PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Too old for an Amber Alert and too young for a Silver Alert, no law enforcement alert was ever sent out about the disappearance of 19-year-old Ashanti Billie in 2017.
Since her death, the state of Virginia and later Congress passed a law to create an alert system for missing adults who could've been abducted. It's called the Ashanti Alert and on Wednesday afternoon Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) spoke with members of the community about it in Portsmouth.
"Until Ashanti's murder, I don't think I realized that we had this huge gap," Warner said.
Warner says so far just two states, including Virginia, have implemented the Ashanti Alert but is hopeful $1 million in federal funding will help push other states to use it as well.
Warner has expressed frustration about the amount of time it took the Department of Justice to implement the alert but believes things are on a better track now.
"Finally we've got the dollars here in both the House and the Senate budget to not give states a cause not to do this," he said.
Billie's parents have championed the alert. Her father was supposed to attend Wednesday's discussion, but couldn't due to travel issues.
Last year, News 3 spoke with her mom.
"She went back to God because he allowed us to be her parents for 19-and-a-half years in her life. Then, he allowed her to continue to help people after her death. That's something a lot of people can't say they've done," said Brandy Billie-Moore.
According to numbers presented at the discussion Wednesday, the Ashanti Alert has been used seven times since 2019, including over the summer when Newport News mom Shanita Eure-Lewis disappeared. She's now presumed dead.
Warner says he hopes the tool helps families find information of their loved ones.
"Any family - if I had a missing child that was an adult, I'd want to know what happened regardless of what the circumstance is," he said.
