Teen Shot Three Times in the Head by Her Ex! A Heartbreaking Murder! True Crime Documentary.

growing up in a loving family pursuing dreams and becoming a role model in her community is something many young girls aspire to Ashley dittle was no different born on May 20th 1998 in Louisville Colorado she was a bright and energetic girl who found her passion for horses at just 5 years old her love for horseback riding became her identity which led her to the rodeo World by the age of 18 she was crowned lady in waiting one step away from becoming a rodeo queen she had her eyes set on promising college life ahead as well but what seemed like the perfect life would soon be shattered by a tragedy that no one saw coming a tragedy that would destroy not one but two families on the evening of June 9th 2016 a seemingly ordinary day for 18-year-old Ashley dittle took a horrifying turn Ashley a beloved figure in her community and a SP in rodeo queen had planned to meet up with her ex-boyfriend Tanner Flores the laon Haggler Reservoir was the location the couple had agreed to meet and discuss their troubled relationship Ashley not knowing what fate had in store for her entered Tanner's truck what started out as a conversation about a relationship would soon take a horrific turn one that no one in Colorado even in their worst nightmare would have imagined a cold-blooded murder of a teenaged girl who was once a symbol of posit positivity and hope in her community Ashley dittle was born on May 20th 1998 in Louisville Colorado to Marie and Jeff from a very young age she was known to have a type of energy and aura about her that Drw others closer she had two brothers Brandon and Michael and was fortunate enough to have grown up in a family that always loved her and prioritized her dreams Ashley by the age of just five had her very first Pony and from that day forward she never looked back on anything else her passion for horseback riding was truly immense and fostered at a very young age as well it was something that really became a part of her identity she had a profound love for horses and developed a sense of community early on which is what gave her a purpose in life a few years later at the age of just eight she began to ride in horse shows and completely fell in love with the rodeo community and lifestyle she was involved in Rodeo activities all the time and had some profound achievements to her name in 2016 when Ashley was around 18 years old she was crowned lady in waiting the title holds Prestige value in the rodeo community and was given to someone who would work alongside the rodeo queen to truly embody the spirit it comes with a lot of different responsibilities that include things like planning fundraisers helping prepare sponsors attending community events learning to be an event spokesperson and much more having received such a title was a huge honor for her and it meant that she was only a year away from becoming rodeo queen herself she became quite well known for her commitment to the rodeo community and was seen as a role model by many teenage girls who aspired to be just like her often times young girls would come up to her and ask for her autograph shedding some light on her character Ashley was the type of person who would write a personal note to each person who came up for an autograph it was a sweet and caring gesture and in the note she would encourage the reader to keep pursuing their dreams apart from this Ashley was also an active part of the Boulder County 4 horse program which seeks to encourage young children to get involved in the horseback riding Community she also competed on lots of horse judging and hology teams used to ride in horse bows and was even named the champion High individual in the National 4H Western Roundup but this wasn't the sum of her ambitions Ley was also a founding member and a two-time vice president of the Thomas Valley FFA the Future Farmers of America FFA was an incurs student organization catering to the interests of those who wanted to be involved in agriculture and Leadership Ashley had quite a lot going on for her during her time and wanted to pursue the FFA at the state level when she started college she graduated from berth at high in May of 2016 and had plans to attend Colorado State University there she would make major in agriculture business she had her eyes set on the next chapter in life and didn't know that it would not begin her life was ripped to shreds by one person who decided that if he couldn't have her then the world wouldn't either that one person was Tanner Flores Ashley had met Tanner back in high school and both of them were in a relationship that appeared to be normal to the outside world think of it like a typical teenage Roman however the young couple did have their troubles Tanner was said to be very controlling of Ashley controlling to a point where he dictated what she could and couldn't do he even forbade her from attending parties at College which didn't make much sense since Ashley was not known for being the party type anyway so was he just jealous of her achievements did he want to keep her all to himself was he insecure that he'd lose her to someone better regardless of what he felt he always took these personal issues or concerns out on Ashley in different ways who was fed up with all this after a year into the relationship she knew that Tanner wasn't right for her and decided to break up with him the decision as it turns out was not so straightforward for Tanner on June 4th 2016 Tanner requested that he and Ashley go on a hike in Estus Park and discuss their relationship he probably didn't understand what it meant to have a discussion because even though Ashley had broken up he thought the discussion went great and the two were back together he either didn't get the message or didn't want to accept it the following day Ashley had gone out with some friends to the Sundance steakhouse in Saloon and Tanner showed up there as well Witnesses at the location say that Tanner had some point grabbed her twirled her around in its direction and attempted to talk with her however Ashley was so fed up by all this and wanted nothing to do with