“Ashley is the kind of person people gravitate toward,” her family in Warren, Michigan, says.
“She was the person everybody went to when they had issues and problems. Just a joy. When she came into the room, everybody started smiling. ‘Oh, Ashley’s here.’ She brought joy to our family.”
Alexis Elkins struggles to hold back tears when talking about the sister they haven’t seen in nearly a month.
“Ashley is my best friend and a really good big sister. She’s just a really good person, and she’s always there for everybody.”
The family told True Crime News that the last time anyone heard from Ashley was on January 2nd, the day after New Year’s.
The mother of two told her sister she was heading to a local beauty supply store to get supplies she needed for her hair styling business.
Then things suddenly went quiet.
“We just knew something was wrong because she wasn’t answering her phone.”
Monica Elkins says she had just missed her daughter when Ashley left the house.
She wanted to talk to her because she had a disturbing dream the night before.
“I had a dream about her car being stolen and sitting in a field by a tree. Her doors were open, which was weird.”
“So, I texted her.”
“She said, ‘Oh man.’”
“And I said, ‘Oh man,’ to myself because it just didn’t feel right.”
“So, I said, ‘Let me FaceTime her.’ But she didn’t answer.”
This was the last text Monica received from Ashley’s phone, though she isn’t even sure Ashley was the one who sent it.
Monica replied with a mother’s plea:
“Be safe.”
“And that same day around 4 p.m., her location stopped sharing with me.”
The last location Ashley shared with her sister was her ex-boyfriend DeAndre Booker’s home.
“So now we’re calling. Everyone’s calling her phone back to back, leaving messages.”
The situation felt strange because DeAndre was someone the family knew well.
“I thought he was a very nice guy. He made my sister happy.”
“They went on a lot of dates. They went to Chicago one weekend. I know he was good with the kids.”
“He even came to my birthday in Texas last year.”
But the family says Ashley had recently ended the relationship, and DeAndre’s behavior became unsettling.
Just days earlier, he allegedly used a fake name to schedule a hair appointment with her.
“He booked an appointment on her website.”
“I was laying in her room when she came in and showed me her phone.”
“We were laughing about it like, ‘Why would he book an appointment on your website?’”
“Then later that day, we heard a knock at the front door.”
“She said, ‘Oh, it’s him.’”
Could DeAndre know why nobody could reach Ashley?
The family says they tried contacting him, but he never responded.
As hours turned into days, the family contacted police.
But Monica says she couldn’t sit around and wait.
“I felt like I had to go look for her myself.”
“I couldn’t wait on them.”
“So, that night I started driving around until 6 or 7 in the morning.”
“I was pulling into businesses, driveways, everywhere, looking for her by myself.”
The family then reached out to Ashley’s uncle, Maurice Morton, a former prosecutor with media connections.
He pushed the story across social media, hoping someone would come forward.
“We cannot normalize this.”
“When a Black female or any female goes missing, it needs to be taken seriously.”
“That’s someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s mother, someone’s best friend.”
“That’s a person who means a lot to people.”
Finally, after nearly a week, police alerted the media.
But there was still no sign of Ashley.
“If you don’t locate someone within 48 hours, it’s usually not good news, right?”
“It means something happened.”
Monica says every passing day became more unbearable.
“For 30 years, I have never not talked to her.”
“I’ve never gone without seeing her or hearing from her in 30 years.”
“This is hard for me.”
Where is Ashley Elkins?
It’s the question her family desperately wanted answered.
“The community has been very helpful since day one.”
“A lot of people were worried and trying to help search for her.”
“By day two, family members were helping us make flyers.”
“We started searching all around the area.”
“The community was a big help.”
Her family says it makes no sense that Ashley would vanish and leave behind her two young sons.
“You’re talking about a mother of two children.”
“She made sure she provided for her family.”
“She was always there for her kids.”
Police focused on the last location her phone shared: the apartment of her ex-boyfriend, DeAndre Booker.
A man Ashley’s mother once trusted completely.
“I thought he was a nice guy.”
“I thought he would possibly marry my daughter.”
“He was good to her sons, well-dressed, well-mannered.”
“He called me ‘Mama Love.’”
“He was there for everything.”
But after police found Ashley’s car just a few miles from Booker’s apartment, investigators began focusing heavily on him.
Police questioned Booker about Ashley’s whereabouts and searched his apartment.
“You have the media outside the ex-boyfriend’s home.”
“And the family is sitting back watching this, wondering what they’re finding and what they’re not finding.”
Then something disturbing happened late Tuesday night.
Investigators hauled away a dumpster from outside the apartment complex.
The desperate family contacted the Roseville Police Department seeking answers about the dumpster, why it had been searched, and what evidence had been found.
“When I spoke with the chief of police, he indicated they secured quite a bit of evidence from the apartment.”
“They also secured quite a bit of evidence from that dumpster.”
Maurice Morton says his experience as a former prosecutor led him to suspect the evidence involved blood.
“Having been a former prosecutor and law enforcement official, that was likely blood evidence found in the apartment and inside that dumpster.”
“You don’t haul away a dumpster unless there’s something there.”
Booker was arrested and charged with lying to police and providing misleading information regarding Ashley’s disappearance.
Investigators say they found substantial evidence inside his apartment.
“We believe there was a brutal, fatal encounter inside the apartment.”
