Posted on 10/16/2005 1:21:23 PM PDT by wagglebee
It's been three years since Terry Ashcraft of Billings last spoke to his daughter, the 21-year-old University of Southern California student accused of leaving her newborn son to die in an alley behind a popular bar in Los Angeles.
So Ashcraft was as shocked as anyone when he learned of the allegations against Holly Ashcraft - a pretty honor roll graduate of West High who reportedly attended USC on a full scholarship.
“If I could say something that would enlighten things, I would do that,” Terry Ashcraft said outside his home Friday. “All I can really say about it is this: I love her. She's one hell of a good kid, and I'm puzzled. I don't understand it.”
Police in Los Angeles say Holly Ashcraft was arrested Wednesday, three days after an anonymous tipster called 911 to report finding the newborn in an alley behind a bar popular with USC students. When officers arrived, they found the child's body lying in a cardboard box next to a trash bin. The boy's umbilical cord was still attached, suggesting a medically unattended birth.
Ashcraft was charged with murder and a felony count of child abuse. If convicted, she would face 25 years to life in prison.
On Thursday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge raised her bail from $1 million to $2 million, upholding a request by prosecutors who described her as a flight risk.
Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, and police spokesman Officer Jason Lee declined to disclose how police tied Ashcraft to the birth. But police told the owner of the building where the bar was located - and where Ashcraft lived in a second-floor apartment - that she was linked to the case after seeking medical treatment, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Times also reported that Ashcraft was a full-time student in her third year. She was suspended pending the outcome of the criminal case, the newspaper said.
Ashcraft was scheduled to appear for arraignment Nov. 9.
An attorney representing Ashcraft said people shouldn't rush to judgment.
“A lot of information is yet to come,” Paul Wallin, of the criminal defense firm Wallin and Klarich, said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “We're hoping the ultimate result will be a positive one for our client.
Results of an autopsy performed on the child this week will not be available for at least a month, though police said the child was born full-term and alive.
A California law allows mothers to surrender newborns to hospital emergency rooms and some fire stations with no questions asked and no legal repercussions. Montana has a similar law allowing a parent to surrender a newborn baby to emergency services providers, such as hospitals, fire departments or law enforcement agencies. The child is then put up for adoption.
Terry Ashcraft was separated from Holly's mother for some time before they divorced in 2000 or 2001. It's been years since he lived under the same roof with his daughter, whom he described as “very bright, athletic and very upbeat.”
He did not know whether his daughter was pregnant and said he hasn't heard from Holly or her mother, who lives in Washington state, since Holly's arrest. What little he knows about the case has come from monitoring media reports, he said.
“There's so much confusion right now,” Terry Ashcraft said. “I'm confused; there's confusion in Southern California. There's so much going on down there that I don't know about that I just don't want to comment.”
Terry Ashcraft said his home telephone and cell phone had been ringing off the hook on Thursday and Friday, mostly from concerned relatives and friends. He would not be able to visit his daughter for at least two weeks, he said.
Wallin said he had more than 35 media inquiries about the case Friday, including calls from People and Time magazines, “Good Morning America” and “Today.” But Wallin said family members who have come to Southern California to support Ashcraft won't be doing any interviews.
“Everyone should be respectful,” Wallin said. “She has the support of her entire family.”
Wallin and partner Steve Klarich will team up for Ashcraft's defense. The firm has offices across Southern California and has been in business since 1981. Wallin said he has provided legal analysis on MSNBC during high-profile trials, including the recent Michael Jackson trial.
I posted a little piece last night about the bad effects of divorce on kids. As usual, many people who broke up with their spouses jumped up to say that theirs was an exceptional situation and so forth. I expect this guy thought so as well. But it seems to me that it's not all that surprising that the young lady who did this was a girl without a dad in her life.
A family of bums..............
The first birth is usually the most agonizing, and to be going through it alone must have been completely terrifying. There is often a good deal of blood lost, and if she had no medical attention, she might not have been thinking clearly.
I can't help but think that most of the "burn the witch" crowd posting here are men - who don't have the faintest idea of the physical toll of pregnancy and childbirth on a body. Before modern medicine, childbirth was one of the top killers of women.
This is a tragedy. No woman under the best of circumstances expects to go through childbirth alone. Something else was going on/not going on for woman/girl to have done this.
A horrible case, but I'm inclined to agree that she must have been mixed up. A cool and callow feminist would have had the child comfortably aborted, would have suffered a good deal less herself, and would have been complimented by her friends for her good sense, instead of ending up threatened with jail. If she had aborted it just a day earlier she would have been home free.
It was still a terribly evil thing to do, but I don't see any deliberate or malevolent planning here; more likely a weak upbringing, poor moral education in the public schools, lack of good advice from any of her college friends, an uncaring or possibly unknowing boyfriend, bad influence from the media and entertainment industries, and a horrible decision at the last moment to let her own child die.
