let up the window,
then floored it.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We know when he reached his mother's house.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Which she used as an alibi, when he put that
car in part turned it off, and when he got
back in to go back to the murder scene and
find the two dead bodies. I can tell when he
put it in park, reverse drive, you name it.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So what can I learn from Ashy's car, Nancy?
Speaker 8 (25:55):
There's a ton of stuff you can learn from the car.
As you said, the vehicle telematics, a lot of programs
that we can use to download the data from the
car itself. Just plug it in like a mechanic does,
and it downloads all this information. Like you talked about
in those other cases, it's very accurate and very helpful
in cases. A lot of the cars also have cell
(26:17):
phones in them. That's helpful to us too. We can
ping a car. We can use tower information to help
us track a car over time. There's tons of information
you can get from a car, not only the physical
evidence and as you mentioned, but the vehicles information when
brakes were applied, you know, when an accident occurred. All
(26:40):
that information is recorded in some of these cars.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
What more do we know? We know that, in addition
to feeling someone had been following her as she drive
her car, there were a lot of red flags no
one really knew how to interpret.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Listen.
Speaker 13 (26:56):
DeAndre Booker and Ashley Elkins have been dating long enough
that mother and other family members think the two will
be getting married in the future. Booker is smart and
really good with computers, but there are a couple of
red flags popping up. Ashley Elkins has developed a career
as a hairstylist and is able to maximize profits by
working out of her home until DeAndre Booker doesn't like
(27:18):
men coming to Ashley's home to have their haircut, so
Ashley spends the money to rent a facility to conduct business.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
What okay, hold on just a moment, Maurice Morton is
joining me Ashley's uncle.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
You're a practicing lawyer.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
That would be like my husband saying, you know what,
I don't want you in the courtroom because there's too
many male lawyers and defendants. I couldn't practice law for
Pete's sake. So the boyfriend tells her he doesn't like
men clients coming to her home salon that cuts out
about fifty percent of her business.
Speaker 11 (27:54):
Yeah, that's true. I mean, you know, that was an
early on red flag about him and his personality. Obviously
he was controlling, very jealous type, and the mom and
Ashley began to see that about him. This is someone
who they embraced, who she had around her children, and
(28:17):
who everyone liked. And you never would have thought but
he You know, that was one of the first red
flags of how controlling he was.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Doctor Chevon Scott joining us renowned psychotherapist author of the
Minds of mass Killers a doctor Chevon controlling doesn't necessarily
mean killer. But when I look back at cases I've handled, prosecuted,
and investigated, very often it's the reverse. I have seen
(28:49):
so many cases where the per boyfriend or husband, lover,
ex lover has also been controlling. The converse can very
often when we say he's controlling, what does that mean?
You heard Maurice Morton, who knows Ashy, knows, the boyfriend,
knows the family, say he was controlling.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
That in itself is not a deal breaker.
Speaker 12 (29:14):
But it's not good. No, it's not good. It's definitely
a red flag. A couple decades ago, I was a
director of counseling and a domestic violence women's shelter, and
that was really the standard was these jealous, controlling men,
and they're very seductive.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
You know.
Speaker 12 (29:31):
That's the thing I can't under emphasize, is how seductive
they can be and how charming, because if that was
the only thing the woman ever saw, of course they
would recognize this is a dangerous, unsafe relationship. But often
there's an undercurrent of the control, and it's layered with
(29:53):
things that are very nice about the relationship, so the
women get confused.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You're giving me a headache.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I don't want to tell you why. If I thought
I had to go through my husband's text messages and
find them on Life three sixty and blah blah, I'd
shoot my foot. I try to read his messages one time.
They were so boring my eyes just started bleeding. Why
do people stay in relationships where they don't trust the
(30:22):
other one? There's all these red flags.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
It's exhausting, Doctor Chavn.
Speaker 12 (30:28):
Yeah, yeah, and it becomes like an addiction sometimes, particularly
for these men that you know, when we think of love,
we think of giving and nurturing and wanting the best
for the other person. But I think for men like this,
the woman is an object and his sense of ownership
for her takes precedence. And often there's this mix of
(30:51):
desire and hostility. And it's very confusing to be the
female partner in a relationship like that, because very often
he's wonderful. And they also know how to manipulate their vulnerabilities.
Younger women in particular, can have a lot of vulnerabilities.
They can have low self esteem, and these men know
(31:12):
how to manipulate that well.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Speaking of red flags, listen to this man. Ladies, if
you hear something like this about your boyfriend, even your husband,
you run for the heels as if you had seen
a monster. Listen to me, take a listen.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Booker shows off his computer skills by creating fraudulent documents,
but the final straw that breaks the relationship is when
Elkins discovers Booker has been creating profiles of people online
and using the fake profiles to comment on his own
posts on social media, as well as track Ashley's online behavior.
(31:51):
Elkins and DeAndre Booker break up in September.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Okay, well, wha wait, so he creates a fake online
persona to comment on his posts. Do I have that right,
Alexis Terestchuk.
Speaker 9 (32:03):
Yes, he has been doing this. This is something he creates.
He has his own website, you know, his own social media.
Then he creates other people to say, oh, you know,
you're so great with this guy, things like this, just
to make himself.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Seem so much much better.
Speaker 9 (32:15):
Then she finds out that he's been that he has
been doing this. She sees, oh, it's not just you. You
are the one that is creating all of these people
commenting on this, and she fully breaks up with him.
She ends the relationship.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Okay, what a wack of doodle, I see, chauvon Scott,
doctor Scott just shuddering that. But there's no other way
to put it.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Maurice Morton, you're her uncle.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
So she is involved, and this guy's around her children,
that's making up fake uh people on multiple fake IDs
online so they can comment on how great his posts are.
