On Friday, July 13th, 2012, My daughter Ashleigh Marie Lindsey and my unborn granddaughter, Patience Lynn, were killed in a brutal act of Domestic Violence. Ashleigh was engaged and living with a man named Joshua Mahaffey . They had a roommate as well, a man by the name of Joshua Scott. On April 27th, 2012, Ashleigh discovered she was pregnant. By the time May rolled around Ashleigh was beginning
to open up to us about Joshua Mahaffey's abuse. We encouraged her to leave and she did for about a week before going back to him. During that week both Joshua Mahaffey and Scott showed up at my home trying to break in. The police were called but Mahaffey fled on foot and was not caught. He contacted Ashleigh And made promises to get help and quit drinking that she wanted desperately to believe. Within 2 weeks time she had left again. She hid at a friends house and contacted no one for a 5 day period. Meantime, both the Joshua's were calling me looking for Ashleigh claiming she just "disappeared". We had not heard from our daughter so within 2days I was in a panic. We filed a missing persons report with the Sheriff Dept. once we did that Joshua Mahaffey just disappeared. I thought for sure he had killed my Daughter. When she did turn up, Ashleigh informed us that she had left a note and that Josh knew she had left him. She had no idea that he wouldn't tell us of the note in which she told him to not look for her at her parents house because she wouldn't be there. She figured he would read me the note and know from it that she was laying low and would contact me when she could. She contacted the police to release the alert. The deputy got on the phone with me and said she was alright but bruised. She was pressing charges on Mahaffey. We met her within an hour and what I saw was painful. Ashleigh was so thin she looked sick from lack of food. Even 6 days after the fight her bruises were apparent. She had a black eye, bruises on her arms where you could see his hand prints, bruises on her wrist, and one on her left hip to stomach area. The details were horrific! The fist week she was back was all sweet and kind. The next week he started drinking again. They argued. Arguing turned to slapping and as the week progressed it got worse. Finally, Ashleigh had enough and wanted to leave. He wouldn't let her. He punched her in the eye, she fell to the floor, and he kicked her in the stomach, claim lay that if she was leaving she wasn't going with that baby. He grabbed her by the arms and shook her around like a rag doll and then shoved her head thru a wall saying she was going no where. He then tied her up so she couldn't leave. He had her like that thru the night till the next day. Until she convinced him she wasn't going to leave. The only thing he excepted as proof of her love and devotion was sex. Until she agreed to sex she was not untied. All the while Joshua Scott watched the abuse and never called the police. The next day when the Josh's went to work Ashleigh grabbed what she could, left a note and hid. I asked her why she didn't come home? She said that Mahaffey made it clear that if she came home he would kill us all. She believed him! She wouldn't even go home with her father and I then when we begged her to. Slowly, she revealed over time the abuse she endured with me. The slapping, he loved to slap her. Josh put her head thru a wall 3 different times. Burnt her multiple times with cigarettes. Shook her like a rag doll, threw things at her. Called her dumb, fat and ugly. Got her fired from 2 jobs because he didn't trust her to be out of his site. Once he even stabbed himself multiple times to keep her from leaving. Ripped her clothes off of her in front of the roommate to humiliated her and an other time in the middle of the road to stop her from leaving. He took away her birth control because he wanted her pregnant....the list goes on. For the next month and a half Ashleigh spent hiding from friend to friend. Joshua Mahaffey was well hidden by family and friends. We discovered that he had an extensive criminal record, which included over 2yrs worth of open warrants for violating PO's on other women he abused and for Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Now with Ashleigh's charge it added a Felony Assault. I took Ashleigh to the court and we filed for an Emergency PO. Ashleigh also contacted the closest Crisis Center to get help and counceling. But there was no local Shelter for her to go to. Mahaffey kept getting Ashleigh's number. I changed her phone number 3 different times during that coarse of over a month. When he couldn't reach Ashleigh he would call and text me anywhere from 5 to 20 times a day. This went on even though I quit answering and responding to him. Then he started creating page after page, faking names, using Ashleigh's friends to try and find her. Desperately, we kept reporting information