Shantina"'Kat" Smiley & 8 yo son Azriel, WA Missing 3/13/10(BODY OF BOY FOUND)

[Tracygirl]

Both doors were open and her wallet was inside but her purse was gone

That water is very cold.. She opened the back door.
She had to be able to walk around to the rear of the vehicle to do so.
It was not that deep.

One neighbor reported that somebody was knocking on his door in the middle of the night but he did not anwer the door.

One of them was out walking around.

Where is the purse ?

 This boy was thrown in the water to drown, and not by mom.
jmho

A neighbor reported someone knocked in the middle of the night? Where is the overnight bag and the purse?

[labubske]

Not sure if this is what he means but there is a road off the freeway that is called Toledo-Vader road.

yes, that is what I was thinking.  That was probably what he meant.  I wonder if he intentionally went that route because he knew that it would be a faster route and just happened to come across the repair shop?  Or what?

[Edward]

The quote from the cook at the restaurant worker indicates they they ordered and payed for food and then walked out to the van ..

The boy told the waitress his mom hit her head.

I did an experiment this weekend.. I drank 1/2 bottle of wine..
Then I went out and mowed a couple of acres of grass..

Never got lost..nope not even a little bit confused.

So I went back in and drank the rest of the bottle, never fell down and hit me head.

I do not even drink and I find this talk of 1/2 bottle of wine amazing.

There is something much bigger here and authorities just want to take the easy answer in my opinion.

I think she did in fact hit her head and was suffering from a concussion.. But I am not a doctor.. Just a drunk on a tractor.
Can ya get a ticket for that ?

[labubske]

Is this the son of the couple that Shantina had stopped at to use the phone and get directions?  I wonder which house is theirs?  It would be interesting to know which house she decided to stop at...out of other choices there.  Meaning, I wonder if she had met them earlier...I am trying to find where I read that..."ten minutes later Shantina pulled up..." at this house.  Ten minutes later from what?  Has anyone else read an article that they recall this phrase in?  I am hoping that the pic posted.  If not...the link should show up.

[labubske]

Surveillance video showed their van pulling into the parking lot of the Gulf Harbor Mercantile store shortly before 10 p.m. Smiley may have wanted to use the pay phone there, but it is out of order. The video does not show her or her son getting out of the vehicle. The van pulled out of the parking lot and headed the direction it came from.

About 10 minutes later, Dennis Williams said the two knocked on the front door of his home about a mile from the store.

"She seemed upset because she was lost," said Williams.

Williams said Smiley used the phone to tell a relative they were lost and going to be late. He said the mother and son did not seem to be in trouble. If anything, said Williams, the boy seemed hungry.

"We gave him a piece of pizza," said Williams.

She was not injured but spoke of an accident, which investigators believe may have been a reference to falling down at the diner.

"I wish there was something more I could've done. I wish I knew more, or asked the right questions to be able to say this is a person who's in trouble," said Williams.

http://www.king5.com/news/Search-to-continue-for-missing-Silverdale-mother-young-son--87648637.html
I found it...the phrase that I was thinking of came from here.  It was ten minutes after peering through the window of a closed store that she ended up knocking on their door.

[labubske]

OLYMPIA — Robb Simmons of Silverdale stood vigil Monday on a beach where the van his fiancee was driving was pulled from Puget Sound a day earlier.

But divers came up empty in their search of the waters north of Olympia, where a van driven by Shantina “Kat” Smiley, 29, was found partially submerged on Sunday. And circling Coast Guard choppers found no evidence of Smiley or her 8-year-old son, Azriel James Carver, both of whom have been missing since Saturday night.

“I just want them home,” said Simmons, who has been engaged to Smiley for two of the 2½ years he’s known her.

While divers and helicopters searched Dana Passage, officers with dogs scoured the area for signs of the Silverdale woman who disappeared with her son near Olympia on Saturday while en route to Castle Rock.

By Monday night, the case was as baffling to investigators as it was to the public.

“Somebody knows something,” said Detective Lt. Chris Mealy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s our job to find that someone and get that information.”