Speaker 11 (32:50):
Yeah, it just it just doesn't sound like a reasonable person.
It did say a lot about him. And then at
that point, you know, Ashley and the mom began to
really question. You know, mom was very clear she thought
he was a fraud and this was someone that she adored,
and eventually she said, Hey, she thought he was a fraud.
(33:12):
They didn't know what to believe about him, what was
real or wasn't.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Just because you delete something off of your computer doesn't
mean it.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Doesn't exist in the cloud.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Or somewhere deep buried in your computer. Take a listen
for someone known as computer savvy. Investigators were able to
retrieve some of the basic Internet searches that included answers
to the question what to do while on the run.
Booker also allegedly wants to know if blood is traceable,
fastest routes from Flint, Ohio, how to beat a polygraph test,
(33:47):
and what he probably should have started with deleting Google
search history. Okay, the word idiot springs to mind crime
stories with Nancy Grace to Maurice Mortin, this is Ashley
(34:09):
Elkins's uncle.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
What more, if anything, do you know.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
About these damning computer searches on Booker's devices.
Speaker 11 (34:19):
Yeah, when we when we saw that, it was very alarming.
At that point, when you see that, you're you're figuring that, hey,
this this guy was planning to commit a crime, and
and and so it really raised, you know, the concern
within the family of what he was planning to do.
Or what he had done because we had been aware
(34:41):
of these, uh search the search messages since that Friday
after she was missing.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
It brings to mind a case it's going to be
proven almost entirely based on damning Google searches. I'm talking
about another missing mom. Up to Boys and a Walsh husband.
Brian Walsh's computer a treasure trove of incriminating evidence.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
Bryan Walsh begins the first day of a new year
at four fifty five am by searching the Internet for
a quote how long before a body starts to smell?
He follows that by searching how to stop a body
from decomposing? Ten ways to dispose of a dead body
if you really need to, how long does DNA last?
How to remove blood from a wooden floor, can you
(35:29):
identify a body with broken teeth? And finally, can you
be charged with murder without a body?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
One of the searches conducted by x Booker is what
to do while on the run. Much like Scott Peterson,
he did go on the run. Explain Alexis Tereschuk, it.
Speaker 9 (35:49):
Come to her house on New Year's Eve Deceummer thirty. First,
he actually booked an appointment with her but not as himself.
So remember we said he pretends to be other people,
he uses different identifications. He even did this to her,
So he booked an appointment at her home salon the
one that he didn't like her to have, and showed
up at her house. She saw him from out inside
the home and she had people over house, showed everybody
(36:11):
to be quiet. He knocked on the front door, he
knocked on the side door. Everybody stayed inside and didn't
make a work sound, and then he left. So then
people try to find him. Nobody can find him. He
is just as missing as she is for a couple
of days. Then police are finally able to find him.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Take a listen to this.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
The day Scott Peterson is arrested. His dyed his brown
hair blonde and grown out of goateee. His Mercedes stuffed
with survival gear, camving gear, several changes of clothing, two
driver's license, He has his and his brothers, four cell phones,
fifteen grand in cash, and twelve Viagra pills.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
See, you have been powers much like Scott Peterson with
his blonde hair. This guy Booker goes on the run.
That's evidence of guilt. Flight while your girlfriend, your ex
is missing, you suddenly decide to go on the run.
It's damning.
Speaker 10 (37:07):
I mean, he's allowed to travel. It's not running from anything.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
At that point.
Speaker 10 (37:11):
He's allowed to go from one place to another. They
would have to establish that he knew he was the
subject of an investigation and that he fled that investigation.
But there's nothing unlawful. We actually have a right to travel,
and so he's free to move about as he wants.
They're going to have to tie that to knowing that
he was under investigation and fleeing that investigation.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Speaking of red flags, what about a rap sheet?
Speaker 5 (37:37):
Listen dedre Booker served in the United States Army, but
was removed from the military with a less than honorable
discharge after going a wall in twenty seventeen. This happened
after he was charged the previous year with several other crimes,
including larceny and possessing fake identification documents while still serving
on active duty in the Army. He went a wall
after the charges and then was given his less than
(37:59):
honorable discharge.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
I'm starting to see a course of conduct that repeats itself.
He goes a wall in the army, and now he's
a wall during the search for his love interest Ashley
Ashley Elkins, Maurice Morton had actually had any idea that
Booker had a rap.
Speaker 11 (38:19):
Sheet was that came as news to the family about
his background with the military and him being a wall
absolutely had no idea.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Maurice Morton joining me Ashley's uncle. What led police to
go to a landfill?
Speaker 11 (38:34):
Well, when they conducted the search of Deandre's apartment, they
indicated to us they found substantial evidence without telling us
what they found. They also hauled away a dumpster, and
you know, they indicated to me that there was also
substantial evidence in there. So we kind of gleaned through
the lines that they found blood evidence also that dumpster
(38:57):
apparently had been dumped on that stat day after she
went missing, and so you know, reading between the lines,
we figure they kind of then went to the landfield net.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Brian Fitzgibbons joining me, Director Operations USPA Nationwide Security leaves
a team of investigators trying to find missing people. Brian,
you and I both have been involved in grid searches
at landfills and dump sites.
Speaker 15 (39:24):
Very difficult, absolutely, and this one was made more difficult
with the cold temperatures that Michigan has been experiencing, so
they were able to narrow it down to a six
to seven acre location at the landfill, a plot of
area about seven acres square. So that's going to be
(39:45):
a difficult search as they go grid by grid.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
The family on pins and needles as the search for
Ashley leads police to a Macomb County landfill.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Back to Ashley's uncle, Race Morton, joining us.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I understand, mister Morton, that DNA has been obtained.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
What's the source and what can you tell us about it?
