Requiem for Queen Sugar

Ashley Nicole Lilly

Ashley Nicole Lilly was tall and well-built, with endless legs and a winning, knowing smile. Shrewd intelligence glimmers in photos of Ashley – as if she was the girl who was always in on the joke.

Ashley was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 7, 1984. She later went to high school in Columbia, MO, where she was known for her skills on the basketball court.

After high school, this pretty midwestern girl, like many before her, succumbed to the lure of fame. She headed out to Los Angeles, California, where she intended to pursue a modeling career. Ashley eventually attended the Art Institute of Santa Monica and began the groundwork for a magazine titled TUHT.

TUHT stood for “The Undiscovered Hottie Takeover.”

Ashley’s dreams – her magazine, modeling - came to an end on August 21, 2009. That was the day Ashley Lilly was found dead in Garden Grove, California, not far from Disneyland. Ashley died in a room inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel, at 12021 Harbor Blvd.

Police said she was murdered.

Ashley Lilly’s death was tragic enough, but it also revealed that she had been leading a secret life, under another name.

Death revealed that the midwestern girl just 5 years from those Missouri high school basketball courts was also a sassy, confident escort who worked in Garden Grove, Orange County and Los Angeles.

Ashley Lilly, known to some as Queen Sugar.

On August 6, 2009, Queen Sugar posted an ad on BackPages.com. Titled “Come Get Your Sugar Fix… I’m Your

Queen Sugar

Addiction,” the ad was accompanied by several photos of a sexy young woman dressed in blue. It read:

Hey Fellas
I will be available for ANOTHER Day
That’s right…in the LAX Area!!!
I’ve Missed You…Come show me how much You’ve Missed Me
I’m 5′8″ (w/o heels)…138 lbs…Measurements of 36D-24-34
Give me a Call…310.237.2691
Can’t Wait To Meet :*
SWEET SPECIALS 0:)
100 for 20mins
120 for HHr SWEET SPECIAL
200 for HR SWEET SPECIAL
Outcalls Available in the LAX area +40

• Location: LAX….405 frwy

Sugar had reason to expect responses to her ad; on at least one website, she received nothing but glowing reviews:

“I didn’t have any references and Sugar was willing to see me. We met at a motel in Inglewood and she was very cool. She said she doesn’t work out and I wish I had her genes. We studied each other’s tats and she told me about the magazine she was putting together…”

“Contacted Sugar several months ago, but for what ever reason, we didn’t hook up. Big mistake. I’m so glad I made the effort this time around. Incall in Downey was easy to find. Standard two call system, then bam, I’m met at the door by this tall, beautiful young lady. Standing there in her pretty high heels she was absolutely stunning…”

“All I can say is what a nite, she is everything she says she is and more, very down to earth, easy to talk to and very smart. I will be returning!!!”

The reviews went back to 2006.

Queen Sugar gave the same phone number in all of her ads: 310-237-2691. That number could be found in the domain registration info for Tuhtslive.com, the URL Ashley Lilly purchased for her magazine:

Lilly, Ashley
Pink Diamond Entertainment
834 victor ave #7
inglewood, 90302
United Arab Emirates
(310) 237-2691

It is easy for people to assume a lot of things about escorts: that they are troubled, on drugs, at their wits’ ends, that they have somehow been forced into the lives they lead, that they are victims – of the men with whom they have steady relationships and the men who use their services. Those assumptions might also lead to questioning the appropriateness of publishing clear evidence that Ashley Lilly was also the successful escort known as Queen Sugar. After all, these standard-issue assumptions about sex workers are sometimes grounded in reality.

Sometimes, but not always.

Ashley Lilly was an independent woman and she clearly had plans and goals. She was heading somewhere. She was serious enough about Tuhts Magazine to purchase the Tuhts URL, and she had a MySpace account for Tuhts as well:

MySpace.com/Tuhtssugar.

She had last logged into the account on August 12. Text on the page described in part Ashley’s goals for “The Undercover Hottie Takeover”:

TUHT is a Magazine that is designed to be a marketing tool for NEW talent to showcase their skills. TUHT is a print form of advertisement for unknown, “Undiscovered”, people such as; Models, Photographers, Hairstylist and Make-up Artist. I guess you can say TUHT is THE REALITY PRINT in a way. The type of modeling used in TUHT is Implied Nudity, done very tasteful and classy. The talent in the magazine is not of those that you have seen or experience in today’s music video, commercial nor magazine. Yet after each issue Sugar, The founder, will leave you wondering, “Where have these girls been all my life?”. The wait is over…It’s The Takeover!!!

Ashley Lilly also had a Twitter account:

http://twitter.com/Tuhtsqueen.

More than some other elements of her Web presence, Ashley’s Twitter account seems, in many ways, haunted. An automated horoscope tweet delivered via Twitter-linked web service still posts Ashley’s horoscope (Scorpio) each day around 5 a.m.

Prior to Ashley’s death, however, she made plenty of tweets of her own, and they often reflected an outgoing, spunky personality:

Nothin makes me happier…ummmmmmmmmmmm a nice juicy stake…I’m such a fat ass…but I don’t care
8:13 PM Aug 10th from API

What up twitterville…how y’all feel’n…Sugar’s n the build’n…I’m feel’n real saucey 2day…I’ve miss’d y’all…imma get back on it tho
7:05 PM Aug 10th from API

#itsuckswhen ur move’n up in the world & ur life long friends have Cement Boots on…
1:25 PM Aug 1st from web

A couple of Ashley Lilly’s Twitter posts, however, may have hinted at some strangeness in her life. Strangeness that, no matter how in charge and enlightened she was, could have been related to her work:

#itsuckswhen u change ur # cus some weirdo wont stop call’n u…then they stay email’n u
1:31 PM Aug 1st from web

[...] I’m move’n 2 OC 4rm LA…move’n where I got nosey neighbors…ppl who gone tell me when I got ppl lerk’n
9:59 PM Aug 16th from API

Was Ashley being stalked, perhaps? There’s no way to know at the moment, if you rely on your usual news sources: the last time anyone wrote an article about her murder was August 23rd. That was when the Orange County Register published the first evidence that Lilly might have been an escort.

An oversight? Police blackout of information? Perhaps. But there is also this: on August 16, Jasmine Fiore’s name hit the news. Fiore, who was found nude and mutilated inside a suitcase, had some things in common with Ashley Lilly. Both women were beautiful. Both had ambitions above and beyond making a living with their bodies. Jasmine Fiore looked like a Barbie Doll, and the man who killed her, then committed suicide in Canada on August 23rd, looked a bit like a debauched Ken Doll. Fiore’s killer, Ryan Alexander Jenkins, was also a reality TV star. The reality TV element made attention to the story understandable – even Sugar – Ashley – tweeted about enjoying one of the shows on which Jenkins had been a contestant.

We know what happened to Jasmine Fiore, and we know who killed her. The story has essentially ended.

The murder of Ashley Lilly remains unsolved.

In spite of the way so many may view what Ashley Lilly did for a living, it seems like she was anything but a victim. She was in full control and going somewhere. Until August 21, that is.

Then she became a victim twice over – of her killer, and of a news cycle that sometimes seems scripted long before stories even break.

What happened to Queen Sugar? No one seems to know.

So the least we can do is shine a little light on this darkest of moments and remember the woman for both sides of her persona. Former high school basketball player Ashley Nicole Lilly and her alter ego, Queen Sugar, deserve no less.