[Unsolved] Justice for Trish Haynes

A Special Thank You:

We'd like to thank Trish's loved ones—her grandmother Sandy, her great-aunt Valerie, and her cousins Carrie Ann and Chloe—for their help in putting together this episode and for trusting us to share Trish's story.

Trish's Story:

Trisha Danielle Haynes was born on July 22, 1992, in Stuart, Florida. The odds were stacked against her from the start. Her mother, Megan, was just 15 years old when she gave birth to Trish, and her father, Toby, passed away from health issues when Trish was very young. Trish's maternal grandparents, Sandy and Steven, stepped in to help raise her, and they were granted full custody when Trish was three years old.

Sandy and Steven became Trish's safe place—the people she could always depend on. Trish was also close with her great-aunt Valerie, who felt like a second grandmother to her. Sandy never tried to replace Trish's mother. She asked Trish to call her "Gram" so that Megan could still be "Mom." Megan was always welcome to visit, but she didn't always show up when she promised. This pattern left Trish feeling heartbroken over and over again.

Trish's early trauma left her with deep emotional scars and PTSD. As she got older, it became clear that she was vulnerable and would often tolerate mistreatment just to feel like she mattered to someone.

When Trish was 10 years old, the family moved to New Hampshire to be closer to extended family. Sandy hoped that Trish might feel more rooted and connected. Trish loved fashion and dreamed of becoming a model. She loved to post photos of herself and would go through multiple outfits in a day. But Trish also had a rugged side—she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty and even went hunting in a white dress once.

In early 2018, Trish told her family she was heading to New Hampshire to clear up a court matter. She was 25 years old. That was the last time her family heard from her.

In the months that followed, horrifying clues began to emerge. Trish's belongings were found scattered in different locations. Her phone stopped pinging. And then, four months after she disappeared, a shocking discovery was made: a jawbone sealed inside a washing machine at the bottom of Grant Pond in New Hampshire.

The jawbone was identified as Trish's through dental records. Investigators believe she was murdered, and they have strong suspicions about who was involved. But despite ample circumstantial evidence, no one has ever been charged in connection with Trish's death.

The Investigation:

Trish's family has been tirelessly advocating for justice. They believe they know who is responsible, but without enough evidence to bring charges, the case remains unsolved. Trish's grandmother Sandy has said that she won't rest until someone is held accountable for what happened to her granddaughter.

If you have any information about Trish Haynes' disappearance or murder, please contact the New Hampshire State Police.

Trish Haynes was a young woman with dreams, a big heart, and a family who loved her deeply. She deserved so much more than the life she was given, and she deserves justice.

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] In early 20 18, 20 5-year-old Trish Haynes told her family she was heading to New Hampshire to clear up a court matter and then she vanished. In the months that followed horrifying clues about what happened to her began to emerge until a shocking discovery was made. Four months later, a jawbone sealed inside a washing machine at the bottom of Grant Pond.

Despite ample, circumstantial evidence, no one has ever been held accountable for Trisha's disappearance and murder. We'd like to say a special thank you to Trisha's loved ones Sandy, Valerie, Carrie Ann and Chloe for their help in putting together this episode and for allowing us to share Trisha's story.

Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi, Mandy. How are you? I am doing well. How are you? I'm doing good. It's a Saturday. We haven't done a Saturday schedule or Saturday. Recording in a while so we haven't Yeah.

Yeah, we haven't. It's a [00:01:00] Saturday in May and I know not everyone loves to hear us talk about the weather. It is hot, but that's not what I was gonna say. I was actually gonna say that we've actually had a few may showers the last few days and we have needed the rain so bad. I have actually been, we loving it.

We had a great thunderstorm last night and I slept like a baby. I do love a thunderstorm, but it just means frogs, frogs, and mosquitoes. That's rain. I'm looking at one right now. Now Rain? No. No. Oh no. I can't, I can't even think about this now. It's like when I open my front door I have to like shake it like five times to get off the lizards and the frogs and whatever else could be on there.

So, um, I'm glad you're enjoying the may flowers, or no? Why are we getting may showers? Why are we not getting may flowers? Oh, wait. Wait, why did I say shower? Like that was the normal. That's not even the, it's supposed to go. No. Well, we're getting April showers in May. This whole thing, I really messed that one up.

But Mandy, we've had a [00:02:00] lot of recording we've done lately. If you guys haven't listened, we redid our whole Casey Anthony story from the top. What am I trying to say? You're just trying to say almost eight. We did a new take on the Casey Anthony story. Yes. Um, and I really enjoyed how that turned out. I thought it turned out really me too.

Great. Yes. So if you haven't listed to that, that is up for you. And then on Thursdays, we have some really cool stuff coming up this week. We are. We have a guest coming on and we are going to be discussing. Uh, a trial that's happening, not Karen Reed, a new one, the Diddy trial. So if you want to get all caught up, we will have that for you on Thursday so you'll know what's going on as this case unfolds.

Awesome. So we'll get into the story for today. This is really one that sticks with you, and not just because of how the story ends, but because of who it happened to. A young woman who was just trying to find her place in the world after enduring a childhood that left her craving real connection and belonging.

Her [00:03:00] name was Trish Haynes, and long before her name was printed in headlines, she was just a little girl who had already survived more than most people. Trish, Danielle Haynes was born on July 22nd, 1992 in Stewart, Florida. The odds were stacked against her right from the start as her mom, Megan was just 15 years old, still really a child herself when she gave birth to Trish.