Speaker 11 (40:11):
Yeah, police indicated to us that from evidence they collected
at his apartment and from the dumpster, they wanted to
collect some samples to do a DNA match, so they
did do swabbing of the mother and her children in
order to get a DNA match. We have not gotten
(40:32):
the results back from that DNA sample.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Mister Morton. How is the family holding up? Who has
Ashy's two little boys?
Speaker 11 (40:41):
Her boys are staying with their father and grandparents. The
families are, you know, coming together to support them. You
can imagine, Nancy, this has been really tough. And you know,
someone asked me the question. Being a former prosecutor, you know,
how does it feel to be on the other side, right,
you know, but they actually asked the question. But it's tough,
and I dealt with victims all my life. But to
(41:04):
be on this side, you see the pain, You see
the heartache, you see all the questions. You see how
difficult it is dealing with the media of police trying
to get answers, fighting for answers because you want your
loved one back home. It's very difficult.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
If you know or think you know anything. Maybe you
saw her car, maybe you saw her, Maybe you saw
DeAndre Booker driving her car. Please dial Warren PD five
eight six five seven four four seven eight four or
(41:40):
Roosevelt Police Crime Stoppers toll free eight hundred. Speak up.
That's eight hundred seven seven three two five eight seven.
Her boys want their mother. One of them unable to
understand what's going on.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
He's autistic. Let's stop and remember an American hero, Jacqueline
Montenero US Department Homeland Security, who died trying to save
her own daughter from a fire. Served over sixteen years
with Homeland Security, leaving behind husband now widower, William, and
(42:22):
daughter Elena. American hero Homeland Security Jackie Montenero
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Nancy Grace signing off, Goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, the desperate surge for a
missing Warren mother of two, her car found abandoned. Where's Ashley?
I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories, Thank you for
being with us. A mom of two vanishes without a
(00:23):
trace after leaving her apartment. Family pleads for help. Where
is this beautiful Warren missing mom of two? Her mother
is tipped off, as we have seen most recently, with
a very odd series of texts that don't sound like her.
(00:43):
Let's start at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Just after the New year, Ashley Elkins leaves home early
in the morning. Her family sees her leave wearing a
long black coat with fur around the hood and black
leggings with light freckles on her fate. Just ten minutes
after Ashley leaves, her mother, Monica arrives.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
You know, the mom arrives just after she leaves.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
How many times have I heard witnesses family say I
just missed her or him, and that chance miss makes
all the difference. Listen, thanks her.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I had a dream of her car being stolen, and
she replied back, all men, which is weird to me?
So I Facetimer, She answered.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Well, talk about a mother's intuition. That's where my friends
at w x y Z in Detroit. So mom, believe
it or not, has an eerie premonition type dream for
her daughter's car. It gets stolen, so she tries to
(02:03):
go immediately visit to visit the daughter, she misses her
literally by minutes.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
She wants to tell her about the dream, so she.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Texts her and gets this odd response, going, oh man,
that doesn't sound like her daughter at all, so listen.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Monica Elkins arrives wanting to tell Ashley about a dream
she had, having just missed Ashley. Monica sends a text
to her daughter about the dream she had involving Ashley
taking her mom's truck while leaving her car in the driveway.
Ashley replies to the description of the dream, writing oh man.
Monica feels this is a strange and uncharacteristic response for
(02:47):
Ashley and attempts a FaceTime call immediately upon receipt of
the text from Ashley's phone, but Ashley doesn't answer the
FaceTime joining.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Me an all star panel including family of Ashley's first
I want to go to brianfa Is Gibbons joining me,
Director Operations USP, a nationwide security leading a team of
investigators to find missing people. And not only that marine
(03:16):
an Iraqi war veteran, Brian, thank you for being with us.
Nobody knows a child, and this is a grown child, Ashley,
this gorgeous young mom of two, like your own mother.
Nobody knows you like your mother. The mom has this
(03:36):
eerie premonition dream and she doesn't just call. She goes
over to the apartment to Ashley's place to tell her, WHOA,
I had this crazy powerful dream. As she's not there,
she texts and then gets a text that she thinks
is off. How many times, Brian does the law enforcement
(04:02):
God bless them, they're the I'm the best witnesses ever
on the stand. Ignore hunches or intuition. I don't ignore it.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
We see it all the time, Nancy, in a number
of cases that you and I have discussed.
Speaker 7 (04:17):
In this case, Ashley's mother was immediately able to recognize
something that was deviating from Ashley's normal pattern of behavior.
That tech the lexicon used in that text, not answering
the FaceTime very concerning.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Also joining me Scott Iiker, founding member of the FBI
Cellular Analysis Survey Team. Let that say Ken founder founding
member of the FBI Cellular cell Phone Analysis Survey Team
Homicide detective twelve years missing People currently with precision Cellular
(05:00):
Analysis Scott, Isn't it true that the lexicon of vernacular
used in text can raise a red flag?
Speaker 8 (05:09):
Most definitely. That's one of the first things that we
try to do when we're dealing with a missing person
is deal with the last people that have talked to them.
Things that are important are is the phone ringing to
directly to voicemail? Is it going through a bunch of
rings and not being answered? I agree that that, you know,
(05:32):
not answering a FaceTime in an odd text back. We've
seen that hundreds of times.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Well recently we saw it in a heartbreaking case of
Gabby Petito.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
On August twenty seventh, Potito and Laundry get into another
dispute in public. A witness says Gabby is crying and
Laundry is visibly angry. August thirtieth, Gabby Potito's mother gets
a text message where Gabby refers to her grandfather by
his name Stan. This text message was considered odd by
petita mother, Nicole Schmidt. Schmid tells police that Gabby never
calls her grandfather by his first name, and it doesn't
(06:05):
sound like Gabby calls to Gabby or in returned. On
September first, Brian Laundry arrives in Florida without Gabby Battito.