Surveillance footage, witness accounts and interviews with Simmons have helped detectives piece together a few stops Smiley and her son made Saturday.

At one point, the pair was at the Martin Way Diner in Olympia, where Smiley ordered a corn dog but left before taking the food, Mealy said. An employee mentioned she might have had minor fall in the parking lot.

Later, they ended up at a home on 46th Avenue in Olympia. They stopped at the home to ask directions — apparently drawn by a Christian symbol Smiley had seen outside, Mealy said.

An older couple at the home told investigators that she asked for directions back to the highway. Smiley called her grandparents and the couple gave her son some pizza. Smiley rubbed her knee, they noticed.

“They said she just appeared nervous,” Mealy said, adding that the couple believed the anxiety was because she was lost, nothing more.

Mealy said Simmons has been “very cooperative,” riding his motorcycle between Kitsap and Thurston counties to get materials to help with the investigation.

The pair’s disappearance has been called suspicious, but there are no suspects because it hasn’t been established that a crime was committed, Mealy said.

Meanwhile, Simmons on Monday told the Kitsap Sun that Smiley is “a wonderful woman and a great mother.”

The two met online. After striking up a relationship with Simmons, Smiley moved to Kitsap County to be with him.

Simmons detailed the chronology of events Saturday, saying that he had planned to meet Smiley in Castle Rock, where she was en route to visit her stepfather. He was headed down separately after he finished Cub Scout training. The two were den leaders.

Simmons heard from Smiley at about 6:45 p.m. She said she’d pulled off the road near Olympia because Azriel was hungry. She had left her cell phone at home.
A member of the Thurston County Sheriff's Department dive team search for Shantina Smiley of Silverdale on Monday in Olympia. Shantina Smiley and her 8-year-old son, Azriel J. Carver, were reported missing Sunday. (Steve Bloom | The Olympian)

Smiley gave Simmons the Castle Rock address and “told me she would be there shortly,” he wrote on his Web site.

Simmons said his cell phone was nearly out of battery. He got to Castle Rock at about 7:40 p.m. At about 9 p.m., he started to get worried and he checked in with the Washington State Patrol.

Simmons and Smiley’s stepfather began to drive around the area. He said he’d gotten in touch with Smiley’s grandparents, who said Smiley had called them.

The grandparents reported that they’d received a call from Smiley at about 10:10 p.m. from a house in Olympia. She told them she was there to use a phone and ask for directions. She let them know she was OK, Simmons said.

That was the last anyone heard from her.

Jim Pribbenow found the vehicle on private beachfront property. He told The Olympian newspaper that the back hatch and side door were open, the front end was stuck in the mud and “you could see where the wheels had spun in trying to back out.”

The van didn’t have any broken windows but did have some damage, Simmons said.

Smiley had just graduated from Olympic College in medical billing and coding, Simmons said. She graduated from Castle Rock High School in 1998.

Azriel is a second-grader at Vinland Elementary in the North Kitsap School District, according to Charley McCabe, Vinland’s principal. Staff was notified Monday morning of his disappearance, and McCabe sent out an e-mail Monday morning alerting parents.

“We are all concerned for their safety and remain hopeful that they will be found soon,” McCabe wrote.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/15/pray-their-safe-return-says-fiance-missing-woman/?partner=RSS#ixzz0jekqTpj1


Comments » 72 
Leott writes:

Simmons was at Cub Scout LEADERSHIP training. There were no Cub Scouts at this training session.

    * March 15, 2010
    * 11:43 a.m.
   
kg (Inactive) writes:

When the truth comes out, the Kitsap Sun staff will apologize to me for removing my post.

   
BremertonResident writes:

    in response to bogartina:

    On Komo even that report was that the roads in west Olympia are not well marked according to the Thurston County Sheriff's office even in the daylight. Just saying................

Maybe the surface streets/back roads aren't. But the highways (particularly 101) and Martin Way certainly are.

But there's some troublesome gaps - why the two hour gap between the convenience store and the the diner? (Not to mention, why leave a well marked highway for a convenience store in the back of beyond?) Why an hour between the diner and stopping to ask directions at a location just ten minutes drive away?

