Trish Haynes: Tragedy in Rural New Hampshire
01:09:13 Share

This is Murder, She Told, true crime stories from Maine, New England, and small town USA. I'm your host, Kristen Sevey. You can connect with me at murdershetold.com or follow along on Instagram at murdershetoldpodcast.

Normally, I start all my episodes by diving right in, but it's been a while, and this week, I want to talk to you for a moment and say hello. I hope you had a wonderful summer. If you're new here, I'm Kristen Sevey, and this is my first episode back from break. Thank you for all the emails and messages, for sharing the show with your friends, and for tagging me in things on Facebook.

I love hearing from you and I see and try to respond to everything. I appreciate it. Thank you for your patience with me during this time. If you're not following on social media, I will always keep you in the loop if any schedule changes come up. You can find those links in the show notes.

I also have a surprise dropping on social media this week that you won't want to miss, so I'd love to connect with you there. This week's story was sent to me by Marcy, who is a long-time listener, and without her suggestion, I wouldn't have known about this case. So thank you for your suggestions. I see them, and I take them all to heart. But this is a current case that needs more attention, so let's dive in.

New Hampshire police had an extraordinary request. They asked Sandy Tewksbury, can you keep a secret? She was eager to hear from them any news of her missing 25-year-old granddaughter and legal child, Trish Haynes. They said she might not like what she hears, and that they could only tell her if she would agree to keep it to herself. She agreed. She would have agreed to anything.

"Your child is dead. She was murdered. We discovered her body dismembered, and we believe she's been dead for months," they explained. Sandy was devastated, and she needed to grieve, to know more, to find the killers and to tell the world how unfair it was for her baby girl to have been taken so soon.

"'Why must I keep this a secret?' she wondered. The police explained that if she told anyone that Trish's body had been found, it could jeopardize the investigation. She pleaded with them to allow her to at least tell her sister-in-law, Valerie Alvarez, who had been involved with the search and was a close member of the family. They agreed, but that was it."

The search for Trish had turned Val and Sandy's lives upside down. It was a topic of daily, hourly conversations with friends and family. After they learned the truth, it became a daily ritual of lies. They had to keep false hopes alive, telling people that Trish had not been found, that they were still searching.

They mourned their loss in secret. This thing, this central part of their lives, was a sham. Even what was left of the body was evidence. It couldn't be laid to rest. As days became weeks, became months, a new thought began to haunt them. What if this were to become their future? Living this double life for years or decades, hoping for permission from law enforcement to reveal the truth.

To Val and her faith, it was intolerable. The boiling rage within them screaming for justice was bottled up, expressed only to each other and to the police. Someone had killed their Trishy, dismembered her and hid her body, and yet they were free. The hope of assisting in finding the killers is what sustained their lies as they persevered in a weird limbo.

Doubts about the intentions of the police began to enter their minds. What if what they really wanted to do was keep another murder off the books, let it linger as a missing person until they were ready with charges so it could be immediately reclassified as a solved murder and skip entirely that bothersome status as unsolved homicide?

Trish Danielle Haynes was dating Chris Hughes in her early 20s. They lived together in a tourist town in the White Mountains of New Hampshire called North Woodstock. It has many cute restaurants, lots of arts and crafts shops, and plenty of lodging. They were both working at a Greek restaurant called The Landmark. In fact, they were living upstairs just above the restaurant in some apartments that shared the same owners. Chris was working as a cook, and Trish was a dishwasher.

It's a beautiful area, right off a famous stretch of road called the Cankamagus Highway that winds through picturesque vistas past ski resorts and mountains. At one point, she worked at one of those resorts, called Loon Mountain, the closest ski resort to town as a housekeeper. Chris and Trish had a rocky relationship. It was violent at times.

Trish's aunt, Valerie, said that the restaurant owners could tell that the relationship was abusive. She would sport cuts and bruises to work. Valerie recalled a particularly nasty incident.

One time I went up to North Woodstock to visit her and she happened to have her head shaved. And I said, Trish, what happened to your beautiful hair? And she said, well, I was babysitting some kids who had head lice and I got head lice and I shaved my head because I couldn't get rid of it. She had thick, beautiful brown hair.

I said, "Oh, so she wore this scarf thing around her head." Well, a couple of years later, I found out what had really happened is the fact that he thought she had been cheating on him, so he made her shave her head. And I mean, I was just so livid when I found that out. That was ridiculous.

Between 2014 and 2016, they dated on and off. Eventually, the abuse was more than she could bear, and Trish went to the police to file a complaint against Chris. The police took it seriously and initiated domestic assault charges against Chris. When Chris learned how serious the consequences were, he apologized and begged Trish to drop them.

Trish acquiesced, and over the pleas from the detective to testify against him in court, she recanted her account. Shortly afterwards, they stopped living together, and Chris began dating someone new. North Woodstock police didn't take kindly to her withdrawing her statement, and pursued a misdemeanor criminal charge against her for filing a false police report.

Trish had meanwhile returned to Florida to be with her family. Her grandmother and legal guardian, Sandy Tewksbury, and her husband, Stephen, lived in Stewart, Florida, a coastal city about two hours north of Miami, and Trish wanted to be with them. She had a summons in North Woodstock to appear in court, and if convicted, could potentially serve a short jail term.

She decided to go and face the charges. She was scheduled to be in court in January of 2018.

So on December 16th of 2017, she gets a flight to New Hampshire. She's picked up at the airport by her friend, Becky Bondanero, who Becky is a wonderful girl. She picked her up. She took her to her house up in Rumney, New Hampshire, gave her a nice Christmas. They had a good time.

The region of New Hampshire that we're talking about is in the foothills of the White Mountains, near Cardigan Mountain State Park. Rumney is a remote area with dramatic landscapes, hiking trails, and trees, beautiful in the warmer months and harsh in the winter.