Tanner she ended up leaving the location but the next day Tanner convinced her to meet him again at laon Haggler Reservoir so the two could talk by the time the conversation ended Tanner somehow thought they were back together even though Ashley had stated that they weren't the day after that Ashley went back to the Sundance Steakhouse and Saloon this time she even reached out to Tanner and told him not to come because she didn't want to see him again Tanner however came up with a lie claiming his keys were locked inside his truck and he needed Ashley to come pick him up but Ashley just ignored this message 4 days after the hike on June 8th Ashley agreed to go and sell some scrap metal with Tanner at the time she didn't know this would Mark the initiation of a horrific life event that day Tanner ended up going through her phone and found that she'd been texting two other guys he thought Ashley was flirting with the other guys and accused her of cheating at the time both Ashley and Tanner had not gotten back together later that night Tanner contacted the two guys and made Ashley really angry that then Tanner texted Ashley the following message I hope you realize what you threw away I gave you everything and spent so much money on you you were too busy trying to [ __ ] Tori and Jared behind my back you were nothing near loyal I'm going to do something stupid now bye Ashley actually responded trying to defend herself and up until this point she wanted to remain friends with him but things had gotten a bit too far the next day Tanner again messaged Ashley asking if the two of them could meet up and talk she told him that she had been in Denver that morning but she would be able to meet him later in the day while Ashley was in Denver tenner borrowed his dad's pistol and went to shoot at Carter Lake claiming that it would help him decompress he continued to text Ashley throughout the day and in one of the texts he even stated he missed her Ashley was so annoyed by all of this that she ended up texting him stop but she had agreed to meet him later in the day simply because she didn't like being a rude or unkind person during the afternoon of June 99th both of them got together at the lon Haggler Reservoir where Ashley went inside Tanner's truck little did she know it would be the last thing she ever did at around 7:30 p. m. her parents went out to look for her because she hadn't come home by that time 30 minutes later at 8:00 p.

m. they found her car in one of the parking spaces at the reservoir both Jeff and Marie were certain that Ashley would have texted them if she was planning to be late given this they came to the conclusion that something wasn't right and immediately called the Sheriff's Office and reported her missing local authorities were quick to jump in on the action and initiate search efforts they began calling Ashley's friends and family members to gather any information they could during their efforts one thing that stood out the most was that everyone kept mentioning the name Tanner the authorities soon learned that Tanner and Ashley were in relationship and had a breakup they were made aware of Tanner's distraught over the separation and one person even told them that Tanner had posted something on Snapchat that made him believe that he was suicidal other people the authorities spoke to told them that they had never seen Tanner so depressed soon after Tanner's father came forward and told the officers that his 22 caliber revolver was missing from a locked gun safe and Tanner knew where the key was a be on the lookout was issued for Tanner's truck officers all around Colorado were put on alert and the search efforts were at Peak by that time the efforts concluded at 8:00 a. m.

the following morning and Tanner's location had been identified authorities had received a call during which they were told that the truck was seen on his deceased grandfather's property in CB Bar Colorado the location was on the other side of the state and around 5 hours away from where those involved in the entire event resided it was later revealed that Tanner's grandmother had called a neighbor to confirm if the truck was indeed on the property and upon confirmation reported it to law enforcement given the distance of the location assembling a team to make an arrest would take some time so the authorities decided to have a wildlife Ranger go to the property to keep an eye on Tanner so he couldn't escape while Tanner did not make any attempts to flee the location he did do some other things that could be described as very disturbing the neighbor whom Tanner's grandmother had called and the wildlife Ranger watched as Tanner began throwing Rags soaked with blood into a nearby Field he also moved a rollup mat into a wood pile behind the house and what they saw next was utterly horrific Tanner came out of the house with a heavy blanket and put it on the back seat of his truck the blanket appeared to be quite heavy for him to carry sticking outside of it was a human arm but this time it was pretty clear what Tanner had done and might have gotten away with too but luckily an arrest was made later that morning the sheriff's deputies CBI agent and members of three additional law enforcements made it to the property they made the arrest without any incidents at the property and when they went to Tanner's truck and opened up the blanket he had placed on the back seat it was the corpse of Ashley Marie dittle at this point no life-saving measures could have been taken and everyone's worst nightmare had turned into a reality Tanner initially told the officers that the two of them were discussing their relationship in his truck and Ashley was the one who lost control Tanner's initial story was that Ashley grabbed the gun and pointed it at her head he said that he tried to wrestle the gun away from her but during the struggle it went off and she was shot he went on to say that he shot her two times after to end her pain and suffering because the first shot didn't kill her after hearing this the officer told him that he was not buying any of it and after a few minutes Tanner came clean since Ashley was dead by that time the only