Grace Ashcroft

Alyssa Ashcroft was an investigative reporter for The Raccoon Press who focused on social cases. She was among the few who managed to escape Raccoon City before its destruction by the U.S. government's "Sterilization Strategy."

In 1993, Alyssa began working with fellow journalist Kurt on a case involving illegal drug testing at a private hospital in the northwestern Arklay Mountains. The tests were secretly sponsored by the Umbrella Corporation. By late May, Kurt decided to infiltrate the hospital as a patient to gather evidence, only to be killed by a zombified patient a 34-year-old Dorothy Lester, the wife of the hospital director, Albert....... Lester. Al (so that we don't confuse the two lol) had accepted Umbrella’s offer to conduct experiments in a desperate attempt to save his wife from an unspecified heart disease.

Following the incident, Alyssa’s memories were apparently suppressed, either by trauma or by an unknown third party — possibly (highly) Greg Mueller, a chief researcher for Umbrella. Although she continued her journalism career throughout the 90s, this manipulation left her with only fragmented memories of the events until they resurfaced during the Raccoon City Incident in September 1998 (i'll never forget it).

On the evening of September 23rd 1998, just as the t-virus outbreak was reaching critical mass, Alyssa was in Jack's Bar with a number of other city residents. A lone zombie entered the establishment and attacked the bartender, and more began to gather on the street outside. Alyssa fled with seven other survivors, being rescued by emergency responders some time later.

Over the course of the outbreak, Ashcroft was caught up in multiple survival situations across Raccoon City. During the incident, she returned to the abandoned private hospital in the Arklay Mountains where her former colleague Kurt had been killed. There she recovered suppressed memories of the 1993 case, confronted hospital director Al Lester’s atrocities, and helped destroy the remaining evidence of Umbrella’s illegal drug-testing program.

Alyssa also appeared in other documented events of the outbreak, including the siege at the Raccoon Police Department and the struggle for survival at locations such as the Raccoon Zoo and Raccoon University. Despite her traumatic experiences, she escaped the city before its destruction in the Sterilization Operation on October 1st, carrying with her detailed notes and testimony that she would later use in her exposé on the Umbrella Corporation.

In the aftermath of Raccoon City, Ashcroft documented her experiences in an exposé condemning the Umbrella Corporation with an article titled "WHAT IS BOW? Blowing the Lid Off this Horrifying Secret Project," published in the Daily Advisor newspaper. Following her experiences, Alyssa would go on to become a freelance investigating journalist, travelling all over the country.

This article seems to have contributed to public interest and questioning of Umbrella by the public, in the quickly forming case between the U.S. government, and the Umbrella Corporation, which later snowballed into an omnibus trial on the destruction of Raccoon City in the Sterilization Operation, becoming the five year long Raccoon Trials.

In 2016, Ashcroft travelled to Dulvey Parish, Louisiana, where she wrote an article for The Dulvey Daily, a local newspaper, in discussing the mysterious disappearances in the town over the previous two years. These disappearances became one of the only public accounts of the biological disaster there. a subsequent cover-up and quarantine of the affected region ended any search for these missing persons, and they were not listed among the dead.

Prior to the passing of Oswell E. Spencer in 2006, Alyssa requested an interview with Umbrella's founder, and was surprised to be accepted. Their interview ranged from why he founded Umbrella, to the t-virus, to bioweapons and bioterrorism and human experimentations, to his research into memory transfer, immortality, and evolving the human race. During interview, Spencer mentioned "Elpis" which Alyssa jot down, looking at the term later.

Towards the interview's end. Alyssa was introduced to Spencer's adopted child and infant daughter named Grace. Initially Alyssa was concerned the baby was a test subject. However, Spencer denied it, correcting that Grace to be a normal girl he took in to make amends, and his hope. Alyssa was offered to hold the child which she hesitantly accepted, but admitted to Spencer that Grace was adorable. Before the interview's conclusion, Alyssa asked for his final words, and was told he said his piece and hoped that it served as "a requiem for those who have passed."

Following the interview's aftermath, Spencer's butler, Patrick, contacted Alyssa about Spencer's last will and testament. The letter revealed Spencer designated her as the legal guardian to his adopted daughter, and entrusted Grace's safety under her care. Eventually, Alyssa accepted her newfound role, and became her adopted mother, changing Grace's last name to follow hers. For the rest of Grace's years, Alyssa had never told her daughter of her previous caretaker.

In October 2018, Ashcroft was still working as a freelance reporter, moving from town to town wherever there was work, before moving on once the job was done. However, despite this, Alyssa worried the nature of her job was affecting her daughter's social skills, as constant transfers made it difficult for Grace to make friends, and entertained the idea of settling down a bit longer in the next town they would be heading to on the 19th.