Gabby is missing, Laundry isn't talking. Patito's body has found
September nineteenth. She died from strangulation.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I mean joining me right now, is longtime colleague, investigative
reporter Alexis terrestruck crimeonline dot Com Alexis, come on, you
know my dad and my mom. What I've ever said,
ever said, Hey, mother, where's Walter Malcolm Gray Senior?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Of course that's not her texting.
Speaker 9 (06:38):
No, and that's what her mother knew immediately. Ashley's mom,
she knew that when she centered this thing. And it's
sort of a desperate message. I had this terrible dream
and the dream was so bad that I've come to
your house.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
You're not here.
Speaker 9 (06:50):
She missed her by ten minutes. Instead of running back,
you know, oh, Mama, that's I'm fine, I'm safe, don't
worry about it, and I have my car. All she
gets back is manned. That's not something that she would
ever have heard.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Well, here's another problem with sis. I better throw this
to our veteran trial lawyer, Ben Powers joining us. He's
at Legal Powers LLC. Hey, Ben, you know it would
be a cold day in HG DOUBLEL that I tried
to introduce something in front of a jury I couldn't prove.
That's why I've never even considered psychics, even though many
(07:27):
of them have actually helped find dead bodies and missing people.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
They have, but to tell a jury that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
They would possibly discount the whole state's case.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
If one of them is a non believer.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Same thing with premonitions or dreams like mom had, but
been powers. In this case, I think I'd bring it
on because not only did the mom have this premonition
dream about her daughter, she woke up and went, I'm
going over there. That's real.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
It's not just something she made up.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Later she got in the car and went over there
to warn her daughter.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
It was that strong. I believe I would let that
into evidence.
Speaker 10 (08:12):
So I think that statement alone, Probably it is not
a good idea to bring into evidence by itself, but
it certainly tells the story and humanizes the story. You know,
it's a concerned mother. She has a bad feeling. She
texts her daughter. She gets an odd response. Ten minutes later,
her daughter's gone. And so then you anchor that to
the rest of the story through admissible proof, admissible evidence,
(08:36):
possible forensics. Selled out a I wouldn't make the whole
case a premonition case, but I would anchor that premonition.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
It would make the whole case a premonition case. I said,
I would, Hey.
Speaker 11 (08:49):
O J.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Simpson case, the timeline started with a dog akda wailing
in the background. The neighbors described it as a plaintive. Well, okay,
that's when the timeline started. Okay, in this case, when
the mom goes over there, goes to the daughter's place
(09:10):
after a bad dream, it was so vivid. That's where
I would start my timeline right there. And uh, do
you recall the name Kelsey Beareth ben Powers. Do you
know that name? Just be honest, I don't know that name. Okay,
I will never forget it because Kelsey Beareth, I believe,
(09:35):
was not only a murder victim, but her phone had
been taken by the purpse and a series of fate
messages were sent.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Listen, Patrick Frasey receives a short text from his fiance
Kelsey Beareth's phone that simply says do you even love me?
Phrasey replies, why would I bend over backwards and stand
behind you through everything if I didn't? So to answer
your question, yes I do. Turns out those messages were
and sinned. Three days after Patrick Frasey had murdered Kelsey Beareth,
(10:04):
and he was in the middle of covering up the
crime with the help of his mistress turnstate's witness, Crystal Lee.
Prosecutors proved Phrasey beat Beareth, his fiance and mother of
his child, to death on Thanksgiving Day. He has sentenced
to life without parole.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
In joining me is doctor Chavon Scott, doctor Scott's psychotherapist
and author of the Minds of mass Killers, Understanding and
Interrupting the Pathway to violence. If that didn't give you
a nightmare, I don't know what would, But doctor Scott,
aside from the mom's premonition, I'm moving on. Why do
(10:41):
people believe they're the smartest one in the room. They
can now smart everybody. I go into the room thinking
these people know more than I do about this topic. Okay,
that's a given, But why do people think Three days
after Kelsey goes missing, they can send a series of
(11:03):
fake text messages and fake everybody out. Why are people
that arrogant? Yeah?
Speaker 12 (11:12):
Yeah, you're really describing somebody with what we call the
cluster B disorders, right, and that's somebody with a criminal mind,
and they do tend to be very arrogant. You see
this with so many different kinds of murderers, including the
serial killers, where they really think they're going to outgame
everybody and get away with it. So it really is
an aberrant type of personality that, unfortunately, we see in
(11:37):
these kind of cases all the time.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Well, mom doesn't just knock at the door and then
go back to business as usual.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Listen.
Speaker 13 (11:45):
During the day of January second, family members reach out
to Ashley Elkins with minimal success. Hours after sending a
text but not answering a FaceTime call from her mother,
another family member gets a text from Ashley saying she
is going to a beauty supply This isn't the way
Ashley Elkins usually communicates with the family, and her mother says.
(12:06):
Ashley's phone is turned off after the text about going
to the beauty supply store, before it is turned back
on again.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
This beautiful young mom of two I mean, she's gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
She doesn't even look real. She's so beautiful. Where is Ashley?
So Mom beside herself.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Listen, So I said, how you know, just be mindful
of watches around and your pants where you're going. And
she didn't call back. That's not like her has She
never called back and she never takes back.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I don't know how mom is even able to speak
right now, Ashley gone, can't find her.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
The two little children want mommy.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh, by the way, that's where our friends at WXYZ Detroit.
