SCARBOROUGH – After 12 years of wondering what happened to their childhood friend, Angie Presby and Christina Barber are organizing a night to honor Ashley Ouellette, who, at 15, was found murdered in the middle of Pine Point Road in the early morning hours of Feb. 10, 1999.

The case has never been solved.

“What we are trying to do is have a night of remembrance for Ashley,” said Angie Presby, a friend of Ouellette’s from elementary and middle school who lives in Saco. “It has been 12 years and we have yet to have something like this.”

The Make-A-Wish Foundation was chosen to be the beneficiary of proceeds, Presby said, because Ouellette loved children.

“I think it is a great thing that her friends are remembering her in this way,” said Lise Ouellette of Saco, Ashley’s mother. “I certainly support them in this and see it as a positive thing.”

A date for the event has not been set yet, but the intent, Presby said, is to have music, dancing, hors d’oevres, raffles, speakers and a slideshow of pictures. Barber, who lives in Gorham now but grew up in Saco, said the hope is to hold the event some time in April at the Landing at Pine Point and bring awareness back to the case in hopes of solving it.

“We are trying to bring about some awareness and let everyone know that Ashley is not forgotten,” Barber said.

In the first few years after Ouellette’s murder, Barber said, community members, law enforcement and family members were active in investigating what happened. That seemed to stop, she said, when Ouellette’s father, Bob, an outspoken advocate for his daughter, died of a heart attack in the spring of 2001.

Presby said she remembers Ouellette not for the final hours she lived, but rather all the things they did together as children, such as sleepovers, school projects, playing outdoors, or at events, such as school dances or softball games.

“The innocence of childhood is what I will remember her for,” Presby said.

Barber got to know Ouellette in seventh grade when her family moved to Saco.

“I knew her for a few short years, but she was a friend of mine,” Barber said. “It was a very big thing at the time because we were only sophomores.”

Barber said she remembers Ouellette for her bubbly personality.

“She was a lot of fun,” Barber said. “She was always smiling and was great to be around.”

She said Ouellette, despite her young age, was particularly fond of children.

As Presby and Barber plan the night of remembrance, investigators from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Maine State Police continue to work the case.

According to reports at the time, Ouellette, who lived in Saco and was a sophomore at Thornton Academy, had permission to spend the night of Feb. 9 at her friend’s house in town. She didn’t end up staying there, however. Around midnight, Ouellette left the home to visit a residence on Mast Hill Road, also in Saco, to see Steve Sanborn and his brother Daniel, two friends of hers. According to the police, Ouellette was last seen alive at the Sanborn home. At 4 a.m. a passing motorist found her dead in the middle of Pine Point Road in Scarborough. The motorist indicated her body, still warm, was black and blue and there was blood by her nose and mouth. Detectives said Ouellette was strangled.

What happened between the time Ouellette was last seen alive and when she was found on the road has never been publicly released, although Lt. Bob McDonough, of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Maine State Police, said detectives have a good idea what happened.

“I think we all are familiar with the Ashley Ouellette case, but we are just shy of being able to prove that case beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.

This, however, is not uncommon with unsolved homicides in Maine.

McDonough said in 90 percent of the 80 open, unsolved homicides, the detectives “have a pretty good understanding” of what happened and who was involved. The issue, he noted, is “proving each case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Police spoke to the Sanborn family and took items from the home for evidence and investigative purposes, but no arrests in the case were ever made. A call this week to the Sanborns, who still live in the Mast Hill home, went unanswered.

Despite no “significant progress” in recent years, McDonough said, the case is still considered open.

Police may not be ready to discuss what happened to Ouellette that night, but Presby is more forthcoming.

“I believe someone is lying,” she said. “Someone is lying somewhere. The person who knows what happened is as guilty as the person who did this to her.”

Friends have not lost hope that someday the guilty party will be punished.

“You have to have faith that eventually someone will come forward with information and do the right thing,” Presby said. “It’s important for us, her friends and family, to keep her name circulating out there so that no one forgets. If that happens, whoever did this will think they got away with it.”

Lise Ouellette said she has her own theories about what happened, but will not speak about them publicly. Although she will never forgot what happened to her daughter, she said, her focus since then has been raising Ashley’s younger sister.

“I have to stay optimistic,” she said. “You can’t move on if you don’t. I believe eventually those who do wrong get caught. It is my faith. I try to stay positive. if you don’t you get brought down.

Ashley Ouellette, 15, was found murdered in the middle of Pine Point Road in the early morning hours of Feb. 10, 1999. The case has never been solved. (Courtesy photo)