Alyssa Ashcroft
Alyssa was a highly respected freelance journalist who contributed to several major Raccoon City newspapers throughout her career and was a rival of Ben Bertolucci. She was very egotistical and self-centred, brimming with confidence and knew she was naturally attractive, making her obsessed with her looks. Typical for a journalist, Alyssa was very argumentative and not afraid to speak her mind and ask tough questions. This led to a regular clash of personalities and arguments with those she worked with.
But underneath this tough exterior, Alyssa was insecure about her weight and was heavily into keep-fit and exercising. She even possessed a vinyl sheet she secretly wrapped around her waist to give her the appearance of looking thinner. She also drank vitamin drinks and specialised, imported diet food, though she had her doubts they actually worked. At one point she even considered diet drugs, though backed out at the last minute as it was obvious the person depicted in the advert was not real. But her personal insecurities were polar opposite to her professional mind and she was a very capable journalist. She even took up lock-picking as hobby to aid her investigations.
In 1993 she and her colleague Kurt were working for the Comet News and were involved in an undercover investigation concerning suspected illegal dealings taking place at the old hospital in Raccoon Forest. As their investigation stalled through lack of evidence, Kurt decided to infiltrate the hospital undetected but was killed by a zombified Dorothy Lester. Alyssa witnessed this incident and the image of him being eaten alive was burned into her mind. Although she managed to escape, she was heavily traumatised by the incident and supressed the memories so deeply away in her mind that she eventually forgot all about it.
Alyssa recovered and as the years passed her career went from strength to strength. Her stories included the illegal dumping of pharmaceutical products in the Aimes River and a high-profile gun shop robbery. But her biggest breakthrough was uncovering a major bootlegging operation at Raccoon Zoo involving the illegal importation of over 700 rare orchid specimens. Thanks to an anonymous source from inside the zoo, Alyssa was able to break the story and disgrace the chairman of the zoo’s board of directors, Elliot Martin.
When the biological disaster occurred in Raccoon City, Alyssa tried to escape the city and get around the army barricades by fleeing into Raccoon Forest. There she encountered Albert Lester as the ‘axe-man’ and he lured her back to the old ruined hospital. After hiding in the various rooms, she found documents dating back to the old 1993 conspiracy as well as her colleague Kurt’s old notebook. Being inside the hospital caused Alyssa to have several flashbacks, once again bringing to the surface of her mind the terrible things she and Kurt had experienced.
Eventually, Alyssa managed to escape the hospital just as it collapsed, killing Albert Lester. Barely alive, Alyssa came to understand that the experiments performed at the hospital were more than just human rights violations and that they were crimes against nature. She vowed to avenge Kurt’s death after all these years and finally expose the truth. This was her motivation for escaping the chaos in Raccoon City alive.
Following the incident, Alyssa compiled all the information she collected during her time in Raccoon and wrote a comprehensive article for the Daily Advisor entitled ‘What is B.O.W.? Blowing the lid of this horrifying secret project’. Her testimony was used as evidence against Umbrella in the Raccoon Trials.
Throughout the next decade and beyond, Alyssa remained as a freelance journalist and her adventures for the perfect story took her all over the country. In early 2016 she wrote a piece for the ‘Dulvey Daily’ in Louisiana concerning the mysterious disappearance of over 20 people in the local area over a two year period. No doubt Alyssa’s interest in the case was piqued by the curious similarities that plagued Raccoon City and the Arklay Mountains almost two decades earlier.
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