Trish didn't have a job, nor did she have a car in New Hampshire, and for the time being was making due on her regular social security checks from the government for long-term disability. Her host, Becky, worked full-time away from home, and her house was out in the sticks. So Trish was on her own during the day, without transportation or cell reception. Trish lived on her phone, regularly posting to social media and chatting with friends.

And after a month of isolation, she was getting bored and restless and wanted to make a change. Trish had reconnected with an old schoolmate from New Hampshire, Ashley Ruff Smith, and explained her predicament. Ashley offered her a place to stay in Grafton, and after learning that her court case had been postponed to April and that she would be staying the rest of the winter in New Hampshire,

She decided to move. On Sunday, January 28, 2018,

Becky gave Trish a ride to the Citgo gas station Evans Express Mart in Canaan, New Hampshire, where she was picked up by Ashley and her husband Doug in a red minivan. Doug and Ashley took Trish to their home in Grafton, New Hampshire, a short drive from Canaan. Grafton is in the same region as Becky's home, and it is still remote, an hour drive from the nearest major city, Concord.

Doug and Ashley were renting a house from an out-of-state owner that sits on a large acreage. It's a sprawling property set back from the road. Shortly after moving in with Ashley, Trish's cell phone went on the fritz. It was either not functional or not in service. Trish's regular contact with Sandy dwindled. And when it did happen, it was on Ashley's phone, and it was brief.

Not only was Sandy not able to get in touch with her by her phone, she didn't have a physical address for Trish either. In the months that followed, February, March, and April, Trish fell off the map.

Sandy had very limited contact, but was hopeful that this phase would end after she went to her court hearing and returned to Florida. So finally, around Mother's Day, I believe Sandy got one short, short call with Trish on it. And she said, Trish, I had a heart attack. I could have died and I couldn't get in touch with you. I need a number where I can reach you. You've got to have a phone. And she said, no, you're always going to have to reach me through Ashley's phone.

So, and she just kind of hung up really quickly. And that's not like Trish. Trish loved her grandmother. She would call her often when she could. So that was strange. And I kept asking Sandy, have you heard from Trish? Have you heard from Trish? And no, nobody's heard from her.

That final call was on Wednesday, May 16th, weeks after Sandy's heart attack. Sandy could tell that Ashley was pressuring Trish to get off the phone, and she didn't have time to ask her about her court case or her plans to return to Florida. Little did Sandy know this would be the last time that she spoke to her granddaughter.

After that, the only contact that Sandy had with Trish was via text message on Ashley's phone, or through her discussions with Ashley, who served as an intermediary between Sandy and Trish. Ashley told Sandy that Trish didn't want to speak with her, that she was angry with her and wanted nothing to do with her, which was extremely out of character for Trish.

Sandy said that she wanted to hear that from Trish directly, but Ashley said that Trish wasn't around, that she was dating a new guy, and that she'd moved to Vermont with him.

Valerie lives seasonally in New Hampshire. She lives in Florida over the winter, and around this time in mid-May, she returned to her home near Concord, and Val tried to track Trish down. So I said, I'm going back to New Hampshire. I got back here around the middle of May that year, I believe. Called back down to Sandy's, and I said, have you heard from Trish? And she said no. And I

And I said, well, I'm going to start looking around and see if I can find her up here or, you know, asking questions and so forth. Well, I called the police department. They had not seen her or heard anything from her. I called the jail that supposedly she was supposed to be going to Grafton County Jail after her, you know, if she'd gone to court.

They said, no, we've never had anybody in here in jail. So finally I called the courthouse and they were able to tell me that she never showed up for court.

The entire purpose of Trish returning to New Hampshire was to address her legal trouble, and her no-call, no-show-to-court was a huge red flag. Val went to the town that she had heard that Ashley lived in, went to some stores, and asked if anybody knew her. Nobody recognized her name, and Val wasn't sure what to do to track her down.

Val thought to herself that perhaps Trish was embarrassed to admit to her family that she'd gotten back together with her ex-boyfriend, Chris, so she contacted him. Unfortunately, he hadn't heard from Trish either. Through the rest of May and all of June, Ashley strung Sandy along, telling her that Trish didn't want to talk to her, or that she wasn't in, or that she had moved, or she ran off with a new man.

Ashley had checked herself into a psychiatric ward in Concord in June. And when she got out, she had one final chat with Sandy. So finally one day, Ashley called Sandy and stopped playing. Chris doesn't want to have anything to do with the family. She says, Sandy says that, she says Sandy takes her money and makes her do all the dishes and she does, makes her do all the housework and she doesn't want to have anything to do with the family. And

And I'm thinking, that does not sound like Trish. You know, Trish might get upset with somebody, but then the next day she's calling them. So that did not sound right.

So, anyway, Sandy waited a couple of days and then she called Ashley and she said, "Ashley, you said Trish does not want to have anything to do with the family." She said, "When she comes or when you see her or you get the message to her that I want to hear those words out of her own mouth. If she doesn't want to have anything to do with us, that's fine, but I want to hear it from her mouth."

And she says, and if she does not call me by Monday, I am going to file a missing person report. So Ashley says to her, if you file a missing person report, I can guarantee you'll never see your granddaughter again. Sandy was confused. Nothing to this point had been so confrontational with Ashley. So she pressed via text message. Ashley, is what you said coming from you or from Trish?

Ashley dropped the conversation and said, I can't handle this. I just got out of a psychiatric ward. Sandy saw her comment as a not-so-veiled threat to Trish's well-being and immediately contacted the police. And on or about Friday, July 6th, 2018, Sandy called the North Woodstock police and reported Trish as a missing person. And the search for Trish began.

