NORWICH – Losing a parent at a young age is one of the most traumatic things a child can experience. For Ashlee Wlasiuk, losing the woman she had always thought was her mother at the age of nine, was only the beginning. Ashlee’s family became the center of one of the most watched murder trials in Chenango County, leading her to question everything she thought she knew about her family and childhood. Ashlee explores all of that in her new book, “Did You Kill My Mother” which was released on Tuesday.

Ashlee will be signing copies from 12 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 14th at A Novel Idea Bookstore in Norwich. The following Sunday, she will be presenting her story and signing books at Guernsey Memorial Library at 2 p.m.

Patty Wlasiuk was 35-years-old when she died on April 3, 2002. Her husband Peter Wlasiuk was soon arrested and charged with Patty’s murder. Nearly 25 years have passed and Peter has been tried for Patty’s murder three times, being found guilty each time.

Prior to 2002, Ashlee says she was a pretty typical millennial kid. Peter and Ashlee’s birth mother, Jackeline Scholte, separated before her first birthday. When her father was given custody, visits with her mother were supervised, and Ashlee said she wasn’t even aware Jackeline was her mother. “I grew up believing Patty was my mother because my father's family had told me Jacki was my babysitter,” Ashlee recalls. When she was five-years-old, Scholte died in a fire at her parent’s home that occurred the night before a scheduled custody hearing, although Ashlee did not learn of her passing until several years later. “I grew up being told the dog knocked over a candle. Years later, my mother's family told me things that didn't line up with the story I'd been raised to believe,” she explained.

After Patty’s death and Peter’s arrest, Ashlee said she was largely in the dark, but when students at school began telling her that her Patty was not her biological mother, Ashlee began asking questions.

“Eventually, my grandmother told me my father had been arrested, that he was innocent, and that Patty wasn't my mother. Jacki was. She also told me Jacki had died in a fire started by a dog knocking over a candle,” Ashlee recalls.

Ashlee said for most of her childhood she believed what her grandparents had told her. “For most of my childhood, I was on his side. I wrote letters on his behalf to judges and attorneys, often with him dictating over the prison phone. I sat on his side of the courtroom,” Ashlee explained. While she was not there the night Patty died and therefore has no first-hand information of what occurred, she recognizes that three separate juries convicted her father of murdering Patty.

“I grew up catching my father in more lies than I can count, and I've experienced his temper firsthand. I know he can be violent,” she said.

As an adult, Ashlee said her understanding of the situation has changed and she has begun to question the circumstances surrounding her own mother’s death.

“People had pointed out the coincidences surrounding [Jacki’s] death since I was nine years old. I dismissed the rumors as conjecture. A coincidence isn't evidence. But there were details that bothered me,” Ashlee said. She pointed out a tattoo her father has of a lion mauling a unicorn with the words no remorse, no repent underneath it. “You don't use the word repent unless you've committed a sin,” Ashlee said.

As an adult she sought out her biological mother’s family and learned more about her. “Afterward, I asked my father directly where he was the night Jacki died. His answers raised more questions for me than they resolved.”

Ashlee said these days she has no relationship with her father. Peter Wlasiuk has been in jail since 2003, but all of that could be changing soon. According to Ashlee, he will go before the parole board and could be released in early 2027, a situation that makes her feel uneasy. According to her, her father was not happy that she published her book.

While the topic of the book is a dark one, Ashlee said there is actually a lot of humor in it, because that’s how she got through. “Most of all, I want people to know my mother fought for me. For a long time, I didn't know that. Now I do.”

“Did You Kill My Mother” is currently available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.