It's all very odd.

issueathand writes:

The diorientation and lack of stability she almost looks like she may have been drugged. Are there any other tire marks? Footprints to and from the van? Where did her scent end? Did somebody follow her? Come on, there is soooo much not being told.

   
felon_fighter writes:

If Smiley called her fiance at about 6:45pm as he has reported, and he showed up in Castle Rock at 7:40pm, is that possible?
AND why does Simmons be sure and mention his cell phone was almost out of battery? What sense does that make in this whole scenario? Smiley left her cell phone at home and Simmons phone is out of battery? I don't get it.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's usually a duck!

rgdimages#217099  writes:
This is a world class disappearance mystery.

Having visited the scene where the car was recovered, it becomes even more perplexing.

First, it's a fair distance from Olympia. From 46th, where she stopped and got directions back to the freeway, she would have been told to turn left (South) to get headed back to I-5. Instead, she apparently turned right (North), drove about 4 miles, and went down a paved road that was clearly marked: "Dead End". A number of houses are on that road. That road ends at a well kept, private residence driveway. Those people reportedly were home (apparently asleep). She could have stopped there, but she didn't. Off to the right of that driveway, and not at all distinctly visible, is a small, relatively steep, narrow wood debris covered access road to the beach, steep dropoff to the right to a bay of water. She went down that road some 500-600 feet in the darkness, got to the beach area, drove a short distance along a rock/sand spit and down onto the beach, and the car was found in the water, apparently with indications there had been an attempt to get it back to terra firma.

It was low tide. To the North there is a tidal inlet. It's not crossable unless you are a strong swimmer. So she either had to go back up the dirt road she came in on, or walk South along the beach towards the lights of Boston Harbor, which is a 1-2 mile hike.

Maybe she knew of this little steep dirt access road ... perhaps she had used it as a photo shoot location. It's almost unimaginable to take an 8 year old down a narrow, steep, very hard to find beach access road late at night not knowing where she was headed.

The law enforcement flyer says her overnight bag has been located, but it didn't indicate if that was left in the car or found elsewhere.

I tend to suspect whoever drove the car down the pretty well hidden, unmarked beach access road had prior knowledge of that road.

The question might be: was she the driver? Or might there have been someone else involved at that point in time?


lizzyred10#211238 writes:

Why did she ring her Grandfather at 10:10 rather than her fiance' or step dad? Wasn't it her step dad and fiance' that she was going to? Maybe she does not want to be found right now. It seems that she would contact the people she was trying to get to if she were lost, not her Grandparents?
Are the Grandparents even sure it was her (voice) that rang them? I hope they are safe and there is not something going on....seems like the Grandparents are being used as an alibi perhaps.

lizzyred10#211238  writes:

    in response to Leott:

    Her fiance and step dad were out driving around looking for her. Maybe her grandparents were the only people she could get in contact with.

    How can the grandparents be an alibi when they just stated facts?

Just a thought. If I was that worried about someone being missing, I would either take a phone WITH me while I was out looking, or stay at the house or have someone at the house in case she made it. Grandparents just came into this at 10:10...they somehow managed to get a hold of Stepdad and fiance'...figure she could have too. I am just reading this interesting story and wanted to make one comment, not add another scenario and have my view called on. Sounds like you are more up on it than I am. I probably missed something.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This article had some information that I had not read in other articles.  Some of the comments were interesting too.

   

[cookie]

a half bottle of an average wine bottle is typically 2 glasses? a full bottle usually serves 4 glasses with a little bit left over as a topper...I don't see how 2 glasses  of wine would make her drunk...or disoriented...jmo...

[mgoblue]

Hi Monkeys. Thanks for all of your posts and thoughts on this case.  One thought... maybe this wasn't the first bottle of wine she had that day???

[theboyzmom]

The quote from the cook at the restaurant worker indicates they they ordered and payed for food and then walked out to the van ..

The boy told the waitress his mom hit her head.