Trish Danielle Haynes was born in Stewart, Florida on July 22nd of 1992 to her mom, Megan Haynes, and her father, Toby Dale Duran. Megan was a 15-year-old teenage mother, and Toby was a 24-year-old young man, nine years her senior. I asked Val what it was like for baby Trish in this difficult situation.

Megan, her mother, was only 15 when Trish was born, so that doesn't lend to a mature adult in the formative years to the point where Sandy, the grandmother, Sandra Tewksbury, and her husband, Steve, took custody of Trish when she was three.

Things were just not always easy for her as a little girl. And I believe that that was the root of it was the instability in her. She loved her grandparents and they did a fine job with her. But still she missed her mom at different times and her mom was not always around. So it had an effect on her.

Sandy, Megan's mother, raised Trish as an only child for the rest of her life with her husband, Stephen Tewksbury. Trish's father, Toby, was not in the picture and died young of complications from diabetes when Trish was only six or seven. One of her childhood friends, Tara, remembers Sandy's influence fondly.

Her and Sandy were so close, like so close. Like her grandmother meant everything to her. Like I said, Sandy did a very great job with raising her. I commend Sandy. Sandy is such a beautiful human inside and out. Sandy did her best, in my opinion, and did a really great job with being a positive person in Trish's life. I asked Val how she fit into Trish's life.

Val shared what she remembered about Trish as a child.

Well, I just remember her as being just kind of a sweet, innocent, too trusting. She was thoughtful. She was sweet. She always called me auntie in the sweetest voice. It was loving and heartfelt. She loved me and I loved her. Val remembered some of Trish's interests as a young girl.

She really liked fashion, even as a little girl. I just remember that her grandmother used to say, boy, she better be a model when she grows up because as many times as she changes her clothes, you know, I'm doing all this laundry because she changes her clothes all the time, so she just better be a model. Shopify's already taken the cash register online, helping millions sell billions around the world.

But did you know that Shopify can do the same thing at your retail store? Give your point of sale system a serious upgrade with Shopify. Shopify POS is your command center for your retail store. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify has everything you need to sell in person. Get hardware that fits your business. Take payments by smartphone. Transform your tap

Shopify helps you drive store traffic with plug and play tools built for marketing campaigns from TikTok to Instagram and beyond.

Plus, Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way. Do retail right with Shopify. Go to shopify.com slash retail offer to take your retail business to the next level today. That's shopify.com slash retail offer. This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. You know when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself?

Talking to someone who understands can really help. But who is that person? How do you find them? Where do you even start?

Talkspace. Talkspace makes it easy to get the support you need. With Talkspace, you can go online, answer a few questions about your preferences, and be matched with a therapist. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule, wherever you feel most at ease. If you're depressed, stressed, struggling with a relationship, or if you want some counseling for you and your partner, or just need a little extra one-on-one support, Talkspace is here for you.

Plus, Talkspace works with most major insurers, and most insured members have a $0 copay. No insurance? No problem. Now get $80 off of your first month with promo code SPACE80 when you go to Talkspace.com. Match with a licensed therapist today at Talkspace.com. Save $80 with code SPACE80 at Talkspace.com.

Every sandwich has bread. Every burger has a bun. But these warm, golden, smooth steamed buns? These are special. Reserved for the very best. The Filet-O-Fish. And you. You can have them too. For a limited time, the classic Filet-O-Fish you love is joining your McDonald's favorites on the two-for-$3.99 menu. Limited time only. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Single item at regular price. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

Trish grew up in Florida, North Carolina, and New Hampshire. When she was about 6 to 10 years old, she lived in New Hampshire, and Sandy would often bring her by an apartment house in Boscoen, where her mother Megan lived, that was owned by her great-aunt Valerie. One of her childhood friends from that time was Tara Taylor.

So grade school to middle school, Val was our landlord technically. And that is how I met Trish. And then my mom was very close with Sandy, who is Trish's grandmother and also Megan, Trish's mom. So because Trish was a little bit younger than me, but we all kind of hung around each other because there weren't very many kids involved.

in the apartment building. It was in Bosco, New Hampshire. So Sandy would come up with Trish and we would do a lot of cookouts out back. The way the apartment complex, well, it's not really complex. It's like just a building, but it used to be like an old motel. So there was a big backyard area. So we would do a lot of cookouts out there. And then

There's a path that goes to the Merrimack River. So we would walk that and like pick raspberries. And Trish was really into like playing with her Barbies and stuff. I wasn't really into that, but I would play with her. Her grandmother, Sandy, was very protective of Trish because

Trish, you know, she just wanted to be liked and loved. And, you know, she had a pretty rough upbringing with her mom. That's why her grandmother had her. So I feel like Sandy was very protective of Trish because Trish was, and because of that, Trish was very naive. So she would, you know, try to hang out with really anyone that would, you know, be friends with her. So we

So we would do that. We would play basketball out back, even though it sucked because it was all dirt. So the ball didn't really bounce. And I remember us, like me, her and my brother trying to play basketball because we like makeshift a hoop out back. And we would do lots of coloring and poetry stuff. She was very creative. She loved to dress up her dolls and, you know, she would draw little outfits.

and then like the singing stuff. We did a lot of, cause this was before the internet. So, you know, we just did a lot of that type of stuff, you know, drawing stuff out and Miss Mary Mac. Do y'all remember that Miss Mary Mac, Mac, Mac, you know, like the little hand clapping stuff, jump roping, which also really sucked on dirt because we would just have dirt in our face. We were basically like one big family, you know, everyone that lives there and

Trish had a hard time making friends as a kid.

So even though Tara and Lizzie were older, they took her under their wing and played with her when she visited the apartment complex with Sandy. She also dealt with people bullying her, so that was really sad as well. So she would talk to us about that, and she had asked me one time, do you think it's weird that I live with my grandmother? Because the kids at school think that it's weird that I...

live with my grandmother and I don't, I don't want to cry. Sorry. So that, that might've been one thing. Maybe kids targeted her for that. You know, she wasn't, she didn't try to be someone she wasn't. So that could be another thing. And she was very shy.

