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by wherever books are sold. Hello

1:25

everyone What is our But welcome back to

1:27

another episode of Killer Instinct! Think you guys

1:29

are so much for joining me here today.

1:32

If you're new here Hi, my name is

1:34

Savannah and I'm your host of Killer Instinct.

1:36

Have already had started. Make sure you go

1:38

hadn't hit the subscribe button that will you

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We also a blow to video version onto

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sure you are subscribed now as you guys.

1:54

can tell by the title of

1:57

today's episode to do are talking

1:59

about another unsolved case and that

2:01

is the case of Ashley Summers.

2:04

Ashley was 14 years old when she went

2:06

missing in July of 2007 out of Cleveland,

2:08

Ohio, and

2:11

to this day, no one truly

2:13

knows what happened to Ashley. This case,

2:15

similar to a lot of unsolved cases

2:17

that we go through, is a case

2:19

where once we get to the end

2:21

of it, once I tell you the

2:23

information that we know, you'll be looking

2:25

at me like Savannah, there's

2:27

got to be more. And this is

2:30

again one of those cases where we

2:32

just feel like there's not enough information

2:34

out there. Like Ashley's case has not

2:36

been given the spotlight that it needs.

2:38

And so that is why I chose

2:40

it to cover today. And I'm very

2:42

interested to hear what you guys have

2:45

to say about it. So with that

2:47

being said, let's jump right on into

2:49

it. Ashley Summers was born on June

2:51

16th, 1993 in Cleveland, Ohio to her mom, Jennifer. She

2:57

grew up the first born for Jennifer and

2:59

the first baby of the family having 10

3:02

aunts and uncles and her grandparents. So she

3:04

was doted on and adored from the second

3:06

that she was born. Now,

3:08

Ashley's biological father was never a part

3:11

of her life. So having that support

3:13

system from the rest of the family

3:15

on Jennifer's side really helped shape Ashley

3:17

and it also really made her value

3:19

family. As Ashley got a

3:22

little older, her mom met a man

3:24

who would become Ashley's stepfather and him

3:26

and Jennifer would have five other

3:28

children. Now with Ashley

3:30

being the oldest, she really did step

3:32

up when it came to watching her

3:34

younger siblings and she really helped Jennifer

3:36

out a lot by being able to

3:38

take care of them, take them to

3:40

the park and she was also really

3:42

great with kids. She loved having younger

3:44

siblings. She loved being able to play

3:46

with them, spend time with them. Again,

3:48

Ashley really valued family. So this was

3:51

very, very important to her. Now,

3:53

Ashley and her mom were always

3:55

extremely, extremely close. Her mom actually

3:57

says that they were more like best friends were,

4:00

you know, a mother-daughter relationship. They were

4:02

just that close. They were like sisters.

4:04

Every summer they would go to amusement

4:07

parks together. They would also watch scary

4:09

movies together every single night. That's something

4:11

that they really cherished and really loved

4:13

doing together. It was a great way

4:16

for the two of them to spend

4:18

that quality time together. So they were

4:21

very, very close. Now

4:23

once Ashley got a little

4:25

bit older and into her teenage

4:28

years, she definitely started entering

4:30

that phase that a lot of teenagers

4:32

go through where they start having a

4:34

little bit of an attitude. They start

4:36

only wanting to be around their friends.