Megan's relationship with Trish's father, Toby was always rocky and never built to last, but things ultimately ended when Toby passed away from health issues, while Trish was still very young, Trisha's maternal grandparents, Sandy and Steven stepped in to help raise the little girl, and they were granted full custody of Trish when she was three.

Even before her grandparents adopted her, they were already her safe place and the people that she could always depend on. Trish was also close with her great aunt Valerie, who felt like a second grandmother to her. While Sandy was devoted to raising Trish, she never tried to take the [00:04:00] place of Trisha's mom, and she even asked Trish to call her Gram so that Megan could still be mom.

And Megan was always welcome to visit her daughter anytime, but the reality was often painful. Megan didn't always show up when she promised she would, and sometimes when she was there, she would be spending more time watching the clock than being present. And this pattern left Trish feeling heartbroken over and over again while Sandy and Steven tried their best to cushion the blow.

They provided as much love and stability as they could, but of course, some damage had already been done. Trisha's early trauma left her with deep emotional scars and PTSD, and as she got older, it became clear that she was a lot more vulnerable because of it. Trish would often tolerate mistreatment just to feel like she mattered to someone.

The family was originally from Florida, but at some point, Sandy and Steven made the decision to move to North Carolina, and this was back when Meghan and Toby were still together before he passed away. Their relationship had been so [00:05:00] volatile that Tricia's family just wanted to get her out of there for her own safety.

Additionally, Sandy owned property in New Hampshire, so they would also visit there often. When Trish was 10 years old, the family went to New Hampshire for Sandy's son's wedding, and Trish was even the flower girl. But the trip ended up being a turning point because for the first time, Sandy really noticed that Trish didn't know anyone on that side of the family, and Sandy really wanted to change that.

They soon moved to New Hampshire to be closer to the extended family, in hopes that Trish might feel more rooted and feel more of a sense of connection to her family. While in grade school in New Hampshire, Trish met a girl named Ashley Ruff. She wasn't exactly a friend, though. She was kind of known for being a bully, and Sandy always tried to discourage Trish from associating with her.

But Trish just had this really big heart and always saw the best in everyone. So she continued to be friends with Ashley. Sandy said that when Trish was little, she'd prance around the house wearing [00:06:00] her grandmother's high heels, and she just loved to play dress up and insisted that every day she had to wear something that matched.

Sometimes Trish would go through multiple outfits in one day, which means a lot of laundry for Sandy, but of course she didn't mind, and this love of fashion was really more than just a phase. It was a passion for Trish. Trish dreamed of one day being a model, and she loved to post her photos, but Trish also had a more rugged side to her.

She was someone that wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty. One day, a boy from the neighborhood actually asked her to go hunting, and she agreed despite being dressed in a white dress and tie tights. Which I don't know much about hunting, but I feel like that is not the, uh, typical attire. I feel like you're gonna get a little dirty there.

And so Trish comes home, she's covered in mud, but she's smiling from ear to ear, and that was really just who she was. She was girly and glamorous. One minute. Fearless and playful. The next Trisha's great aunt Valerie, [00:07:00] described her as being a kindhearted and innocent girl who was still street smart in her own way, but still she was someone that was very trusting sometimes to a fault.

Her cousin Carrie Ann, said that Trisha's naivety made her vulnerable, but Trisha was always looking for the good in others and giving them the benefit of the doubt. Trish never forgot a birthday or a holiday and would always find a way to sit her love, even if she couldn't be there in person. She really took care of her family and she made sure that they never had to worry too much.

When she lived in New Hampshire and her grandparents were back in Florida, she would call Sandy just to let her know that when she was walking to and from the store, especially if she was going alone. I'm very much that way still, like, I want you to know where I'm at. But also like that's from growing up with like my dad who was like, call when you get there, call.

When you leave that kind of a thing and you like know, especially being a parent now, how much of a relief that is for your kids to tell you that kind of stuff. 'cause then you're like, [00:08:00] okay, they're safe. So it's very thoughtful of her to do that. For others. As Sandy and Steve got older, they decided to permanently relocate to Florida and Trish moved with them.

In 2014, Trish met a man named Chris, and the two began dating. Their relationship would end up lasting about three years, but there were some red flags from the very beginning. Kris had recently been released from prison, so Trisha's family had plenty of concerns. They, for one, didn't trust Kris, and as time went on, their opinion of him only worsened At some point, Kris said he had a job lined up at a place called the Landmark Restaurant in North Woodstock in New Hampshire.

So he wanted to go move up there. And Trish decided to follow him, and she packed up her things and moved from Florida back to New Hampshire with Chris and got herself a job washing dishes at the same restaurant that Chris was working at. Trish also worked as a housekeeper at a nearby hotel, but since she didn't have a vehicle, she had to walk [00:09:00] to and from work most days to put it bluntly.

Trisha's relationship with Chris was very abusive. Trish would often show up to work with visible marks on her body, and Chris was known to be very controlling. The owners of the landmark restaurant noticed Trish's injuries and tried to help get her to safety, but she didn't want to leave Chris.

Trisha's family also saw the signs of abuse. At one point, they noticed that Trish no longer had her beautiful long hair, but instead she had a shaved head and Trish claimed that she had shaved her hair because some of the kids she babysat gave her lice. But that wasn't the truth. The truth was that Kris had coerced her into shaving her head after accusing her of looking at another man.