As Trish got older, she was diagnosed with some mental health issues, which followed her into adulthood. She had more PTSD than she did bipolar. So that's the reason she was on a disability, was because of PTSD. And she had also had, as a child, two accidental concussions. One, she was playing with some kids, and a little boy accidentally hit her in the head with a baseball bat.

And that put her in the hospital with a concussion. And then there was one other time that it was only accidental things and playing, but she'd had concussions. So she was on a social security disability for PTSD.

In July and August of 2018, Trisha's family and the police were working on finding her. One of the first things that Val and Sandy did was to contact the Social Security Administration to stop the disability checks. We told them, you stop the Social Security checks that she gets because if she is just hiding out and she's got to be living on something, so if these Social Security checks are stopped, then...

She'll have to come out to get her money. And so they stopped that in July. And when she did not come forward, ask for the Social Security checks again, I've got a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I said, oh, my God, this is not good. There's something terribly wrong.

On August 29, 2018, the first public announcement was made about her disappearance on the local news. A representative for the state's attorney general's office, Jeff Strelzin, asked for the public's help, hoping that someone would know something about where she was. He was joined by representatives from the Woodstock police and the state police.

With the involvement of the New Hampshire State Police, it suggested to the public that this wasn't simply a missing person, but a disappearance with the odor of foul play. The day prior, on Tuesday, August 28th, police used canines and helicopters to search several spots in Grafton, all associated with Ashley Smith and her husband Doug.

One of those locations was 225 Main Street, the house where Trish lived with Ashley and was last known to be alive. The forensics team was there, and the property was roped off with caution tape, suggesting to the public that this was a crime scene. In addition to that home, a small cottage on Wild Meadow Road was searched, and so was a camper located on French Hill Road.

After the initial search, Strelzin said, Based on the investigation today, we are not aware of any particular threat to the public. This is confusing, because if someone had hurt or kidnapped Trish, weren't they still out there?

Right as this search was happening, Ashley Smith, who was still living at 225 Main Street, was interviewed by WMUR9, and she said that Trish had been gone a while, at least July, maybe June, which was vague. She also said that Trish had stayed with her but didn't live with her.

which sound almost synonymous, but perhaps the distinction was drawn to create some distancing language. Ashley also said that she had been best friends with Trish since childhood and that she was worried sick about her. She made a plea to Trish. Hopefully Trish will see this and come out and show the public that she's fine.

A week later, reports surfaced that the state police, as part of their surge, had pulled some crates out of Grant's Pond, a small body of water just off Wild Meadow Road, also in Grafton, on either Saturday or Sunday, September 1st or 2nd. But Strelzin would not confirm whether or not what they discovered was related to Trish.

After that, in September of 2018, Sandy was asked for a sample of her DNA, which she provided. And three months later, in January of 2019, the police gave her devastating news. What they had pulled out of Grant's pond was a combo washer-dryer unit, and what they discovered inside of it were human remains, dismembered, and they belonged to Trish Haynes.

Trish had been murdered. For six months, Val and Sandy kept their silent vigil. But why did the police tell them at all? If they wanted to keep this secret, they could keep it themselves. How could it further the investigation? It was documented by the news media that large crates had been removed from Grant's pond. The killers knew that they had stashed Trish's body, and they had to know that police had found her remains.

But during that long silence, a member of the local community, Chloe French, saw the tragedy emerging and wanted to get involved. Back in 2018, right around June, July, you know, there was a lot of talk on Facebook, a lot of just private messages, people just kind of gossiping about that Trish was missing. You know, everyone knew that her family was looking for her. I don't believe at that point quite yet the police

were involved, but people knew that they were looking for her. And some of the rumors in the very beginning, I mean, some of them were outrageous. There was just a lot of gossip, a lot of rumors going on. I heard about it right away, but what really got me involved was I watched a local news channel, WMUR. They did a story on Trish and how she was missing. And they talked to Ashley and everything about that video

to me, seemed off. It just gave me this feeling in my stomach that said, I don't think that we're going to find Trish alive. And knowing Ashley, knowing the type of person that she is, knowing Doug and knowing the type of person that he is, I just felt like something was really not right. And I reached out to her family and

On January 10, 2019, a year after they had reported Trish missing and six months after they'd been told to keep her death a secret, Val and Sandy had had enough waiting. Val called the local New Hampshire media and told them that she wanted to give an interview on Trish's disappearance. I said, this is ridiculous. Having to sit on the fact that we know she's dead, then knowing where she was last found and

and all of the things that have surrounded it, and they cannot make an arrest or at least make the announcement that we know that it's a homicide investigation, I said, I'm going to rattle some cages. So I got back here, and sure enough, I go to WMUR News, which is the local ABCs,

station here in New Hampshire. I went to them and I asked them if they would like to do an interview with me so that I can raise awareness of this case that is going nowhere. And so Amy Covino came. She interviewed me. She went to the Attorney General's office that night or that afternoon and said, I am airing a story tonight with the family of Trish Haynes who is very upset with the

the lack of action on this case. And so the Attorney General, Jeff Strelzin, then does a quick interview with her that aired before my interview, which is fine, but he had to come out that night and say, this is a homicide investigation.

The Attorney General confirmed that the remains discovered nearly a year prior did in fact belong to Trish Haynes, and they provided an estimated date of death of May 18th, 2018, a month and a half before she had been reported missing, and just days after she'd last spoken with Sandy.

