The disappearance of Ashley Summers

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons (NamUS) database, more than 600,000 people go missing every year. Many of these cases are never resolved. Among these unresolved cases is one from Cleveland. In this case, a teenager left a family outing and has not been seen since.

Ashley Nicole Summers, 14, was your typical teenager. As the oldest child, she often helped her mother care for her younger siblings. As with any teenager, she and her mother Jennifer had disagreements. In the days leading up to Ashley's 14th birthday, she had a disagreement with her mother over a boy. She had been dating a 16-year-old boy in the neighborhood. Her mother disapproved of the relationship. However, Ashley continued seeing the young man.

Jennifer soon learned that Ashley was bringing her boyfriend over after she had left for work. Ashley also took money from her mother and used it to get a tattoo of her boyfriend’s name on her arm.

The incident would lead to Ashley staying with her grandmother who lived nearby. As a result of the move, Jennifer hoped Ashley wouldn't see her boyfriend again. Ashley also enjoyed visiting her Uncle Kevin Donathan because it was a hangout spot for her and her cousins.

After a while, Ashley had discussed moving in with one of her aunts. It would never happen. On July 4, 2007, life changed for this large family. A party was being held at the home of Ashley's Uncle Keith Donathan (Kevin's brother).

Ashley had left her Uncle Kevin’s home to join the party at her Uncle Keith’s home. She left sometime around 6 p.m. after a day of fun and swimming. After saying goodbye to everyone, she said she was going to walk to her Aunt Christina's home. Ashley never made it. FBI reports indicate that Ashley was last seen on either July 7 or July 8, 2007. This would suggest that she didn't go to her aunt's house as she claimed. From the time she left her uncle's house on the fourth until she was last seen, where did she go?

No one knows.

After two days, Jennifer became concerned when Ashley hadn't contacted her. She began calling around to find out if anyone had seen Ashley. No one had seen her. Jennifer would learn that Ashley had gotten into an argument with her Uncle Kevin. This led to her uncle breaking her phone. Jennifer contacted the Cleveland PD to file a missing persons’ report. Law enforcement took the report lightly. They said she probably ran off somewhere and would return home eventually.

Ashley’s large family had formed a search party and began scouring the area looking for their missing family member. They put up flyers and asked around to see if anyone had seen Ashley. Nobody had seen the missing teenager. Additionally, many of the flyers the family posted had been taken down.

Ashley's family believed her boyfriend knew something. In response to Ashley's disappearance, he denied having anything to do with it. He said he had last seen her a few days before the family celebration held on the fourth of July.

Jennifer didn’t believe him and followed him one night to an abandoned house. Jennifer contacted authorities, who searched the house and found no sign of the missing teenager. An aunt of Ashley's reached out to the boyfriend on social media. He said he didn’t know anything about Ashley’s whereabouts.

Jennifer received an odd phone call weeks after Ashley disappeared. The caller identified herself as Ashley and said she was fine. As soon as she finished speaking, she hung up. Jennifer didn’t believe this to be her daughter. The identity of the mysterious caller remains a mystery.

The only possible sighting occurred four months later when Ashley’s grandparents thought they saw Ashley walking down the street. They turned the car around and went back to speak to the girl. They lost sight of her without confirming her identity. The FBI later became involved in the search for other missing girls in West Cleveland. Their names were Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus. At different times, the two girls and Ashley had attended the same school. The FBI considered a possible connection.

Law enforcement rescued Berry and DeJesus from the home of a deranged monster named Ariel Castro on May 6, 2013. For years, he kept the two girls and another girl named Michelle Knight in his basement. There was no sign of Ashley or any indication that Castro had ever held her.

Ashley vanished 15 years ago and hasn't been seen since. As I researched Ashley's story, I searched for updates on her case. I learned that Kevin Donathan, Ashley’s uncle, was recently sentenced to 35 years in prison for rape charges involving underage girls. For now, Donathan isn't a suspect in his niece’s disappearance. If you have seen Ashley Summers or know anything about her whereabouts, please help her family get answers and contact the FBI at 877-FBI-OHIO.

Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and an avid reader. Contact him through his website at www.themarcabe.com or through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Catchmykiller. Marc also has a podcast called Catch my Killer, where he interviews family members seeking justice for their murdered loved ones. You can listen at www.catchmykiller.com.