Awful. By 2017, Trish had had enough. She finally wanted to leave Kris and even filed a domestic violence report against him, but when he found out he could be sent back to jail over it, he put immense pressure on Trish to take it back, and eventually she did. She recanted her [00:10:00] statement. The police were aware that Kris was the one who had influenced this decision, and they warned that if Trish were to withdraw this complaint, they would have no choice but to charge her with filing a false police report, which is a charge that carried up to seven days in jail.

But Trish wasn't deterred. She never refiled the claim, and she was formally charged with filing a false police report. After this misdemeanor charge, Trish moved back to Florida to be closer to her grandparents again, which was a much needed return to safety and to the people that loved her the most.

However, in early 2018, Trish had to travel back to New Hampshire for her court date. She wanted to face this legal matter head on, and she planned to get everything squared away so that she could just return to Florida and live there permanently. I. Trisha's family begged her not to go back to New Hampshire, but she said she just wanted to go make things right, so this wouldn't be hanging over her head anymore.

But once Trish was back in New Hampshire, things didn't go as [00:11:00] planned, and the court date ended up getting pushed to April after a new public defender was assigned to her case and they wanted some more time to review documents. Since it was only January when Trish had first gone up there, Sandy encouraged her to just come back to Florida while she waited for the new court date, but Trish still refused and said that she wasn't leaving until she had tied up all of her loose ends there in New Hampshire.

At first, Trish was staying with her friend Becky, who lived on a farm in the rural town of Rumney. There was no cell phone signal on this farm, and Becky was gone because she worked long hours. Trish didn't mind the arrangement at first, and keep in mind she thought that it would only be for a couple of weeks.

But then when her court date got pushed to April, she started looking for somewhere else to stay that was a little closer to town, and that's around the time when she reconnected with someone from her past through Facebook, and that was her childhood friend. Ashley Rough and we're gonna get into so much more of the story after a quick break to hear a word from this [00:12:00] week's sponsors.

Now back to the episode. So before the break, we were discussing the life of Trish Haynes. At this point in the story, she is waiting for this court appearance she has to make for, uh, filing a false police report a few months before. Uh, she has nobody really to stay with up there, so she's staying with.

Someone in her family would rather her not stay with, which is a friend from her past that she reconnected with over Facebook, and that friend is Ashley Ruff. Ashley was going by Ashley Smith at this time, and she was living in Grafton with her husband Doug. And Trish arranged to move in with. Them. Becky dropped Trish off at a gas station in Canaan, New Hampshire, where Ashley and Doug picked her up and took her to their place in Grafton.

According to the murder she told podcast, Doug and Ashley were renting a house on nine and a half acres located at 2 25 Main Street, and there were several outbuildings on the property. Sandy was really uncomfortable with this situation. She [00:13:00] had never trusted Ashley, and she warned Trish to stay away from her.

And Trish had her own hesitations according to Becky. Trish had said something along the lines of, maybe I shouldn't be going there, because Grammy really doesn't like Ashley, which is so sad because like you can see, she knows this isn't right, but she just, I feel like this is somebody that's just lost in trying to figure out, like just wants to settle this thing and then live her life.

But Trish was hopeful that things would really work out fine. Ashley promised Trish that she would have access to a car and that she'd have freedom. However, Ashley's tendency to bully and be mean-spirited was still a thing. For example, Ashley would post photos of her and Trish living together, but in the comments she would go on to make derogatory remarks about Trish and her looks.

So for a little more context on Ashley and Doug, they both grew up in the same town, but Doug was. Older and had a widely known bad reputation. He had actually attended a school for Troubled Boys as a [00:14:00] teen, and Doug's history was long and disturbing, but the worst of it was that he was a known predator and a registered sex offender with a criminal record dating back over 15 years.

He had convictions for felonious, sexual assault, burglary, theft, harassment, and assault. Doug had violated probation and protective orders. Resisted arrest and had multiple charges for driving on a suspended license. The list went on and on, like receiving stolen property, breach of bail, failure to inform authorities of his status as a sex offender, and people in town did know who Doug was and they knew to stay away from him.

As for Ashley, she had a troubled background of her own. According to those who knew her, she just did not have a very stable upbringing. Her mom, Wendy, was emotionally abusive and struggled with mental illness. Interestingly, Ashley's grandmother Betty Place disappeared from her home in Warner, New Hampshire in 1978 [00:15:00] and has been missing ever since.

Her disappearance has long been viewed as suspicious, but Betty has never been found. Ashley's own childhood made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Like in August of 2005 when she was still barely a teenager, her family home was condemned. After a health inspector found it to be unlivable, the home was filled with trash, rotting food and animal waste, and there was no food for the children, and they also had a rooster living inside the house.

Upstairs where the children slept, there was pornography pinned to the walls and the whole house was literally falling apart. There was insulation hanging from unfinished walls and ceilings and outside the house. Animals wandered in the yard with no food, water, or shelter. In fact, when the state stepped in, they actually seized 57 animals from the ruffs property, including pigs, chickens, goats, geese, rabbits, dogs and cats.

All of these animals just free roaming. Starving. The conditions of the [00:16:00] home had spiraled far beyond neglect, and the house was deemed unfit for both animals and children. Volunteers helped clean up the home and make basic repairs, and the family was allowed to move back in. But not long after that, Ashley's parents were charged with child endangerment, but.

In a move that I absolutely don't understand when someone is charged with child endangerment, uh, the kids were allowed to stay in the home, which seems to be like, the home seems to be the problem, so, right. You know, I mean, part of the problem, obviously the parents had problems, but yet to keep them in there makes no sense.

