Rose's Cantina

  On April 2, 2017, a family friend of Ashley Simpson opened her Facebook Messenger and got the surprise of her life.  Cathy MacLeod had been trying to correspond with Ashley's boyfriend, Derek Favell, who was the last person to see the St. Catharines native before she disappeared from her home in Salmon Arm, B.C. a year before. She wanted to know more about what happened to Ashley, and why Favell had refused to take a polygraph test when many others close to the missing woman agreed to do so. "I wanted to poke the bear," she said, and sent several messages to Favell pleading with him to talk to her.  " Please help us," she wrote. "It's been 10 months of pure hell. A lie detector would help if you have nothing to hide. I beg of you, help us, take the test to clear your name if there’s nothing to hide." Many, including members of the Simpson family, found Derek's behaviour, at least, curious. Ashley had disappeared on April 27, 2016. Yet it took...

On the afternoon of April 27, 2016, Ashley, her boyfriend and a friend went up to Margaret Falls which was a popular spot for tourists and residents of Salmon Arm, British Columbia.  This photo was taken that afternoon.  She was never seen again. The night before, Ashley shared a post on Facebook. "If someone can fall asleep knowing you're crying, knowing you're hurting or didn't get home safe, they don't care for you." And then. "It's time to move on." Please share the hashtag: #JusticeforAshley Somebody knows something. There is a $10,000 reward for information about what happened to her. Please someone come forward. Don't be afraid. We can protect you.

Over the past four years, I've taken an amazing virtual journey to hell and back with my cousins John and Cindy. It started with a Facebook post from John's sister, Julie Major. Her niece, Ashley, had disappeared from her home in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.  I didn't know I had a cousin named Ashley. I didn't even know I had a cousin named John. Over these past few years, I've gotten to know them very well; they allowed me into the inner sanctum of their family and their pain. They gave me the privilege of telling Ashley's story warts and all. The journey has been horrendous at times. It's difficult watching people you care about sit with a pain that never leaves them, to see them leaning toward the phone waiting for police calls, to worry that John would get into a fight with a boyfriend that didn't call the police for a week after Ashley left him. It was always something. John qualified for EI under a relatively obscure provision that...

Ashley's search party  When Cindy McGean Simpson received the call that her daughter Ashley was missing in Salmon Arm, she immediately contacted the RCMP. It was days after Ashley had disappeared after an ill-fated drinking party at Margaret Falls involving Ashley, her boyfriend Derek, and a friend. The party, by many accounts, had turned into an alcohol-fuelled fight between Ashley and Derek. Ashley had already made the decision to leave Derek and travel back to her home in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She didn't know how she was going to make it back. She was still waiting on a cheque from unemployment, she had no money, and had only texting ability on her Smartphone. But she knew she had to leave. It was clear that the situation had gone south since the pair relocated to Salmon Arm from Pink Mountain in a truck that Derek had borrowed without telling his employer. So this was a last hurrah. After the fight, Derek told police, the pair went back to their trailer where he ...

Four years ago, Ashley Simpson and her boyfriend Derek Favell left their life in Pink Mountain, British Columbia and decided to make their home in Salmon Arm, the small community where Derek had grown up. Ashley had lived lots of places after growing up in St. Catharines, Ontario. Ashley loved the outdoors, fishing, hunting, and enjoyed following her dad, John, who divided his time as a cook in rugged Northern work camps, on ships that sailed through the Great Lakes, and at a posh resort in Huntsville, Ontario. Ashley was a happy child, who wasn't afraid of hard work. She loved children, and charmed everyone with her infectious laugh. It was in Pink Mountain where John last saw his beloved daughter. John had to get back to Ontario, but Ashley had met Derek and wanted to stay, so John reluctantly told her to stay safe and keep in touch. He kissed his daughter and wished her luck. Over the next few months, Ashley's mom and her sisters were in constant contact wi...

