The family and friends of a young Vernon woman who was killed in a vicious episode of domestic violence a year ago Wednesday will gather tonight to honour her life and consider her legacy.
“Anyone who was touched by her story or who knew her or anyone in our family is also welcome to come,” Christy Gendron, Ashley Wadsworth’s mom, said from her home in Vernon.
Ashley, 19, has been described by friends and family as a a bright and compassionate person with limitless potential and a thirst for adventure. She focused that attention and positivity, however, on the person who would eventually take her life, Jack Sepple.
She travelled to the U.K. in November 2021 to meet up with Sepple, who was five years older than her and she’d met online years earlier. The two had forged a romantic attachment during their online relationship and that grew when she arrived in the U.K.
Once there, they lived together in his home in Chelmsford, UK. Not long before she was killed, he started exhibiting some unusual behaviour.
Hailey Wadsworth, Ashley’s older sister, explained that it was just a few weeks before Ashley was killed that Sepple’s strange and violent nature started to emerge.
“He started going through her phone and being weird and being controlling, he started not wanting her to call us,” she said.
There were incidents of physical violence as well.
“Now, in hindsight, there were lots of signs,” Hailey said.
When Gendron learned her daughter was facing violence, just days before she was killed, she told her, “You’re coming home,” and that was the plan.
“I said, ‘Ashley get on that plane, you need to cab it and go there early and don’t worry about it, grandma booked flight,’ and Ashley said, ‘No, it’s fine, I am packing,'” Gendron siad.
COVID-19 was at its height and Ashley had to get a test before she could go and the situation seemed stable enough that Gendron believed Sepple’s assurances that he would drive Ashley to both the appointment and the airport.
Gendron said that she stressed to them both that if she wasn’t on the plane, she’d call the police.
“They were fine, he was letting her pack her things, they knew (their relationship) was done,” she said.
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Then they went to sleep with not a clue of what was to come.
“I never thought it would be this,” Gendron said.
When they hadn’t heard from her, Gendron had someone from the Mormon church go by. They got to the house Sepple and Ashley shared and when they couldn’t see Ashley, they called the police.
When the police arrived, the person told Gendron they’d call back, but they didn’t.
“Hailey got a call because it was the last number on her phone,” Gendron said. “Then (the police) called me and said we found her.”
Ashley was strangled and stabbed more than 90 times in a vicious attack by Sepple, who was found lying in a pool of blood in bed next to her body. He confessed to the murder and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
“Her story is so important. Ashley was such a great person, she would have loved for it to help people. Helping others is what drew her to the Mormon church,” Gendron said, explaining that if people learn from Ashley’s story it will mean something.
“It can happen to anyone. People never think it will happen to them. We are proof that it can happen to even a small-town Vernon girl.”
It’s important, she said, to trust your “gut feeling” even if you’re a loved one of someone experiencing domestic violence.
“If it doesn’t feel right, call the police,” Gendron said. “Make sure they are escorted out of there, even if they say ‘don’t call the police’ or they will hate you.”
“Even if they hate you, they will be alive.”
Hailey added that she hopes women in her sister’s position will learn from this as well.
“Don’t just hesitate and wait. If it gets that far, it’s not going to work out. You need to leave if you think, ‘This man (or woman) is being violent.’ If it’s not healthy, leave, set boundaries.”
Hailey also wishes that, like B.C., the U.K. had a way to learn about the background of a person. No one thought Sepple would be harmful, but he was actually notoriously violent to women. He had a criminal record that nobody knew about. Even after she died, when the family looked him up, it was inaccessible.
“There needs to be more accessibility to this information there,” she said, adding that there is some way to get criminal record checks in the U.K., but the process is long and convoluted.
“They are too protected in the U.K.”
This, and more, will be considered at the Wednesday vigil at Kin Beach, starting at 5 p.m.
“They will be lighting candles,we have balloons and will play songs, and a poem will be read and a speech will be read,” Gendron said. “It will be short and sweet.”
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