details that could be delivered were to come from Tanner he told the officer that he and Ashley had got together at long Haggler Reservoir and from there they drove West towards Carter Lake this is the same Lake Tanner had visited earlier in the day to practice shooting according to Tanner this is where they discussed their relationship Ashley told him that she didn't want to patch things up with him but would marry him later in life and right now needs time to explore other relationships after this conversation they started to drive back to where Ashley's car was parked and that's when things went South he said that Ashley glared at him during the drive back and that's all it took he reached into the back seat grabbed the revolver and shot Ashley in the back of the head not once but twice Tanner claims that she didn't die right away which is why he had to shoot her a third time according to Tanner the third shot was intended to end her suffering after that he tried to clean her body as best he could and drove off to to his deceased grandfather's property located at the other end of the state once he had given his statement he was held in the Messa County Jail without baale Ashley's funeral took place on June 17th at St John Evangelist Catholic parish in lovelin Colorado everyone at the ceremony her family friends and other community members totaling up to over 700 were all devastated by what happened the teenage girl was once the reason for hope happiness an aspiration for the community was now mourned her mother Marie dittle said that she didn't want her daughter to be remembered for the way she died but for how she lived she wanted Ashley's memory to be that of a fullof life 18-year-old girl who accomplished so much and set herself up for her own success the age of 18 is a strange time in life for many during this age it's often hard to figure out what you're really going to do with your life passion profession College there's just so much going on that the sheer number of options can be overwhelming for anyone but this wasn't the case for Ashley the options weren't overwhelming for her at all in fact she achieved greatness in almost everything she took part in that's just who she was at an age when many are confused about their life Ashley had it planned out but who knew those plans would be cut short from all who attended her funeral she was described as fun smiling Goofy and down to earth she was the lady in waiting to be the rodeo queen and would have been Queen next year but during the upcoming season she will now be remembered and memorialized Ashley had done so much for the community and the funeral was indeed an enormous one but apart from the ceremony a few other things also took place on that day the FBI announced that it would be assisting lir County in the investigation and would help with evidence in Search and Recovery Tanner who was previously held at Messa County Jail was also transferred to the larer county jail on the same day Ashley was being put to rest the pursuit of justice for the dittle family was about to begin on June 20th Tanner made his first court appearance and was charged with first-degree murder and second deegree kidnapping the basis for the kidnapping charges was based on the presumed fact that Tanner didn't let Ashley get out of the truck when she wanted to grief pain suffering and Agony would all continue to be a part of daily life for the dittle family after Ashley was in her final resting place the family would have to wait a year and a half until legal proceedings began in October 2017 the trial officially began and the courtroom was filled with family and friends of both teens it was clear to everyone that Tanner had killed Ashley the only question that was to be answered was whether it was a premeditative act or not the prosecution believed and argued that the killing was planned out they claimed that Tanner had gone out to the lake earlier in the morning to test the revolver and find an isolated location to commit the murder but this wasn't their only claim the prosecution also mentioned that the revolver used for killing was a single-action firearm meaning that the firing mechanism had to be manually reset after each shot given that Ashley was shot three times the prosecution mentioned that the killing had to be one out of deliberation not one out of the Heat of the Moment the defense however argued that it wasn't a planned killing and that second deegree murder would be a fair charge during the trial Tanner took the stand testified and told the horrific details of the entire incident in his testimony he never denied what he did but he fully denied that he had plan to do it some other details that weren't part of his initial statement upon arrest were also revealed he told the court that he threw both their phones out of the truck after the murder however before throwing out Ashley's phone he texted himself pretending to be her the texts mainly stated that both of them weren't together that afternoon and that Ashley was not going to meet him but these details only looked like a failed attempt to distance himself and cover up his tracks however the next detail he revealed is one that shook everyone to their core the night before he was arrested he went to his deceased grandfather's property and broke the glass sliding door to gain access to the property once there he cleaned up some of the blood turned on the TV and watched some cartoons before falling asleep yes cartoons how is it possible for one to love another so much they can't see them with anyone else but still have the audacity to murder their beloved and watch TV afterward this is a question that remains unanswered at the end of the trial both families had suffered immense loss they lost their children in the lives planned ahead with that verdict came Justice for Ashley but also a dead end for Tanner the pain either of the families experienced can only be described as unbearable Justice had prevailed but no one won the case in This Bitter reality two families were destroyed and ripped to shreds in the process but the case shed light on a much bigger part of life breakup violence in the United States 1.