Dead runaway's mom tried to get help

The girl, 16, was to have been picked up by deputies. Instead, her body was found Aug. 1

By RYAN DAVIS and CARY DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 3, 2002

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Tara Ramsdell knew her daughter was in trouble. Sixteen-year-old Joshan Marie Ashbrook frequently ran away from home, and Ramsdell suspected her daughter was staying with older men, trading sex for drugs, maybe dabbling in Internet pornography.

Ramsdell turned to the courts for help. The courts acted quickly.

A judge signed an order Monday directing the Pasco County Sheriff's Office to pick up Joshan and take her to a treatment facility.

For 36 hours, Joshan was at home with her mother in New Port Richey. But no one from the Sheriff's Office came to get her.

Now Joshan is a homicide victim, and Sheriff Bob White has launched an inquiry into his agency's inaction.

Might she still be alive if the Sheriff's Office had acted faster?

"That's a question that we can't answer," said Kevin Doll, a spokesman for White.

Monday morning. Joshan had come home after running away. Tara Ramsdell knew it was just a matter of time before Joshan ran again. The 35-year-old woman brought her daughter to the West Pasco Judicial Center at 8 a.m., just after the doors opened.

A court bailiff noticed Joshan's erratic behavior and called for a deputy. The deputy advised Ramsdell to fill out a petition to have Joshan committed for substance abuse treatment under the state's Marchman Act.

Ramsdell walked upstairs and filled out the paperwork.

"My child is in trouble," Ramsdell wrote in the petition. "If I keep her home she will run again. I believe she is into Internet pornography."

Joshan recently had been a patient at the Harbor, a mental health and addiction facility in New Port Richey, Ramsdell wrote. Now Joshan was refusing to take her medicines.

In response to a question about her daughter's problems, Ramsdell wrote: "Runaway, staying with older men, sexual dealings, bringing drugs in the home."

She also wrote that Joshan was "possibly having sex for drugs."

Shortly after Ramsdell filed her petition, court officials got a call from a local juvenile drug treatment center, records show. There was a bed available for Joshan.

About 11 a.m. Monday, Circuit Judge Daniel Diskey signed an order granting Ramsdell's petition. He directed the Sheriff's Office to pick up Joshan and take her for treatment.

The order arrived at the Sheriff's Office between 5 and 6 p.m.

Over the next 36 hours, "no attempt was made by the Sheriff's Office to contact (Joshan) or her mother," according to an agency news release.

When the Sheriff's Office receives a Marchman Act order, the on-duty sergeant or lieutenant typically assigns the case to a deputy, Doll said. That deputy goes to the house and picks up the person who needs help.

Doll declined to comment on where the system broke down in Joshan's case.

"We're still trying to determine if it's a policy failure or something else," he said.

On Friday, Ramsdell declined to talk about her daughter or how the Sheriff's Office handled the case.

Doll said he's not sure how long it usually takes to serve a Marchman Act order.

"It's my understanding that it shouldn't take 36 hours," he said.

For the rest of Monday and all day Tuesday, Joshan was at her family's single-story concrete block home on Sheelin Drive, Doll said.

At 2 a.m. Wednesday, Ramsdell discovered her prediction had come true. Joshan had run away.

Three hours later, Ramsdell called the Sheriff's Office. At 6:32 a.m., a deputy took a runaway report.

The search for Joshan was on.

Twice between 3 and 7 p.m. Wednesday, deputies stopped by Joshan's house to see if she was home. Both times, she wasn't.

On Thursday morning, three Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative workers found Joshan.

She was dead, partly clad, lying in the brush next to Shady Hills Road.

Her killing remains unsolved.

-- Ryan Davis is the police reporter in Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is rdavis@sptimes.com.

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