Ashley had always maintained a close relationship with her father, ensuring that not a day went by without some form of contact, either through phone calls or texts, with him and other family members.
Williams grew up in Ohio, but in 2022, her father got a job transfer to Georgia, requiring a move. But when the family moved south, Williams decided to go west.
She had been assaulted, a crime that scared her, so she decided to move to Los Angeles, one of the places farthest away from her imprisoned attacker.
“She came to California because of an assault; she was assaulted in Cleveland,” Dwayne Williams said. “So she remained in Cleveland for a while, fearing that her attacker was going to get out of prison and come looking for her.”
At 28, Ashley Williams worked retail jobs and braided hair on the side. She was hoping to become a teacher.
“She was learning Mandarin,” Dwayne Williams said. “She wanted to teach English as a second language to Asian children.”
Ashley Williams disappears
On Aug. 29, Ashley Williams texted her father to send her money. He sent it to her, but she never accepted it. That’s the last time her parents heard from her.
Ashley Williams kept in touch with her family after moving to LA. (Sherry Williams)
Ashley Williams texted her father for money but never accepted it. (Sherry Williams)
Ashley Williams had not been at her last known address in months. (Sherry Williams)
Ashley Williams parents flew to California to search for her. (Sherry Williams)
“The whole time that Ashley’s been out there in California, there has not been a day that she has not talked to her dad,” said Sherry Williams, her mother. “So immediately after a day of her not accepting the money, her dad started saying, ‘What’s going on?’”
The Williams family called the Los Angeles Police Department for a welfare check. Officers went to the place she’d been staying, a room at a house in the 3800 block of Crawford Street, and were told she hadn’t been there since July.
Searching for Ashley Williams
So Sherry and Dwayne Williams got on a plane and flew to LA to search for their daughter and find answers for themselves. They hired a private detective and went to the last place she had been living.
They were told that their daughter hadn’t been at the home in months.
A call log from Ashley Williams’ phone shows she contacted the Midnight Mission on Skid Row. Her parents and the investigator went there, looking for Williams among the homeless.
“[Her] dad started crying,” said private detective Moses Castillo. “Because some of the sites we saw were just real people, down and out.”
“There were blocks upon blocks upon blocks of homeless people and just to imagine that my daughter may have been down there,” Dwayne Williams said. “Had we known, we would have caught the next flight out there.”
“Ashley has always known that we have always been there for her, to support her, in whatever way, financially, we have been [there],” Sherry Williams said. “Something that we always tried to instill in all of our children, no matter what the situation, no matter what it is, no matter how bad it gets, please come to us. We’re here to support, to help, and that’s what we’ve been doing all this time Ashley’s been in LA.”
Ashley Williams’ parents want her to come home
Both Sherry and Dwayne Williams say their faith and their church community
“[We] can’t sleep, can’t eat, it’s difficult to even function, not knowing,” Dwayne Williams said. “There is absolutely, positively, no way that I could do [this] and function without faith.”
But the pain doesn’t stop.
“Please come home, let us help you,” Williams said. “You got so many family, so many people that want you back home. That’s all we want, you back home safely. You don’t have to worry about somebody hurting you. And if anybody, god forbid, is holding her, just let her go. Please just let her go, let her come home.”
Williams is described as a Black woman with black hair and brown eyes, who is 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds. Anyone with information should call the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at (213) 996-1800.
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