John Jefferson
Left: Deandre Booker (Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office). Right: Ashley Elkins and her children (GoFundMe).
A Michigan mother of two has been missing for over three weeks and is now feared dead as her family believes her ex-boyfriend may have allegedly killed her.
Ashley Elkins, 30, of metro Detroit, vanished on Jan. 2 when she went to run errands. Cops recovered her car a few days after her disappearance, but she was no where to be found. On Jan. 9, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office charged Elkins’ ex-boyfriend, 32-year-old Deandre Howard Booker, with lying to police. Prosecutors allege Booker “repeatedly lied” to cops in the days following Elkins’ disappearance. They did not expand further. He remains in the Macomb County Jail on a $250,000 bond.
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The Detroit News reported that investigators seized several items from Booker’s apartment complex, including a dumpster. They also spent several days searching a six- to seven-acre area at Pine Tree Acres Landfill, north of where Elkins disappeared. However, the victim’s family said the search was unsuccessful.
Now cops have turned the search into a recovery operation with hopes of finding Elkins’ body and arresting Booker for her death. Her family has no doubt Booker is responsible.
“Her mother has said numerous times, ‘He threw her out with the trash,’” her uncle, Maurice Morton, said, according to Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK. “That’s disheartening.”
On Saturday, about 100 people held a vigil in Elkins’ honor. Her family wants to find her body for closure.
“We want to be able to bury her like a human deserves to be laid to rest,” Elkins’ cousin Taylor Redmond told local NBC affiliate WDIV. “It’s just hard for me to come to terms with it (and) I know it’s hard for her youngest son to come to terms with it because we are constantly asking ourselves where is she?”
The family set up a GoFundMe account for her two sons, ages 10 and 7.
“Ashley LaShay Elkins had big dreams for herself and her two young sons. Tragically, those dreams were cut short on January 2, 2025,” the fundraiser reads. “Now, at just 10 and 7, her boys face not only the loss of their beloved mother, but also uncertainty about their care and their future. We are committed to ensuring they are well cared for and have the support and resources they need to keep dreaming and achieve the future their mother envisioned for them.”
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