MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — As the afternoon slipped into evening June 22, Roseanne Smith stopped a police officer on the Seattle waterfront, asking him to take a flyer of her son, Ashton, who has been missing since June 9.
Ashton was still missing at the Enterprise deadline late June 25.
He did so graciously, wishing her well.
Smith has been getting a lot of encouragement lately, but no solid clues to the whereabouts of her 16-year-old son, a student at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Ashton Smith has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. While he can read and engage in conversation, he is socially naive, often saying things that are inappropriate and not even realizing it, his mother said. His quirkiness often made for a lonely social life.
He also kept a rigid schedule, Roseanne Smith said.
“He is so vulnerable,” she said. “He is so needy.”
The mother was torn between trying to make her son as independent as possible and trying to protect him.
He was allowed to take walks in the neighborhood, but usually stayed within a few block radius of their Mountlake Terrace neighborhood.
Flyers, like the ones Smith was distributing in Seattle on June 22, are appearing across the Puget Sound region and in the media. Relatives were spreading 900 of them in several Snohomish County communities June 22.
Roseanne Smith is approaching strangers, police agencies, transportation hubs and businesses asking for help getting the pictures of her son’s face out to the public.
“I have gotten really good at begging,” she said.
The day Ashton disappeared, he came home from school to the apartment complex where he lived.
He made a meal and about 8 p.m. told his mother he was going out for a walk.
He went to the apartment’s clubhouse, which was the last time anyone saw him, his mother said.
“He didn’t have a coat or money,” she said. “He just had his keys.”
Police have taken reports of possible sightings from several people in the Northwest but “there is nothing solid,” said Sgt. Mark Connor of the Mountlake Terrace Police Department.
“I would like to give her some reassurance, but we don’t know,” he said.
Roseanne Smith has heard from people in Seattle, Tacoma and Port Orchard, among other locations, who believe they may have seen him.
She doesn’t know what to think.
“I have no clue,” she said.
Ashton, who also goes by “Ash,” has curly brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing blue jeans, a green or gray T-shirt and blue Velcro sandals with white socks on the day he disappeared.
Anyone with information can call the police department at 425-670-8260.
Eric Stevick writes for The Herald in Everett.
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