Missing D.C. mom case: Father of her son jailed on probation warrant

WASHINGTON (7News) — More than a week after D.C. mother Antoinette Forbes disappeared, the father of her 10-year-old son remains in a Pennsylvania jail on a Montgomery County, Maryland warrant for an alleged probation violation as 7News uncovers years of court records detailing a violent assault conviction and an ongoing custody dispute between the two.

Russell Ashford is being held in the Beaver County Jail while awaiting extradition.

A spokesperson for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office confirmed to 7News that Ashford was arrested in Pennsylvania on a warrant out of Montgomery County for a probation violation. The spokesperson could not say what exactly Ashford is accused of doing to violate his probation.

Pennsylvania State Police told 7News they did not file any charges against Ashford in Pennsylvania.

There are also no charges against Ashford in connection with Forbes’ disappearance, and police have not publicly linked his arrest in Pennsylvania to her disappearance.

Forbes was last seen at her Northwest D.C. home. Her family has said her disappearance is out of character, pointing to what she left behind, including her keys, wallet, both cellphones and her car.

As the search for Forbes continues, 7News reviewed years of court records involving Forbes and Ashford.

Those documents show Ashford was convicted of first-degree assault involving Forbes in 2021.

According to a statement of probable cause, police responding to the incident spoke with Ashford, who told an officer he had “just beat up his ex.”

When the officer asked why, the document said Ashford said he did not know and had “blacked out.”

The probable cause statement describes a violent scene inside the home.

According to the records, a neighbor told investigators she saw Ashford throwing closed-fist punches at Forbes while Forbes was lying motionless on the kitchen floor.

The documents state that Forbes was going in and out of consciousness.

Forbes later told police the dispute began over sending their son back to school. According to the probable cause statement, she said Ashford threw her against a staircase and later onto the kitchen floor before repeatedly banging her head against the floor.

The records indicate that Forbes told investigators Ashford struck her head at least a dozen times before she lost consciousness.

Hospital testing documented a broken finger, fractures involving her orbital bone, cheekbone and upper jaw, damage to her right eye, bruising and a concussion.

According to the records, their young son was also present during the incident. The neighbor ultimately took the child away from the scene.

Other court filings reviewed by 7News describe allegations of violence before the 2021 assault.

In one filing, prosecutors recount what the child’s nanny told investigators about an earlier incident.

According to that filing, the nanny said she heard Forbes screaming, “Don’t hit me! Don’t hit me!”

The nanny said she went upstairs and saw Ashford pinning Forbes’ arms against a wall.

Prosecutors wrote that the nanny later described Ashford following Forbes downstairs while continuing to yell. According to the nanny’s account in the court filing, she heard Ashford tell Forbes, “I will kill you.”

The court records also state that the couple’s child later participated in a forensic interview. Prosecutors wrote that the child described seeing his father hit his mother and made statements indicating he believed his father hurt Forbes.

Another filing said Forbes completed a domestic violence lethality assessment. Prosecutors wrote that she answered yes to questions involving threats to kill her or her children, access to a gun, attempted choking, jealousy or controlling behavior and fear for her safety if Ashford were released.

Those allegations are contained in court filings and are not independent findings by 7News.

Court records show Ashford was convicted of first-degree assault on Dec. 14, 2021.

On April 21, 2022, he was sentenced to 15 years, with all but nine months suspended, followed by five years of supervised probation.

The probation conditions included no hostile contact with Forbes or their son, according to a later prosecution filing.

In that filing, prosecutors described the assault as a “brutal First-Degree Assault” and wrote that Forbes suffered lasting injuries, including partial blindness in her right eye and an injury to her hand.

The criminal case was not the end of the court history between Forbes and Ashford.

A 2021 emergency custody order gave Forbes sole legal and physical custody of their son and barred Ashford from contact with Forbes and the child until further order of the court.

By 2024, the custody arrangement had changed.

A consent custody order allowed Ashford unsupervised access and parenting time with their son. The order also laid out rules for communication, custody exchanges and discussions involving the child.

But documents reviewed by 7News show conflict surrounding the custody arrangement continued into 2025.

In January 2025, an attorney representing Forbes sent Ashford a letter accusing him of repeatedly crossing boundaries related to their custody arrangement.

The letter said Ashford continued entering Forbes’ home after she told him she did not want him inside.

Forbes’ attorney instructed Ashford to remain in his vehicle during custody exchanges and said he should not go to Forbes’ home except for scheduled pickup and drop-off.

The attorney also alleged Ashford sent unsolicited communications to their son’s school and to Forbes’ personal acquaintances.

The letter characterized some of those communications as false, inflammatory or harassing and described hostile exchanges between Forbes and Ashford during custody exchanges.

Forbes’ attorney directed Ashford to communicate through the OurFamilyWizard parenting application and warned that the alleged conduct could amount to repeated probation violations. Those accusations were made by Forbes’ attorney and are not, by themselves, findings by a judge.

7News gave the court records to Jonathan Rosnick, a former MPD investigator who worked missing person cases, and asked what would stand out from an investigator’s perspective.

Rosnick said one of the most significant factors was not simply what happened in 2021, but that the court records reflected an ongoing custody dispute stretching into 2024 and 2025.

At the same time, Rosnick stressed that a history of violence does not establish what happened in a later missing persons investigation.

“And certainly this is information that you would want to be looking into to weigh whether or not there was criminality in her disappearance, which again, prior acts of violence, prior criminality does not definitively mean that there is a carrying forward of that act,” Rosnick said. “But it’s certainly got to be a serious point of consideration for any investigator looking at this case.”

Rosnick said investigators working a case with this type of history would want to establish where people were and what they were doing around the time of the disappearance.

“What that person’s alibi is. Where were they? What were they doing in this whole period?” Rosnick said.

He said investigators would typically look at tools such as cellphone information, cell tower data, communications, license plate readers and surveillance video while building a timeline.

Rosnick emphasized he did not have firsthand knowledge of what evidence MPD has obtained in Forbes’ case and was describing the types of investigative steps he would consider generally.

He said missing person investigators often work to establish a timeline for the missing person while also examining the movements of other people relevant to the investigation.

“I’d want to be looking at license plate reader hits. I’d want to be looking at surveillance camera,” Rosnick said, adding that investigators could work to establish a “second parallel timeline” showing where another person was during the same period.

Rosnick also cautioned against reaching a conclusion before investigators have established the facts.

Ashford remains in custody in Beaver County on the Montgomery County probation violation warrant.

Pennsylvania State Police said he is awaiting extradition.

The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office has not disclosed what specifically triggered the alleged probation violation.

Police have not publicly linked Ashford’s arrest to Forbes’ disappearance, and Ashford has not been charged with any crime related to her disappearance.

The search for Forbes remains ongoing as her family waits for answers about where she is and what happened after she disappeared from her Northwest D.C. home.

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