4:38

They don't want to be around their

4:40

family as much. They want to do

4:42

what they want, when they want, and

4:45

that was the phase that Ashley was

4:47

entering. She started rebelling against

4:49

her mom a little bit and

4:51

had a strained relationship with her

4:53

stepfather who she had admired and

4:55

looked up to as a father

4:58

figure throughout pretty much her entire

5:00

life. That relationship was really starting

5:02

to grow tense. Ashley

5:04

would not listen to him. She

5:07

would start saying things like, you're

5:09

not my real dad, and again

5:11

just start disobeying her mom. And

5:14

around this time is also when

5:16

Ashley started showing interest in boys

5:19

and dating, and this is when

5:21

she ends up getting her first

5:24

boyfriend. When Ashley was 14,

5:26

she started dating a boy

5:28

named Jean Gill. Now

5:30

Jean was 16 years

5:33

old and at first, Ashley

5:35

did try and keep the

5:37

relationship with Jean a secret,

5:39

but ultimately Ashley's siblings told

5:42

Jennifer about the relationship

5:44

between Ashley and Jean. And the reason

5:46

for this is that whenever Jennifer was

5:48

off at work, Ashley would invite Jean

5:50

over to her house and the two

5:53

of them would spend time there and

5:55

her siblings would see that and her

5:57

siblings ultimately told her mom. Now at

5:59

first, when Jennifer found out about

6:01

this, she was very upset. She

6:03

did not approve of this relationship

6:06

whatsoever for several reasons. Firstly, she

6:08

didn't like that Ashley was bringing

6:10

a boy into the house that

6:12

she did not know when

6:14

Jennifer was at work. Now secondly, Jennifer

6:16

did not like the fact that Ashley,

6:18

who was 14 years old, was

6:21

dating someone who was 16 years

6:23

old. And lastly, Jennifer really felt

6:25

like Ashley was too young to

6:28

be dating boys, period. So she

6:30

did not like the fact that her daughter

6:32

was dating, let alone a 16 year old,

6:34

let alone having a boy that she doesn't

6:36

know come over to her house where her

6:39

other kids were while she was at work

6:41

and behind her back. So because

6:43

of this, Jennifer had to sit Ashley

6:45

down and tell her that she needed

6:47

to stop seeing Jean.

6:50

Now as you can imagine, when Ashley was

6:53

told this by her mom, it really in

6:55

turn only made Ashley want

6:57

to see Jean more.

6:59

So it really grew this rebellion against

7:02

her mom to be even stronger.

7:04

So strong that this is when

7:06

Ashley began stealing money from Jennifer.

7:08

And this was something that Jennifer

7:10

always kind of knew Ashley would

7:12

kind of take some cash here

7:14

and there. But then over time,

7:16

the amount of money that Ashley

7:19

was taking would increase all the

7:21

way until Ashley would steal her

7:23

mom's entire paycheck. And at

7:25

first, Jennifer was very confused about what

7:27

Ashley was spending this money on. She

7:30

didn't understand why Ashley was taking

7:32

so much money and what she

7:34

could be using it towards. However,

7:36

she soon got her answer when

7:38

one day Ashley came home with

7:40

a tattoo of

7:42

Jean's name on her arm. It

7:45

was a tattoo of Jean and

7:47

then a heart surrounding his name.

7:49

And when Jennifer saw this, she

7:51

said she was absolutely

7:53

livid. She could not believe that

7:56

Ashley would go to these lengths

7:58

and do something that was so

8:00

permanent, but Ashley was convinced. She

8:02

said that she was in love

8:04

with Jean and she was planning

8:07

on being with him forever. Now

8:09

because of the rising tensions at

8:11

this point, there was a lot

8:13

of tension between Ashley and Jennifer,

8:16

Ashley and her stepdad, and because

8:18

of this, Jennifer decided that it

8:20

would be best if Ashley went

8:22

and stayed at her grandma's house

8:24

for some time. Now

8:27

luckily, Jennifer's family all

8:29

lived within a very close

8:31

distance to each other. All of

8:33

her siblings, the grandparents, they all

8:35

lived fairly close together. So Jennifer's

8:38

mom, Ashley's grandma, only lived about

8:40

five miles away from Jennifer. So

8:42

Jennifer thought that this would be

8:44

a great solution to this issue,

8:46

thinking it would give her and

8:49

Ashley some breathing room just to

8:51

be able to decompress from each

8:53

other a little bit. And Jennifer

8:55

also claimed that she thought this

8:57

would help Ashley with her behavior.

9:00

She felt like even though

9:02

Ashley was okay with disobeying

9:04

herself, disobeying Jennifer, that

9:06

she wouldn't be okay disobeying her grandma.