I did an experiment this weekend.. I drank 1/2 bottle of wine..
Then I went out and mowed a couple of acres of grass..

Never got lost..nope not even a little bit confused.

So I went back in and drank the rest of the bottle, never fell down and hit me head.

I do not even drink and I find this talk of 1/2 bottle of wine amazing.

There is something much bigger here and authorities just want to take the easy answer in my opinion.

I think she did in fact hit her head and was suffering from a concussion.. But I am not a doctor.. Just a drunk on a tractor.
Can ya get a ticket for that ?

Well, Edward - yes you can!   

But, seriously, if she was an alcoholic she would not have stopped at a half a bottle. And she would not have gotten fall down drunk on even a whole bottle. I do not care how long she was sober - I know this from watching alot of drunks go back out. You start where you left off. If I went back to drinking I could probably drink a fifth or so and still walk around.

My personal thought is there was someone else involved. Not sure if she left the boy there and ran off with someone or some foul plan came into it. I am not convinced that she meant for him to drown.

[MuffyBee]

Hi Monkeys. Thanks for all of your posts and thoughts on this case.  One thought... maybe this wasn't the first bottle of wine she had that day???

That's an interesting thought mgo.  Maybe this wasn't the first bottle of wine she had that day.  But also, it was said half the contents of the bottle were gone.  Here is a pic of the bottle that was found:


http://www.kirotv.com/news/22878227/detail.html

<snip>
Police told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News on Wednesday that a half-empty bottle of wine washed up on the beach near where the van was found. The bottle looked like the one surveillance video showed Smiley buying at a mini-mart the night she and her son disappeared. See full story. It was capped, unbroken and half empty. <snip>

[labubske]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=8520+Island+View+Dr+NE+Olympia,+WA+98506&vps=1&jsv=218a&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=40.86791,107.138672&num=10&abstate=A:actbar-saveto

Here is the link to map of area where there were reports of knocking at 1am.

[labubske]

Man returns from WA with son's ashes


BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - A Lancaster father returned home from a heartbreaking journey. Jay Carver talked with News 4, sharing memories of his little boy.

Search and rescue teams didn't know what to think of Jay Carver when he first arrived out west to help look for his biological son. What they eventually learned was that he was a loving father, with a huge heart. Thursday morning, the Lancaster dad returned to WNY, sad and heartbroken.

The airport is always a special place for joyful reunions and safe returns. But for Jay Carver, the somber walk through Buffalo Niagara International was the latest step in a journey that began a week ago when he flew across the country to help search for his missing son, Azriel, and former girlfriend, Shantina Smiley.

Sadly, Azriel's body was found last Thursday, floating in Washington State's Puget Sound. He drowned. His ashes are now with his dad, who brought them home in his backpack. It's hard to imagine his grief.

Jay said, "There are a lot of kids out there that don't have a father in their life and I was that father not in his life."

Jay was forced to have a cross-country relationship with Azriel who moved away from WNY with his mom years ago. The pair vanished earlier this month, spotted on surveillance the night they disappeared. Her van was eventually found on a beach. She is still missing. For now, Jay's focus is only on his son.

"He touched a lot of lives and really was there for a lot of people and being a little guy, really didn't live long. He did a lot with what he had and faced up to a lot of adversity and always had a smile on his face," said Jay.

Tears flow easily when Jay thinks of ways he can honor his son by finding hope in loss.

Jay said, "If I can be there for somebody, I know it's a day light and dollar short in Azriel's case, but if I can be there for some kid that might be having problems maybe there won't be a father who's feeling what I'm feeling."

The family will hold a private memorial service for Azriel this weekend. A benefit will be held next month. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to several charities that assist children.

Rebecca Gerald · 4 days ago
Mr. Carver, Your beautiful son Azriel Carver touched my live in a special way that not many have. I met Azriel several years ago when he attended the Head Start Progam in Lonview, Washington. He was sweet, kind and very loving to all he met. However Azriel was not with out his share of troubles. Troubles that I could not save him from all though I tried. I filled out a CPS report on him and even though the situation was investigated Azriel was returned to his mother. I cried all the was home that day and for several days after. I loved your son deeply. When he would see me he referred to me as Grandma. I see his sweet gentle face in my mind and will always remember him as a child filled with love. My heart and prayers are with today and always. I loved you Azriel..