So let's move forward. She goes to the house, knocks
on the door. She can't find Ashley. The family joined
together to start looking for Ashley.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
This is so uncharacteristic. Listen.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Monica Elkins gets a text reply from her daughter Ashley,
but the text isn't consistent with the way Ashley texts. Later,
when another text is received from Ashley's phone is not
sending the way Ashley normally text. Family members are concerned
when they can't get Ashley to answer the phone, so
they use the find my iPhone app to locate her phone.
Speaker 14 (13:36):
According to Ashley's phone, her last known location was in
the twenty nine hundred block of Pinehurst Street in Roseville.
By the time family members drive by, there is no
sign of Ashley Elkins or Ashley's twenty ten gray Chevrolet Malibu.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
So what exactly is a ping? What does it mean?
And how reliable is it? Scott Iiker, founding member FBI
Cellular Analysis Survey Team.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
What is a ping and how reliable is it?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Pings are things that you can see.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
Well, let's start with find my iPhone, because that's very important.
People can do that for their family members if they
have that set up, that's very important to get a
more quicker look at it before they get the police involved.
If they're just trying to find their friend or family member.
You can get pings from the phone companies themselves. Now
(14:35):
that takes a quarte order, that takes information that someone's
missing or endangered, but we can get that also. Now,
the accuracy of the pings does depend on the terrain
and what type of systems being used to do it.
So sometimes they're very accurate. They use GPS, we can
get it down to like ten meters, very accurate. Sometimes
(14:59):
those pings are very large, thirteen hundred meters stuff like that.
So it really just depends on the type of technology
is being used, and where the phone is at that
point in time. Of course, it has to be on
to be able to opin it.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Where is this gorgeous mom of to her family? Distraught
and speaking of family joining us right now?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Is her uncle.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Maurice Morton coincidentally a former Wayne County homicide prosecutor. Mister Morton,
thank you for being with us. Ashley's family mom, siblings
get in touch with you almost immediately.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
What was their state of mind at that time?
Speaker 11 (15:45):
They were fransic. I mean they were very upset. You know,
Ashley was missing. At this point. They were asking me
about the forty eight hours, right, They're like, oh my gosh,
you know, we know that after forty eight hours, you know,
things tend to go south. And they had a lot
of questions about, you know, these type of investigations. They
wanted my assistance at that time dealing with the police
(16:09):
and the media because at that point, you know, the
police weren't convinced anything had occurred, and the media.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Was not no, no, no, mister Morton, please don't tell
me when they contact police that police say, oh, she's
just off with her boyfriend, or oh she's a single mom.
Maybe she needed alone time. We don't think she's really missing.
Did they do that? I almost hate to ask the question.
Speaker 11 (16:36):
They absolutely did that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Oh okay, I'm gonna need an aspirin. Guys, what happens next?
The mom's so distraught about Ashley being gone, she reaches
out to brother, attorney Maurice Morton. The family now taking
the search into their own hands.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Listen.
Speaker 13 (16:55):
After failing to find Ashley Elkins or even have a
meaningful communication with her, on January second, her family reports
her missing in Warren, Michigan. On January third, investigators confirmed
her last known location is Roseville and say they are
canvassing area businesses for video and using digital forensics in
the case to try to track her whereabouts. Ashley Elkins
(17:18):
is a thirty year old mother of two young boys.
She is five foot two to five foot three, a
black woman, weighing around one hundred and fifty pounds, and then.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
What they think is going to be a break listen.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Conducting video, canvases and examining digital evidence, Investigators are interviewing
friends and family members as they try to locate Ashley Elkins.
On Tuesday, January seventh, authorities find Ashley Elkins car abandoned
a few miles from her ex boyfriend's Roosevelt apartment. After
locating Ashley's twenty ten Chevy Malibu, investigators go to Booker's
(17:54):
apartment with a search warrant.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
The discovery of a missing person's car usually is a
huge break in the case.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
What if anything will it reveal?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Is their blood?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Is their fingerprints?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Is the car simply out of gas or with a
flat tire that could indicate where is Ashley? We just
covered this in the case of missing mom Niki Chan. Listen.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Eight days pass from when Niki Chang Sale McCain was
last seen by her family and the day her truck
was found abandoned into Hamma County. The two thousand and
two avalanche is found on the side of the road
in a remote area, doesn't appear to have suffered any damage.
Investigators aren't saying as the vehicle was operational when abandoned,
or if it simply ran out of gas.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Alexis terreschut. In our case in chief, Ashley's car is found,
where was it?
Speaker 9 (18:49):
Her car was found about a six minute drive away
from her home, so about three miles away.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Still this we're saying, Brosefield.
Speaker 9 (18:58):
This is a suburb of Detroit. Detroit is a very
big city, just a few miles away from a lake.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
This is but still a very urban center.
Speaker 9 (19:08):
Found there. But you know what was not found in
her car. Her pocketbook was not found in her car.
Her cell phone was not found in her car. But
her car was found back.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
To Ash's uncle, Maurice Morton joining us. Maurice, so her
pocketbook and cell phone missing from the car. Let me
ask you a couple of questions regarding Ashley's car found
about six minutes away from her home.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Did I have a flat tire?
Speaker 7 (19:35):
No it did not.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Was it out of gas?
Speaker 11 (19:38):
No it was not.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Had it been in a fender bender or any accident
at all, No it had not. So six minutes away Ashley,
we're supposed to believe Ashley just gets out of her
car and walks away. I mean, her mother must be
like a knife in her heart. Ashley would never do that, Maurice,
(20:01):
just get out of the car and walk off.
Speaker 11 (20:02):
No, she wouldn't. And the mother was very clear about
that that all of these actions, you know, would have
been uncharacteristic of Ashley. She always kept in touch with
her family. She had a ten year old and seven
year old children who she cared for regularly. In fact,
the seven year old is autistic. Ashley loved her children
(20:26):
to death. She was always there.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
She would have never done this.