9:09

She felt like that was a different

9:11

level that Ashley wouldn't reach. So that

9:13

is why she decided to go ahead

9:16

and have Ashley move

9:18

in with her grandma. And at first,

9:20

this plan seemed to be going very

9:22

well. Ashley seemed to be staying out

9:25

of trouble. She wasn't spending as much

9:27

time with Jean, and she

9:29

also started spending more time with

9:31

different friends and also spending a

9:33

lot of time at her uncle

9:35

Kevin's home. Now her

9:37

uncle Kevin Donathan, his house was

9:40

pretty much the hangout spot for

9:42

all of the cousins, and Ashley

9:44

really enjoyed going over there. She

9:46

enjoyed being around her family. She

9:49

enjoyed spending time with them, and

9:51

it was something to do. Jennifer claimed

9:54

that while Ashley was at her grandma's

9:56

house, if her grandma was ever out

9:58

doing things, Ashley would be like, left

10:00

home alone and she wouldn't really have anything

10:02

to do and she would get bored fairly

10:04

quickly. So going to Kevin's house was

10:06

a great way for her to be entertained, spend

10:09

time with her family, her family to be able

10:11

to keep an eye on her. It

10:13

just seemed like a win-win

10:15

situation. So now let's

10:17

move on to where this case really begins,

10:20

which is the 4th of July in 2007.

10:24

Now on this day, it started

10:26

out like any normal day. As

10:29

I said, it was the 4th of July, so

10:31

it was a holiday. And on

10:34

the 4th of July, every year, Ashley's

10:36

family always had a 4th of July party at her

10:40

great uncle Keith's house. So everyone in

10:42

the family, which there was a lot

10:44

of people because they all lived fairly

10:46

close to each other, everyone

10:48

in the family would gather to

10:50

great uncle Keith's house and they

10:52

would have this 4th of July

10:54

pool party and this 4th of

10:56

July was no different. So Ashley

10:58

arrived alone and according to some

11:01

of Ashley's family members, when Ashley

11:03

arrived to the house, she didn't

11:05

seem like her happy,

11:07

usual, joyful self.

11:09

When she got there, she seemed a

11:11

little bit more sad, just something seemed

11:13

to be bothering her. She

11:15

seemed a little down. Now when Ashley was talking

11:17

to some of her aunts, she told them that

11:20

she had walked to Keith's house from her uncle

11:23

Kevin's house and that was about a 2

11:26

mile walk and Ashley's aunt thought that

11:28

maybe she was just overtired, had some

11:30

heat exhaustion and maybe just needed to

11:32

liven her spirits a little bit. So

11:34

they tried to help her in doing

11:37

this by suggesting that she got into

11:39

the pool with her cousins, which she

11:41

did. And once Ashley got into the

11:44

pool and started playing around with her

11:46

cousins, it was like an automatic switch.

11:48

And she did that, she was laughing,

11:50

she was smiling, she was dancing around

11:53

with her cousins in the pool, they

11:55

were playing together and it seemed to

11:57

instantly liven her mood. And Ashley

12:00

She stayed at this party for

12:02

about three to four hours before

12:04

she decided to get dressed and

12:06

get ready to leave. Now

12:08

at this time, Ashley went around and

12:10

she said goodbye to her family and

12:12

told them that she loved them and

12:14

that she would see them soon. Now

12:17

when asked where Ashley was going,

12:20

Ashley told them that she was

12:22

going over to her aunt Christina's

12:24

house. Now Ashley's aunt Christina only

12:26

lived a few blocks away from

12:28

Keith's home and at max

12:31

it was said that this walk would

12:33

have only taken Ashley about 10 minutes.

12:36

So that was the plan that Ashley told

12:38

everyone and everyone seemed to be very okay

12:40

with this because again it was only 10

12:42

minutes away, it wasn't a big deal. And

12:45

so Ashley said goodbye to her family

12:47

and left Keith's house at approximately 6pm

12:49

but little

12:51

did anyone know that this would

12:54

be the last time that anyone

12:56

would ever see Ashley.

