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17-year-old missing from mental health facility

Posted at 12:01 PM, Jan 28, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-28 12:31:32-05

Authorities are searching for a missing 17-year-old girl who was being held at a Cleveland mental health facility in connection with the murder of her stepfather.

Officials from the Ohio Department of Youth Services say Ashley Smith is at large after leaving Applewood Centers, a mental health and social services facility.

She was transported to that facility in 2014 from Marion County, according to Ohio Department of Youth Services.

In July 2014, The Marion Star reported that Smith was sentenced to spend nearly five years in juvenile detention after she was found guilty of complicity to aggravated murder in the death of her stepfather Allan Brown.

Smith was last seen around 6:55 p.m. on Tuesday. She is approximately 5-foot 1-inch tall and weighs about 110 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a gray Ohio State sweatshirt, hearing aids and white eyeglasses. 

Authorities say she could be headed for Marion County.

Anyone who sees her is asked not to approach and call 911 immediately.