Hellertown Police and Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers are asking for the public’s help with locating a Hellertown woman who has been missing since early November.
In a post Tuesday on the Crimewatch site for Pa. Crime Stoppers, authorities said 32-year-old Ashley Marie Payung “walked away” from a rehab facility in Dallas, Luzerne County, on Nov. 8.
On Feb. 26, they said, family members received a phone call from her that law enforcement officials consider suspicious.
In the call, police said, Payung sounded like she was being instructed what to say because of long pauses in the conversation during which “whispers could be heard in the background.” The news release noted that the phone’s speaker also sounded like it was “being muffled or muted periodically.”
According to the statement from Crime Stoppers, Payung said she was in the area of Mohegan Sun Casino near Wilkes-Barre and that she was OK before the call ended.
Payung is described by police as a white, non-Hispanic woman who is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 115 pounds. She has blonde hair which police said may be dyed dark brown or black, blue eyes, and tattoos on both inner forearms and wrists that cover scarring. Other tattoos include a butterfly on her upper back and a mushroom on her outer right ankle.
Anyone who has been in contact with Payung or who has information regarding her whereabouts is being asked to contact the Hellertown Police Department at 610-838-7040 ext. 107 or the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or online. All callers to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest, the solving of a crime/cold case or the location of a wanted person/fugitive or missing person.
Hellertown Police and Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers are trying to locate 32-year-old Ashley Marie Payung following a suspicious phone call they say her family members received late last month. Payung walked away from a rehab facility in northeastern Pennsylvania in early November, police said, and told family she was near the Mohegan Sun Casino before the call ended. (Credit: Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers)
