Missing Person Case: Priti “Ashley” Porter Gastonia, North Carolina Missing since April 2009 New public record information
Priti “Ashley” Porter, age 22, has been missing from Gastonia, North Carolina since April 19, 2009.
At the time of her disappearance, she lived with her mother and stepfather. Both her mother and stepfather have since passed away, according to public information and social media posts. As a result, there are no longer immediate parents publicly advocating for updates in the case.
Circumstances of disappearance:
On the evening of April 19, 2009, Ashley spent time online, spoke with a neighbor, returned home around 10:00 PM, and told her mother goodnight.
The following morning, her family discovered that her bedroom door was locked, her window screen had been removed, and Ashley was gone.
According to the Charley Project, Ashley left behind her purse and her cell phone. The City of Gastonia missing persons page also states that she exited through the window and that no personal items were taken.
Key public record information from an NC Court of Appeals opinion:
While reviewing public records, I came across an unpublished North Carolina Court of Appeals opinion titled State v. Forney, filed on June 4, 2019. The opinion describes an incident involving a vehicle registered to Priti Porter that occurred just weeks before she disappeared.
This information appears in the court record but was not widely included in missing persons coverage at the time.
Details summarized from the court opinion:
March 21, 2009 According to testimony summarized in the opinion, Porter’s mother stated that she heard Ashley tell police that her then-boyfriend, Antonio Lyndell Forney, had pushed her out of her car, taken the vehicle, and told her she would not see it again. The vehicle was reported stolen.
March 22, 2009 Police responded to a car fire on Tyvola Road in Charlotte, North Carolina, approximately 20 miles from Gastonia. The vehicle, registered to Priti Porter, was found burned. A fire investigator concluded the fire had been intentionally set using an accelerant.
October 2009 The opinion describes recorded jail conversations involving a confidential informant. In those recordings, an individual identified at trial as Antonio Forney was heard discussing setting a car on fire and avoiding leaving fingerprints.
Discussion points and questions:
Was there any public reporting in 2009 that connected the March 2009 car fire and the resulting court case to Ashley Porter’s later disappearance, or have these events generally been treated as separate in coverage?
Because Ashley’s cell phone was left behind, what types of digital or other evidence would investigators typically rely on in a 2009 case, such as other people’s phone records, cell tower information, or witness timelines?
The bedroom door was reportedly locked, yet the window screen was removed. Does anyone have insight or theories about the locked room versus window exit, especially given that her personal items were left behind?
This post is intended to share publicly documented information only. It is not an accusation against any individual. Please do not harass, contact, or doxx anyone. Any legitimate information should be shared with law enforcement through official channels.
NamUs case MP2249 (Priti “Ashley” Porter): https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/MP2249
Charley Project case summary: https://charleyproject.org/case/priti-ashley-porter
City of Gastonia Missing Persons page (includes Ashley “Priti” Porter): https://www.cityofgastonia.com/component/content/article/601-missing-persons.html
NC Court of Appeals opinion (Justia mirror): State v. Forney (COA18-418), filed June 4, 2019: https://law.justia.com/cases/north-carolina/court-of-appeals/2019/18-418.html
Sounds to me like Ashley went out to talk to her boyfriend and he took her and killed her. He sounds super abusive for telling her she’ll never see her car again and then burning it!
A really good writeup. Poor woman.
Do we know if her bedroom was on the ground floor, or would someone have had to climb up to remove the window screen? (I'm assuming those go on the outside).
There's no mention of any noise or disarray in her room which could mean that she went quietly or had been surprised while sleeping. If someone had to carry her outside, I wouldn't have thought that would be easy for one person so she could have been conscious and threatened or perhaps two people to take her?
I hope she's found. I realise her family have passed on now but presumably she has friends and people who care.
I looked the house up and saw that it was on the first floor. I also lived in that area around the same time and grew up there. A lot of times, we would sneak out of our parents’ houses to talk to our girlfriends or boyfriends. Judging by the circumstances, it seems like she was just stepping out for a quick chat.
Thanks for the extra context, that would make sense
Does it not seem strange that a 22 year old would resort to teenager behavior to "sneak out"? It feels to me like clearly she knew it wouldn't be well-received if someone knew she was talking with the abusive ex by the people in the house, who were clearly right :(
I think you almost have to be right that it was her decision to go out the window.
I guess someone could have forced her to do so at gunpoint, but that seems like it would be difficult to do because she’d have had an opportunity to run as soon as she got to the ground outside.
Even in that case, though, she might have let the other person in to begin with. I feel like taking the screen out from the outside and climbing in would make enough noise to wake most adults up. Although I do wonder whether she habitually took sleep aids or anything.
I read it as an inside screen, indicating that she removed it and left herself
I'm from the area, and window screens are typically on the outside, but they're meant to be easily removed from the interior (for fire safety reasons, I assume). She would have just had to open her window, unlatch the screen at the bottom, and lower it to the ground outside.
Thanks for the thorough report, OP.
If her bedroom was on the first floor, maybe someone she knew and trusted knocked/tapped on her bedroom window and convinced her to “come outside and talk”. Assuming she thought it would be a brief chat, she may have left her purse and cell phone behind. Maybe she even locked her own door to prevent her parents from coming in (or maybe she often locked her bedroom door at night). Once she went outside through her own window (as teenagers have been known to do while sneaking out of the house at night) whomever was out there could have abducted her. Either she or the other person may have removed the screen so she could exit through the window.
She has one exclusion on NAMUS to a virgina Doe that has since been identified as someone else.
Two possibilities I found if she ended up as a Jane Doe
https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/8724
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/main.html?id=1701ufpa
It does sound like she might have thought it was ok to go outside to talk to someone briefly and leave her purse and phone behind. Most teens arent going to leave their phone behind for long. If her boyfriend was already in jail for the car incident maybe it was someone who knew them both who wanted to talk and "explain his side" to get her to drop the charges or if she was like a lot of teen girls told her he had a phone in jail and she could talk to him and clear up all the misunderstandings (it could have been an abusive relationship) and then she wasnt expecting that she was actually in danger. ??
She was 22.
Why not just walk out of the front door?
Maybe her parents were controlling too. I dont know. Kind of those as long as you're in this house people.
As I commented above, it wouldn't be weird, given the backstory that the others who cared about her in the house would be wary of her speaking to her abusive, thief ex and so she maybe decided to speak with him by way of sneaking out.
Probably didn't want her parents to know who was visiting her at midnight.