BEAVER, Pa. — Russell Ashford, the father of a 10-year-old boy whose mother has been missing from the Washington, D.C. area since September, remains in the Beaver County Jail on a $2.5 million bond.
On Monday, Ashford learned he will go to trial for seven gun-related charges. Investigators say he wasn’t legally allowed to have guns because of a previous conviction in Maryland.
State Police filed those charges last month after he was arrested in Beaver County on violating his probation. He was not allowed to leave Pennsylvania, but police said he was seen on license plate readers in the D.C. area around the same time Antoinette Forbes, the mother of his 10-year-old son, disappeared.
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Ashford was previously convicted of assaulting Forbes.
“What makes it a crime is the charge that he had from Maryland, which in Pennsylvania kind of equates to an aggravated assault which would then prohibit him from possessing or owning firearms,” said Beaver County District Attorney Nate Bible.
On Monday, a woman who dated Ashford on and off for the last three years took the stand. She told the court that Ashford stored the guns at her house. She believed he was moving to Nashville and going to and from D.C. for work. She told police she believed he was retired from the CIA or FBI.
She said she did not know about Ashford’s previous convictions or his 10-year-old son, who was found with Ashford when he was arrested in Beaver County.
According to CNN, Ashford served in the military for more than 20 years, and records show he earned the rank of commander and retired as a decorated intelligence officer.
“So, we believe that is why he took the guns over to his girlfriend’s because he wasn’t permitted to have them, but nonetheless, he was possessing them during the period when he was not allowed to possess them,” Bible said.
It’s been 45 days since Forbes was last seen.
“She did not voluntarily walk out of this life that she loves,” said Forbes’ sister, Aileen Forbes.
No one has been charged in her disappearance.
Her family is not giving up hope that she’s found.
“We love you, and we’re not going to give up, and we’re doing everything to bring you home, because we want you back,” Forbes said.
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