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to find a place. On

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the night of the 4th of July,

15:06

Jennifer figured that Ashley was either spending

15:08

the night at her grandma's house or

15:10

at her Uncle Kevin's house, which she

15:13

normally did. Now Jennifer was

15:15

not at the 4th of July party that

15:17

day, so I just want that to be

15:19

noted too. So she just

15:21

figured, again, that Ashley was either spending

15:24

the night with her grandma or spending

15:26

the night at Uncle Kevin's house, which

15:28

again, a lot of the cousins did.

15:30

However, after two days had passed and

15:33

Jennifer hadn't heard from Ashley, this

15:35

is when she started to worry.

15:38

Usually Jennifer and Ashley spoke every

15:40

single day or every other day,

15:42

so to not hear from Ashley

15:44

for two days was very unlike

15:47

her. Now at this point,

15:49

Jennifer starts calling around to different family

15:51

members to see if anyone had seen

15:54

Ashley. And in this lineup of

15:56

phone calls is when Jennifer called

15:59

Uncle Kevin. to see if

16:01

Ashley was over at his house. Now

16:04

it was in this phone call that

16:06

Kevin claimed that he hadn't seen Ashley

16:08

since the 4th of July. However, he

16:11

also told Jennifer something else. Kevin

16:13

told Jennifer that on the 4th of

16:15

July before the pool party, him and

16:18

Ashley had ended up getting into an

16:20

argument. Now the details of this argument are

16:23

a little bit vague. However, what we know

16:25

is that Ashley had allegedly been on her

16:27

phone and was texting with another family member

16:29

almost gossiping about something in the family. And

16:31

Jennifer said that this was very normal. They

16:34

had a very big family. They all saw

16:36

each other very frequently. There was a lot

16:38

of cousins, there was a lot of aunts,

16:40

a lot of uncles, grandparents. So it wasn't

16:42

unusual to have a conversation about another family

16:45

member. I think if you come from a

16:47

big family or if you come from a

16:49

very tight knit family, that isn't

16:51

the most outlandish thing to hear. So

16:54

that is apparently what Ashley was doing.

16:56

However, Kevin had apparently seen the text

16:58

messages that Ashley was exchanging and told

17:00

her to stop. Now

17:03

apparently, according to Kevin, Ashley

17:06

then disobeyed him and told

17:08

him no, that she was

17:10

not going to stop. And according

17:12

to Kevin, in response, he got

17:15

angry with Ashley and as a

17:17

result, took her cell

17:19

phone and broke it. Now

17:22

what this now meant is

17:24

that Ashley did not

17:26

have a cell phone. So now no

17:28

one had heard from Ashley in over

17:30

two days and she did

17:33

not have a cell phone. So she

17:35

had no way of contacting anyone and

17:37

no one had any way of contacting

17:39

her, including her mother. Now

17:42

at this point, Jennifer starts to get a

17:44

little bit more frantic and she begins calling

17:46

around to other family members to see if

17:48

anyone had seen or heard

17:50

from Ashley, however no one had. And

17:53

this is when the panic really began to set

17:56

in. Now the area that Ashley

17:58

was living in, in Cleveland. This

18:01

specific area was heavily polluted

18:03

with drugs and prostitution and

18:05

sex trafficking with the

18:07

average girls, the average age of

18:09

girls being trafficked, were between the

18:11

ages of 14 and 17 years

18:14

old, which was right where Ashley

18:16

was. Now once Jennifer realized

18:18

that Ashley had no way to contact

18:21

anyone and no one knew where she

18:23

was, this is when she called the

18:25

police to report her daughter as a

18:27

missing person. Now at first,

18:29

the police were not overly concerned

18:32

when it came to Ashley's case

18:34

or really concerned at all. When

18:36

looking at Ashley's pattern of behavior,

18:38

police almost immediately put her in

18:41

the category of being a runaway.

18:43

Now regardless of this, Jennifer kept

18:46

trying to emphasize to police that

18:48

regardless of the teenage behavior that

18:50

Ashley was displaying, Ashley would not

18:52

just run away. It wasn't like

18:55

her. She absolutely loved her family.

18:57

She wasn't just going to leave

18:59

everyone without telling anyone anything. Now

19:02

something else that really emphasized to

19:04

Ashley's family that something was not

19:06

right was that Ashley was no

19:08

longer active on any social media.

