Police are awaiting toxicology reports to determine cause of death

By Steve Bowman
Editor, The Brentwood Spirit

A 28-year-old Brentwood woman was found dead in her Madge Avenue home on Monday.

The cause of death has not yet been determined for Ashley Maria Minshall, who was found by her mother at around noon in Ashley’s home at 9000 Madge Avenue.

Brentwood police said Ashley’s mother, Doris Minshall, who lives a block west on Madge Ave., found her daughter on the floor of the front room of the house, unresponsive. Nobody else was in the house.

“She [Doris] hadn’t heard from her daughter so she walked down to check on her and found Ashley laying there,” said Brentwood Chief of Police Dan Fitzgerald. “She called [911] right away.”

Paramedics pronounced Ashley Minshall dead at the scene. Fitzgerald said police are uncertain of the time of death, but that family had spoken to her the night before, on Sunday.

“There was no forced entry to the house, no trauma to the body, nothing that would indicate there was any kind of struggle,” said Brentwood Detective Sergeant Jim McIntyre. He said no arrests have been made in relation to the case.

The body was taken to the medical examiner and an autopsy was performed. However, Fitzgerald said the cause of death won’t be determined until toxicology tests are complete, in four to six weeks. He would not comment on whether or not illegal drugs were found in the house.

Minshall’s obituary in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch stated that she is survived by a daughter, Haylie Minshall. Brentwood police said the daughter, who attends McGrath Elementary School, was staying with her grandparents at the time of Ashley’s death.

Ashley Minshall attended Brentwood High School in the early 2000’s, when Fitzgerald was the Brentwood Police Department’s school resource officer at BHS. He said the personal connection makes her death that much more tragic for him.

“I knew Ashley from when I was the SRO at the high school,” Fitzgerald said. “Her stepfather, John Van Cleave, I’ve known my whole life. I taught Ashley’s stepbrother and stepsister, John’s kids, in DARE. And she lived in my neighborhood, a block up from me, so I’d see her walking down the street once in a while and I’d say hi.”

According to the obituary, a visitation for Minshall will start at 10 a.m. on March 7 at Oak Hill Funeral Home in Kirkwood. A funeral service there will follow at 2 p.m. and an interment after that at Oak Hill Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to The Haylie Minshall Continuing Education Fund, 9106 Madge Avenue, Brentwood, Missouri 63144.