Family continues search for answers in daughter's death

Yvette Jalbert-Timony’s phone has been ringing off the hook since two billboards asking for information on the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s death were recently erected.

The billboards, located at the intersection of Lasalle Boulevard and Falconbridge Highway and on Hwy. 17 near Bob’s Husky, have a picture of Ashley Jalbert and the years of her birth and death. A plea asking people to phone the Ashley Jalbert hotline is on the billboards, as is information about the family’s Facebook group.

On Jan. 10, 2010, Jalbert, 23, was found dead in a motel room in Greater Sudbury. Her death was ruled accidental, and police closed the investigation into her death.

Jalbert-Timony said she isn’t satisfied with that answer, and said she knows someone out there knows what really happened to her daughter.

“Cocaine was ruled out,” Jalbert-Timony said, referring to the coroner’s report. “What it said on the findings is there was another substance in her blood that they didn’t do further analysis on. It’s unknown ... ‘poison is uncertain.’ So why wouldn’t they do more testing?”

A small amount of oxycodone was found in Jalbert’s system. According to information on a Facebook page set up by her family, there were also spots on her eye, called petechiae, which can indicate death by asphyxiation.

Jalbert-Timony said a man came forward to Greater Sudbury Police a few days after her daughter’s death, but no charges were laid.

The night of Jalbert’s death, there was a family dispute between Ashley and her half-sister. Jalbert-Timony said her daughter phoned the man, who was known to her half-sister. He picked her up, and three hours later, she was dead.

“The police told us he convinced her to not look for her sister (to settle the dispute),” Jalbert-Timony said. “It was in the text messages. But when we got the phone back, it was completely wiped, so we don’t know.”

According to the Facebook page, the man told police he rented the room because Jalbert wanted photos taken, and she went to sleep around 5 a.m. He left her notes saying she was hard to wake, and left money for a cab. A member of the housekeeping staff at the motel assumed Jalbert was sleeping when she came in to clean and left, but when she found Jalbert the same way a few hours later, she phoned police.

Jalbert-Timony said the man involved in the incident is known to police, and she isn’t satisfied with the case being closed. She has hired a private investigator to further look into what happened to her daughter.

“Someone out there knows what really happened to my daughter,” she said. “I know they’ll come forward.”

Anyone with information can phone 705-920-5691.