WGNO

UPDATE: 3-year old Basile boy found safe

Louisiana State Police

UPDATE: Louisiana State Police has canceled the Level II Endangered/Missing Child Advisory for Ashton Michael Willis. He has been found safe.

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ORIGINAL STORY: Basile, La. (KLFY) State Police has issued a Level II Endangered/Missing Child Advisory on behalf of the Basile Police Department for a 3-year-old boy last seen on Mother’s Day wearing a T- shirt and diaper.

Ashton Michael Willis is a bi-racial male with dark brown hair and brown eyes, police said, and is approximately 3’ tall and weighs about 40 pounds.


He was last seen with his non-custodial mother, Ashley Nicole Bang, (also known as Ashley Willis) on Second Street in Basile and is believed to be in imminent danger, police said.

Bang, is a 32-year-old white female with brown hair and brown eyes, police said, and is approximately 5’2” tall and weighs about 115 pounds.  

She is wanted for questioning in the child’s disappearance and is possibly driving a 1998 White Chevrolet Cavalier bearing Louisiana license plate 448EBW.  

“Finding the child as well as the mother is of the utmost importance to us, and the sooner the better,” Basile Police Chief Allen Ivory told News 10.

According to Ivory, the 3-year-old was first reported missing on May 2.

He explained, “We’ve had to make sure what we’re going to report, and based on the information that we’ve been obtaining, mostly from the paternal side of the family, that’s what we’ve based most of our investigation on.”

The boy’s mother does not have legal custody of him, and authorities believe she is on the run with the child.

Ivory knows the family personally and wanted to ask the mother to “Please return and speak to us, me personally if you prefer to talk to me, and we can assure everybody that y’all are okay, and we can go from there.”

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of either of these subjects should immediately contact the Basile Police Department at 337-432-6625 or call 911.