P.S. Out of curiosity, are you Podkane of Mars, or some other podkane? The name rings a bell.
One of my favorite Heinlien novels.. spelling simplified
No one would argue against that. I think the fault is more in the family and friends around her than "society at large" here. If one has gone through hours of labor, lost significant amounts of blood, it is also not the best condition to be rational. Where were her friends and family?
I'm not so sure she is all that deserving of sympathy.
USC Student Was Focus of '04 Baby Investigation
L.A. Times - Oct 15, 2005
A 21-year-old USC student charged with her baby's abandonment and death this week also was investigated last year after she arrived at a hospital in downtown Los Angeles appearing to have just given birth but without a baby, according to law enforcement sources close to the case. In that April 2004 investigation, Holly Ashcraft eventually told authorities that the child had been stillborn and that she had disposed of its body on her own, the sources said.
[snip]
The sources and Ashcraft's attorney emphasized that she was never arrested or charged in connection with the incident in 2004.
[snip]
Good one.
I am a woman. I have had FOUR children. This woman is an evil, selfish witch. She should go to prison for the rest of her life.
Was she too stupid to call 911? NO. She wanted to be able to get rid of the baby without anyone noticing.
Once again...timing is everything - if she'd gone to planned unparenthood she could have had them murder the baby no charge and she'd be scott free.
Read post 28- it looks like this wasn't her first birth at all.
Why didn't the authorities investigate instead of taking her word for it? It sounds like she had murdered two babies within two years- with no one realizing that she was pregnant either time.
Report: USC student charged with abandoning newborn also investigated last year
I don't know. The article wasn't very illuminating. Her current attorney is saying, "Regarding that incident, not only was our client not prosecuted for any crime, she wasn't even arrested for any crime…. And no crime was committed."
The police are saying that "they never found a baby's body in the 2004 case, so they could not determine if Ashcraft was telling the truth".
It's a sad story.
She must be seriously disturbed. Don't have time to find it now, but there's another thread stating that last year she also sought medical care after an unattended birth---stating the baby had been stillborn and she had disposed of it.
At least that what the media is reporting.
Apparently, too much time had passed (according to the other article posted above) so they didn't look for the body. Still, I know we have medical privacy, but it seems to me that her family were on notice the first time to at least get her some psychiatric help. Instead, she got pregnant nine months later and did the same thing again.
Uh oh. I didn't know that. It still doesn't strike me as the kind of thing a cold-blooded, malevolent killer would do, but if she has managed to kill TWO babies, then she strikes me as very likely someone with very deep drug or mental problems or some sort of affectless personality unable to distinguish between right and wrong.
It's not unknown for young women in these times to have multiple abortions because they like sex and don't give a damn about the children that sex produces, but to deliver children and let them die, not once but twice, suggests a really depraved or pathological person.
Project Cuddle has saved many of these babies from death.
http://www.projectcuddle.org/
How It All Began
Project Cuddle™ is the result of one woman's crusade to help prevent infants from being abandoned. Debbe Magnusen and her husband Dave fostered over 30 drug-exposed babies, while raising two biological children. They eventually adopted five beautiful little ones. Thus,Project Cuddle's™ crisis line was formed from the living room of Debbe's home, with the hope of ending baby abandonment.
On July 8, 1996, the 24 hour toll-free crisis hotline was unveiled to the public. Within 12 hours, Project Cuddle™ received its first crisis call. A frightened young woman called and said "I saw you on TV and I know the trash is bad for the baby. You better figure out what to do with this baby or I'm going to put it in the park." The woman had no prenatal care and assumed she was due in the next week.
With only days to orchestrate a safe and legal alternative to abandonment, Project Cuddle™ was able to retain an attorney, a family wanting to rescue and adopt the baby, as well as an obstetrician, hospital and social counselor. Debbe Magnusen coached this woman through the delivery of a beautiful baby girl. After the baby was delivered into the arms of the adoptive parents, the birth mother said to Debbe. "I feel like I've done something good for the first time." The woman did not break the law, the baby was safe and a rescue couple was overjoyed at having a new daughter in their lives.
Statistics indicate that 57 children are abandoned everyday, that's over 20,000 a year and these are only the ones that are found. Since it's inception, Project Cuddle™ has saved hundreds of babies across the country from the fate of being abandoned, or worse.
Project Cuddle™ was incorporated as a 501 (c)(3) non-profit charity in 1994. A volunteer Board of Directors oversees the organization, which Debbe runs on a day-to-day basis with the assistance of volunteers and a minimal paid staff. Since its founding, Project Cuddle™ has successfully saved hundreds of babies from being abandoned. Project Cuddle™ is committed to helping any pregnant girl or woman regardless of race, creed, religious affiliation, financial status or HIV status.
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