Police seek answers in autistic teen's death

LYNNWOOD — In many ways, Ashton Smith was a typical teenager.

The 16-year-old wanted to learn to drive, yearned for more independence. He desperately wanted to make more friends, his mother, Roseanne Smith, said recently.

But clouding the typical teenage desires was Ashton's autism, which made many of these things difficult. Roseanne Smith said she tried to help her son through some of the problems that plague teens who have Asperger syndrome.

They bitterly fought over the past year, with police responding four times to the Mountlake Terrace apartment they shared. The most recent time, on May 17, about three weeks before the teen disappeared, police said they arrested a juvenile boy at the apartment. They declined to say whether it was Ashton.

Smith conceded her son had been depressed in the past. She said he once attempted suicide. But she insisted he had overcome his depression.

Whether these problems played a role in Ashton's death is part of a police investigation that began as a runaway case and now is being treated as a homicide.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office yesterday confirmed a body found in a wooded lot near his Mountlake Terrace apartment was that of Ashton.

Officials said he died of a single, small-caliber gunshot wound to the head, apparently from a handgun found next to the body.

While the Medical Examiner's Office has not determined whether Ashton was slain or committed suicide, Lynnwood Police Cmdr. Paul Watkins said police are handling the case as a homicide for the sake of evidence preservation.

"Realistically, it (homicide) is nothing more than a term," Watkins said yesterday.

Ashton was last seen on the night of June 9 in the cabana area of his apartment complex in the 5400 block of 212th Street Southwest in Mountlake Terrace. Last week, while police were searching for Ashton, his mother discovered that a .22-caliber handgun she kept in a locked safe had been taken from her bedroom.

She feared that Ashton had taken the gun.

Police yesterday declined to say whether that was the handgun found near his body. Mountlake Terrace Police Sgt. Craig McCaul said the gun is being tested to see who fired it and whether it belonged to Roseanne Smith.

Police say no suicide note was found near the body or in Ashton's home.

In trying to determine what happened in the final hours of Ashton's life, police are examining the teen's behavior over the past few months as well interviewing his parents.

McCaul said between May 4, 2002, and May 17 of this year, officers responded to four 911 calls made from the Smiths' apartment. He said all of them were reports of "domestic disputes" between Ashton and his mother.

Questioned after Ashton's disappearance, his father, Wesley Smith, told police the teen was depressed and possibly suicidal.

But Roseanne Smith, who is divorced from Ashton's father, said her son had been doing better over the past few months. Unlike many children who have Asperger syndrome, Ashton didn't take medication, she said, because he didn't need it.

She recently said they argued, mainly over issues related to Ashton wanting more independence. She attributed the arguments to the growing pains experienced by many teenagers.

Asperger syndrome is a high-functioning form of autism, characterized by regimentation or repetitiveness. Those with the syndrome tend to follow rigid, predictable patterns, according to Geraldine Dawson, a University of Washington psychologist and director of the school's Autism Center.

She said children who have Asperger syndrome have much better language and cognitive abilities than most children diagnosed with "classic autism."

Chris Cowles, a clinical psychologist at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, said teens with the syndrome often are depressed because they "are well aware of their disorder or how they are different."

Helen Powell, who runs the Seattle-based Asperger Support Network, said, "Imagine being different, really quite different, but being intelligent enough to know you are different."

Powell, whose 17-year-old son has Asperger, said teens with the syndrome often "get teased unmercifully."

"They don't have the skills to deal with being teased," she said. "They are so naive socially. They are the perfect victim."

Cowles said many teens yearn for independence from their families but want "acceptance and recognition" from their peers.

Jennifer Sullivan: 425-783-0604 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com