Ashley Paige, Where Are You?

Troy and I are forever picking up junker cars to keep our project and race cars supplied with plenty of parts. Yesterday we drove 3 hours away to pick up one of these cars for $200. It took the seller forever to finally get to his shop to meet us, but we'd already started trying to load the car.

While we were waiting, we looked around the interior and checked it out all the way around. The car was full of possessions very clearly belonging to a girl. Like, keepsake kind of stuff. I asked the guy in the shop next door to our seller's what was up with all of that.

He said the car came from a customer who had every intention of fixing the front end (the suspension and front wheels were missing). He dropped the car off at the mechanic's and a few months later, told him he couldn't afford to fix the car. He came by and got his stuff out of the car, but left all the girl's stuff. He said, "Oh, I broke up with her. I'll call her and have her come by and get it," and left it sitting on the roof of the car in grocery bags.

Nobody put the stuff inside the car until a few days later. Basically, her things have been sitting inside this car with stray cats curled up on it; the hatch had been left open for 2 years. There's water damage to almost everything.

It's sad to see what was left behind: report cards from elementary school, high school orchestra performance programs, pictures and more pictures and more pictures, a photo album, an Al-Anon Day-at-a-Time book, cards and letters from family. I felt like I needed to find her so she could take this stuff back.

I used to be a skiptracer. My job was to find people who didn't want to be found, and repo their cars. I was damned good at it. I had access to paid databases most of us can't use because they're not worth it unless you're a business. I found people all day long and it was a rush.

I know this girl's name, I know what elementary school she went to, which high school she attended, all the years she was there, and I even know what she *looks* like...and she's just disappeared.

Using all the information I know, I cannot find a trace of her anywhere online or anywhere else. Using the family's names from cards and letters (which had no envelopes so i don't even know where they were mailed from)...nothing. No Facebook page, no MySpace, no Twitter. No blogs, no personal information about her online anywhere. Did she go back home to Georgia? Did she stay in this state? Was she ever even in this state, because we have no idea where the car came from before it was dropped off at the shop. Did she go somewhere else? Was she troubled and ran into some problems and just fell off the map?

I feel as if this is a personal mission I need to fulfill; to get this stuff back to this girl. She's young, too...elementary school in 2004. No information in her stuff from junior high, so I don't know about that.

There's a slight concern with feeling like a stalker, but at least I have a reason to track her down.

Well, I'm going to keep poking around. Maybe the schools can help me figure out a narrower map to look for family.

Is this obsessing over something that should just be tossed out?