No. But of course it wasn't long before more trouble followed. Just days after the child endangerment charges were filed, Ashley's dad was arrested for domestic assault after he threw a phone at her mom. And Ashley's mom had her own legal troubles, including trespassing and other troubling behavior.

Newspapers reported that she once had a huge feud with her neighbors and was known for regularly harassing them, even [00:17:00] running one of them off the road at some point. Eventually, both of Ashley's parents were convicted on 10 counts of child endangerment, but they never served jail time. The court ordered routine unannounced inspections of their home by a local health officer, but somehow these convictions didn't even stick because on appeal, a judge throughout the charges stating that the police had searched the property improperly, which I never understand that because.

How is it improper if you found all this evidence right, of neglect and not just child neglect, but animal neglect, and that's out in the front yard. So I feel like right, that how did they not have proper grounds to search? And that gives you ca Yeah, exactly. And that's where you would have cause to be able to search.

So that doesn't make sense, but it also makes me so upset whenever there are things that like an officer would know that they have to do. And it's not done. And maybe like, it's kind of like a gray area, but then the judge decides it's not gray area, this is black and [00:18:00] white, and they did it wrong. And so now what?

Right now, now nothing matters. It does kind of come down to just like following protocol like to the letter so that you don't end up in situations where it's like, well, now we have to, you know, side with the other side because you technically didn't do what you were supposed to do. So yeah, that's really frustrating.

By the summer of 2006, things were right back to the way they were before. The property was surrounded by junk cars and debris. Again, there were neglected animals roaming freely, and Ashley's mom was completely nonchalant about all of it. She said she just wanted the police and the town officials to leave her family alone.

When Ashley was younger, she had a strong desire to fit in much like Trish, but instead of building others up, Ashley often tore others down to make herself look and feel better. She was known for being manipulative and she was really an excellent liar In school, Ashley was desperate to be a part of a particular group, and when the opportunity came, she would throw her own friends under the bus.

Especially Trish, [00:19:00] despite her rocky upbringing, Ashley did appear to be turning those things around After high school. In her senior year, she gave birth to her first child, and after graduation, she seemed to have her life mostly together. She had a steady job, a clean apartment, and a car. It seemed as though she was moving beyond all the chaos that she grew up with.

She went on to have three more children before she ever even met Doug Smith. When Doug entered the picture, it raised red flags for people who knew Ashley, like her classmate, Chloe, who had known her for years. She could not believe that Ashley would bring someone like Doug around her kids. His reputation was no secret, and he was really a dangerous man.

So Chloe worried about Ashley and her four kids a lot. There was good reason to be worried. Ashley and Doug were completely toxic together and only amplified the worst in each other. They fed off each other's energy and encouraged chaos, recklessness and cruelty. Eventually, Ashley and Doug had kids of [00:20:00] their own, and by the time Trish moved in with them, Ashley was pregnant with her sixth baby.

Ashley had also racked up some charges of her own. Starting in her early twenties. She was charged with criminal mischief twice, and in one of those cases, she was accused of throwing a large rock at someone's car and causing over $1,500 in damage. She was indicted, but the charges were eventually dropped.

Then in March of 2018, just months after Trish moved in, Ashley and Doug were both rested again. This time for theft by deception and receiving stolen property After an incident at a Circle K. By the time Trish moved into Ashley and Doug's home, things were already on very shaky ground. At first, Trish's family wasn't fully aware of the whole extent of the things that were happening.

All they had were these little glimpses and these red flags that really started to add up. The first sign that something really wasn't right was [00:21:00] when Trish started contacting Sandy from Ashley's phone. She told her that her phone had been stolen, but Sandy now thinks that Ashley took Trish's phone as a means to control who Trish could talk to or just to isolate her entirely From that point on, calls from Trish were short, supervised and usually came from Ashley's phone.

Sandy noticed that Trish really didn't sound like herself, and she seemed very guarded when she spoke. As time went on, the calls became fewer and further between. And Sandy was alarmed by this because Trish was someone that was always glued to her phone and relied on it to keep in touch with her family.

So they wondered why she never got a replacement, and Trish didn't have a lot of money, but both Sandy and her aunt Val knew that she could have afforded a cheap phone. So it really didn't make any sense. But what made it worse is that they had no way of reaching Trish. Not just by phone. They actually didn't even have the address where she was staying, so there's no way someone could [00:22:00] stop by and check in on things.

They had to rely on Ashley of all people, and Ashley controlled the flow of information. But Sandy held onto the hope that this was just a temporary situation, and that Trish would be back in Florida as soon as her court hearing in April was over. Sandy said they were literally just counting down the days for her return, but April came and went and Trish never came home.

Told the family that Trish had gone to court and might need to serve seven days in jail. So Sandy and Val waited, but then two more weeks passed and there was still no phone call or any updates. Then at the end of April, Sandy suffered a heart attack and she waited by the phone in the hospital hoping and praying that Trish would call, but she never did.

It actually wasn't for several more days that she would hear from Trish. On May 16th, Trish finally called in. Sandy heard her voice for the last time. It was just a phone call, but Sandy knew that something was wrong. She said she was only on the [00:23:00] phone for about two to three minutes, and she said that Ashley's phone only had 2% battery, so she had to go.

This conversation was very brief and they didn't get to discuss anything meaningful after that call. The only communication Sandy had was through text messaging, and they were sent from Ashley's phone or possibly sent by Ashley herself as a middleman. Sandy feared that Trish wasn't the one writing the messages at all, and she might have been right.