Taken from http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/Man-returns-from-WA-with-sons-ashes

[labubske]

The death of a Silverdale boy whose body washed ashore in Pierce County came into clearer focus on Friday, and two differing pictures of his mother, who remains missing, continued to emerge.

While it appears 8-year-old Azriel Carver’s death was accidental, questions remain about how it happened. And investigators still haven’t found any signs of his mother, 29-year-old Shantina “Kat” Smiley. The search by air and sea for the mother on Friday focused on the water and shorelines of Puget Sound.

On Friday afternoon the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Azriel’s death an accidental drowning. The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, which sent a detective to the autopsy, said there were no signs of assault. The discovery of Azriel’s body high on a shoreline at the south end of Fox Island near Gig Harbor the day before brought sorrow to a case that had been filled with mystery and anxiety.


At Vinland Elementary School, where Azriel was a second-grade student, the reader board simply read “Azriel,” followed by a heart.

According to Washington State Child Protective Services records, Azriel’s short life may have been filled with strife, though the accounts of courts and state agencies fly in the face of the devoted, dedicated and determined life Smiley appeared to be living in recent years.

Between June 2005 and April 2009, Smiley was the subject of 10 complaints to the child-protection agency, CPS spokeswoman Sherry Hill said.

In June 2005, CPS investigated after Azriel suffered facial bruises and a broken arm. At the time, Smiley’s ex-boyfriend — who was not related to the boy — was suspected. The charges were later dropped.

The same year, Smiley filed for a protection order against the man, which the Kitsap Sun reported Wednesday.

In March 2007, Smiley was accused of abusing the child, but CPS called the allegation “unfounded.”

Then in August 2007, CPS declared Smiley “negligent” for leaving Azriel unsupervised “after she had passed out from alcohol use,” Hill said.

After the 2005 and August 2007 complaints, Smiley voluntarily gave up custody to her family, she said. Each time, Smiley entered treatment and passed examinations before regaining custody, Hill said.

The most recent report was filed as “information,” when a school employee in April 2009 made a legally-required report after Azriel began acting out in school, and Smiley revealed a history of abuse.

CPS is now doing a “fatality review” to see if anything should have been done differently, Hill said.

While the case still has a steady stream of unanswered questions, the subject of alcohol and alcoholism has recurred. Earlier in the week, Smiley’s fiance, Robb Simmons, said she was a recovering alcoholic who had relapsed recently, but denied that it would have had anything to do with the pair’s disappearance.

In 2005, Smiley received a deferred prosecution in a drunken-driving and hit-and-run case out of Castle Rock. In April of that year, she allegedly swiped a parked truck and fled on foot, according to documents obtained by the Kitsap Sun. The police report alleges Smiley was too intoxicated to perform field-sobriety tests safely and claims a breath test revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.243, three times the legal limit.

Deferred prosecutions are agreements to avoid jail time and drop charges in exchange for a period of sobriety and lawfulness. That probationary period was set to end in April of this year.

Her history is in contrast to the story of a woman who, by her own accounts on social networks and those of friends and family, was getting her life together, in a loving relationship and close with her son. She had graduated from Olympic College, getting a degree in medical billing, and was involved in her son’s Cub Scout program as a den leader.

Dozens of supportive messages, prayers and memories have filled a Facebook page dedicated to Smiley and Azriel called “Prayers for Shantina Smiley and her son — Rest In Peace — Azriel Carver.”

One woman who attended the medical coding and billing program with Smiley said she and other students who knew her are dismayed at the treatment Smiley and her family have received in some media, and she wanted to present her memories of the attractive, intelligent woman she knew.

“She was one of the nicest people,” the woman, who declined to disclose her name, said. “From what I could see, she had her life in order.” She remembered Smiley as a woman who talked constantly about her son. “This is like the last thing in the world that could have happened,” she said.