Speaker 11 (20:29):
She would have never just walked away.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And you know, Ben Power is joining me veteran trial
lawyer at legalpowers dot com. You said, can't build a
case on the mom's premonition about the car, Well, I
think you have to introduce that at the get go,
because the car is a recurring thread in this. Now
we've got the car abandoned on the side of the right.
(20:53):
There's nothing wrong with it, not out of gas, no
fender bender, no flat tire, nothing. So you think Ashley
just got out said hey, I think I'll go for
a little walk.
Speaker 10 (21:05):
Bs, I think you're gonna need to be able to
establish why she and the car are no longer connected.
You know, why the car is six minutes away from
her house, and who or what caused her to leave
her car if she didn't leave voluntarily. Otherwise it's speculation
as to why her car is by itself.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Okay, yeah, you just tell that to a jury.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
You ask any woman on that jury, she's gonna park
her car on the side of the road and take
a walk. Okay, you're gonna get nowhere with that Crime
stories with Nancy Grace. Another question for Maurice Morton. This
(21:46):
is Ashy's uncle joining us. Maurice, what about the keys
to the car? Were they ever recovered?
Speaker 11 (21:52):
You know, we don't know that at this time. So
we know that we heard that the keys were not
in the vehicle, but we don't know if they were recovered.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
To Ryan Fitzgibbons, I want to talk to you about
potential evidence found in a car. And to Scott Iiker,
I'm going to bring up the specter of Alex Murdoch
and what all we learned from his vehicle, the suburban
he drove away from a murder scene the night his
wife and son were murdered by him. But to you,
Ryan Fitzgibbons joining us a veteran, veteran when it comes
(22:25):
to searching for missing people, normally you can get.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
A treasure trove of evidence from a car.
Speaker 6 (22:32):
Absolutely, Nancy and police are going to be pretty tight
to the chest with this. You know, they are likely
finding a tremendous amount of forensic evidence in there.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
You know.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
This could be fingerprints, this could be DNA evidence, This
can be items that corroborate a timeline or refute statements
made by the family or those texts. So there's going
to be quite a bit of information gathered from this vehicle.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Well, I'm thinking about blood.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Maurice Martin, let me know, were their forensic forensically viable
probative they proved something fingerprints, blood, hair, sign of a struggle.
Was the front seat pulled back too far? I know
that you recall Maurice the case of missing teacher Tara Grinstead.
(23:21):
In her case, her car was found right where it
should be, parked in her garage. But she, Maurice was
neat nick, complete neat nick. When I went into her home,
it looked like a model home out of a magazine.
But then her mother took me out to look at
her car. You know those cars that people keep smelling
like a new car. Her car smell like a new car,
(23:43):
but the sides were covered in mud and the front
seat was reared back, so somebody six feet or taller
could drive, and Tara was very petite.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
So there's all kinds of evidence you can get from
a car.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Do we know if the driver's seat was pulled back
for a taller person.
Speaker 11 (24:06):
We don't know. Unfortunately, you know, the police have not
given us a whole lot of information about the vehicle.
What they have this said, though, interestingly, is that there
is substantial evidence. And they use the words substantial without
getting into detail, and they use those words quite a bit.
So you know, we're you know, we're guessing that there
(24:28):
was you know, possibly quite a bit of evidence.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Scott Iikerr, you're hearing what Bryan Fitzgibbons and Maurice Mortner's saying.
But I want you, founding member of the FBI Cellular
Announced team, I want you to think about what else
we can learn from this car. This car was of
a model and make that should have some sort of
(24:52):
NAV system, navigation system in it. As you recall from
the Alexi murda On double murder trial, learn more about
NAV systems than we ever wanted to know. For instance,
we know exactly when Alex Murnaud cranked up his suburban
and left the murder scene. We know that he scratched
(25:15):
off that he and we learned all this from the
nav system, that he lowered the window electric electric windows
right where Maggie, his wife's cell phone was thrown out
on the side of the road, let up the window,
then floored it.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We know when he reached his mother's house.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Which she used as an alibi, when he put that
car in part turned it off, and when he got
back in to go back to the murder scene and
find the two dead bodies. I can tell when he
put it in park, reverse drive, you name it.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So what can I learn from Ashy's car, Nancy?
Speaker 8 (25:55):
There's a ton of stuff you can learn from the car.
As you said, the vehicle telematics, a lot of programs
that we can use to download the data from the
car itself. Just plug it in like a mechanic does,
and it downloads all this information. Like you talked about
in those other cases, it's very accurate and very helpful
in cases. A lot of the cars also have cell
(26:17):
phones in them. That's helpful to us too. We can
ping a car. We can use tower information to help
us track a car over time. There's tons of information
you can get from a car, not only the physical
evidence and as you mentioned, but the vehicles information when
brakes were applied, you know, when an accident occurred. All
(26:40):
that information is recorded in some of these cars.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
What more do we know? We know that, in addition
to feeling someone had been following her as she drive
her car, there were a lot of red flags no
one really knew how to interpret.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Listen.
Speaker 13 (26:56):
DeAndre Booker and Ashley Elkins have been dating long enough
that mother and other family members think the two will
be getting married in the future. Booker is smart and
really good with computers, but there are a couple of
red flags popping up. Ashley Elkins has developed a career
as a hairstylist and is able to maximize profits by
working out of her home until DeAndre Booker doesn't like
(27:18):
men coming to Ashley's home to have their haircut, so
Ashley spends the money to rent a facility to conduct business.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
What okay, hold on just a moment, Maurice Morton is
joining me Ashley's uncle.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
You're a practicing lawyer.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
That would be like my husband saying, you know what,
I don't want you in the courtroom because there's too
many male lawyers and defendants. I couldn't practice law for
Pete's sake. So the boyfriend tells her he doesn't like
men clients coming to her home salon that cuts out
about fifty percent of her business.