19:11

Prior to her disappearance, Ashley was

19:13

always on her social media, whether

19:15

that was updating her status, talking

19:17

to people in her comments. She

19:20

specifically used MySpace at the time,

19:22

but her last social media activity

19:24

was on July 4th. And

19:27

I just want to stop for a second and make this note because

19:29

I haven't already. Ashley told everyone when

19:32

she was leaving that 4th of July party

19:34

that she was going to her Aunt Christina's,

19:36

which again was about 10 minutes away, but

19:38

she never made it to her Aunt Christina's.

19:40

So it's not like she went to her

19:42

Aunt Christina's and then left later that night

19:44

and no one saw her again. Within

19:47

that 10 minute period that it should

19:49

have taken Ashley to get from point

19:51

A to point B, she somehow went

19:53

missing. Now after Ashley's family realized that

19:56

she was missing, they immediately all

19:58

band together and organized parties

20:00

and put up flyers. They

20:02

were searching surrounding neighborhoods, however,

20:04

they did not find her.

20:07

Now initially, in the very beginning,

20:09

Ashley's family thought that it was

20:11

a very strong possibility that Ashley

20:13

could have ran off to be

20:15

with her boyfriend, Jean. Now according

20:18

to Jean, he claimed that him

20:20

and Ashley had spent almost every

20:22

single day that summer together. So

20:24

the summer of 2007, leading up

20:26

to July 4th, he claimed that

20:28

they were together every single day

20:30

regardless of her family's disapproval. However,

20:33

at the time that he went

20:35

missing, Jean actually had an alibi.

20:37

He claimed that he was out

20:39

of town at a family reunion.

20:41

Now regardless, Ashley's family still believed

20:44

that Ashley and Jean were together.

20:46

So because of this, Jennifer

20:48

and other family members actually decided

20:51

it would be a good idea

20:53

to go over to Jean's neighborhood

20:55

and start posting these missing

20:57

persons flyers all over the neighborhood,

21:00

hoping that Jean would see it

21:02

or really and what they truthfully

21:04

wanted was Ashley to see it.

21:06

They thought that if Ashley was

21:08

with Jean and she saw that

21:10

there were missing persons flyers for

21:12

her, she would understand that she

21:14

needed to call her mom, she

21:16

needed to call her family, she

21:18

needed to go home because now

21:20

people thought that she was missing.

21:22

So they were really doing this

21:24

in hopes to entice Ashley to

21:26

come home. However, to their surprise,

21:28

the next day after they put

21:31

up those missing persons flyers in

21:33

Jean's neighborhood, they went back to

21:35

that same neighborhood and noticed that

21:37

all of Ashley's posters had been

21:39

taken down, which is suspicious. Now

21:42

at this point, police decided to

21:44

bring Jean in for questioning. However,

21:46

to this day, what was said

21:48

during that interview still has not

21:50

been revealed to the public. What

21:52

we do know is that Jean

21:54

was interviewed by police more than

21:57

once. However, he was never charged

21:59

with anything. and never named a

22:01

person of interest or a suspect.

22:03

Now all of Ashley's family and

22:05

friends had directly reached out to

22:07

Gene as well via social media,

22:09

however the answer that he would

22:11

give was always the

22:13

same. He always repeated that he

22:15

did not know anything and did not

22:17

know what happened to Ashley. According to

22:20

him, the last time that he saw

22:22

Ashley was several days prior to the

22:24

4th of July when Gene and

22:26

his dad dropped Ashley off at her

22:29

uncle Kevin's home. But even

22:31

at this point, Ashley's family was

22:33

still not convinced that Gene did

22:35

not have anything to do with

22:37

this and so Jennifer actually started

22:39

following Gene and one night she

22:41

followed him driving behind him and

22:43

watched him walk into an abandoned

22:45

house and Jennifer thought it was

22:47

possible that Ashley was being held

22:50

in that house so she immediately

22:52

called police to have them check

22:54

it out, however when they arrived

22:56

and looked through the home, Ashley

22:58

was not there. So

23:01

now at this point we're looking at one

23:03

month after Ashley's disappearance so this is August

23:05

of 2007. Now on this day, Jennifer actually

23:10

was on a break from work when

23:12

she got a phone call from a

23:15

blocked number. When Jennifer picked

23:17

up the phone, she was shocked

23:19

to hear what seemed to be

23:21

Ashley's voice on the other

23:23

end of the call. According to Jennifer,

23:25

when she picked up the phone, she

23:28

very quickly heard Ashley say quote, it's

23:30

me mom, I'm fine, don't

23:33

worry, before quickly hanging up.

