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Identity of body in pond verified
Death is considered a homicide, officials say
Photo Courtesy Stokes County Sheriff's Office
Ashley Denise Ward's body was found Tuesday.
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Published: June 6, 2009
Authorities have identified the body found floating in a pond near Belews Lake Tuesday as a Mount Airy woman whose mother had reported her missing last weekend.
The death of Ashley Denise Ward, 24, is being investigated as a homicide, Forsyth County authorities said.
Ward's mother had reported her missing on May 30.
She told Stokes County authorities that she had last spoken to her daughter about 3 or 3:30 p.m. that day, according to a report.
At that time, Ward was visiting her boyfriend in Walnut Cove, said Maj. Durwood Bennett, the chief deputy of the Stokes County Sheriff's Office.
"Evidently, he was the last person to see her alive," Bennett said.
Bennett declined to say whether the boyfriend had been questioned about Ward's death.
Bennett referred further questions about the case to the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office.
State and local investigators are pursuing leads about the death, said Maj. Brad Stanley, a spokesman for the Forsyth sheriff's office.
Stanley also declined say if her boyfriend had been questioned or whether he is a suspect.
"We've talking to a number of people trying to determine why she was found in Belews Lake," Stanley said.
"There is some person or persons responsible for her death."
Stanley declined to say how Ward died or to discuss any wounds or injuries on her body.
He said that she has one child.
"It is very traumatic for her family," Stanley said.
Two of Ward's relatives at her home near Mount Airy declined to comment last night about Ward's death.
"Her mother was resigned to the fact that it was her daughter" who was found near Belews Lake, Bennett of the Stokes sheriff's office said.
Ward's body was discovered about 2 p.m. Tuesday, and it was pulled from the water about five hours later. The body was in a cove too shallow to reach by boat. Investigators had used all-terrain vehicles to reach the scene.
Ward's body had been taken to the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill for autopsy. She was identified through dental records, said Sharon Artis, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office.
■ John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.
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