Ashley continued to tell Trisha's family a series of ever-changing stories. First, she said that Trish left New Hampshire and went to Vermont with a new boyfriend, but when they asked for the boyfriend's name, Ashley couldn't provide one. Then Ashley said that Trish was intentionally pulling away from her family because she was mad at them and wanted distance, and Sandy told Ashley that she would like to hear that directly from Trish herself.

But of course, that conversation was never arranged and it never happened. At that point, Trish's Aunt Valerie started doing some digging of her own. She started by calling the [00:24:00] Plymouth District Court and was told something that stopped her dead in her tracks. Trish had never even shown up to her court date in April, and remember that was the only reason she had even gone to New Hampshire in the first place.

So when she did not show up, that's when the panic really set in. Valerie decided to head to New Hampshire where she had a summer home and she was going to start searching for Trish herself. She called the local police to see if they had any information, but they didn't. Val didn't even know where Ashley lived exactly.

So she drove to the town where she thought that Ashley lived and went around to the local stores asking if anyone knew her, but she didn't find anyone who did. Valerie was desperate for answers, and in that desperation, she even reached out to Trisha's ex-boyfriend Chris, the one who was a very dangerous man, just in case.

Maybe Ashley had gone back to him without telling anyone, but Chris hadn't heard from her either, and he did seem concerned and said that he would keep an eye out. Meanwhile, the [00:25:00] rest of Trish's family was pressing Ashley for answers, but she kept dodging their questions and blamed her lack of help on her mental health.

At the same time though, Ashley and her mom, Wendy, were both posting about Trish on Facebook and leaving cryptic comments saying they were worried about her and one of these Facebook exchanges. Wendy even claimed that she had just spoken to Trish and that Trish said that she just wanted to be left alone.

But Trish's family had enough on July 5th. Issued an ultimatum. If Trish didn't reach out, they'd file a missing person's report and get the police involved. And then Ashley responded with a chilling message. She said, if you report her missing, you will never hear from her again. Which if. Trish immediately calling the police, like that's the weirdest thing to say.

Absolutely. Yeah. So Sandy asked if that's what Trish said, or if that's what Ashley was saying, but Ashley refused to answer and said she wasn't going to deal with a million questions because she had quote. Just gotten outta the psych [00:26:00] ward. Sandy wondered why Ashley had been hospitalized, but she wouldn't give an answer and eventually she just stopped responding.

The very next day, though Trish was officially reported missing and the police wasted no time getting involved. One of their first recommendations was to stop Trisha's Social Security payments. If she was hiding out somewhere, the sudden stop of income might push her to contact the Social Security Office, but weeks went by and nothing happened.

Her Aunt Val said they knew it meant trouble when Trish didn't check for her money. Then on August 28th, the case became public. The Assistant Attorney General issued a plea asking for help from anyone who may know where Trish was that same day, the New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit. Carried out a search warrant at Ashley and Doug's home.

They didn't say why they were searching the home or what had led them there, and they wouldn't say if they thought Trish was in hiding or if something more sinister was [00:27:00] behind her disappearance. Ashley spoke to WMUR nine and really tried to downplay the whole thing. She claimed that she had no idea why the police were there searching her home.

She said Trish had stayed with her in the past, but she didn't live there. Ashley said the two were best friends, so of course they spent time together, but she said that she hadn't heard from Trish herself since June or maybe July. But Ashley also said, you know, she's not good with the dates, which is very convenient when you're trying to remember the last time you saw a missing person.

Right. Ashley said that she believed that Trish was just hiding out somewhere, but she said she did worry about her later, Chloe, which was that friend of Ashley's that grew up with her, became an advocate for Trish's family, and said that when she watched Ashley's interview, she knew the whole thing was a bunch of garbage.

She said she'd known Ashley for years and could tell when she was lying, and this was definitely one of those times. During the search of Ashley's home, [00:28:00] police used Luminol to check for traces of blood. According to cold case, new England. Several anonymous sources claim that they had seen photographs taken inside the home under black light.

They described what they saw as a quote, blinding display of stains and spatter indicative of something utterly ungodly. But despite this search, nothing came of it. There's no arrest, no public statements, and no charges. In late August of 2018, investigators acted on a tip that led them to Grant Pond, and this is a large and secluded body of water just off Wild Meadow Road in Grafton.

It's also less than a mile from where Ashley and Doug's property is. So the tip they received came from a woman named Sarah, who was actually living on Ashley and Doug's property with her husband Travis. A search of the pond turned up something bizarre and unusual. They found a washer and dryer set completely submerged in it, [00:29:00] and authorities believed that this could be linked to Trisha's disappearance.

So they took extreme care in recovering these appliances, and they put them in protective crates as they were pulled from the water. Media reports mentioned that authorities had pulled these crates from the water, but they didn't talk about what was inside them, which was done on purpose. What they did find inside the washing machine changed everything Sandy said.

The police called and told her that they found a piece of human remains that they believed belonged to Trish, but they asked her not to tell anyone about it. They asked her if she would be willing to provide a DNA sample, which she did months later. Sandy's worst fears were confirmed. In January of 2019, the police confirmed that they had found a jawbone and dental records proved that the jawbone belonged to Trish.

They knew that she had been killed and dismembered. The autopsy estimated that Trish had been murdered sometime in May, just days or [00:30:00] weeks after she was last heard from. While there's been some confusion over how much of Tricia's remains have been found, we just wanna clarify that it was only her jawbone that was located and not her entire body.