Valerie and Sandy and I were talking about how it was coming up on a year since she had been found. And we brought up our concerns with each other about the lack of communication from detectives, just the lack of communication about the case itself. We wanted to come up with a way that we could kind of get the word out there. So I started the group, The Justice for Trish, on Facebook, and it just kind of continued

continues to get bigger and bigger, which is great. And I've just found that it's a good way to keep it going. I just don't want people to forget about her. I don't want it to become another cold case in New Hampshire. Val and Sandy didn't know much about these friends of Trish, Doug and Ashley. But through their investigation, they learned a lot about these two criminals.

Chloe is the same age as Ashley Smith. Here is what she told me about her. So Ashley and I are the same age. So her and I were in school together from first grade through our senior year in high school. And growing up, she came from a very, very, very dysfunctional home, a very traumatic home.

You know, her home was condemned when we were kids. The town stepped in and cleared the entire lot out, built a house on it, fixed everything up, and it went right back to the way that it was. She is one of, I believe, five. She's the only girl. In August of 2005,

Five children, ages 11 to 17, including Ashley, who was a preteen at the time, were living with their mom, Wendy Ruff, and her husband, Byron. A news article from WMUR described the disgusting conditions. There was rotting garbage and animal feces everywhere. There was no food in the house.

Pornography hung on the walls in the upstairs children's bedroom, and the insulation sagged from unfinished walls and ceilings. Fifty-seven animals, including chickens, pigs, goats, geese, rabbits, and traditional house pets, many of which were diseased or in poor health, were seized from the property. A rooster was found in the living room.

Wendy and Byron were charged and later convicted with 10 counts of child endangerment, but served no jail time. And stunningly, their children stayed with their parents throughout the legal process. They were allowed to move back in after they cleaned it up and made some repairs, with the help of good Samaritans in the community. The judge, in his opinion, five months later, wrote...

There is a stunning irony in the fact that thousands of dollars have been spent on the animals that were taken from the home and carted off to food, safety, and clean living conditions, while the Ruff's children were permitted to return to that same home and on that same day.

Even after they returned, conflict in the neighborhood had not abated. A year after the initial charges, the property was again surrounded by junk cars and debris, while animals roamed the property.

There were complaints that the Ruffs were pointing floodlights into the windows of nearby houses at night, and Wendy Ruff was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly running a neighbor off the road with her car.

That whole family, everyone just kind of felt bad for the kids. The kids would come to school just filthy. They'd come to school. They were the kids who had life all the time. They were the kids who the school would send home with gift cards. And on the gift card for market baskets so they could get food, they would write not to be used to purchase cigarettes or alcohol.

And the parents would, you know, her mother would come in and scream, scream at the teachers, scream at the faculty for getting involved in their life.

but, but it was just, it was a sad situation that her childhood and, you know, as she got older, she definitely still was in a very dysfunctional home. Um, she kind of, some of her coping mechanisms were she would lash out at people. So it was harder to feel bad for her, um, than it, you know, than it was when we were young, young kids. Um,

in high school. That was when middle school and high school is when she started hanging out with Trish. And Ashley was the type of girl that would be friends with someone. But if a popular girl in Ashley's eyes was near them, Ashley would just turn around and start belittling her actual friend. She just always wanted to be liked. She always wanted to have friends. And

She always wanted to, you know, be popular and it just, it didn't happen that way for her. You know, and when she graduated high school, she, senior year, I believe it was, she had a child, she had her daughter and it seemed she was trying to get her life together. She was trying to be better than her family and it just, it didn't work. She ended up with Doug and things just kind of went downhill from there.

Ashley is now 28, and she's been convicted of multiple theft charges, multiple charges of falsifying legal documents, and a charge of filing a false report after she claimed that the chief of police assaulted her, stole her gun, and took her money. But if all the stories I've heard about Ashley are true, her cruelty seems to be far worse than her criminal history.

She's had six children since graduating high school, two of which are with Doug. Five of the children have been removed by the state and placed into foster care.

Something that was surprisingly not done by the state for Ashley when she was a child. You know, I do remember at one point, this was when we were in elementary school, the kids were removed briefly. They did go with a family member and then they ended up right back there. And, you know, that's kind of been a pattern for even dating back into the 70s in that town. That family has always seemed to...

get away with things. And I don't exactly know why, but there's been multiple instances where police have been involved and nothing seems to happen. They're right back to doing the things that they do and neglecting their kids and just causing a scene at Market Basket. I mean, I can remember...

Every few months you'd hear about, oh, Wendy Ruff had a meltdown at Market Basket again and she had to be escorted out. I mean, they were just those kind of people and they never had any real consequences.

Another mystery about Ashley's family is that her grandmother, Betty Place, is a missing person since 1978. Ashley's mother, Wendy, was just 10 years old when her mom disappeared. Her case is listed under the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit. 39-year-old Betty Ann Place was last seen at her home in Warner, New Hampshire on June 14, 1978.

She was reported missing the next day and hasn't been seen or heard from since. Her case is considered suspicious, and while I couldn't find much information on it, I was told the rumor around town is that Betty caught her husband molesting the children, and he killed her during a confrontation. I'm sending my Aunt Tina money directly to her bank account in the Philippines with Western Union. Oh!

Hey.

Sending money direct to her bank account is super fast, and Aunt Tina gets more time to be the bingo queen. Western Union, send money in-store directly to their bank accounts in the Philippines. Services offered by Western Union Financial Services, Inc., NMLS number 906983, or Western Union International Services, LLC, NMLS number 906985. Licensed as money transmitters by the New York State Department of Financial Services. See terms for details. Have you made the switch to NYX? Millions of women have made the switch to the revolutionary period underwear from NYX. That's K-N-I-X.

Period panties from NYX are like no other, making them the number one leak-proof underwear brand in North America. They're comfy, stylish, and absorbent, perfect for period protection from your lightest to your heaviest days. They look, feel, and machine wash just like regular underwear, but feature incognito protection that has you covered. You can shop sizes from extra small to 4XL.

