Who killed this young woman while she was asleep in her bed? In the pre-dawn hours of October 6, 2009, a quiet Milwaukee neighborhood was irrevocably shattered. Ashleigh Love, a 19-year-old Caucasian female, was tragically killed in what should have been the safest of places—her own bed. An intruder, armed with a shotgun, broke into her family’s home on North 64th Street around 2:00 a.m. The assailant proceeded directly to Ashleigh's upstairs bedroom and fired a single, fatal shot to her face while she slept.
The recent high school honor graduate, known for her compassion and infectious laugh, had spent the evening with her family watching a football game before retiring for the night.
The commotion of the intruder's escape roused Ashleigh's mother from her sleep. Hearing footsteps and a sense of movement in the house, she opened her bedroom door and came face-to-face with the armed man. In a fleeting, terrifying encounter, she saw a man with a bandana covering the lower portion of his face. She screamed at him to take what he wanted and leave, believing it to be a robbery. The man then fled the residence. Ashleigh's father, alerted by his wife's screams, went to check on his daughter and made the horrific discovery. Investigators later determined that nothing had been stolen from the home, leading them to believe that this was not a random act of burglary, but that Ashleigh herself was the intended target.
In the immediate aftermath and the years that have followed, the investigation into Ashleigh Love's murder has remained without a resolution, and no arrests have ever been made. Ashleigh's mother described the man she saw as a Hispanic male, approximately 20 years of age, with an average height and build, short, spiked black hair, and wearing a dark zippered sweater or jacket. She also believes there may have been an accomplice, as she recalled seeing a "flash" of someone else running away. In the months following the murder, police also publicly sought a man they believed Ashleigh may have met online and had been seeing in secret. This individual was described as a white male in his early 20s with a thin build, who possibly worked in construction and drove a mid-2000s American-made blue pickup truck with specific customizations. However, this person of interest was never identified, and police did not label him a suspect. Despite numerous interviews with friends, family, and acquaintances, and a thorough review of her social media presence, authorities have not been able to officially name any suspects in the case. The murder of Ashleigh Love is now considered a cold case, leaving her family with unanswered questions and a profound sense of loss.
