One Desperate Act From Murder

Ashley Dolittle https://ashleydoolittlefoundation.org https://www.thefencepost.com/news/ashley-doolittleslegacy/ The Coloradoan Westword.com https://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/14/tanner-flores-admits-to-killing-ashley-doolittle/ Loveland Reporter Herald CBS Denver In June 2016, Ashley Doolittle had just turned 18 and graduated from Berthoud High School which is about 30 minutes south of where I live. She had plans to attend Colorado State University in Fort Collins (which my town almost runs into at this point) in the fall to major in agriculture business. Her life had always revolved around horses: she learned to ride at age 5; belonged to 4-H and Thompson. She was part of the Boulder County Fair and Rodeo Royalty program. She had an extremely bright future. She was named the Boulder County Fair and Rodeo lady-in-waiting, which is the precursor to becoming the rodeo queen. Children would flock to her at shows and ask for her autograph. There couldn’t possibly have been a girl more excited and eager about her future, except for one growing concern. Since her junior year in high school, Ashley had been dating a boy named Tanner Flores. What began as a normal relationship eventually turned sour. Tanner became controlling and jealous, often searching through Ashley’s phone and accused her of seeing other guys. He tracked her daily activities and objected to her friendships with her male friends, some that she’d known since early childhood. He forbade her from attending college parties when she would begin college before she even got there. Though Ashley was ambitious and college-bound, Tanner was a high school dropout who planned on working at his father’s trucking business but he made a series of bad decisions which would cause those ambitions to be curtailed. After a year of dating Tanner, Ashley got fed up and ended the relationship. She had tried unsuccessfully to end things several times before. On June 8 2016, Tanner was texting Ashley who he hoped regretted breaking up with him. He said he wished he hadn’t spent so much money on her and was trying to make her feel guilty for ending their relationship. He once again accused her of cheating on him and wrote: “I’m going to do something stupid now. Bye.” Ashley wrote back, “I never cheated on you. I never did anything with anyone while we were together. Our relationship has been over for a long time. I wanted to be friends but that isn’t possible.” They continued to exchange texts and Tanner wrote, “Can we meet tonight please Ashley? I won’t survive tonight.” “Yes you will,” she replied. But eventually, Tanner was able to convince Ashley to meet him at Lon Hagler Reservoir southwest of Loveland, Colo the next morning. Ashley’s mom became worried when Ashley didn’t return home by 7:30pm that evening. She went out looking for her and found her abandoned car parked at the Lon Hagler Reservoir southwest of Loveland, Colorado. She immediately knew something was wrong and when Ashley still hadn’t returned by the next morning, authorities began looking for Ashley. Ashley’s mom was aware of a bit of the tumultuous relationship Ashley had been in with Tanner. At least to the point that he was still pressing her to be with him. I don’t believe her family was aware of the extent of his obsession with her. She let the police know about him and the police determined Tanner was also missing. Investigators began interviewing Tanner’s friends and they told them they had never seen Tanner so depressed. So you can imagine the panic in needing to find the pair. When interviewing Tanner’s father, he told them that his .22-caliber revolver was missing from a locked gun cabinet and that Flores knew where the key was kept. This news of the disappearance of the couple was big at the time and was being reported on all over the state as the cops were trying to locate them. A neighbor of Tanner’s grandfather’s property who lived about 4 ½ hours away on the other side of the Rocky Mountains in Collbran called cops after witnessing something out of the ordinary. BREAK And back to our story. So the neighbor thought she saw someone who looked like Tanner at Tanner’s grandfather’s property outside of the house with a white truck parked in the driveway. She saw that the male had opened all the doors to the truck and pulled out what looked to be a bundled-up blanket from the back seat of the truck and set it on the ground. She said she also thought she saw what looked to be an arm sticking out of the bundle. Authorities were able to quickly act and send deputies to his deceased father’s property where they found Tanner and Ashley’s body in the back of his truck. They took Tanner into custody at gunpoint and charged him with kidnapping and murder. When questioning Tanner, he initially told police that Ashley had met him at the reservoir then agreed to get in his truck where they drove to Carter Lake. Tanner claimed that Ashley had kept looking in his back seat then suddenly grabbed the revolver and pointed it at her own head. He said he tried to wrestle the gun away from her when it suddenly fired, hitting Ashley in the head. He then said he shot her a second time to put her out of her pain. Within minutes of this first statement though, his story changed. The detective interviewing Tanner had pointed out that he had a hard time believing someone familiar with weapons would handle a gun that way. I’m not sure if he was referring to Tanner or Ashley, but both could have had experience with firearms. Eventually, Tanner admitted to grabbing the gun himself out of the back seat after Ashley glared at him from the passenger seat while driving from the lake back to the reservoir. He aimed it at the back of her head and fired two shots. An autopsy report found 3 bullets in Ashley’s head, the 3rd of which was the fatal shot. The medical examiner determined she would have been able to survive the first 2 shots. Detectives were quick to note that the type of gun Tanner had used was a single shot revolver which would require him to cock the for each shot so every shot had to be deliberate, not just an accidental or quick firing. Examinations of both Ashley’s and Tanner’s cell phones revealed that Tanner had sent a text message from Ashley’s phone to his own saying, “I am not meeting you today,” at 4:26 p.m., shortly after the estimated time of Ashley’s death. Tanner then turned off both phones and threw them out the window. When police spoke with Ashley’s mother, Ann, about Ashley’s relationship with Tanner, she told them that Tanner was very controlling of her daughter and that when Ashley would get off the phone with him, her entire demeanor would change. She said If there was an argument between the two, she would leave the house immediately and would feel like she had to go fix things. It was almost as if she was in a panic and needed to leave that moment to go take care of the situation. In fact, Ashley’s family had also developed a safe word to use on the phone in case one of them was ever in a situation where they felt threatened. But Ashley had never used that safe word when she was with Tanner; not even in the days leading up to her death. BREAK Tanner Found guilty of first degree murder, felony murder, and second degree kidnapping, the young man will spend the rest of his life in prison: life in prison plus 32 years, with no possibility of parole. Ashley as the lady-in-waiting, was posthumously crowned the 2017 Boulder Queen She had proposed a Princess Program for younger girls to complement the existing Royalty Program. As of 2017, her suggestion was implemented. Each year, two selected girls in The Ashley Doolittle Princess Program become “Ashley’s Princesses.” They each wear chaps bearing that designation and an Ashley pin with her photo on it. Through this honor bestowed on young horsewomen, Ashley Doolittle’s memory lives on through their work in the program. Ann Marie Doolittle has set about trying to somehow salvage hope for others from her daughter’s death. Her research on teen dating violence led her to establish the Ashley Doolittle Foundation, an organization designed to present a clear picture of the dangerous under-realized threat in today’s culture. ADF conducts Escalation Workshops. These include “an engaging and emotional film-based discussion transforming the way students view and discuss relationship violence.” These workshops are free, with all costs covered by monies raised through horse shows and other fundraising activities. Here's some disturbing statistics about teen dating violence: • One in three U.S. teens ages 14-20 have been victims of dating violence. Young women in this age group are at a three-times greater risk than are any other demographic. • Annually, 1.5 million high school students nationwide experience physical abuse from a dating partner. • Violent behavior often begins between sixth and 12th grades (ages 12-18). • Women ages 16-24 experience the highest per capita rate of intimate partner violence. • Each year an estimated 1,200 deaths due to relationship violence occur — that’s more than three per day. If you know someone who is facing these circumstances, please reach out to school staff, parents, or authorities. Don’t stay silent. Many schools have a safe2tell website or hotlines now where you can safely and anonymously report dangerous or violent behavior.