Choose from all kinds of colors, prints, and different styles, from bikinis to boy shorts, thongs to high-rise. You've got to try NYX. See why millions are ditching disposable, wasteful period products and have switched to NYX. Go to knix.com and get 15% off with promo code TRY15.

That's knix.com, promo code TRY15 for 15% off life-changing period underwear. That's K-N-I-X dot com.

Doug Smith's documented criminal history is alarming. He is 32 years old, and he is no stranger to the law, more like a career criminal. He is a registered sex offender after he was convicted of a felony sexual assault in 2009 at 21 years old. But if stories line up, this might not be his first sexual assault. Doug and I grew up in the same town.

He was quite a bit older than I, so we didn't go to school together. He also went to a school that was geared more towards troubled kids. I went to school with his siblings. His family is very involved in the community, as my mom was as well. So they were definitely friendly growing up.

He actually came from a very nice family. They are good people. Doug's not a product of his environment. I mean, he is just, there's something wrong with him. And kind of my whole life growing up,

I was always told by my mother that there was just something not right with him. You know, I would hear about things that the family would struggle with with him, you know, the way that he would act out. There was a few girls in our school who were sexually assaulted by him. You know, so it was just very common knowledge that he was trouble. And, you know, he was definitely someone that I avoided.

Over the next decade, Doug racked up other charges, including criminal threatening, burglary, assault, harassment, violation of restraining orders, violation of probation and bail conditions, possession of a weapon as a convicted felon, and duty to inform or not disclosing a weapon in the presence of law enforcement.

At least one woman has a permanent restraining order against him, and his license was also suspended after several driving violations. In March of 2018,

both Doug and Ashley were arrested for theft by deception and receiving stolen property during an incident at the Circle K. And this is where consequences started to get serious for Doug. In August of 2019, Doug allegedly fired a handgun at a moving vehicle, which was both extremely dangerous and a crime in and of itself, but also a serious violation of the rules of him being a felon.

Warrants for his arrest were obtained in August, but police couldn't find him, and he remained at large, avoiding arrest until he turned himself in September 5th, 2019, a couple of months after the AG had announced that Trish's remains were found and that she was murdered. He was arraigned on felony charges of reckless conduct, possessing a weapon as a felon, and several misdemeanors of criminal threatening, mischief, and theft.

His bail was set at $10,000, and apparently somebody paid it and thought it was funny. There are Facebook comments of him responding to an article that was shared of his arrest, saying, quote, Ha ha, funny shit right there, I'm out, and I'm free. LMAO, end quote.

Suddenly, the video from WMUR when Trish first went missing of Ashley talking about her best friend sounded very different. Here's part of her emotional message. Hopefully, Trish will see this and she'll come out and show the public that she's fine.

Are you worried about her? I'm worried sick about her. In December of 2019, Doug was charged with tampering with public records and voter fraud after he registered and voted in both Grafton and Danbury. He also failed to register as a sex offender. Twice. While he was out on bail in January 2020, he violently raped a woman in Croydon.

And following that, he became a fugitive, once again on the run from his growing pile of felony and misdemeanor charges, which now included an aggravated felony sexual assault.

The U.S. Marshals and the New Hampshire Fugitive Task Force then got involved, assisting the New Hampshire State Police who were seeking Doug on outstanding arrest warrants from multiple jurisdictions. He was even featured on A&E's crime show Live PD as the Fugitive of the Week in March with a $2,500 reward. Doug Smith was considered armed and dangerous.

After months of bad tips, national publicity, and searching, Doug was finally arrested on June 9th in West Charleston, Vermont, where he'd been staying with friends under the false name of Robert. He initially complied with police, pretending to be Robert, until he realized he was being arrested. He resisted and once again tried to flee.

Police subdued Doug with a taser, and the task force finally got him into handcuffs. He was in the company of a woman who he claimed was his sister and her baby, but was very clearly Ashley and their newborn. For obvious reasons, Doug wasn't given the option for bail by the judge.

In December of 2020, he was convicted of five to ten years in jail as part of a plea deal, which included his confession to multiple charges from 2018, the 2020 rape, and his felony weapons charges. He is currently serving a concurrent sentence for all, and his latest possible release is in 2030.

There was another incident while Doug was out on bail involving him and Ashley. In October of 2019, police were called to Doug and Ashley's house on reports of a domestic disturbance. When police chief Richard Lee showed up, Ashley and another person were sitting in a car, and Doug answered the door. As reported by the union leader, Doug claimed that Ashley was going nuts. According

According to a witness who was in the house with them, the couple got into an argument about Doug cheating, and Ashley left, trying to drive off in Doug's car. Doug didn't want her to take the car, so he threw himself on the hood as she tried to drive away. The fight continued, with Ashley yelling, "If I can't have you, nobody can." Doug then told her that he would put her back in the mental hospital where she belonged.

When Ashley threatened to drive the car into a tree, Doug got off the hood and stomped inside. When Ashley realized the police were on their way, she threw her purse out the window and into the woods before Police Chief Lee came up to the car. That purse contained cash and a loaded handgun. But Ashley had a restraining order against her, and one of its conditions is that she is not allowed to carry a firearm.

Chief Lee found the purse and gave it back to Ashley without the gun so he could verify its ownership, at which point Ashley became hostile. She claimed the gun was purchased by her father in a handshake deal and there was no documentation. She also told somebody else it was borrowed for her own protection. She

She later filed a report against Lee, claiming he assaulted her and stole her property. To no surprise, this backfired, and she was charged with filing a false police report and faced a possible felony charge of falsifying physical evidence.