On April 26, 2016, my cousin Ashley Marie Simpson disappeared from her home in Salmon Arm, B.C. after having a fight with her boyfriend, Derek Favell. It's hard to believe it has been four years. Her body has never been found, and no one has been arrested in connection with her disappearance save -- I cannot believe I'm writing this -- a number of people who have tried to use her I.D. to get credit cards. I spoke with her mom and dad today, and they still have no clue what happened to her. Cindy and John both believe she is dead, but they have no body to bury. The police have no suspects. "We still have plans for a memorial," says John, wiping away tears. "I'm hoping to go to work and have the funds." He's also planning an annual barbecue and golf tournament hoping the COVID-19 virus will dissipate and people can once again congregate to honour Ashley. In the meantime, John and Cindy continue to work on the ships in the Great Lakes tryin...

It's always heartbreaking to celebrate Christmas without a loved one. But most of us cannot imagine what it is like to live without a child who was taken by violence, and whose body has never been found. In April 2020, it will be four years since my cousin Ashley Simpson disappeared without a trace, and for her family, it never gets easier.  There is no closure. No resting place where they can visit her. No idea how she met with her demise. And so the wound reopens every time the family gathers, on birthdays, on holidays. And this year, the sadness drove her dad, John Simpson, nearly to the brink. And it led him to a very sad decision.  Please read his post on Christmas Day, and say a prayer for this family.  Hmfffl. Well Merry Xmas and all that jazz that goes with it. Hope ur season is better than ours and it should be for most...hoping next year will be better, and it should be. So the reason for this post. It's been three years since we heard the new...

It's been three long years since Ashley disappeared into thin air, three Mother's Days for her mom Cindy, three Father's Days for her father John.  There has been little progress in her case, no body, no arrests, only disturbing rumours. But I have to say, I'm cheered by all of the volunteers who continue to hunt for Ashley in the air with drones, on the ground with ATVs. As anyone connected with Ashley's case knows, there is plenty of bad in the world, but there's also plenty of good. This week, John and Cindy cheered another great development.  One of our family members has given $10,000 to post as a reward for information leading to her whereabouts, or information that leads to the arrest of any person(s) who might have done Ashley harm. That's going to make a few people nervous, I'm guessing, and maybe a few people scared. The perps might have thought they got away with murder, but people talk, don't they? Other people k...

As a family member of Ashley Simpson , I welcomed the release this week of the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by the federal government.  https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/ I hope that it helps.  Clearly, it's taken too long to do a 'deep dive' into why so many women and girls have been savaged, raped and murdered at home, and when they go out into the world. My main hope is that the police in these rural communities get more resources, and better training, because until this happens, more women and girls will be slaughtered and never found. I feel so deeply for the Indigenous community, and for their stolen sisters. It was, in fact, the First Nations community women who embraced Ashley as one of their own. That is their way, they show their wisdom, doggedness and commitment to righting the wrongs of the past. They are so strong and their spirit should make the rest of us ashamed for not caring enough, or not educating ourselve...

Every spring, the rivers run, the soil shifts, and the landscape changes. For most Canadians, it's just evidence of climate change. But for murder investigators in the Okanagan, for the drone pilots and ATV drivers, and particularly for the relatives of Ashley Simpson, it makes it harder to look for her last human remains. Three years ago, my cousin was a vibrant, 32-year-old nicknamed Gypsy for her meandering ways. She was up for any challenge: the catching of the biggest fish, snowboarding in a bikini on a dare. The dark haired beauty was fearless in all manner of things, especially in her love of her big family. Today, she remains just a memory, a snapshot in the eyes of the public who see her posters, and hole in the hearts of her mother and father who try desperately to hold out hope that she will be found. Her mother Cindy says the grandkids are always asking: have they found Aunt Ashley in the woods yet? What is she supposed to say to them? What is she supposed to ...