23:36

Now Jennifer didn't have a chance to

23:38

say anything back on the call, she

23:40

didn't have a chance to talk to

23:42

Ashley because the person on the other

23:45

end hung up so quickly. Now immediately

23:47

at this point, Jennifer starts getting frantic,

23:49

she starts calling around to her family

23:51

letting them know about this phone call

23:53

that they just had but over time

23:55

Jennifer really started to question the legitimacy

23:57

of this call and really didn't know

24:00

what to think. She had a hard

24:02

time understanding why Ashley would call and

24:04

hang up so quickly without having a

24:06

conversation with her mom or without talking

24:08

with her mom and it made her

24:10

question if it really was Ashley on

24:12

the other end of that call and

24:15

obviously because it was a blocked number

24:17

she couldn't call it back. It's

24:19

not like she could call the number back again

24:21

so that was really all she

24:23

had to go on with it. Now

24:26

there was another potential encounter with

24:28

Ashley and this occurred on November

24:30

17th of 2007 and it happened

24:33

while Ashley's grandparents were driving through the

24:35

west side of Cleveland. Now according to

24:37

them while they were driving on the

24:39

road they were passing a girl who

24:41

was walking in the opposite direction of

24:43

them so they could see this girl

24:46

very clearly. Now according to

24:48

the grandparents they claim that

24:50

this girl looked identical to

24:52

Ashley and that the only

24:54

thing that was different was

24:56

that this girl had short

24:58

blonde hair and Ashley had

25:00

long brown hair. Now immediately

25:03

after passing this girl her grandparents

25:05

turned the car around and drove

25:07

back to try and get a

25:09

better look of who this could

25:12

have been. However at that point

25:14

the woman was gone so the

25:16

question of was that really Ashley

25:18

still remains. Now six

25:20

months after Ashley's disappearance is when the

25:23

FBI finally got involved in this and

25:25

they started looking at this case from

25:27

a different light. Now around this time

25:30

is when two other girls had

25:32

also gone missing in the Cleveland

25:34

area and this is a very

25:36

popular case and if you guys

25:38

keep up with true crime you

25:41

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25:43

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25:45

Berry, Gina De Jesus and Michelle

25:47

Knight who were all held hostage

25:49

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25:52

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29:23

at the time, the FBI only thought

29:25

that there were two women missing in

29:27

this case, which were Amanda Barry and

29:30

Gina De Jesus, and they weren't aware

29:32

that Michelle Knight was also missing. There

29:34

was actually never really a proper missing

29:37

persons report filed for Michelle. And so

29:39

they weren't made aware of Michelle's disappearance

29:41

until after the fact, until Ariel Castro

29:43

got caught in 2013. But again, in early 2008, when the

29:46

FBI first got

29:49

involved, they thought it was very

29:51

possible that there was a

29:53

connection between Ashley's disappearance and Amanda

29:56

and Gina's disappearance as well. Now

29:58

in 2013, is when

30:01

Amanda, Gina, and Michelle were all

30:03

found alive in Ariel Castro's home

30:05

and they were finally set free

30:07

and Ariel Castro was arrested and

30:10

this only raised speculation more that

30:12

Ariel Castro could have been involved

30:14

in Ashley's disappearance. Now

30:16

a big reason for this theory

30:19

that the FBI had was the

30:21

location. Ariel Castro's home was only

30:23

about a mile and a half

30:26

away from where Keith's 4th of

30:28

July party was being held at

30:30

his house. Not only did the

30:32

FBI search up and down through

30:34

Ariel Castro's home trying to see

30:36

if there was any connection between

30:38

Ariel and Ashley, any evidence to

30:40

see that Ashley was ever there,

30:42

they also searched all throughout that

30:45

neighborhood. However, ultimately they came

30:47

up empty-handed and there was no

30:49

evidence to prove that Ariel and

30:51

Ashley were ever connected. And along

30:53

with that all three of the

30:55

girls, Michelle, Gina, and Amanda, who

30:57

had been there for a decade

30:59

at this point, they were held

31:01

hostage for about a decade. They

31:03