“And then we traced it, we believe, to a landfill in northern Macomb County.”
Police now believe the loving mother, daughter, and sister whose smile lit up every room was murdered.
The thought that haunts Monica most is unbearable.
“He threw my daughter in the garbage like trash.”
“Like she was nothing.”
“Like she was nobody.”
“That hurts me the most.”
Without Ashley’s body, however, Booker has not yet been charged with murder.
During Booker’s court appearance, his attorney requested a reduction in his $250,000 cash bond.
As Ashley’s family sat in the courtroom, prosecutors laid out some of the evidence allegedly found against him, including internet searches on his phone.
Searches included:
“Is blood traceable?”
“How to delete Google search history.”
“How to disappear completely.”
“How to beat a polygraph.”
Investigators also allege he purchased cleaning agents like bleach, garbage bags, and gloves.
“We know he bought these items using his phone.”
The judge denied the request for bond reduction.
“At this point, I’m going to deny the request for a bond reduction because I do find that he is a flight risk.”
Ashley’s family says the man they once knew no longer seems recognizable.
“I feel like he has no remorse for what he has done.”
“I would have never expected him to do something so heartbreaking, especially to her kids who need her.”
“He doesn’t even look like the person we knew.”
Police have still been unable to locate Ashley’s body despite extensive searches of a landfill.
But investigators continue searching, hoping to finally bring her home and give her family some peace.
“I know I’m going to fight to the end.”
“To my last breath.”
“I’m going to make sure this never happens to another person again.”
“Her name will not be in vain.”
“Her name is going to be remembered forever.”
Every person in law enforcement will tell you there is no such thing as a routine call.
And Deputy Dave Dempsey from Greenville, South Carolina, is living proof.
Dave Dempsey was a beloved police officer, a devoted husband, and a dedicated father.
His wife Amy first met him under difficult circumstances.
“I was in a car accident, and he was the officer who responded.”
“And then I kind of chased him after that.”
“We dated for a couple of years and then got married.”
Dave served more than 27 years with the Greenville Police Department.
“As they say, he was a good cop.”
“He was honest.”
His son John eventually followed in his father’s footsteps.
“I told my dad, ‘Hey Dad, I want to become a police officer.’”
“He was thrilled to hand me the application and help me start the process.”
After decades of service, Dave retired from the police department.
But retirement didn’t suit him.
“He did everything around here.”
“If something broke, he fixed it.”
Still, sitting at home simply wasn’t in his DNA.
Crime fighting was in his blood.
So only one month after retiring, Dave came out of retirement and became a sheriff’s deputy.
A decision that would change his life forever.
“I knew something was wrong, and my heart was pounding.”
Only five months into his new job, Dave responded to a home invasion call at an apartment complex.
“It didn’t go well.”
Amy remembers the terrifying moment officers arrived at her door.
“I heard a loud knock at the front door.”
“I thought it was him coming home.”
“But when I looked out, I saw badges and stars.”
“There were two officers.”
“I said, ‘Where’s Dave?’”
“And his lieutenant said, ‘Dave has been shot.’”
Amy initially tried to reassure herself.
“I knew Dave wore his vest.”
“So I thought, okay, he’s been shot.”
“Then I asked where.”
“And he said, ‘The head.’”
Doctors fought desperately to keep Dave alive.
His son Hunter, an Iraq War veteran working in Europe at the time, rushed home.
“I just hoped he would stay alive until I got there.”
Dave’s brain began swelling severely.
Surgeons had to remove part of his skull so the brain could expand.
For 41 agonizing days, Dave remained hospitalized and had to wear a protective helmet in place of his skull.
“Dad didn’t want to lose him.”
Miraculously, Amy didn’t.
Today, Dave is alive, walking, and speaking.
And he shared the terrifying details of what happened that night.
“We were one of the responding units.”
“He got permission to kick the door in.”
“After he kicked the door in, the suspect inside started shooting.”
“And all of a sudden, everything started going sideways.”
“I thought, ‘That’s strange.’”
“The first thought through my head was that I was falling.”
Another deputy eventually shot and killed the suspect.
But not before one bullet narrowly missed Dave’s brain, traveling along his skull and exiting through his ear.
Paramedics rushed to help him.
“I was drifting in and out of consciousness.”
“I could feel them working on me.”
“That’s all I remember.”
Then he heard someone say:
“Get in. I’m driving this bus.”
The ambulance ride that normally would have taken 32 minutes lasted only 9.
The driver was Deputy Todd Edwards, a former Marine.
“To see Dave now, I’m so proud of him.”
“I’m proud of Amy and the family.”
“He just won’t stop fighting.”
Even for a fighter like Dave, recovery has been difficult.
“Slower speech.”
“Slower thought processes.”
“Always cold.”
“That’s typical with frontal lobe damage.”
Amy says the injury changed him.
“He’s not as sharp-minded.”
“His thoughts are delayed.”
“His emotions are delayed sometimes.”
Dave also suffers from seizures.
After one seizure, his then-11-year-old son Danny rushed to help him.
“He started shaking.”
“Then he backed up a little.”
“So I got up and held him lightly to make sure he didn’t fall and hit his head on the stone table near the couch.”
Strong son.
Strong father.
If you look up the definition of a hero, many people in Greenville believe you’ll find a picture of Deputy Dave Dempsey.
