Father of missing Euless woman fears for the worst

By Mitch Mitchell and Domingo Ramirez Jr.

mitchmitchell@star-telegram.com, ramirez@star-telegram.com

EULESS -- It has been two weeks since Ashley Valladares disappeared from a Euless apartment complex and her father fears the worst.

Jamil Valladares believes his 19-year-old daughter may be a victim of human trafficking -- or dead.

"She would call every day about every little thing," her father said, speaking in Spanish. "But since she went missing, no one has heard from her."

Missing since May 4, officers have searched the complex for clues to Ashley's whereabouts, but say they have little to go on.

"She has nothing we can trace her by. Her cellphone is in our custody and broken," Euless police Lt. Eric Starnes said in a recent e-mail. "Her bank account has not been used."

The night Ashley vanished, she and her boyfriend, Christopher Taylor, had been arguing about whether she should have been giving a haircut to a man who showed up at their door at 11:30 p.m., Taylor said.

Ashley cut hair in the apartment to supplement her income from her other job at a Euless KFC restaurant, about a mile from her apartment.

"I told her to cut this man's hair tomorrow," Taylor said. "She said she needed the money to pay the rent."

Taylor told police that he walked out of their apartment that night, with Ashley clutching his shirt, trying to stop him from leaving. When police asked him what he thought had happened, Taylor said that Ashley "probably ran off with another guy."

But friends and family said if that was the case, why would she leave her purse, clothes, paycheck and cellphone behind?

"She would never run away," said Jamil Valladares, who lives in Bedford. "I know her. She wouldn't leave her family."

Taylor, 24, told police that he returned to the apartment in the 300 block of South Industrial Boulevard about 2 a.m. on May 5, and neither Ashley nor the man who had come for the haircut were there.

Two days later, Jamil Valladares filed a missing person's report with Euless police. There were things that had happened, things that Taylor had said that made Ashley's father uneasy, according to the police report. Relatives told Jamil Valladares that Taylor said he broke Ashley's cellphone and that he had pulled a gun on Ashley, the report said.

And employees at the Euless KFC told the father that after she disappeared, Taylor had been trying to collect Ashley's paycheck, according to the police report. Police said they are searching for the man who was reportedly getting the haircut.

"We've been all over that apartment complex looking for anyone who knows anything," Starnes said.

The man police are looking for is described as a short, heavyset Hispanic man. That's all the police know about him, Starnes said.

Police said an officer visited their apartment on April 29 in response to a domestic disturbance call. The police report said Ashley acknowledged that she had torn up the apartment and cut her finger on some broken glass. Ashley told the officer that she was angry because she found text messages from another woman on Taylor's cellphone.

No assault occurred on April 29, the report said. When police returned on May 6 in response to her father's missing person report, an officer found dried blood on the apartment walls, apparently from her cut finger on April 29.

The officer stated that he did not see any new blood or damage that might suggest that another struggle had occurred. Taylor gave police consent to search the apartment and his vehicle, the report said.

Taylor said he also took and passed a polygraph test, a detail the police have declined to discuss. Taylor said he has been cooperating with police, even allowing them access to his cellphone records.

"I don't want to be a suspect," Taylor said.

But Taylor also said that relatives have told him that he needs to get a lawyer if the police continue to question him.

A KFC employee who gave Ashley a ride home on May 4, said Ashley looked like she was in a hurry to get to home -- even leaving her purse at work, according to the police report.

"I asked her why her boyfriend hadn't come to pick her up and she said 'f ... him,' " said the employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. "And I figured that maybe she and her boyfriend had been into it."

Ashley's father said he first met Taylor in October when his daughter introduced him as her boyfriend. The next month, Ashley moved in with Taylor.

"I don't know how they met," Jamil Valladares said. "But they had problems. She never told me, but I was told by people at her complex that she would be crying all the time."

Mitch Mitchell, 817-390-7752; Domingo Ramirez, 817-390-7763

Twitter: @stcrime; Twitter: @mingoramirezjr