to the Sheriff Dept. On July 4th,2012 he sat outside her house, calling and threatening her and her roommates. The Sheriff Dept. was called and more charges were filed after a one hour conversation he had on the phone with a deputy in which he threatened to kill Ashleigh and himself. The following day her called her work and threatened to kill everyone there if they wouldn't put Ashleigh on the phone. Again more charges added by the Deputies called. Her father and I were so desperate we spent that weekend searching for him. We went to business showing his picture, begging people that if they saw him to call the police. Ashleigh was so stressed she became very ill on top of her morning sickness. She had several days off in a row so I sent her to my moms for a few days to recover. On her way to her Grandma's she called me screaming and crying. She insisted that he was going to kill her and she would never get away from him. She begged me to help hide her. I begged her to come home but she wouldn't. She was sure he would kill her sister and I. She wouldn't risk us. That is when she informed me that the threat included his raping us as well. Wednesday, July 11, 2012 Ashleigh went back to her friends house and back to work. Over the next 2 days Ashleigh, her Crisis Advocate, her DA advocate, and I worked together and came up with a plan for her to enter a shelter an hour away where no one would know where she was till Joshua was caught. She wanted to finish her work week and go to the shelter when she got off work that next Saturday. Saturday didn't come soon enough. Friday, July 13, 2012 truly became the unluckiest day of my life. About 1:45 pm Ashleigh was saying good bye to her roommates fixing to leave for work when Joshua Mahaffey broke in thru the front door and his roommate Joshua Scott broke in the back door. Ashleigh had nowhere to run so she locked herself in a bathroom. Mahaffey kicked in the door knocking her to the floor and then shot her in the shoulder. She tried to block the the second shot but couldn't. The second shot was to the head. Immediately, he put the gun under his chin and killed himself. Meanwhile, Joshua Scott tried to threaten Ashleigh's roommates. One of them got away and called the police. Ashleigh was still alive and was Careflighted to a hospital. I will never forget my daughters face. Her beauty was forever ruined. Her face was distorted from the massive swelling, her eyes black and blue, speckles of blood spots like blood blisters all over her face. Ashleigh's right hand was so burnt from trying to block the last shot that it was burnt down to her elbow. The nurses had to brown bag that hand as evidence. at one point she went Code Blue and i had to make the painful decision to have her revived. Jim was with me in the room as they brought Ashleigh back. i made that choice hoping for my little Patience. We waited, then doctors came in and said she would never recover and there was nothing they could do. We waited for an OB/GYN Specialist to see if she could be kept on machines long enough to give Patience Lynn a chance. The sonogram revealed the babies heart was failing and once I knew little Patience was truly gone, I was left alone with my daughter. Ashleigh's poor little body had been thru enough. i could see the scars on her arm, 5 or 6 of them from Joshua burning her from the cigarettes. I took her blood stained hand into mine and brushed what little of her hair not soaked in blood. I bent down close and said, "If you are holding on for the baby you don't have to any longer. If this is too hard it is OK for you to go. It is all right. Don't worry about your mommy and I will be OK." Within 15 seconds she crashed and I had the nurse get her dad and sister. Ashleigh passed away in peace and quiet. Later we were told Joshua Scott had been arrested. He had killed his mothers boyfriend, a man named Chad Page. He stole his car so he could pick up Mahaffey who was hiding hours away to drive him clear back. They met Mahaffey's mother who gave them money, gas and beer even though she knew the police were looking for him. Joshua Mahaffey and Joshua Scott hunted down Ashleigh, broke in and killed my beautiful girl. After her death so many of Ashleigh's friends came forward about the domestic violence that they were enduring. Many left their violent partners and a few needed help. Now Ashleigh's story is being passed on and is helping to save so many lives. On December 11, 2013 Joshua Scott plead No Contest and was sentenced to 3 counts of 1st Degree Murder, 3 Life Without Paroles to run Consecitively for the murders of Ashleigh Lindsey and her unborn daughter Patience Lynn and Chad Page. We as a family got to face the remaining monster. If you or someone you love is being abused, take it seriously! Get help! 1 in 3 women in her lifetime will experience Domestic Violence. You're not alone.
