Your Friends Are Talking About This St. Louis Story
Look — I'm gonna be real with you. When I first saw the reports about a five-year-old girl named Aleise Dawson being abducted in Affton, near New Hampshire Avenue, my heart just dropped. This isn't the kind of news you ever want to hear, especially not right here in our own backyard. St. Louis has seen its share of heartache, and the thought of a child going missing like that... it hits different. So when the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announced charges against Ashley Collins and Kayla Williams, not for abduction, but for *falsely reporting* it, well, that's a whole new kind of messed up.
### The Real Story
Turns out, Aleise Dawson doesn't exist. This whole thing was a fabrication. These two women, one 29, just made it all up. Think about that for a second. Our police, our community, we all rallied, worried sick about a kid who was never in danger. It's a betrayal of trust, plain and simple. We've got real issues in St. Louis, real kids who need our protection, and for someone to waste those resources, to stir up that fear for a ghost – it just makes my blood boil. It’s like when you hear folks from out of town talk about us, always focused on the negatives, and then something like this happens to give 'em more ammo.
* **Who:** Ashley Collins and Kayla Williams * **What:** Charged with making a false child abduction report * **Where:** The alleged abduction was reported in Affton, in the 8900 block of New Hampshire Avenue. * **Why it's wild:** The victim, five-year-old Aleise Dawson, was entirely made up.
This isn't just about two individuals and a false report. This is about what it does to a community already on edge. When you hear about something like this happening in Affton, a good, solid South County neighborhood, it makes you question things. We need to be able to trust each other, to trust the information we get. Because that's the Lou — we're still here and we're not leaving, but we gotta look out for each other with real problems, not made-up ones.
Marc and the crew are talking about this right now — catch it live at mornings.live.