After receiving the most heartbreaking news of her life, Sandy was asked not to tell anyone what she knew. And this included her own family. Gosh, she wasn't My gosh. Even allowed. Yeah. She wasn't even allowed to tell anyone that they had found some of Trisha's remains or that she was even deceased. And this was all to protect the integrity of the investigation.

But of course. Sandy needs someone to talk to. Yeah. So I, I simply cannot imagine finding out this news and the police are like, you gotta keep it to yourself. Like, and they're not saying for 24 hours. Right? Like indefinitely is Indefinitely. Yeah. Oh. Uh, but as I said, she was just devastated and beside herself and needed someone, you know, in her corner.

So the police did allow her to tell Valerie, but for the next nine months, the two of them had to pretend that Trish was still missing and they listened in [00:31:00] silence as people claim to have seen or heard from her. Sandy later said that not being able to grieve openly and share the truth really took a toll on her mental health.

The family also believed that keeping the discovery under wraps may have actually hurt the investigation more than helped it because they wondered if people might have come forward with more information, if they had known that Trish wasn't just missing, but that she had been murdered. On July, 2019, patients had run out and Trish's family was frustrated by the lack of answers and the forced silence.

So Val leaked the news of Tricia's death to WMUR. The reporter went straight to the Attorney General's office and told them that the station planned on going public with this information at 11:00 PM that very night. So a few hours later at 7:00 PM the Attorney General's office got ahead of it and finally made a statement confirming that Tricia's case was now being treated as a homicide investigation, but they didn't reveal where they had found her Remains.

The attorney General was asked about any suspects, but they [00:32:00] said we don't typically name suspects. That's all I'm going to say at this point. They did confirm that they were aware of Ashley and Doug, but they didn't identify them as suspects or even as persons of interest at that point. To this day, Tricia's family is angry over how her remains were handled and the months long secrecy that followed, but nobody from the Attorney General's office has ever apologized to Sandy or Val.

In the months that followed, Trisha's family began piecing together the truth on their own. They gathered tips, chase leads, and talked to anyone who might've known something, and they actually were able to learn a lot. One of the first people Valerie talked with was a woman named Faith who had been to Ashley and Doug's home while Trish was still living there.

She alleged that she had witnessed Doug Backhanding Trish during a visit. And she said that she reported this incident to the police after Trish was declared missing. And there were other reports too. These reports came from inside the house. Some [00:33:00] of Ashley and Doug's kids allegedly told the police they had witnessed Trish being punched in the face.

Another woman who had met Trish once in the summer of 2018 at someone else's home said that Trish looked terrified and unkempt. She would not make eye contact with anyone. This woman said she later filed a restraining order against Ashley. More than one witness told Trisha's family that the abuse came mostly from Ashley and not Doug.

Ashley was jealous and accused Trish of trying to steal her husband, and she even claimed that she had slept with not just Doug, but also with Travis, who was someone that lived on the property with his wife, Sarah, that we mentioned earlier. Ashley used the accusations to justify verbally and physically lashing out at Trish.

Valerie later spoke to a woman named Beverly, who had known both Travis and Sarah and heard horrifying accounts from them such as that Trish had been forced to care for Ashley and Doug's five kids, along with two or three kids that belonged to Sarah and Travis. [00:34:00] Trish had no phone, no freedom, and no financial control.

They regularly took money from her Social Security debit card, but that wasn't even the worst of it. According to Sarah, Trish was being trafficked. She was being forced to perform sex acts for Ashley's father, as well as their friends, and even local drug dealers. In one incident, Sarah and Travis allegedly beat Trish after she called one of their children a moron.

But the most haunting detail that came from Sarah was that Ashley had once locked Trish in a non-working freezer. It wasn't clear if Trish was alive at the time of this incident, but another source confirmed that it was a regular thing for Ashley to put Trish in the freezer with a padlock on it as a way to terrorize her.

And this freezer has never been found. Sarah said that Ashley's father came over after Trish died and helped them dismember her body, burn what they could, and put the rest into a washing machine that they eventually dumped in Grant [00:35:00] Pond. Sarah told Beverly that Travis was there when Trish took her last breath.

Some of the most damning evidence came from one of Travis and Sarah's children. For the protection of the child, we will just refer to them as the child. The child spent a lot of time at Ashley and Doug's house, and unfortunately witnessed a lot more than any child should ever witness. When Trisha's missing person photo appeared on the news, the child recognized her immediately and told their biological mother that Trish had been at Ashley and Doug's house.

Later when the child was older, they took Trisha's family back to the property and described what they had witnessed. They said that the abuse started the day Trish moved in. It's believed that Ashley had lured Trish to the property because she thought Trish and Doug were already sleeping together, or that Trish wanted to sleep with Doug and the plan all along was to get her there to abuse her.

Trish was always injured and even had an open infected wound on her back at one [00:36:00] point due to Doug doing something to her with a power drill. The child described how Ashley and Doug made Trish sleep in an old shed with nothing but a blanket, even when it was cold outside, and they sometimes locked her in there so that she wouldn't be able to escape.

At one point the child actually drew a map of the property and gave it to Trish, hoping it would help her find a way out. But when Sarah found the map, she ripped it up and warned her child to never do anything like that again, because it would make Ashley very angry that broke my heart, that like the kid knows how bad this situation is to take it upon themselves to draw a map.