photo courtesy of Marnie Portugaise For John and Cindy Simpson, time stands still. Certainly, there have been good times. The birth of grandchildren and a great-grandchild. A puppy named Gypsy who has finally grown into her ears. Love continues to swirl around them, like a warm Caribbean breeze. But it doesn't matter. None of it matters as much as it would in a normal family. The only thing that matters is finding out what happened to their cherished daughter Ashley Marie who disappeared in April 2016. Ashley is presumed murdered. Her body has never been found, and no one has been charged. While many people in Salmon Arm believe they know who took her life, the RCMP continue to say, at least publicly, that there are no leads in the case. Last year, her driver's licence was found in a sanitation truck a 1,000 miles away from where she disappeared. Aside from that, nothing. As winter turns to spring, John remains hopeful that a drone team will find the remains...

In November, my cousin Ashley Simpson would have been 35 years old. If she wasn't working, she likely would have celebrated with her big messy family chowing down on a feast prepared by her pa, John Simpson, who would have thrown everything at the usual gang: a turkey, a roast beef or ribs, pots of potatoes and veggies, and lots of yummy desserts. Ashley might have tried some of the legal pot here in Ontario, or maybe brought her own, and washed down her meal with her favorite beverage, a fizzy and boozy Palm Bay. Likely she would have made some crack about showing the politicians how to do the whole pot thing. Then she'd giggle, and venture off to play with her gaggle of nieces and nephews, threading marshmallows, painting faces, and singing the kids' songs so many of us forgot so long ago. Everybody would be there. There's half a town of young people from Thorold and St. Catharines who call her parents mom and dad. Ashley and her sisters adopted a...

Like most women of a certain age, I live with ghosts. Ghosts of dear friends, ghosts of favorite pets, ghosts of dear departed family members. When I'm at the lake, I visit with them often. I see Finnigan catching a Kong in the lake, and Gordie taking his last swim. I see Jennette, too, in the chair next to me having a cocktail or a morning smoothie. It's here where I am most at peace, with the waves lapping or the thunder clapping. It's a place to think, to ruminate, to wonder what could have been. For the most part, the endings were sad but expected; there's no need or want to be angry. We each have so many heartbeats, so many tears in us. As humans, the only thing that keeps us sane is our ability to move on. But there is one ghost who lives with me who won't be put in the nice memory box, and that is the ghost of my cousin Ashley Simpson who disappeared in April two years ago in the wilds of Salmon Arm, British Columbia. Ashley left with barely a trac...

The coming of the cold winds of April is a bittersweet time for me. Two years ago in April, we welcomed our second granddaughter, a little nugget who has changed my life for the better. But it is also the month, two years ago, when my cousin Ashley Simpson went missing from her home in Salmon Arm, B.C. I didn't know Ashley before she disappeared, most people didn't. But now she is famous with her image on t-shirts and posters, as the subject of many stories on television and in print. We all want our 15 minutes of fame. Being murdered and missing will get you that. It would be terrible enough if Ashley's disappearance was just a solo event. Unfortunately, she has become the member of a club no one ever wanted to join. She is among several women who have disappeared from her area. Only one has been located, and she wound up dead, found in a field near Silver Creek, B.C. What happened to Ashley, Caitlin Potts, Deanna Wertz, and Nicole Bell? Maybe we'll never ...

Cindy and John Simpson celebrated their wedding anniversary this weekend, even though they were both down with the flu. They played some cards, ate some cake, and remembered the good times, and the very bad times. Like most couples who've been married nearly three decades, they count the raising of their children into adulthood as their greatest success. Cindy and John have lots of them in their blended family, including a gaggle of grandkids. Most recently they welcomed their first grandchildren, the imp Cyris, who is killing everybody daily with his cuteness. The kids keep John and Cindy going through the tough times. And their times have been tougher than most. For the second Family Day in a row, the Simpsons will be missing a bit piece of their hearts. Their daughter Ashley still has not been found and John is hoping to take one more trip out to Salmon Arm to find her with the help of people in the local community who refuse to give up looking for Ashley and a num...