Trish had no idea who she was getting involved with when she chose to live with Doug and Ashley. You know, her grandmother was always under the impression that, you know, she was going to be coming back to Florida, you know, that this was just temporary for her. I mean, I know Trish didn't try and get a job or anything in this area.

you know, it wasn't her plan to stay in New Hampshire. Um, and Ashley, you know, she, she didn't work. Um, Doug didn't work. They had all the time in the world to just do whatever they wanted and they chose to party and sell drugs and bring different people in and out of their house. And, you know, from what I've been told, their kids went through quite a bit and, um, you

It definitely wasn't a good environment really for anybody to be in, let alone kids. And I think that was, Trish had a very naive personality. She was a little younger in some ways, just very trusting. She wanted people to like her. So I think she kind of put a lot of that behavior aside.

aside and just focused on, well, Ashley's my friend. So, you know, if she treats me like crap, well, then she turns around and does something nice. She's my friend and it's okay. Ashley was pregnant at the time with her sixth child and was living with her five other children. So Trish was sharing a small house with five kids and two other adults. And from what I've heard, Ashley demanded that Trish help take care of the kids.

There are rumors that Trish may have suffered from abuse at the hands of Doug and Ashley while she lived there. Multiple people claim to have seen instances of varying abuse of Trish that spring. A woman named Kayla Fife filed a report after Trish was reported missing about witnessing her being abused by Ashley and Doug.

Another woman named Faith Partridge spoke with WMUR after Trish's remains had been found. She said she met her the year before at Doug and Ashley's and remembered Trish as disheveled and said she avoided making any eye contact by looking at the floor. She also reported to the police that her husband had witnessed Doug backhanding Trish in his presence.

and Ashley's restraining order, Faith was the one who petitioned for it after being threatened by Ashley and her family on multiple occasions.

A third woman named Beverly claimed that Doug and Ashley had manipulated and taken control over Trish, beating her and forcing her to clean and take care of the kids. They apparently used her social security money and, quote, pimped her out to their friends to, quote, earn her keep, which I assume means that Doug and Ashley's friends paid them to have sex with Trish.

It's also possible that Trish may have gotten into drugs, which could have played a role in her needing to earn things from Doug, who was rumored to be a dealer.

It was also claimed by witnesses that Ashley was the one who was more abusive towards Trish. Ashley would accuse Trish of trying to steal Doug, and claimed that Trish had slept with both Doug and Travis, another man living on the property, and as a result, would physically lash out at her, which brings us to the rumored cause of Trish's death.

Trish was claustrophobic, and as a joke, Ashley would allegedly make her get into a non-working freezer chest in the basement to scare her and control her and lock her in. It was one of those large freezer chests that had a padlock on it.

One time, the joke went too far. Doug and Ashley went out for the day, and when they came back and went downstairs to check the freezer, they found Trish dead. She'd suffocated inside. One of Ashley's friends, who would like to remain anonymous, I'll call her Angela, remembered seeing Trish at the house regularly. But all of a sudden, she was gone. Angela figured that she'd just moved.

One day, Angela came over to help Ashley, who wanted to renovate the basement into a play area for the kids, an odd thing to do in a house that you're just renting. The area included a working washer-dryer set and a non-working freezer that Ashley wanted to get rid of.

Yeah, she was kind of taunting her, telling her to open it, open it, open it. She opened it and closed it pretty immediately because the smell that she said came from it was just horrific. Again,

Sometime later, Angela came back to help Ashley clean it out.

She did not really want to do that. But again, she was friends with her. She didn't think she was doing anything other than helping her, you know, helping a friend clean out an old gross freezer. And at that point, there wasn't really anything in there. The smell had kind of, you know, it was still there, but it wasn't as overpowering as it was the first time.

She had found some darker colored hair and at that point she did ask Ashley, you know, what is this? Because Ashley has blonde hair. And at that point, Ashley had told her it was fur from a deer or it was some type of animal.

which wasn't, you know, highly unlikely because Doug did go hunting once in a while. I mean, he didn't necessarily have animals laying around in his house, but he did go out, he did go hunting. So again, this person didn't think anything of it other than I'm cleaning out a gross freezer. The freezer has since disappeared and has never been recovered. Angela also claimed that Ashley still had Trish's phone and it seemed to be working just fine.

She later went to the police about what she saw. Doug also allegedly confessed to Angela's boyfriend, detailing how he dismembered her, burned the remains on French Hill Road, and dumped the rest in Grant's pond in a washer-dryer set with the help of Travis Coulter.

Two men who were camping near the pond at this time also claimed to have seen Doug and Travis dumping something large into the pond. They reported what they saw to police.

Travis Coulter and his wife Sarah also lived at 225 Main Street at the time. They lived in a separate building on the property with their two kids, while Doug, Ashley, her five children, and Trish lived in the main house. It was a tip from Sarah that led police to the pond in the first place. I feel like a lot of people put a lot of it on Doug, but I feel like Ashley is just as bad, if not worse.

worse because I feel like Ashley befriended Trish and really just took advantage of Trish in every way and tried to strip her as a person. And I don't know if it was a jealousy thing because I remember Ashley always being jealous, but I do firmly believe that they were involved. And I believe there was more people involved that were close with them that knows something and that Doug threatened them to stay silent because even though Doug is in jail, people are still scared of him.