The next day on October 18, they settled at Wrenwood, a neighboring city to the desolate Raccoon City, where Ashcroft found work. However, following Ashcroft finishing her research at a cafe, she noticed a Hooded Man who she believed to be watching her but chalked it up to paranoia but noticed him again on the following day. Fearing the worse, Ashcroft decided to leave town with her daughter the next day. That day, she checked herself and Grace in the Wrenwood Hotel, staying in room 204.

Arriving back later at night. Ashcroft tried to keep her paranoia to herself. However, shortly after her arrival, the phone in their room rang with Grace answering it. Following the abrupt hang up, Ashcroft asked for the caller's identity but Grace could only tell her the person on the other line asked for "Miss Ashcroft" before the call ended. Immediately after, the hotel suffered a power outage. Realising the man was coming for her now, Alyssa quickly ushered Grace to leave the hotel, despite her daugter's confusion when she asked about the situation. Moving down to the lobby, they met the hotel manager, who assured them the blackout was natural and due to the 40 years old circuitry. However, the man had a bag thrown over his head from behind before his throat was slashed open by the Hooded Man.

Ashcroft quickly opened fire on the man and locked him in the reception's backroom. Not wanting to risk anyone learning about Grace's connection to Spencer, Ashcroft hides the MO disc containing her interview with Spencer's along with her journal in a satchel behind a picture frame, telling Grace it was important. After stowing the disk, they reach the hotel's lounge, with Grace frantically calling the police despite Ashcroft's protest and suffered a panic attack. Stopping to calm her down, Ashcroft promised she would tell her what she needs to know and embraced her daughter, calling Grace "her hope" but Grace didn't understand her mother's meaning.

However, before they could leave, the Hooded Man fatally swing a machete into Ashcroft's neck, killing her. With the hooded man telling Grace, he had found her. The man stumbled backwards and died from the gunshot wounds Alyssa had inflicted, his body crashing into a table and causing a lit oil lantern to fall and set the room's carpet on fire. A now severely traumatized Grace was left to mourn her mother's passing, before escaping the hotel.

Following 8 years after Ashcroft's murder, Grace joined Federal Bureau of Investigation as its intelligence analyst, and dedicated most of her time to the organization, becoming reclusive in her free time. In 2026, four of Raccoon City survivors were killed in a mysterious string of biological deaths, exhibiting black bruises all over their body. The latest 5th body was reported to be in the abandoned Wrenwood Hotel, which was forced to close, following the arson and murders. FBI's Special Agent-in-Charge Nathan Dempsy asked Grace to investigate the crime scene. Despite Grace's reluctance to return the scene of her mother's murder, she did so either way. There, Grace remembered her mother having hid her satchel behind the painting, and recovered her mother's journal and an MO Disc.

Sometime later, when Grace went to ARK, beside the Raccoon City Orphanage, she took out the MO Disc and learnt of her mother's interview with Spencer, and how much they placed their hope in her. This interview would be the key for Grace to know what the password was. When the machine asked for "What does the creator wished for", Grace inputted hope, thereby releasing Elpis, an antiviral made by Spencer to undo all virus-based infection. She would use this to cure Division of Security Operations agent Leon Scott Kennedy who was suffering from the same degradation previous Raccoon City survivors did. Following the release of Elpis and ARK's destruction at the hands of former Umbrella scientist Victor Gideon who was killed by Kennedy, Ashcroft was postmortemly credited by news outlets for Spencer's story, with conspiracy theorist quickly claiming her murder was done as a cover-up, and those responsible were an organization secretly controlling the US Government.

During the Outbreak, Alyssa is a reporter with a "no-nonsense" manner, which suits well with her outfit: short blond hair, closed shirt in red suit and trousers, and brown shoes. It's her trademarked suit that follows most of her time as a field reporter, even during a Flashback. In Requiem, Alyssa Ashcroft adopts a markedly more professional and understated look compared to her earlier appearances. giving her a sharp yet practical silhouette.

this is one badass woman i wouldn't have known about her if not for RE9R being in the works. she wasn't around that long in the game sadly but she genuienly seemed like the most dependable person on the planet, i wish she wasn't dead. or that we'd get RE outbreak remade, or just a dlc about her whether she's playable or a support character. it seems that she's good at lockpicking which makes me wonder about her upbringing and what made her want to be a reporter who is hell bent on getting in bad situations just to get the scoop, a funny intriguing person, doesn't seen to be fazed by what she's been through even while going through it you'd see her done with the situation snd back to writing her report lol