"The Disappearance of Ashley Morgan"

## About

**"The Disappearance of Ashley Morgan"** is the third tale in the sixth episode of the fourth season of The Nolseep Podcast. In it, a young girl's disappearance shatters a family. Written by C.K. Walker, it has a runtime of 28:00 and was performed by Corinne Sanders, David Cummings, and Jessica McEvoy. It is the 374th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

Twin sisters Rachel and Ashley live a sheltered, happy life with their father Paul, their mother Diane, and their brother Eric. The twins are inseparable, always playing together and dressing alike so their parents have trouble telling them apart. One day, the family dog dies and they give him a nice burial in the backyard, building a wooden tombstone.

Eric gets a scholarship to study abroad in Japan for a semester. To prepare for his going-away party, Paul builds a pool in the backyard and invites friends and family over. The twins dress as mermaids and swim in the pool before being sent up to bed by Diane. They decide to switch beds to prank their mother when she comes to wake them up.

Rachel wakes up the next morning to find Ashley missing. After hours of searching for her, Paul and Diane call the police. A cop comes to interview Rachel about the events of the previous night, but she is unable to tell them anything. Though the search continues for months, the authorities are unable to find any trace. Paul and Diane's relationship becomes strained. The former sits in his office all day and the latter cries over her missing daughter while ignoring Rachel. The pair fight constantly, with Diane accusing Paul of murdering Ashley at one point. The next day, she leaves him for his brother and he fills in the pool in the backyard. Rachel still tries to hold out hope that Ashely will show up, but secretly blames her for breaking up their family. Paul replaces the dog's headstone with a marble one and informs Rachel that Eric has decided to remain in Japan for the foreseeable future.

Over the next decade, Rachel lives with her father and maintains a strained relationship with him. Diane divorces her uncle and becomes a distant drug addict, never calling her. Paul spends all his days sitting in his office, staring out the window at the marble headstone. She secretly thinks that maybe her mother was right about him murdering Ashley. On the day she turns eighteen, she moves out.

A few months later, the police call to inform her that her father has committed suicide. Receiving his ashes, she despairingly throws them off a freeway underpass. Another cop visits a week later to inform her that they found a body buried in the filled-in pool: Eric. Rachel tries to tell them that her brother is in Japan, only to inform her that he never went there at all.

Rachel tries to come to terms with this new information, but is blindsided with the revelation of another body found buried in the family dog's grave: Ashley. From a suicide note that Paul left behind, the police are able to piece together what happened the night of the party.

At some point during the night, Eric entered the twins' room and took Ashely into the garage, where he sexually assaulted and accidentally strangled her to death. Paul walked in on the aftermath and murdered Eric in a rage before burying both bodies in the yard.

Rachel is destroyed over this information and regrets throwing her father's ashes away. She calls Diane to tell her the new information but she is so far gone into drugs she doesn't react. A few months later, she dies of an overdose and Rachel buries all four of the dead together, filled with shame at being the last remaining member of her family.

## Cast

Corinne Sanders as Rachel

David Cummings as Paul/the cop

Jessica McEvoy as Diane