In October of 2019, the investigation took yet another frustrating turn when a strong message was sent to those who were cooperating with authorities and speaking out against Doug and Ashley. In the same night, two different cars were deliberately set on fire. Who did the cars belong to? Angela and Kayla.

both of whom were former friends of Ashley, who had spoken with police and came forward with information about Trish.

the first person whose car was set on fire, she called me and I, I answered and she was screaming. And prior to this, both of those women had made comments about, you know, being concerned about going against Ashley, you know, being concerned about any repercussions. And they, again, they knew what she was capable of. So, you know, I, we had just said the same thing, you know, you just gotta keep your eyes open, just be safe, just be careful. So,

So she did call me that night screaming. I mean, she was hysterical yelling, you know, she, she set my effing car on fire and, you know, and I, and I could hear her boyfriend in the background. I could hear him yelling. And then at that point she was saying, you know, the, the police are here, the, uh, the, the fire trucks just getting here. And I, I told her, okay, you know, you need to hang up with me and you need to go over there and you need to go talk to them. You need to tell them what happened. And then about 20, 25 minutes later, I,

I got a phone call from the other woman, the woman who had posted the video. And I answered it. And I answered it saying, you know, did you did you hear about this person's car? Because I assumed that's why she was calling me. And she was calling me to say the same thing, that her car was set on fire and that the police were there and that the fire trucks were there and saying the same thing. You know, I knew this was going to happen. I knew something was going to happen.

The fires were determined to be arson by the fire marshal. Both cars were a total loss, burned down to the frame. They are still under investigation.

Nobody has been charged with the crime. You know, another thing is both of those women, you know, Ashley knows exactly where they live, you know, has been there before. She knows their cars and they live about, you know, 15, 20 minutes from each other. So, I mean, it is just another frustrating piece to this whole thing. While Doug sits in jail, Ashley and her mother, Wendy, have continuously antagonized Trisha's supporters.

both online and in person. They get in fights with them in public and on Facebook. Wendy has written posts slamming Trish's character and originally implied she died by suicide. The duo even went as far as replicating the pink Justice for Trish t-shirts with their own spin, mocking those who were taking a stand for Trish.

I think it's important not to censor this, so here's your language warning. Ashley, Wendy, and a few other cronies paraded around the fall festival in pink t-shirts that on the back said hashtag fuck your justice Trish. Ashley's pink sweatshirt was extra special and included favorite criminal on the front. I wish I were joking.

You can see the photos they proudly posted on Facebook at MurderSheTold.com. But Trish's supporters are not backing down. In fact, this only added more fuel to their fire. I've said it before, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

And they are definitely squeaky. So we do have the rally. It's on Saturday, September 4th. We're doing it at 12 o'clock right in front of the state capitol building right in Concord. And the family really wants to make

make it a point. They want people to remember Trish, remember who she was as a person, just as much as they want people to remember who she was last seen with and remember that this has not been solved yet. Some of the family members will be speaking there. We're going to have t-shirts made up. We have different bumper stickers and bracelets with her name on it. And we do have the petition going around, the petition to demand that arrests be

be made. I think last I knew we were at just under 5,000 signatures. At this point, we're just doing anything we can to spread the word on what happened and what's not happening. And, you know, really, we just we want to see a group of people there with her face everywhere. And we just want the attorney general's office and the investigators to know that we're not going to let the case go cold. We're

We're not going to stop until we have answers and until the people responsible are held responsible. Chloe and Valerie have created a community online, a community that advocates for Trish and spreads the word about her case, a community that grows stronger and larger every day.

I encourage you to join, no matter where you're from. All of the links for the group, information for the rally, and the petition will be available at MurderSheTold.com. As much as I want this story to just be about Trish, it's not. And the family and community know it's not. It's also about the people who walk free from justice. The people who taunt justice with a nasty message printed on the back of their shirts.

And this is where their lives intersect: the victim and the antagonizer, an unfortunate meeting of old acquaintances who were far from best friends, and a tragic outcome forever tied up in the cycle of "what if." What if Trish dumped Chris before it got to the point of police reports? What if Trish hadn't messaged Ashley? What if Trish had gone back to Florida?

What if Ashley's children speak up about what they witnessed in that home? What if we'll never bring Trish back? Neither will getting her justice. But at the very least, justice will take a violent criminal off the street, and Trish's family can bring her home and lay her to rest in peace. This is the only option her family has left: to continue to fight and to ask people to fight with them.

Well, I think I got the acceptance, but I'm not over the anger. I'm just, you know, the anger of all of this is what is propelling me onward with this fight. I'm not going to give this up. This is going to be in the public eye until the attorney general's

And this state does something about this. And if they never do, then they're never going to hear the end of it. One of the biggest messages that the family has tried to

to relay out there is again, remember her as a person, remember who she was last seen with. And if you know anything, if you, you know, if you've heard anything, just come forward, you're not going to get in trouble. It's, you know, that you're not going to face charges at this point.

The family and the detectives, they just want answers, you know, and even if something that you may know or something you may have heard doesn't seem like a big deal, you know, you never know what it is, you know, what that missing piece is that could put this whole thing to rest and get Trish the justice that she does deserve.

If you're holding on to any information about the murder of Trish Haynes, I urge you to please call the New Hampshire State Police at 603-223-4381. Share this case and get Trish's name out there. I want to thank you so much for listening. I am so grateful that you chose to tune in and I couldn't be here without you. Thank you.

You can follow along by connecting with me on Instagram at Murder She Told Podcast and on the Murder She Told Facebook page. Keep your eyes peeled for a special giveaway later this week. My sources for this episode include Patch.com, Valley News, WMUR9, The Concord Monitor, True Crime Garage, and New Hampshire Union Leader.

A very special thanks to Valerie Haynes Alvarez, Chloe French, and Tara Taylor for sharing their stories and memories with me and for trusting me with Trisha's story. All links for sources and images for this episode can be found on MurderSheTold.com, linked in the show notes. Special thanks to Byron Willis for his research and writing support.

If you loved this episode, please consider sharing it with a friend or on social media or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. It's one of the best ways to support an indie podcast. If you are a friend or a family member of the victim, you are more than welcome to reach out to me at hello at MurderSheTold.com. If you have a story that needs to be told or would like to suggest one, I would love to hear from you.

My only hope is that I've honored your stories in keeping the names of your family and friends alive. I'm Kristen Seavey, and this is Murder, She Told. Thank you for listening.