Post by Graveyardbride on Mar 17, 2015 10:23:59 GMT -5
Wisconsin 'Vampchick' Kills Mother and Stepfather
Shortly after police say she killed her mother and stepfather at their home near Rhinelander, Wisconsin, March 7, Ashlee Martinson arrived at a friend's house after midnight to ask if he'd care for her dog because she was going away. Diesel, a 5-month-old German shepherd, appeared to have just been bathed, friend Jon Rasmussen reported. His father, Roy, who also was home at the time, wonders now if the dog had been bloodied during what court records suggest was a pair of extremely violent homicides, one by gun and the other by knife, both committed while the victims' three younger daughters were in the house.
Martinson, 17, was arrested in Indiana the night of March 8 with her boyfriend, Ryan D. Sisco, 22. Martinson is charged with killing Jennifer Ayers, 40, and her husband, Thomas H. Ayers, 37. The murders have left a community better known for its Hodag Country Festival, lighting candles, raising money for orphans and asking questions. "She was basically a good kid, a very decent girl, until this happened," Jon Rasmussen said. "We don't know what set her off."
Martinson clearly didn't enjoy her home life, friends said. She told them her parents made her pay rent and strictly limited her activities. A girlfriend told police Martinson had planned to move in with the friend's family. She called at 5:45 p.m. March 7 to say she was going to a funeral in Kansas. Martinson had turned 17 the day before.
According to Roy Rasmussen, Around the same time, Martinson and Sisco were at his house, about a mile from the Ayers home, visiting his son Jon. He said they first met Sisco March 5, when Martinson brought him by and asked if he might stay at the Rasmussen home a few days because Sisco was having problems with his mother. Mr. Rasmussen said he liked Martinson and allowed Sisco stay and said the young man was polite and helpful, doing some work around the house and in his neighbor's yard. Martinson came by to visit Friday (March 6) around dinnertime. At that time, Rasmussen noticed cuts on the girl’s arms and one on her leg and she claimed she had an accident with a box cutter at work. Now, he wonders if they were from some kind of initial fight with her parents on her birthday.
The next day, Martinson stopped by again around 5 p.m. at which time Rasmussen said she claimed to have come from work, however, investigators later learned she had never shown up for her shift at Shopko that Saturday.
Around 8 p.m. that night, she and Sisco left, supposedly to say goodbye to Sisco's mother in Vilas County. Rasmussen said he considered calling Thomas Ayers because he thought the stepfather wouldn't be happy about Martinson being with a 22-year-old, but his son persuaded him to wait. Rasmussen had decided if the couple didn't returb, he was going to call social services Monday, March 9. "Too late for that now, I guess," he observed.
Jon Rasmussen and other friends said they knew Martinson wasn't happy with her family situation and she often seemed stressed. But they were still shocked to learn she had been charged with murder. "I was astonished," he said. "I almost passed out" when police came to talk with him the day the victims were discovered (Sunday, March 8). He later said he had not sensed that Martinson had killedm or was planning to kill, her parents when he saw her March 7, only that she and Sisco were perhaps running awa, and for long enough that she wanted him to look after her dog. The young man said he was among Martinson's first friends when she moved to Oneida County last summer. He lived down the same road and they rode the bus together to and from Rhinelander High School. "She was polite, knew what she was doing, she just wanted to have a decent teenage life," he said.
Another friend, Jacob Dietzler, said Martinson had little time to hang out, because she was either at home, school or work. She was allowed to drive the Chevy truck she took to Indiana, Dietzler said, but had to pay the insurance and could use it only to get to work. "We all knew she was having a hard time," he said. But the news of the killings came as a complete shell shock. It was bad." Dietzler claimed none of the other friends he had spoken with had heard from Martinson March 8, nor did they know Sisco. "That guy came out of nowhere," he said. "I never knew him, never saw him with her."
Court records show Sisco, who goes by the name “Dan,” has several convictions for theft, drug abuse, receiving stolen property and disorderly conduct in surrounding counties and had been the subject of a restraining order in 2013. The woman who sought the order did not return a message.
According to Dietzler, Martinson's tension with her parents did not appear to extend to her stepsisters and half sister. "Ashlee expressed fondness for them," he said. "I would like to think she locked them in the room to protect them."
In addition to the homicides, Martinson is charged with three counts of false imprisonment. Authorities say she put the other girls – ages 9, 8 and 2 – in a room with juice and crackers and then tied the door shut. The oldest girl told police Martinson said she had not killed the girls' parents, but the girl had already seen her father's head injury. By the morning of March 8, the girls had somehow escaped the room or found a phone and started to call 911. After a few dropped calls, authorities were able to respond to the house at 1625 Highway C in Piehl. First responders rescued the girls and quickly issued a national bulletin for Martinson and Sisco, who were stopped hours later near Lebanon, Ind., where they remain in jail. Martinson has an extradition hearing set for April and Sisco is being held for violation of probation on a series of misdemeanors.
While many questions remain, search warrants filed last week revealed a few more details, some of which raise more questions. Investigators found blood throughout the house – on towels, clothing and walls, on a folding knife in the bathroom, an iPhone in the kitchen trash and a TV remote in the dining room. The home contained several firearms: rifles, a handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun found in Martinson's bedroom. There were empty 12-gauge shells, and a wadding left when a shell is fired and several pellets were recovered. Investigators also seized several drawings and writings from Martinson's room and an unspecified poster, along with three computers that were in the house.
Under the name “Vampchick,” Martinson had posted several disturbing poems and essays about torture, death and stabbing on a blog titled “Nightmare,” which has since been removed. They appeared to have been taken from other websites, but were sometimes accompanied by drawings signed Ashlee Martinson. Some including dark images of partially-fleshed skulls, a skull with a snake slithering through it and a girl with dark wings kneeling beside a grave.
In the kitchen investigators found a "typed document regarding rules for Ashlee to follow."
Neighbors said the Ayers family mostly kept to themselves. They had moved to tiny Piehl last June from North Dakota. Thomas Ayers' sister, Barbara Curtis, said Ashlee was Jennifer's daughter, the two middle girls were her brother's and the toddler was the couple's own child.
Roy Rasmussen said he had met Jennifer only once, but knew her husband a little better. He described Thomas Ayers as a powerfully-built, kind of rough-looking guy who matched the stereotype of his job as an oil rig worker. Ayers told Rasmussen the family moved to Wisconsin for the woods and hunting.
The community has begun to rally support for the three children left homeless by the murders. The Tri-County Council on Domestic Violence has taken the lead in coordinating with law enforcement and social services to accept donations of money, toys and books. Before a candlelight vigil in Rhinelander Thursday, council director Shellie Holmes said: "One of our primary messages will be that tragedies like this do not define our community. It's how our community deals with it and moves forward that will define us forever in the future."
The Oneida County sheriff's office said the three girls were not hurt and are in the custody of Oneida County Social Services. They have not said whether any family members of the victims have come to Wisconsin or are trying to take custody of the girls.
Autopsies were completed Friday and now the medical examiner is awaiting the results of toxicology tests. Funeral services for Thomas Ayers are scheduled for March 27 in Colorado. Jennifer Ayers' service will be held at a future date in Kansas, according to an online obituary.
Source: Bruce Vielmetti, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 16, 2015.
Photo is from Martinson's Facebook page.
