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Ashley Marie Forward

Age : 19

Gender : Female

Race : White

Date : 06/09/2021

Location : Route 107 northbound, approximately one-half mile south of Ballard Street

City : Saugus

County : Essex

State : Massachusetts

Agency : Saugus Police Department

Officer(s) :Michael Richards; Sean Murphy

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Bystander killed by police chase crash

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 06/09/2021, 19-year-old Ashley Marie Forward was killed in a head-on collision on Route 107 in Saugus after Saugus Police Sergeant Michael Richards and Officer Sean Murphy pursued another driver following a reported unarmed robbery. Forward had no involvement in the incident that prompted the pursuit and was driving normally in the northbound lanes when the pursued vehicle came toward her traveling south in those lanes. Her mother later filed a wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit alleging that Richards and Murphy's high-speed pursuit created the circumstances that resulted in Ashley's death.
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At approximately 10:49 a.m., Saugus police received a report of an unarmed robbery at the 7-Eleven at 386 Lincoln Avenue. Police obtained a description of a vehicle connected to the robbery and spotted it traveling east on Ballard Street. Richards and Murphy pursued the vehicle through Saugus.
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The police department's original account characterized what followed as a "brief pursuit" and said officers immediately terminated it after the driver entered Route 107 traveling south in the northbound lanes. That description subsequently became a significant point of dispute when Ashley's mother, Michelle Luongo, obtained additional information and sued the officers and town.
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The family's lawsuit alleges that Richards and Murphy pursued at increasingly high speeds along Lincoln Street and Ballard Street. According to the complaint, the chase exceeded 80 mph before the fatal collision. The lawsuit characterizes the officers' actions as an unreasonable and extremely dangerous pursuit and alleges that police continued escalating the chase despite the underlying call involving an unarmed robbery.
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The lawsuit also alleges that the person police were pursuing was already well known to Saugus officers, providing police with an alternative means of identifying and apprehending him rather than engaging in a high-speed vehicle pursuit. That contention directly challenges the necessity of exposing surrounding motorists to the risks created by the chase.
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Once the pursued vehicle entered Route 107 in the wrong direction, police reported terminating the pursuit. It traveled approximately another half-mile south in the northbound lanes before colliding head-on with Ashley's vehicle. Ashley was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Ashley had only recently begun driving. She turned 19 in April and obtained her driver's license shortly afterward. Accounts differ slightly regarding her immediate destination that morning: some family reporting said she was returning from her boyfriend's home before going to her job at Target, while other reporting said she was on her way to visit her grandmother. Either way, she was engaged in an entirely ordinary trip when the police pursuit entered her path.
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Ashley had graduated from KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate in 2020 and had just completed her freshman year at Emmanuel College in Boston, where she was studying nursing. She worked at Target in Medford and had previously been a camp counselor for the Boys & Girls Club of Lynn at Camp Creighton Pond. She also volunteered with My Brother's Table.
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She had been extensively involved in athletics and activities while growing up, including softball, soccer, dance, debate and cheerleading. After graduating from KIPP, she helped coach softball there. Her mother later explained that nursing fit Ashley's personality because she wanted to care for and help other people. Ashley left behind her mother Michelle, brother Anthony and younger sister Jillian, who was 10 when Ashley was killed.
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The criminal justice system focused primarily on the pursued driver. In September 2021, an Essex County grand jury indicted him on murder, manslaughter, motor-vehicle homicide and other charges. He remained incarcerated while the prosecution continued.
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Ashley’s family separately pursued accountability for the police decisions that preceded the crash. In 2024, Michelle Luongo, acting on behalf of Ashley's estate, filed suit against the Town of Saugus, Sergeant Michael Richards, Officer Sean Murphy and the pursued driver. The case was transferred to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts as Luongo v. Town of Saugus et al., No. 1:24-cv-12311.
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The lawsuit alleges that the officers' pursuit demonstrated a reckless disregard for public safety and that their conduct caused or contributed to the collision that killed Ashley. The federal case asserts civil-rights claims under 42 U.S.C. §1983 as well as other claims arising from her death. Richards, Murphy and the town sought dismissal of portions of the complaint after the case reached federal court.
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There has also now been a major criminal-case development. On 06/09/2026, exactly five years after Ashley was killed, the pursued driver was sentenced after pleading guilty to manslaughter, unarmed robbery and receiving a stolen vehicle. He received 18 to 20 years for manslaughter followed consecutively by another six to eight years for the robbery, followed by five years of probation — an aggregate prison sentence of 24 to 28 years.
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At sentencing, Ashley's mother and younger sister spoke about what her death had taken from their family. Her mother emphasized that Ashley's choice to study nursing reflected her character and desire to care for people. Five years after the crash, Ashley's family therefore obtained a criminal resolution against the pursued driver while continuing to maintain through separate litigation that the decisions made by Saugus police also contributed to her death.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Michael Richards was a Saugus Police Department sergeant involved in the pursuit that preceded Ashley Forward's death. Ashley's family's federal lawsuit specifically names Richards and Sean Murphy and alleges that their pursuit reached speeds exceeding 80 mph and was unreasonable and extremely dangerous given the circumstances. Those allegations remain civil claims and are distinct from the criminal prosecution of the pursued driver.
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Sean Murphy is particularly significant because Ashley Forward's death was not his only subsequent fatal encounter involving Saugus police. Just 66 days after Ashley was killed, Murphy shot and killed 38-year-old Stephanie Gerardi inside her Saugus home on 08/14/2021 during a police response initiated by Gerardi's family seeking psychiatric help for her. The Essex District Attorney later declined to charge Murphy in Gerardi's killing.
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Murphy is therefore now a defendant in two separate federal civil-rights cases involving two deaths occurring just over two months apart in 2021: Ashley Forward's family alleges that Murphy and Richards conducted the dangerous high-speed pursuit that resulted in Ashley's death, while Stephanie Gerardi's family alleges that Murphy and other Saugus officers improperly escalated Gerardi's mental-health intervention before Murphy shot her. The allegations in both lawsuits remain subject to adjudication.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2024/09/13/mother-of-teen-killed-in-2021-saugus-crash-that-involved-police-chase-sues-town-officers/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09/11/metro/mother-of-woman-19-killed-in-2021-crash-involving-police-pursuit-of-suspect-in-saugus-sues-town-cops/
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/massachusetts/madce/1%3A2024cv12311/274963
https://www.essexcountyda.com/news/ashley-forward-remembered-as-william-leger-sentenced-for-manslaughter-other-charges
https://www.boston.com/news/crime/2026/06/09/salem-man-sentenced-for-saugus-crash-that-killed-19-year-old-nursing-student/
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/man-sentenced-to-decades-in-prison-for-deadly-wrong-way-saugus-crash/3962591/
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/william-leger-saugus-crash-sentence-ashley-forward/
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/william-leger-robbery-saugus-route-107-fatal-crash-ashley-forward/
https://www.boston.com/news/crime/2021/06/09/wrong-way-driver-fatal-crash-saugus/
https://www.mass.gov/news/somerville-man-indicted-for-murder-in-wrong-way-crash
https://www.mass.gov/news/somerville-man-held-without-bail-in-fatal-saugus-crash
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/itemlive/name/ashley-forward-obituary?id=14657096
https://itemlive.com/2021/06/09/one-fatality-in-head-on-crash-on-route-107-in-saugus/