Even if Smiley did relapse, the woman said, “We’re all just people.”

But authorities, too, have centered on alcohol as a factor in the pair’s disappearance. Smiley and Azriel apparently took a directionless drive north of Olympia on Saturday night when they were supposed to be headed from their Silverdale home to Castle Rock to see her family. Surveillance footage shows Smiley buying a large bottle of wine, and authorities found what they believe is that bottle, half empty and corked, after it washed ashore along with one of her shoes, a ball and an inhaler belonging to Azriel.

Investigators still don’t know what happened to Smiley, but Thurston County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Cheryl Stines said recent developments have led police to focus on water and shorelines searches.

“I think that’s a very strong possibility,” she said.

On Sunday morning, a nearby resident found their minivan, doors open and keys on the dash, partially submerged and stuck in the mud near Dana Passage. At high tide, it appeared the water covered the van, Stines said.

But whatever evidence there is seems to be is circumstantial at this point. As far as what happened to Shantina Smiley, there are still only questions.

“We’ll probably have those for a while,” Stines said. “You may never know.”

http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:8862fVSt1DAJ:www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/19/missing-boys-death-ruled-accidental/+shantina+smiley+fled+on+foot&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a   

[labubske]

Missing Silverdale Woman Had a DUI and Protection Order in Her Past


OLYMPIA — UPDATE, 10:54 a.m.: Authorities say a shoe that washed up on a Puget Sound beach over the weekend probably belonged to the Silverdale woman who appears to have abandoned a van on the beach and disappeared with her 8-year-old son.

Lt. Chris Mealy of the Thurston County Sheriff’s office says other items that washed up on the beach also appear to be connected with 29-year-old Shantina “Kat” Smiley of Silverdale and her son Azriel Carver.

Mealy says the positive identification of the items does not change the direction of their investigation. Thurston County has a boat in the water scouring the shoreline for clues. Investigators also are examining Smiley’s bank records and court and public records and talking to people.

Shantina “Kat” Smiley, 29, had a brush with the law in 2005, when she was charged with hit-and-run and DUI in Cowlitz County.

Around the same time, she took out a protection order against a Cowlitz County man with whom she had a “very abusive relationship,” law enforcement said.

But despite the incidents in her past, her life in Kitsap County — where she moved to be with a man she met on MySpace —had much positive momentum, family members and acquaintances said. She had established a career and a family of which she was proud.

“Everything seemed normal,” said Chelsie Woodard, a stepsister to Smiley who lives in Castle Rock.

Items — including two mismatched leather shoes, a half-full and corked wine bottle, an inhaler and an orange ball — washed ashore on the same beach near Olympia where the van she was driving was found partially submerged over the weekend. Meantime, law enforcement found video surveillance footage that showed her at an Olympia convenience store buying wine, a development made more significant by her fiance’s statement on Tuesday that she is a recovering alcoholic who relapsed last week.

A Kitsap Sun search of court records revealed that Smiley was charged with DUI and hit and run in April 2005. She received a deferred prosecution, according to the Cowlitz County Clerk’s Office, meaning that her charges would be dropped if she stayed out of trouble. It appears the deferred prosecution was to last five years, and she’d had no problems since. It’s set to end April 13, 2010.

Also in 2005, she took out a protection order against a Cowlitz County man, starting in July. But it was lifted in August 2006, according to the clerk’s office.

Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy said investigators haven’t interviewed the man, but he is on their “to do” list, he said. Currently, there’s nothing indicating his involvement in her disappearance, he added.

Smiley grew up in Castle Rock, a dwindling Cowlitz County town off Interstate 5. After graduating from the high school there in 1998, she married Robert Jerome Smiley. They were “high school sweethearts,” Woodard said.

But their marriage ended in 2001, Cowlitz records indicate. He is not the man Smiley took out a protection order against.

While things might have taken a turn for the worse for Smiley in 2005, by the time she arrived in Kitsap County two years ago, things began to look up.