claimed to never have known about

31:05

another girl. Now this theory was

31:07

very very hard for Ashley's family

31:10

for a multitude of reasons. First

31:12

off is once it came out

31:14

that there were women who were

31:16

held captive in Ariel Castro's home,

31:18

at first the media publicized that there

31:20

were three women in total, however had

31:22

only named the two of them. They

31:24

only named Amanda and Gina at first

31:26

and did not name Michelle. And in

31:28

the beginning when there was not an

31:30

identity to be placed for that third

31:32

woman, Ashley's family was

31:35

under the impression that that third woman

31:37

was Ashley. They thought it

31:39

was a very big possibility that the

31:41

third woman in that house was Ashley

31:43

and they were actually, Jennifer claimed that

31:45

she was prepared to get that phone

31:47

call from the police. She was waiting

31:49

by the phone for them to call

31:52

her and tell her that they found

31:54

Ashley in Ariel Castro's home, however that

31:56

phone call never came. Now Jennifer also

31:58

said that she never thought that

32:00

this could have been a case

32:02

of foul play or someone kidnapping

32:05

Ashley like that thought never really

32:07

came to mind when thinking about

32:10

Ashley's case when she heard about the

32:12

other two girls Gina and Amanda she

32:14

claimed that when the FBI brought this

32:16

theory to her it wasn't something that

32:18

she had thought about it first because

32:20

she never imagined that Ashley could have

32:22

been kidnapped or her case could have

32:24

been related to the other two girls

32:26

so it was a very hard theory

32:28

to hear at that time however again

32:30

regardless of that theory I want to

32:32

emphasize that there has not been anything

32:35

made public in regards to evidence that

32:37

would connect Ariel Castro to Ashley Summers

32:39

at least when it comes to Ashley

32:41

being in that home now moving on

32:43

from that several of Ashley's

32:46

older male relatives like I've mentioned

32:48

she had many uncles cousins grandparents

32:50

several of those older male relatives

32:52

were given polygraph tests however in

32:54

regards to which one of her

32:56

family members and what the results

32:58

of those tests were that

33:00

has never been disclosed to the

33:02

public however the FBI has emphasized

33:05

that it was more so basic

33:07

standard procedure to conduct those tests

33:09

rather than them being suspicious that

33:11

any of these family members could

33:13

have had anything to do with

33:16

Ashley's disappearance now something

33:18

that the FBI also wanted to look

33:20

into when they got involved in Ashley's

33:22

case was the suspicious phone call that

33:25

was made to Jennifer they ended up

33:27

pulling Jennifer's phone records and tried to

33:29

get Jennifer to pinpoint when exactly the

33:31

call happened because they wanted to be able

33:34

to see if they could trace the call

33:37

however Jennifer claims that by that

33:39

point it was months later and

33:41

she didn't remember the exact date

33:44

of that phone call so now this brings us to

33:46

2015 and

33:49

this is when there was a woman

33:51

in Rhode Island who was caught on

33:53

video surveillance footage on an ATM and

33:55

the FBI noticed that the woman in

33:57

the picture of the surveillance struck an

33:59

eerie resemblance to Ashley's age progression

34:01

photo. Now because of this, the media

34:03

really pushed this out to the billboards

34:06

thinking that this could be Ashley. This

34:08

surveillance photo was even featured on the

34:10

Dr. Phil show and really anywhere that

34:13

they could get it out to to

34:15

try and get in as many tips

34:17

as possible. The woman in the photo

34:19

had also allegedly committed identity theft which

34:22

is why it made it more difficult

34:24

to identify who it actually was. Now

34:27

along with this, the police also put

34:29

out an alert to the media for

34:31

any tattoo artists. Like I mentioned in

34:33

the beginning, Ashley had gotten a tattoo

34:35

of Jean's name on her shoulder and

34:38

it had been almost 10 years since

34:41

Ashley's disappearance at that point and the

34:43

police thought that there was a good

34:45

chance that she may have tried to

34:48

cover up that Jean tattoo that she

34:50

got on her arm and wanted to

34:52

see if any tattoo artists had worked

34:54

with Ashley. So those were two alerts

34:56

that were put out into the media.

