Debbie Ashby -
Age 16.
Computer Generated Image - Age 18
Computer
Generated Image - Age 25
Computer
Generated Image - Age 30
DOB:
1971 - 16 years when missing
HAIR:
Brown
BUILD:Thin
EYES:Brown
Circumstances
Debbie Ashby was last seen leaving her family home at Leumeah in
Sydney's west on 9 October 1987,
2 days after her 16th
birthday. Debbie left her home at 1pm and
stated that she was going to a friend's house. Debbie didn't
take any clothing with her and has not been seen since. She was
16 at the time of her disappearance.
A rebellious teen, she had experienced threats at school and had
wanted to move schools before leaving school for good. The last
her family heard from her was a phone call a few days after she
left home, saying she was all right.
If you have information that may assist police to locate Debbie
please call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Reward of $100,000 to solve disappearance of Debbie Marie Ashby
A $100,000 reward is offered for information leading
to an arrest and conviction for the
persons responsible for the death of
Debbie Marie Ashby.
Ms Ashby was last seen leaving her home on 9 October
1987 at Leumeah in Sydney's West.
Debbie, who was born on 7 October 1971, was 16 at
the time of her disappearance and has not been heard from since.
A coronial inquest determined that Ms Ashby died on,
or after, 11 October 1987.
The inquest also recommended that:
A reward be offered for information that may lead to an
arrest and conviction
That the death of Debbie Ashby be referred to the Unsolved
Homicide Unit.
The Police working on this case have exhausted every
avenue of investigation and can only move forward if provided with
some information.
Police have produced computer generated images of Ms
Ashby at the ages of 18, 25 and 30 in the hope that it may trigger
someone to come forward.
Do you have information that can help police with this case?
Any information you have about this is worth giving to
police, no
matter how small or insignificant it may seem.
You can provide information to police via any of the methods
below:
Call Crime Stoppers any time on 1800 333 000
Report information to Crime Stoppers any time via this
site's
TWO children named Dylan and Rhiannon who attended a Nowra primary
school during the 1990s may hold the key to ending 17 years of
heartache.
Debbie Ashby went missing from her family's Leumeah home when she was
just 16 in October, 1987, and has not been seen by her family or police
since.
The following years brought an abundance of pain and heartache,
according to Debbie's mother Mary Ashby, particularly because all family
members were at a loss to explain the disappearance.
"We have no idea why she left," Mrs Ashby said.
All Mrs Ashby knew was that one evening while she was out with her
husband, Debbie left the family home telling her sister simply that she
was going "out".
The concern of not knowing why she left is mingled with the pain of
fearing she may not have left on her own accord, and may indeed have
been taken shortly after leaving the home.
Mrs Ashby admitted that was a possibility "we never really got to the
bottom of."
Adding to that concern was a number of death threats made to the family
shortly after Debbie's disappearance.
With no sign of Debbie emerging in the months following her
disappearance despite several public appeals for information, Mrs Ashby
took the usual step of putting together a large display board which she
took to towns and shopping centres around NSW chasing information on her
missing daughter.
It was when she was in Nowra during the early to mid-1990s that Mrs
Ashby was told her daughter had been living in the Shoalhaven at some
stage, and had two children named Dylan and Rhiannon who had attended a
local school.
While her heart leapt at the prospect of finally being able to locate
her daughter, Mrs Ashby was unable to confirm the information, and
police could also not find anything to corroborate what Mrs Ashby had
been told.
She continued the search, and was later told by three girls in
Wollongong that a girl they believed was Debbie had died of a drug
overdose.
Again the information could not be confirmed, and Mrs Ashby said plenty
of other unsubstantiated information had also been received over the
years.
However eventually Mrs Ashby had to eventually come to the realisation
that "either she was not alive or she really didn't want to have any
contact with us."
That realisation brought about the "incredibly difficult decision" to
stop taking her display around NSW, and simply wait and see if Debbie
wanted to contact her.
Mrs Ashby said she thought the pain of her youngest child's
disappearance was dimming over the years, "until police told me that it
was going to the Coroner's Court, and it hurt just as much as it did all
those years ago."
Campbelltown Police are preparing a report on the disappearance for the
Coroner, and are urging anyone who has seen Debbie or who may know
anything of her whereabouts to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Meanwhile Mrs Ashby has simply urged Debbie, who is probably using an
assumed name, to call home and let her distraught family members know
that she is okay.
Girl missing for 20 years dead: coroner Leonie Lamont - SMH
February 26, 2007
A coroner's inquest into the disappearance of a teenage girl 20 years ago has
recommended that a reward be offered for information about her probable death.
Deputy State Coroner Carl Milovanovich is holding inquests into dozens of "cold
case" missing persons. He found, on the balance of probabilities, that Debbie
Ashby, 16, who left her family home in Leumeah in October 1987, was probably
dead.
He told the family that it was "totally unacceptable" for him as a coroner to be
holding an inquest 20 years after the disappearance.
He said under plans to deal with missing persons, any people still missing
within six to 12 months should be brought to the coroner's attention.
"There are 9000 people each year in NSW who go missing, and about 40 are never
found. I'm not worried about the 8960. I am worried about the 40 because often
they are homicides never detected," he said.
