Family seeks teen missing two weeks

Posters with her description are being distributed in Youngstown.

By LAURE CIOFFI

VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU

NEW BEDFORD, Pa. — Fourteen-year-old Ashley Leasure was excited about the prospect of going to a birthday party with her boyfriend and his mother in Boardman Park.

Her father, David, and stepmother, Mindy, who live just over the Ohio border in New Bedford, Pa., say they thought nothing was amiss until she missed her 9 p.m. curfew.

That was 13 days ago and they still haven’t heard from their daughter.

Police in both Lawrence County and Youngstown have been searching for the girl, who is expected to start her freshman year at Wilmington High School next week. She’s also been listed as an endangered runaway on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s national Web site.

The center was notified the day she went missing and has sent posters with Ashley’s picture and information to retail stores and law enforcement in the Youngstown area this week, said Larry Bonney, deputy director of missing children’s services at the Center.

He said they target all areas where they believe a child may be or was last seen. All leads generated through their Web site and national call center are forwarded to local law enforcement, Bonney said.

“I’m not above thinking she’s run away. But she’s been gone 12 days without a word,” Mindy Leasure said Friday.

Phone use

Her daughter’s cellular telephone was last used just before midnight on Aug. 12 — the night she disappeared — when the voice mail was checked. The phone was powered down and hasn’t been used since, her stepmother said.

“She uses 4,000 to 5,000 minutes a month. It’s not like her to not contact anyone,” Mindy Leasure said.

Ashley did run away from home last October, but was only gone about 25 hours after staying with a friend in New Castle, her stepmother said.

Though there was the normal teen angst, the family appeared to be getting along recently and there were no obvious signs that the girl was troubled or seeking to run away, Leasure said. She had a list of school supplies she needed in her bedroom and the family had planned to go school clothes shopping this past weekend —something Ashley was looking forward to, her stepmother said.

Her parents had no inkling that she might have been planning to run away because before leaving for her date, Ashley talked about possibly going on future dates with the 16-year-old boy she met last October at the Wilmington High School homecoming dance.

“This is the first time we ever let her go anywhere with him. We only let her go because they were with his mother,” Mindy Leasure said.

Ashley’s parents were told that the birthday party was in Boardman Park, but they have since learned that the party was in a house in Youngstown, her stepmother said.

What boyfriend said

The boyfriend, who lives in Youngstown’s South Side, waited about 24 hours to call the family and told them that Ashley went to the bathroom about 20 minutes into the party and never returned.

The boy told her family he wasn’t near a telephone to call them about their daughter’s disappearance until the next evening, according to Mindy Leasure.

Her parents called police only a half-hour after their daughter missed her curfew. And about an hour after that, David Leasure suffered chest pains and had to be taken by ambulance to Sharon Regional Hospital for help. The family is still dealing with his heart problems, Mindy Leasure said.

Friends and family were notified of Ashley’s disappearance and her father’s health problems, but Ashley has contacted no one, Mindy Leasure said.

She believes her stepdaughter would at least check in with someone to look after her father’s health.

“We’d just like her to contact us and let us know she’s all right. We’re just worried about her well-being right now,” she said.

cioffi@vindy.com