34:58

However, two days after the eighth

35:00

anniversary of Ashley's disappearance, it was

35:02

announced that the woman in the

35:05

ATM picture had been identified and

35:07

it was not Ashley

35:09

and along with that there were

35:11

never any tattoo artists who came

35:13

forward who claimed to have worked

35:15

with Ashley either. Now

35:17

something else that I want to point out

35:20

in this case and I just feel

35:22

like it's important to mention is that in

35:24

December of 2018, Kevin, so Uncle Kevin,

35:27

Ashley's Uncle Kevin, the

35:30

Kevin who had the Hangout Spot house,

35:32

the Kevin whose house Ashley was always

35:34

over at, Kevin was charged with

35:37

rape in 2018 and in 2020 he was sentenced to

35:39

35 years in prison on

35:46

the rape charge as well

35:48

as charges of prostitution. Now

35:51

even with these charges, he has

35:53

never been named a suspect or

35:55

a person of interest in

35:57

Ashley's disappearance. Now

36:00

with that being said you guys, that is

36:02

really where we are today in Ashley's case.

36:04

And I know I said in the beginning,

36:06

once we get to the end, you're going

36:08

to be like Savannah, there

36:10

has to be more. And I know

36:13

I get it like I've had the same

36:15

reaction. But this case really has

36:18

come to a standstill. Ashley Summers would be

36:20

31 years old today, and her

36:22

family still holds on hope that Ashley

36:24

will return home someday or they will

36:26

at least get answers as to what

36:28

exactly happened to Ashley on the 4th

36:30

of July 2007. Now

36:33

there are a lot of possibilities in this case.

36:35

There are a lot of theories. However, there is

36:37

not one theory that is stronger than

36:39

the next. There are just a lot of what

36:42

ifs when it comes to the theories

36:44

in Ashley's case. And along

36:46

with those theories, I think we also

36:49

have to believe that the police been

36:51

speaking to either Jean or Ashley's family

36:53

members that if they had any suspicion

36:55

that they were involved, or they

36:57

could be potential persons of interest or suspects, that they

37:01

would have been further examined. However again,

37:03

we don't really know the lengths to

37:05

which each one of

37:07

them was interviewed or interrogated

37:09

or questioned. So there's a

37:11

lot of information that we're not working with as

37:13

well. Now the police have

37:15

been very tight lipped in this case in

37:17

regards to those interviews and polygraphs. So we

37:19

just don't really know a lot when it

37:22

comes to that. And we don't know

37:24

if we ever will. But I'm really

37:26

interested to hear what you guys have to say

37:28

about this case. I truthfully don't really

37:30

know where I stand. I think that there's

37:32

a lot of possibilities as to what could

37:34

have happened to Ashley. And

37:37

I don't think anyone, at least when I look at

37:39

this case, I don't think that anyone is ruled out.

37:42

I think that there are a lot

37:44

of things that could have happened. And

37:47

I'm very interested to hear what you guys have to

37:50

say about it. So with that being

37:52

said, you guys, please let me know in the comments

37:54

below. And that is all for me today. Thank you

37:56

guys so much for tuning in to another episode of

37:58

Killer Instinct. Again, if you're new here, hi. My

38:00

name is Savannah and I'm your host of killer

38:02

instincts before you go Make sure you go ahead

38:04

and hit that subscribe button That way you never miss an episode

38:06

we post weekly here on the podcast every single Wednesday and you're

38:08

not gonna want to miss it I'll be

38:10

back next week with a brand new case for you

38:13

guys and until then stay safe. Bye guys You

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