Ashley Simpson: Monsters are Real

Two days before Ashley went missing, she posted a meme on her Facebook.  

This meme. 

She knew something was wrong.

She signalled it to her friends and family. 

She was in a bad relationship, and she sent out a few texts to friends and family.

Ashley was getting out.

As I said, two days later, she was missing. 

Days later, the men who were with her on the last day of her life decided to tell her mother.

Days.

There were three of them who went up to Margaret Falls that day.

Only two have lived to tell the tale -- the boys who took her up there, who drank with her, who talked with her, and yes, who fought with her, are all still walking around with zippers on their faces. 

They say they have no idea what happened to her, that she had somehow got up in the morning and left with nothing, no money, no car, nothing except a pink suitcase which has never been found. 

She was going home, they speculated.

Yeah, right.

Home was across the country, five provinces away. 

After reading that terrifying post, I got thinking. 

Maybe they aren't responsible for her death -- maybe a trucker took her, or the serial killer down the road, or a bear -- but they were responsible for her. 

And they let her down -- including her boyfriend, whom she loved and chose to spend her life with.

What kind of a man just lets her leave? What kind of man wouldn't move Heaven and Earth to find her, tearing up the roads, asking neighbours if they saw her?

What kind of man waits days to report her missing?

A monster. 

I've been going over this in my mind the last few days. 

Laying in bed last night, watching the Democratic Convention, hearing women talking about how their spouses nearly killed them, but they somehow managed to get out.

Not Ashley.
She never left Salmon Arm.
I'm sure she is still there, roaming the hills, a soul lost in the wilderness.
Last night, she spoke to me.
And this is what she said.
"Don't bother looking for me," she said. "I am in the wind.
"Go find my killers; they will tell you where they put me."
And so, the journey begins.