Missing Person: Ashley Flores!
Posted by Aryeh ben Avraham | Labels: Hoax | Posted On Tuesday 8 April 2008 at 14:07
I apologize, but the post where I reported that 13 year old Ashley Flores was MISSING, is a HOAX.
Please read following:
By David Emery - Urban Legends Guide
Netlore Archive: Email flier seeks help locating Ashley Flores, a 13-year-old girl allegedly missing in Philadelphia.
Description: Email hoax Circulating since: May 2006 Status: False
Comments: This is a hoax, circulating since May 2006. Neither the Philadelphia Police Department nor the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children lists a missing child by the name of Ashley Flores.
Moreover, the forwarded email contains none of the critical details one would expect to find in a valid alert, namely a physical description of the missing person, the time and place of disappearance, and contact information. Another giveaway is the presence in the body of the message of several sentences copied word-for-word from previous "missing child" hoaxes (see Penny Brown and C.J. Mineo).
The Ashley Flores / MySpace connection
Though she hasn't really gone missing, it does appear that Ashley Flores exists, and lives in Philadelphia. Tracking links from a version of the missing person alert posted on MySpace.com, I found an exact match (since deleted) for the image above in a photo gallery on Photobucket.com, along with a few others (since deleted) uploaded by the same user featuring a young woman named Ashley who bears more than a passing resemblance to the pictured girl.
The images were posted by someone using the screen name "Vixter609," whom I found blogging under the same alias on MySpace.com, with her given name listed as "Vicki," her age as 17, and her city of residence as Philadelphia.
When I contacted Vicki to ask what, if anything, she knew about Ashley Flores and her status as a "missing person," I received the following reply (reproduced verbatim):
ashley flores is not missing it was a merly a joke that got completely out of hand please imform everyone that e-mail that she is NOT missing it was a joke im sorry about any confusion
Further inquiries went unanswered.
Read complete article.