Family: Mother found dead in Bronx apartment was domestic violence victim

Ashley Ducille, a mother of four, was one of two bodies found in her apartment on Creston Avenue.

News 12 Staff

Nov 16, 2021, 3:15 AM

Updated 1,057 days ago

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A family says they believe a mother found dead in a Bronx apartment over the weekend was a victim of domestic violence.
Ashley Ducille, a mother of four, was one of two bodies found in her apartment on Creston Avenue.
Many neighbors say they were concerned for Ducille in the months and weeks leading up to her death. The family is now wondering why no one stepped in to help.
Ducille’s brother, Joseph Donald, says police obtained surveillance video showing his sister enter her apartment on Nov. 1 with a man who he believes was her pimp. He says the pair never left the apartment again.
Days later, neighbors reported hearing multiple gun shots. They told News 12 they did not report the incident.
About two weeks later, neighbors noticed maggots crawling around the apartment and a stench. That’s when the police got involved and discovered the two bodies.
Donald says his sister had struggled a lot in recent years and turned to sex work. He also says the man she was last seen with was known to abuse her and she had orders of protection against him.
Donald says he wishes someone stepped up if they noticed something was off.
“At some point in time, when does it become your business? And when are you concerned about your neighbor? Imagine it was your son or daughter, mother getting beat and you could hear it through the walls, and you didn't do anything, and they end up dead just like my sister,” he says.
Police are still actively investigating what went on behind the closed doors of that apartment here.
Donald says that when he last spoke with police, it was believed that the two people found had died from gunshot wounds, but their bodies were so heavily decomposed that they could not be sure.