I just, being a kid, I can't imagine thinking you've gotta be, you know, to do something in this story, in this. And honestly, in that case, it kind of makes me feel like the. Child was just vicariously hoping because the child wants to escape too. Like of course this is what I would do if I wanted to escape.

I would need a map to get out of here. And so like that truly is heartbreaking just to even think the child would think to do that, you know? Yeah. That just goes to show how terrible like gets out. Maybe somebody will come help us. [00:37:00] Yes. So according to the child, it was Ashley and not Doug who was responsible for Trisha's death.

Unfortunately, when investigators learned about the child's testimony, they dismissed everything and said the child was too young to be a credible witness, and that they may have been influenced by what they heard from others. So with that, one of the only firsthand accounts of what happened inside that house was just set aside.

Despite everything, including the evidence of physical abuse, the discovery of Trisha's Jawbone, and the mountain of disturbing allegations, no one has ever been arrested in connection with Trisha's death. Her Aunt Valerie has gone on the record numerous times stating that she believes both Ashley and Doug were responsible for the murder, and she is not the only one who thinks so.

Ashley and Doug are literally the only people that are talked about when discussing who took Trisha's life, but in the eyes of the law, they're still just regular people. And we have more to get into after one last break to hear [00:38:00] a word from this week's sponsors. And now back to the episode. So before the break, we were discussing the child that did speak to the police and told them what they knew and learned that the police said that this child was too young.

Couldn't have really been a reliable witness and therefore dismissed what this child was saying. Unfortunately, that leaves them back at square one with the names of Ashley and Doug being the only ones that are really out there, but there's nothing. Concrete to, uh, to connect them at this point. On September 6th, 2019, two months after the Attorney General's office confirmed that Trish was deceased, a rally was held in Concord, New Hampshire.

The message was simple but urgent. Demand justice for Trish Haynes. But just one month later, something really bizarre happened. Former friends of Ashley who had spoken to the police before received what appeared to be ominous warnings when their [00:39:00] vehicles were intentionally set on fire. These incidents were confirmed to be arson, and the vehicles were completely destroyed, but nobody's been charged and the arsons are under investigation.

Over the years that followed, Tricia's case remained open, but it was largely inactive and there were no arrest or public updates. Patricia's family, the silence was unbearable. Nothing really seemed to be moving forward. A short time later, another rally was held as Trisha's family fought tooth and nail.

To make sure she wasn't forgotten, Ashley and Doug were called out by name and asked to give information about Trisha's murder. Since they were the last people to see her alive in 2023, they joined forces with other families across the state to seek justice for the families of 130 other unsolved murder victims in New Hampshire.

Among the families that were present was that of Maura Murray. Another case that's really haunted this area for years, the families really weren't just calling for [00:40:00] justice. They were demanding reform. They wanted better communication, more transparency and accountability from the state. When police have been asked about Ashley and Doug, they said they know who they are, but they do not identify them as suspects or persons of interest.

While Tricia's family was holding rallies, demanding justice and pushing for answers, Ashley was busy racking up more charges. In October of 2019, the police in Croda, New Hampshire were called to a home for a domestic disturbance. And when the police chief arrived, he saw Ashley in a car with another man driving away from the scene.

When he stopped them, they claimed they didn't know anything about the incident. But back at the house, Doug had told the police that Ashley just left and that she was going nuts. Another man at the house named Brandon confirmed that a heated argument had just taken place and Ashley tried to take off in a car that Doug didn't want her to take, and things escalated Earlier when Ashley had been approached by the police chief.

She threw her purse out of the [00:41:00] car and it was later found with a loaded gun and a spare magazine inside. At that time, Ashley was actually under a court order that prohibited her from possessing firearms, but she still didn't lay low after this. Instead, she drove to a neighboring town to report the police chief for stealing the gun and for taking $500 from her purse.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Not a great plan, and it backfired. She actually ended up getting arrested and being charged with violating a protective order and the felony crime of falsifying physical evidence. Ashley was indicted and a trial date was set, but the case dragged on in May of 2022. She failed to appear in court and then a warrant was issued for her arrest.

She was arrested on July 5th, and she had her bail revoked only to be released a few days later. Anyway, this pattern continued. Ashley skipped a hearing on July 20th and again on August 4th. Then she missed a bail hearing on August 8th and again on August 30th. In October of [00:42:00] 2022, things got even worse when New Hampshire police tried to pull Ashley over for driving her car without a license plate, as well as a defective equipment violation, but she refused to stop the car and a dangerous police chase ensu across multiple towns.

Police used stop sticks to deflate her tires. And even after all four of her tires had blown out, she still wouldn't stop. Whoa. And the car eventually collided with a police cruiser, and at that point Ashley was taken into custody and charged with two counts of reckless conduct and one count of falsifying evidence, both of which are felonies.

She was also charged with disobeying an officer, a false imprisonment, and driving on a suspended license. By this time, Ashley had three bench warrants and a superior court warrant on separate charges. She was sentenced to prison time, but she was released on parole in April of 2025. And Doug's criminal history also continued to grow as Tricia's case stalled.

In December of 2020, Doug took a global plea agreement, which was a deal [00:43:00] that included charges spanning multiple counties and the attorney General's office. Doug pleaded guilty to an array of serious crimes, including aggravated felonious sexual assault, multiple counts of voter fraud, reckless conduct with a deadly weapon, possessing a firearm as a felon, and failure to register as a sex offender.

