A 15-year-old Washington girl has been missing for more than a month after she was last seen getting into a car belonging to a 45-year-old man, according to police and news reports.
Surveillance footage from a bowling alley in Port Orchard the morning of December 10 captured the last sighting of Ashlynn Hanley, NBC News reported.
That morning, her mother, Jade Hanley, told NBC’s Dateline that she did not get a response from her daughter, after texting her: “‘Good morning, I love you. I hope you have a great day. Make good choices.’”
The Port Orchard Police Department wants to speak with a man named Lavelle Antron Cotton about Ashlynn’s disappearance, the agency said in a Facebook post on Friday, January 9.
According to detectives, Cotton was behind the wheel of the 2011 black Buick Enclave that Ashlynn entered the morning she was last seen, KCPQ reported. The car is registered to him, authorities confirmed to the TV station.
Missing Juvenile Was Allegedly Found in Registered Sex Offender’s Car
Cotton, also known as “Money Making Prince” and “Little P Dog,” according to police, who said he is “known to frequent the King County and Tacoma areas.”
When Ashlynn disappeared on December 10, she was wearing a pink puffy jacket, police said in an earlier alert posted to Facebook on December 19. At the time, authorities said she might be traveling to Seattle, which is about a 20-mile drive east from Port Orchard.
Ashlynn is described as having brown hair and brown eyes, and is 5’1, weighing about 102 pounds.
The Port Orchard Police Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 14.
While speaking with Dateline, Jade said her daughter is “pretty much a happy kid.”
“She’s stubborn, she doesn’t take no for an answer,” Jade added, and also explained that her daughter is “at-risk.”
Prior to her disappearance, Ashlynn was released from a juvenile detention center and had been wearing an ankle monitor, according to Jade, NBC News reported.
Jade told the outlet that she was staying with her grandmother, who drove her to school the morning she disappeared.
She also told NBC News that authorities informed her that Ashlynn’s ankle monitor was cut off and tracked close to the Hi Joy Bowl bowling alley, located in the High Point Shopping Center, where police said she was last seen.
Cops: South Carolina Teen Mackenzie Dalton is Found Safely, Man Arrested
Deputy Chief Alan Iwashita, of the Port Orchard Police Department, told Dateline that they have spoken with someone who says they are Cotton, as authorities try to locate him.
“We’ve been in contact with an individual identifying as Mr. Cotton on the phone,” Iwashita told Dateline.
In an unrelated case in Lewis County, Cotton has a warrant out for his arrest, KCPQ reported.
He also has a prior criminal history, according to the outlet.
Cotton was handed a 23-year prison sentence after he was accused of fatally shooting a 7-year-old girl in Seattle in 1995, the TV station reported. He was 13 when the shooting allegedly happened.
Cotton was also convicted of drug smuggling charges in 2015, according to KCPQ. As a result, he received a 5-year prison sentence.
The Port Orchard Police Department encourages anyone with information on Cotton’s location to call 911 or email [email protected].
