Ashley was last seen at 12:00 p.m. on July 6, 2004, when she was dropped off at the Krug Pool in the vicinity of St. Joseph Avenue and Krug Park in St. Joseph, Missouri with her younger brother. When her mother came to get them later, only the brother was waiting; Ashley had disappeared. Subsequent investigation showed that Ashley had planned to run away to California with Christopher Matthias Hart, a 32-year-old man living close to her home. He and Ashley were reportedly going to go to Oregon. A member of Hart's family, said she saw Ashley and Hart together at his house a few days after Ashley's disappearance. They stated Ashley and Hart were planning to go to Oregon and they were going to go with them, but decided not to, and Hart and Ashley left alone. Eleven days after Ashley's disappearance, Hart was arrested in Olympia, Washington for purse-snatching. He gave the Washington officials a false name and as a result they did not know he was wanted in Missouri, so he was released. On September 7, Hart was arrested again after Washington police discovered his true identity and the charges against him in Missouri. He had been staying with a cousin in the Olympia area. In the fall of 2004, a former principal of Ashley’s middle school, told police that she saw Ashley on the corner of Leonard and Frederick Ave with an unidentified African-American male. She claims that Ashley had waved to her and then turned north on Leonard street. When she disappeared, she left behind all her personal belongings, including her medication and her three cats. Ashley ran away from home once before, in 2001, but she did not leave the state and was only gone for about a day before returning home voluntarily.