On August 23, 2019, 15-year-old Ashlynn Nelson was fatally shot inside her family’s apartment on the far east side of Indianapolis. Her 16-year-old brother Nicholas Nelson was also killed in the same incident. Both were students at Lawrence North High School; family remembered Ashlynn as a social butterfly who was smart and earned good grades.

Investigators say the family believed the confrontation began as a planned robbery. Detectives allege the teen accused of the crime arranged to sell a cell phone to Nicholas but intended to rob him, and the situation escalated to gunfire. A 15-year-old male, Lometreus Sanders, was arrested and initially charged in juvenile court; the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office filed a motion to try him as an adult and later charged him with two counts of murder, dangerous possession of a firearm, and carrying a handgun without a license. Court documents report Sanders admitted the killings, saying a struggle over a gun with Nicholas produced the first shots and that he then shot Ashlynn and Nicholas.

If anyone knew Ashlynn, Nicholas, or the circumstances around that sale, please come forward with what you remember.