CLEVELAND — The families of two missing people in Cleveland – Ashley Summers and Michael John Hodge – held a press conference on Sunday to “bring attention to these cold cases.”
The press conference, which was announced by the Cleveland Family Center for Missing Children and Adults, started at 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 16.
Both families called for attention to the cases and noted that they are holding onto hope for their loved ones to be found and return home.
ASHLEY SUMMERS
- Missing since July 4, 2007
- Missing age: 14
- Current age: 30
Police say Summers was 5’5” tall and 130 pounds at the time with long brown hair and blue eyes. She also had a red heart outline tattoo on her upper right arm with the name “Gene” in a black ink ribbon across the middle.
Ashley went missing on July 4, 2007, after her uncle dropped her off at a friend's house.
"I believe someone does know something. I don't think a 14-year-old girl goes missing without anyone knowing..." said her mother Jennifer Summers during the press conference."16 years is a long time. Someone out there knows something. Please come forward so that we know where our daughter is."
Earlier this year, authorities released an age-progression photo to show what her likeness could be today with the hope somebody may recognize Summers or come forward with information connected to the case. You can see the age-progression photo below...
“We've seen countless times how our age progression images can help be a driving force in a search for a missing child,” said Angeline Hartmann, Director of Communications at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children upon the age-progression photo release back in February. “We’re asking everyone to take a good look at Ashley's brand-new image. Ashley disappeared when she was 14 years old, and she would be 29 today. We just need the right person to recognize Ashley and help bring her home.”
Tips can be submitted by calling the FBI at 216-522-1400, the Cleveland Division of Police Detective Bureau at 216-623-5118 or Crime Stoppers at 216-252-7463. Tipsters can remain anonymous.
The full press conference can be watched below:
MICHAEL JOHN HODGE
- Missing since March 6, 2004
- Missing age: 39
- Current age: 59
- Height: 5’10”
- Weight: 140 pounds
- Hair: Red
- Eye color: Blue
- Tattoos: Skull with a long tongue on his inner right forearm. He has another tattoo (no description available) on his upper and lower left arm.
- He has four upper front teeth missing.
He was last seen in the 4000 block of West 172nd Street near Puritas in Cleveland and was known to hop on trains, according to a press release.
He was last seen wearing blue jeans, T-shirt, white jacket, white athletic shoes, gray knit pullover cap and a blue canvas fishing hat over the knit hat.
During the press conference, family members noted that they are asking for Cleveland police to question the six individuals that were with him at a party the night that he went missing.
The night that he went missing, he allegedly got kicked out of a party where drugs and alcohol were present.
"We never want to forget Mike. We don't want anyone else out there to forget he is missing. Every year we try to do something in remembrance of Mike just because we don't want him to be forgotten and he is loved by all of us. And we feel that maybe someone might know something. Maybe someday someone will come forward and say something. We don't want to ever forget him," said Hodges older brother.
His family remembered him during the press conference with a birthday cake in honor of Mike's 58th birthday.
Anybody with information in this case is asked to call Cleveland police at 216-623-5262.
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