Oklahoma Man Allegedly Raped His Daughter, 6, Shot Girlfriend's 2-Year-Old with BB Gun Before She Went Missing By Chris Spargo

Police investigating the disappearance of an Oklahoma woman’s 2-year-old daughter uncovered horrific allegations of both physical and sexual abuse.

Ashley Rowland, 39, and her boyfriend Joshua Denton, 40, are both facing multiple child abuse charges after the four children living with the couple alleged that they were frequently abused by Denton while Rowland allegedly stood by and did nothing.

The youngest of the four, Denton’s daughter, also alleged that her father raped her in 2023 when she was just 6-years-old, according to copies of the couple’s arrest warrants that were obtained by PEOPLE.

Detectives learned about these alleged offenses while investigating the whereabouts of a fifth child, Rowland’s daughter London Kerr, who the other four children told police they had not seen since April 2022.

Officers with the Moore Police Department first learned about London’s disappearance in October when the Oklahoma Department of Human Services alerted them to the fact that they had been unable to execute a pickup order for the girl, according to the warrants.

Detectives eventually located Rowland and Denton at a Day’s Inn eights days later, and questioned the two about London.

“Ashley gave her daughter London to a male she knew as ‘Carlos,’ a man she had bought methamphetamine from,” Sgt. David Comodeca of the Oklahoma City Police Department wrote in the warrant.

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Rowland allegedly told officers that she believed Carlos was London’s father — a claim that is later debunked in the warrant by investigators given the date Rowland claimed she and Carlos were physically intimate and London’s gestational age at the time of her birth.

This all happened in April 2022, Rowland allegedly said, while also informing police that she had not seen her daughter or Carlos since that time.

On Oct. 30, 2024, police arrested Rowland and booked her into the Oklahoma County Detention facility on the charge of child abandonment.

The OCPD became part of the investigation at this time, and set about conducting interviews with Rowland’s two sons, 15 and 16, along with Denton’s son, 10, and daughter, now 8.

In his interview, Rowland’s 15-year-old son alleged that Denton “was abusive to London at the apartment” and would “would hit her with a wooden paddle and shoot a brown and black BB gun at her.”

He told police that Denton would allegedly tape him to a chair and then whip him with a belt as a form of punishment.

Denton then allegedly told the boy he would “kill him” or “make him disappear” if he ever spoke about the abuse, according to the warrants.

Rowland later denied her son’s allegations in an interview with the OCPD, and said she never witnessed either of her sons or her daughter being abused by Denton.

Detectives said that they were never able to track down or even confirm the existence of Carlos based on the information provided to them by Rowland, who noted she was pregnant with Denton’s child at the time of her interview with police.

Denton’s two children were interviewed by police next, and revealed new allegations of both physical and sexual abuse.

Both children told police that they allegedly witnessed their father “pouring hot sauce into the eyes” of London prior to her disappearance and locking her in the closet.

The warrants say that shortly after police interviewed the four children, Denton’s daughter alleged to her therapist that she was sexually assaulted by her father.

She later said in a forensic interview that her father allegedly raped and sodomized her, and that Rowland “walked in and saw them naked,” according to the warrants.

That young girl also said that Rowland told her London was going to live with her dad a year prior to her alleged sexual assault, according to the warrant. She said that Rowland told her this on the same day she “told [Rowland] about the things that were going on at the house.”

Police then conducted a search of a storage space owned by Denton and Rowland, where they found a wooden paddle and BB gun — both of which matched the descriptions provided by all four children during their interviews.

Denton and Rowland were arrested on Aug. 5 and booked into the Cleveland County Detention Center.

Denton is charged with lewd acts with a child, forcible sodomy, pattern of criminal offenses and six counts of child abuse. His bail has been set at $500,000.

Rowland is charged with pattern of criminal offenses and two counts of enabling child abuse. Her bail has been set at $300,000.

Denton and Rowland do not have legal representation at this time, according to their court dockets.

London, who turns 6 next month, remains missing.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.