GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The disturbing case of a woman murdered and dismembered by a so-called friend in his Grand Rapids rental home is the center of focus in a new television show.
It has been nearly seven years since Kristine Young last saw her 31-year-old daughter, Ashley Young, alive.
The woman’s disappearance was puzzling. The discovery of her body was shocking.
Ashley Young’s killer, Jared Chance, is serving up to 200 years in prison in what the sentencing judge called, “without question the worst case I have ever been involved in.”
The criminal cases against Chance, and his accomplice parents, are featured in an episode of “A Body in the Basement” on the Investigation Discovery network.
The episode aired Tuesday, Sept. 23, and is available to HBO Max subscribers.
In-depth interviews with Young’s mother and stepmother are featured in the hourlong show as well as recollections from her friends, police, and the prosecutor who tried Chance for murder.
Ashley Young was reported missing by her mother on Nov. 29, 2018. She was with Chance at a bar in Grand Rapids the night before. The two were friends.
“You don’t want to admit it to yourself, but you have it in the pit of your stomach that you’re not going to see your child again,” Kristine Young tells producers of her daughter’s sudden disappearance.
Grand Rapids police responded to Chance’s two-unit rental home Franklin Street SE after the tenant of the lower apartment saw blood on a tarp in the basement.
Officers found Ashley Young’s torso, but her head, hands, and feet were missing. Additional body parts were also discovered on the landing of Chance’s upper unit.
The show features photos – some graphic – of the crime scene and evidence retrieved, including an image of a reciprocating saw with Young’s blood on it.
Chance was arrested Dec. 2 that year and charged with second-degree murder, mutilation of a body, concealing a death and three counts of tampering with evidence.
Investigators later learned that after Chance killed Young, he cut up her body and called his parents a couple days later. He asked they pick him up and take him to their Holland home.
Chance brought body parts, Young’s clothes, a reciprocating saw and other items in boxes with him.
His parents, James and Barbara Chance, were later charged with perjury and accessory after the fact after prosecutors alleged the couple lied to investigators to protect their son.
A Kent County jury found Jared Chance guilty of all counts at trial in September 2019. He was sentenced one month later.
“This is without question the worst case that I have ever been involved with,” Kent County Circuit Judge Mark Trusock told Chance at sentencing. “What you did and what I saw in photographs was reprehensible and heinous.”
It was an intense hearing where Chance learned he would spend 100-200 years in prison for Young’s death.
Kristine Young delivered a powerful victim impact statement, ripping into Chance for over 10 minutes.
“Jared Chance, I hate you,” she said. “I want to rip you limb from limb and discard you like trash, like what you did to Ashley. You do not deserve to breathe. I do not know what Ashley saw in you that was worth saving.”
James and Barbara Chance were sentenced to jail for being accessories after the fact by helping their son dispose of body parts. The father received 30 days in jail while the mother was handed 45 days.
To this day, Young’s head, hands and feet have never been found. Teary-eyed, Kristine Young urged viewers to contact law enforcement if they know anything that could lead to the whereabouts.
“I need the rest of my child home,” she said.
Jared Chance is serving his sentence at the Muskegon Correctional Facility.