Speaker 11 (27:54):
Yeah, that's true. I mean, you know, that was an
early on red flag about him and his personality. Obviously
he was controlling, very jealous type, and the mom and
Ashley began to see that about him. This is someone
who they embraced, who she had around her children, and
(28:17):
who everyone liked. And you never would have thought but
he You know, that was one of the first red
flags of how controlling he was.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Doctor Chevon Scott joining us renowned psychotherapist author of the
Minds of mass Killers a doctor Chevon controlling doesn't necessarily
mean killer. But when I look back at cases I've handled, prosecuted,
and investigated, very often it's the reverse. I have seen
(28:49):
so many cases where the per boyfriend or husband, lover,
ex lover has also been controlling. The converse can very
often when we say he's controlling, what does that mean?
You heard Maurice Morton, who knows Ashy, knows, the boyfriend,
knows the family, say he was controlling.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
That in itself is not a deal breaker.
Speaker 12 (29:14):
But it's not good. No, it's not good. It's definitely
a red flag. A couple decades ago, I was a
director of counseling and a domestic violence women's shelter, and
that was really the standard was these jealous, controlling men,
and they're very seductive.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
You know.
Speaker 12 (29:31):
That's the thing I can't under emphasize, is how seductive
they can be and how charming, because if that was
the only thing the woman ever saw, of course they
would recognize this is a dangerous, unsafe relationship. But often
there's an undercurrent of the control, and it's layered with
(29:53):
things that are very nice about the relationship, so the
women get confused.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You're giving me a headache.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I don't want to tell you why. If I thought
I had to go through my husband's text messages and
find them on Life three sixty and blah blah, I'd
shoot my foot. I try to read his messages one time.
They were so boring my eyes just started bleeding. Why
do people stay in relationships where they don't trust the
(30:22):
other one? There's all these red flags.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
It's exhausting, Doctor Chavn.
Speaker 12 (30:28):
Yeah, yeah, and it becomes like an addiction sometimes, particularly
for these men that you know, when we think of love,
we think of giving and nurturing and wanting the best
for the other person. But I think for men like this,
the woman is an object and his sense of ownership
for her takes precedence. And often there's this mix of
(30:51):
desire and hostility. And it's very confusing to be the
female partner in a relationship like that, because very often
he's wonderful. And they also know how to manipulate their vulnerabilities.
Younger women in particular, can have a lot of vulnerabilities.
They can have low self esteem, and these men know
(31:12):
how to manipulate that well.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Speaking of red flags, listen to this man. Ladies, if
you hear something like this about your boyfriend, even your husband,
you run for the heels as if you had seen
a monster. Listen to me, take a listen.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Booker shows off his computer skills by creating fraudulent documents,
but the final straw that breaks the relationship is when
Elkins discovers Booker has been creating profiles of people online
and using the fake profiles to comment on his own
posts on social media, as well as track Ashley's online behavior.
(31:51):
Elkins and DeAndre Booker break up in September.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Okay, well, wha wait, so he creates a fake online
persona to comment on his posts. Do I have that right,
Alexis Terestchuk.
Speaker 9 (32:03):
Yes, he has been doing this. This is something he creates.
He has his own website, you know, his own social media.
Then he creates other people to say, oh, you know,
you're so great with this guy, things like this, just
to make himself.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Seem so much much better.
Speaker 9 (32:15):
Then she finds out that he's been that he has
been doing this. She sees, oh, it's not just you. You
are the one that is creating all of these people
commenting on this, and she fully breaks up with him.
She ends the relationship.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Okay, what a wack of doodle, I see, chauvon Scott,
doctor Scott just shuddering that. But there's no other way
to put it.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Maurice Morton, you're her uncle.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
So she is involved, and this guy's around her children,
that's making up fake uh people on multiple fake IDs
online so they can comment on how great his posts are.
Speaker 11 (32:50):
Yeah, it just it just doesn't sound like a reasonable person.
It did say a lot about him. And then at
that point, you know, Ashley and the mom began to
really question. You know, mom was very clear she thought
he was a fraud and this was someone that she adored,
and eventually she said, Hey, she thought he was a fraud.
(33:12):
They didn't know what to believe about him, what was
real or wasn't.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Just because you delete something off of your computer doesn't
mean it.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Doesn't exist in the cloud.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Or somewhere deep buried in your computer. Take a listen
for someone known as computer savvy. Investigators were able to
retrieve some of the basic Internet searches that included answers
to the question what to do while on the run.
Booker also allegedly wants to know if blood is traceable,
fastest routes from Flint, Ohio, how to beat a polygraph test,
(33:47):
and what he probably should have started with deleting Google
search history. Okay, the word idiot springs to mind crime
stories with Nancy Grace to Maurice Mortin, this is Ashley
(34:09):
Elkins's uncle.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
What more, if anything, do you know.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
About these damning computer searches on Booker's devices.
Speaker 11 (34:19):
Yeah, when we when we saw that, it was very alarming.
At that point, when you see that, you're you're figuring that, hey,
this this guy was planning to commit a crime, and
and and so it really raised, you know, the concern
within the family of what he was planning to do.
Or what he had done because we had been aware
(34:41):
of these, uh search the search messages since that Friday
after she was missing.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
It brings to mind a case it's going to be
proven almost entirely based on damning Google searches. I'm talking
about another missing mom. Up to Boys and a Walsh husband.
Brian Walsh's computer a treasure trove of incriminating evidence.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
Bryan Walsh begins the first day of a new year
at four fifty five am by searching the Internet for
a quote how long before a body starts to smell?