He said Debbie disappeared at the same time as a number of other young women had
also gone missing.
In making a recommendation for the reward, and sending a file to the homicide
squad for review, he said: "It is so unusual for a 16-year-old to disappear, one
has to look at it as suspicious; 16-year-olds just don't disappear off the face
of the earth, something has happened to her."
Debbie's family wept in court as Mr Milovanovich delivered his formal finding
that the girl was dead.
Long search ends with tragic finding
Leonie Lamont - SMH February 27, 2007
SITTING opposite an inmate at Mulawa jail, Mary Ashby looked at the young woman
who "amazingly" looked like her daughter, Debbie, missing since 1987.
But it was not her. "She seems to look like so many other young ladies. I have
met several," Mrs Ashby said of the sightings reported to police over the years.
"I have come to the conclusion … a long time ago that she is not alive."
Yesterday's inquest at the State Coroner's Court, Westmead, into the
disappearance of the 16-year-old gave "no conclusion, no closure", her family
said.
The Deputy State Coroner Carl Milovanovich is holding inquests into numerous
"cold case" missing persons. He found, on the balance of probabilities, that
Debbie, who left her family home in Leumeah in October 1987, was probably dead.
He recommended that a reward be offered and homicide squad review the file.
He told the family it was totally unacceptable for him as a coroner to be
holding an inquest 20 years later. It was planned that missing persons files be
referred to the coroner within six to 12 months of a disappearance.
Mr Milovanovich said Debbie vanished at the same time as several other young
women.
"It is so unusual for a 16-year-old to disappear. One has to look at it as
suspicious. Sixteen-year-olds just don't disappear off the face of the Earth.
Something has happened to her."
The inquest heard she had been going through a rebellious stage. The last her
family heard from her was a phone call a few days after she left home, saying
she was all right. In 1990 a prostitute contacted the family saying she had seen
her in Kings Cross. But they could not find her.
The family wept as Mr Milovanovich delivered his formal finding that she was
dead.
THROUGH computer generation, the face of missing Debbie Marie Ashby
has aged over the years.
But police fear she may not have had the chance to grow older, and fell
prey to a murderer after leaving her
Sydney home as a teenager.
Now, a $100,000 reward is being offered for information which leads to the
arrest of anyone responsible for her death.
After an extensive reinvestigation by
Campbelltown police, the case will be handed to the Unsolved Homicide Unit
for review.
Police Minister David Campbell yesterday said foul play was suspected
because Ms Ashby had not been seen or heard from since she left her
Leumeah home in 1987.
"Debbie was a beautiful young lady who has been robbed of the prime years
of her life, and her family has suffered for more than 20 years with her
disappearance," he said.
"Debbie Ashby's family deserves answers and those responsible must be
brought to justice."
Debbie was 16 years old when she left her family home on October 11, 1987.
A rebellious teen, she had experienced threats at school and had wanted to
move schools before leaving school for good.
In February this year, 20 years after her disappearance, Deputy State
Coroner Carl Milovanovich said the long-term disappearance of a 16-year-old girl
was extremely unusual.
"One has to look at it as suspicious - 16-year-olds just don't disappear
off the face of the Earth," he said.
"Something has happened to her."
Mr Milovanovich ruled that Ms Ashby had died on, or after, the date of her
disappearance - but was unable to say how she died.
Debbie's mother Mary, stepfather Tony, and sisters Hayley and Mechelle
were at Westmead Coroner's Court when the finding was handed down.
Mrs Ashby said she believed her daughter's disappearance was related to
threats she had received at school.
Ms Ashby is one of several teen and pre-teen girls who disappeared from
NSW in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Others include Helen Karipidis, 10, abducted from
Marrickville in December 1988, and Bianca Nelson, 14, last seen running away
from her
Regents Park home in 1991.
Police, in their efforts to solve the case, have released these
computer-generated images of Ms Ashby. They are impression of how she may have
looked at the ages of 18, 25, and 30.
Mr Campbell said it was hoped they would help solve a case that has so far
run out of leads.
Anyone with any information is urged to contact their local police
station or call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
When 16-year-old Leumeah girl Debbie Ashby went missing in
1987, she left behind a family desperate for answers.
Debbie’s mother Mary Ashby, now living at Glen Alpine,
recently refreshed calls for information into her daughter’s disappearance.
Now, a detective with Campbelltown Local Area Command has
added her support to the plea for anyone with information to come forward.
Detective Senior Constable Maria Feher said even though the
case has been investigated extensively in the past 29 years she will not be
satisfied until it is solved.
“Even though the coronial inquest might be closed, we never
close a cold case until we reach a satisfactory conclusion,” she said.
“Unfortunately all information relating to Debbie Ashby has
not led to any conclusion of her whereabouts or her fate.
“Our police recording of missing person investigations has
improved with the introduction of electronic recording. We have access to
more documents now and can access things that may have relevance to the
case.”
Detective Feher said information continually comes through to
police and every piece is investigated.
“Any new piece of evidence could lead to looking somewhere
else. Over the years people’s allegiances change or they have a change of
heart. If you can help or believe you have information you can come
forward. We are really happy to get information and investigate to see what
little pieces may help get to the bottom of it.”