18 when he gave false information while registering to vote. Doug was sentenced to five in prison, and some of those sentences would run concurrently while others were suspended. Doug actually tried to make a run for it. In December of 2019, Doug skipped court and vanished. Alerts were immediately issued, and by March of 2020, the US Marshals had joined the search.

That same month, Doug's face appeared on the TV show Live PD when he was broadcast nationally as a fugitive on the run. Three months later, Doug was finally found. He was arrested in West Charleston, Vermont, where he had been hiding [00:44:00] out and using the name Robert as an alias. He was actually staying with his friends there.

When police found Doug, he cooperated at first, but once he realized they were actually there to arrest him, he resisted and had to be subdued with a taser. While Doug was behind bars, a fellow inmate actually came forward with a bombshell. They claimed that Doug had confessed to murdering Trish. The informant even offered to wear a wire to help authorities obtain a taped confession, but the police declined the offer.

Doug has never been charged in connection to Trisha's murder, and as of today, nobody has ever been arrested for the murder of Trish Haynes, and there are no named suspects or persons of interest. This has been an ongoing source of pain and frustration for Trisha's family as they believe, without question that Ashley and Doug Smith are responsible for her death, as do many others who have followed this case.

Patricia's family believes that the initial investigation was thorough, but that the case has stalled with the District Attorney's office because they refuse to move forward [00:45:00] without a full confession from the killer or killers despite heaps of circumstantial evidence pointing toward Doug and Ashley, and I think this is interesting that you have a jailhouse informant who is offering to wear a wired for them to obtain.

What they're looking for. Uh, and they can't get that done. So that, yeah. You, you can see how that's extremely frustrating. Yeah. But the family thinks that the district attorney is afraid of losing the case. So instead of moving forward with a case they could lose, they are simply doing nothing. The worst thing to come of all this is that there are people out there who have tried to blame Trish for what happened to her by suggesting that making mistakes and bad decisions made her deserve to be killed.

Her cousin, Carrie Ann, said in response, it's an awful system of justice when the victim is blamed. I don't care if in her naivety, Trish made a bad decision. She was beaten, starved, held against her, will tortured, murdered, dismembered, burned, and her remains were thrown into a pond. No one deserves that bad decision or not.

End quote. [00:46:00] Anne also reiterated that Trish cannot speak for herself and that the family needs answers, but they can't get that without the help of those who know something. If you have any information, no matter how small, please contact the New Hampshire State Police at 6 0 3 2 2 3 4 3 8 1, and if you're listening and wondering how you can help.

Here is what Trish's family is asking. Uh, they would love for you to keep talking about Trish, keep sharing her story and just keeping her name alive. You can also join the justice for Trish Haynes Facebook group to stay connected and to help spread the word, and we'll have that linked in our show notes.

And there are also flyers that can be shared both online and in person. And lastly, you can sign the petition on change.org demanding that a recipe be made In Trisha's case, Trisha's family has carried the burden of her loss for far too long, and what they need now is help and for pressure to be put on authorities because Trish deserves justice and she deserves to be remembered.

To me, this story has a lot of similarities between Trish and Tiffany Booth. [00:47:00] Both of them were very kind, but their families both said that they tend to trust people quite a bit. And so it makes me so sad in both these cases that there are people that. Very well could be involved and we know some names and we know some faces, and still it's not really going anywhere.

I personally don't understand how much more the New Hampshire Attorney General's office needs to find a jaw in a, a freezer, in, in a pond. You don't just. That doesn't just happen, right? Yeah. That's not an accident. Um, so I feel like there's just enough there to put more pressure on the people who lived in the house and man breaks my heart for the kids that, yeah, you know, were clearly witnesses to this.

I don't know. The whole thing is so sad. And then, I don't know if you think this now, Mandy, that our kids are older. I think of someone or people like Sandy and Steve, you're done raising your kids, right? They're, you know, becoming adults and now they're taking on raising their grandchild who they love and adore.

But like I think of that now and I've always thought like, oh yeah, of course I would do something like [00:48:00] that, right? But now that I'm almost in the next stage of life, I just think, I can't imagine starting over. So I have so much respect for them and just. Anyone that does that, but my heart just breaks for them because that's their baby.

Yeah. Yeah. It's an incredibly heartbreaking story, and I really hope that this family gets the answers that they're looking for very soon. And that was our story for this week, Melissa. Um, I know we have, we've been doing lots of different fun things on our Thursday episodes, but what we haven't done in a while, and we would love to do again, is.

A mailbag episode. Yay. Yay. We always love the mailbag episode. So if you would like to participate in the mailbag episode, you can email us or send us, uh, a story can be kind of true crime esque or maybe by some degree of separation, you know, or we're related to some kind of a. Crime or just a really crazy story or a conspiracy or just something really wild.

We totally wanna hear the story. We've had a lot of fun on the mailbag episode, so if you're not sure so much, yeah, if you're not sure what we're looking for, you can go back and [00:49:00] listen to a couple of the, uh, other ones that we've done already, but we've been really enjoying doing those and reading everyone's stories.

So please, please send us mailbag stories. Melissa, where can they send those? They can send those to moms and mysteries@gmail.com. Please put mailbag in the subject line so we don't. Lose it because there's always that chance. Um, yeah. Super excited. Love those. Please send those end. And my dad has given me a couple extra stories I can share.

Nice. I love your bad stories. Crazy. Awesome. All right guys. Well that's it for this week. We'll see you back next week. Same time, same place. New story. Have a great week. Bye.