He follows that by searching how to stop a body
from decomposing? Ten ways to dispose of a dead body
if you really need to, how long does DNA last?
How to remove blood from a wooden floor, can you
(35:29):
identify a body with broken teeth? And finally, can you
be charged with murder without a body?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
One of the searches conducted by x Booker is what
to do while on the run. Much like Scott Peterson,
he did go on the run. Explain Alexis Tereschuk, it.
Speaker 9 (35:49):
Come to her house on New Year's Eve Deceummer thirty. First,
he actually booked an appointment with her but not as himself.
So remember we said he pretends to be other people,
he uses different identifications. He even did this to her,
So he booked an appointment at her home salon the
one that he didn't like her to have, and showed
up at her house. She saw him from out inside
the home and she had people over house, showed everybody
(36:11):
to be quiet. He knocked on the front door, he
knocked on the side door. Everybody stayed inside and didn't
make a work sound, and then he left. So then
people try to find him. Nobody can find him. He
is just as missing as she is for a couple
of days. Then police are finally able to find him.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Take a listen to this.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
The day Scott Peterson is arrested. His dyed his brown
hair blonde and grown out of goateee. His Mercedes stuffed
with survival gear, camving gear, several changes of clothing, two
driver's license, He has his and his brothers, four cell phones,
fifteen grand in cash, and twelve Viagra pills.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
See, you have been powers much like Scott Peterson with
his blonde hair. This guy Booker goes on the run.
That's evidence of guilt. Flight while your girlfriend, your ex
is missing, you suddenly decide to go on the run.
It's damning.
Speaker 10 (37:07):
I mean, he's allowed to travel. It's not running from anything.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
At that point.
Speaker 10 (37:11):
He's allowed to go from one place to another. They
would have to establish that he knew he was the
subject of an investigation and that he fled that investigation.
But there's nothing unlawful. We actually have a right to travel,
and so he's free to move about as he wants.
They're going to have to tie that to knowing that
he was under investigation and fleeing that investigation.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Speaking of red flags, what about a rap sheet?
Speaker 5 (37:37):
Listen dedre Booker served in the United States Army, but
was removed from the military with a less than honorable
discharge after going a wall in twenty seventeen. This happened
after he was charged the previous year with several other crimes,
including larceny and possessing fake identification documents while still serving
on active duty in the Army. He went a wall
after the charges and then was given his less than
(37:59):
honorable discharge.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
I'm starting to see a course of conduct that repeats itself.
He goes a wall in the army, and now he's
a wall during the search for his love interest Ashley
Ashley Elkins, Maurice Morton had actually had any idea that
Booker had a rap.
Speaker 11 (38:19):
Sheet was that came as news to the family about
his background with the military and him being a wall
absolutely had no idea.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Maurice Morton joining me Ashley's uncle. What led police to
go to a landfill?
Speaker 11 (38:34):
Well, when they conducted the search of Deandre's apartment, they
indicated to us they found substantial evidence without telling us
what they found. They also hauled away a dumpster, and
you know, they indicated to me that there was also
substantial evidence in there. So we kind of gleaned through
the lines that they found blood evidence also that dumpster
(38:57):
apparently had been dumped on that stat day after she
went missing, and so you know, reading between the lines,
we figure they kind of then went to the landfield net.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Brian Fitzgibbons joining me, Director Operations USPA Nationwide Security leaves
a team of investigators trying to find missing people. Brian,
you and I both have been involved in grid searches
at landfills and dump sites.
Speaker 15 (39:24):
Very difficult, absolutely, and this one was made more difficult
with the cold temperatures that Michigan has been experiencing, so
they were able to narrow it down to a six
to seven acre location at the landfill, a plot of
area about seven acres square. So that's going to be
(39:45):
a difficult search as they go grid by grid.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
The family on pins and needles as the search for
Ashley leads police to a Macomb County landfill.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Back to Ashley's uncle, Race Morton, joining us.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I understand, mister Morton, that DNA has been obtained.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
What's the source and what can you tell us about it?
Speaker 11 (40:11):
Yeah, police indicated to us that from evidence they collected
at his apartment and from the dumpster, they wanted to
collect some samples to do a DNA match, so they
did do swabbing of the mother and her children in
order to get a DNA match. We have not gotten
(40:32):
the results back from that DNA sample.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Mister Morton. How is the family holding up? Who has
Ashy's two little boys?
Speaker 11 (40:41):
Her boys are staying with their father and grandparents. The
families are, you know, coming together to support them. You
can imagine, Nancy, this has been really tough. And you know,
someone asked me the question. Being a former prosecutor, you know,
how does it feel to be on the other side, right,
you know, but they actually asked the question. But it's tough,
and I dealt with victims all my life. But to
(41:04):
be on this side, you see the pain, You see
the heartache, you see all the questions. You see how
difficult it is dealing with the media of police trying
to get answers, fighting for answers because you want your
loved one back home. It's very difficult.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
If you know or think you know anything. Maybe you
saw her car, maybe you saw her, Maybe you saw
DeAndre Booker driving her car. Please dial Warren PD five
eight six five seven four four seven eight four or
(41:40):
Roosevelt Police Crime Stoppers toll free eight hundred. Speak up.
That's eight hundred seven seven three two five eight seven.
Her boys want their mother. One of them unable to
understand what's going on.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
He's autistic. Let's stop and remember an American hero, Jacqueline
Montenero US Department Homeland Security, who died trying to save
her own daughter from a fire. Served over sixteen years
with Homeland Security, leaving behind husband now widower, William, and
(42:22):
daughter Elena. American hero Homeland Security Jackie Montenero
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Nancy Grace signing off, Goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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