Parents charged with domestic issues prior to disappearance

The parents of missing child Dylan Ehler were both charged by the RCMP following a domestic situation four days before the boy’s disappearance on May 6.

Ashley Michelle Brown, 32, of Guest Drive, Bible Hill, was charged on May 2 with assaulting Dylan’s father, Jason Walter Ehler.

Ehler, 33, of the same address was charged that day with uttering “a threat to cause death” to Brown. He is also facing a charge of committing mischief by willfully damaging an Apple iphone belonging to Brown.

Both are scheduled to appear in provincial court in Truro on June 10.

Brown and Ehler were also ordered by the court not to communicate directly or indirectly with each other, except through a third party to arrange for child visitation through a lawyer. The couple did appear together for an oncamera interview with CTV News on May 14 to talk about their son’s disappearance.

Truro Police Service Chief Dave Macneil said he is aware of the charges but he said there is absolutely no evidence to link the domestic charges with the boy’s disappearance.

“Yes, we were aware, and this has no bearing on our investigation into Dylan’s disappearance at this point,” he said. ”From our perspective the two are not connected. Totally irrelevant.”

Macneil has said since the beginning of the search that foul play is not suspected in the case.

An extensive search for Dylan began on the early afternoon of May 6 after the three-year-old boy disappeared from the area of Elizabeth and Queen streets while in the care of his paternal grandmother.

Dylan’s rubber boots were discovered in two different sections of the nearby Lepper Brook later that night by searchers.

Despite exhaustive efforts of ground search and rescue personnel, firefighters, police, RCMP divers, a K-9 unit, a helicopter and other technical means, on both land and water out into the Cobequid Bay, no other signs of the boy have been discovered.

Investigation into the disappearance continues as a missing person file.

Anyone with information on Dylan’s whereabouts is asked to call Truro Police at (902)895-5351.