True Crime Collection

Ashley Summers

Ashley Nicole Summers was born 16th June 1993 in Cleveland, Ohio.  Ashley was last seen at around 6:00pm, on 4th July, 2007. She was last seen in the area of West 96th Street and Madison Avenue. Earlier that day, Ashley went to a pool party at which she was the only guest. After spending a few hours swimming in the pool, she decided to visit her Aunt Christina, who lived within a 10 minute walking distance away from the pool, but never arrived. Because she was frequently staying with her relatives, her disappearance went unnoticed until 2 days later. 

Her great-uncle Kevin Donathan said that he spoke with Ashley on the morning of the day of her disappearance. Kevin grabbed Ashley's phone and broke it, depriving Ashley of her ability to contact her friends or family.

At the time of her disappearance, Ashley had a tattoo of a heart and the word "Gene," in reference to Gene Gill, a boy whom she was dating at the time. 

Ashley was initially considered a runaway due to her history with her family in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, including the rebellious act of getting a tattoo without her mother's permission. Even so, a week after Ashley disappeared, her family banded together to search the neighbourhood and surrounding areas for the girl. The FBI later speculated that she may have been kidnapped and that her disappearance might have been related to those of Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, who vanished in Cleveland in 2003 and 2004, respectively. 

On 6th May, 2013, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were found alive and rescued from a house on Seymour Avenue. Police also found a third captive, Michelle Knight, who had been missing since 2002. Although Amanda and Gina were well-known almost as soon as they disappeared, Michelle received very little, if any, attention prior to their rescue and was absent from the FBI's missing persons database for most of the time she spent in the house. There was initially speculation that Ashley may have also been a captive in that house, but no evidence of this was ever found.

On 16th June, 2013, family and friends of Ashley celebrated her 20th birthday by passing out fliers and releasing balloons at West 110th and Lorain Avenue.

On 7th November, 2018, police and FBI visited Holmden Avenue, a location that Ashley was known to visit. Authorities looked behind a home on Holmden Avenue, and uncovered new information on possible times and locations at which Ashley might have been spotted before she disappeared. 

In August, 2007, one month after Ashley went missing, her family received a phone call from a girl, believed to be Ashley herself, telling them not to worry and that she was safe.

In early 2015, there were rumours that Ashley had been spotted at an ATM in Rhode Island. The rumours were dismissed later that year, on 6th July, 2015, two days after her 8th anniversary of her disappearance, when the FBI determined that the woman in the picture was not Ashley. 

On 4th December, 2018, Kevin Donathan was charged with rape, but has not been named a suspect in Ashley's disappearance. On 25th February, 2020, Kevin, 55, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on charges of rape and prostitution.