Smiley earned her certificate in medical billing and coding at Olympic College in 2009. She graduated on the dean’s list and reportedly got a job at the Kitsap Medical Group.

Barbara Parker, a professor at Olympic College, called Smiley “enthusiastic” and “motivated.” She was in the program during its first year of existence at the college.

“She seemed to love coming to class,” Parker said. “She was probably one of my most excited students.”

Parker met Smiley’s family last year when they came to campus for an Easter egg hunt.

“They just seemed like a really nice family,” she said.

Smiley was a den leader for her son’s Cub Scout pack in Silverdale, an assignment that comes with plenty of responsibility, said Pat Craven, spokesman for the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

“If you’re taking the time to volunteer to be a den leader, that’s not a small commitment,” he said, referring to the hours of planning and preparation for weekly meetings and den outings.

“We’re all concerned about them,” he said.

The search was called off early Wednesday, but resumed that afternoon after items washed ashore.

Mealy said a boat searched the area with a bloodhound on board to try to pick up the scent of Smiley and her son. Dogs searched the roads and the area surrounding the beach.

He said one of the shoes could be a child’s shoe. The bottle could be the one Smiley is shown on video purchasing during her travels on Saturday night.

Carver’s father, Jay Carver, who had been estranged with his son until recently, traveled from New York state late Tuesday to search for Azriel.

As media attention mounts, journalists are hardly the only ones putting their detective hats on.

“To go down a dark steep, unmarked road that is really hard to find, with her 8-year-old son, is really unbelievable,” said Robert Dashiell, a Bainbridge man who spent Tuesday retracing Smiley’s journey Saturday night.

Details have trickled out slowly, one on top of another, and none making much sense. Unless you want them to.

Theories are plentiful on the Internet. On comment threads and online forums dedicated to amateur sleuths, armchair detectives are piecing together the events as they see them — suspecting hoaxes, nearby sex offenders, her fiance, ex-boyfriends, alcoholism, accidents and intentional disappearance.

“I’m torn in three or four directions here and am standing at the intersection not knowing which way to go,” someone wrote on an Internet forum filled with dozens of pages of back-and-forth guesswork.

Said Smiley’s stepsister: “It makes absolutely no sense.”

But Woodard said she knows one thing: Smiley would protect her son at all costs.

“I always felt like if she’d do anything, she wouldn’t do anything to him,” she said.
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/17/missing-silverdale-woman-had-a-dui-and-order-in/

[melisb]

Maybe Mom's concussion did render her unable to drive and Azriel tried to drive to safety and ended up in the water?  But where is Mom?  Maybe she really isn't herself and wandered off or came to and saw her son dead and flipped out and wandered off?  I'd really like to know.  Could be a relative of the home she stopped at for help followed her and he did something with her body and the boy took off driving the wrong way.  It's late and I'm rambling so off to bed I go.  Nite all!

[MuffyBee]

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/apr/01/memorial-service-planned-for-shantina-smiley/

Memorial Service Planned for Shantina Smiley
Thursday, April 1, 2010

The fiance of a missing Silverdale mother is holding out hope she’s still alive, and authorities still don’t have any leads on where she might be.

But friends and family will hold a memorial service to honor the life of 29-year-old Shantina Smiley on April 17 in Brinnon.

“At this point I still have all the hope in the world that she will turn up alive, I cannot do anything else,” Smiley’s fiance Robb Simmons, wrote in an e-mail to the Kitsap Sun.

But he said it was also appropriate to hold a service.

“The 17th will have been over 30 days, and if she has passed on, then that just seems that it would be the right thing to do,” Simmons wrote.

Smiley went missing March 13 with her 8-year-old son Azriel Carver during what was supposed to be a trip to a family gathering in Castle Rock, in southwest Washington. Their gold minivan was found the next morning partially submerged in a muddy bank north of Olympia. Neither were inside. Carver’s body was found on a Fox Island beach, near Gig Harbor, on March 18.

Friends and family plan to hold a memorial service for Smiley at 1 p.m. April 17 at the Brinnon Community Church, the same church where a service was held for Azriel in March.

The disappearance of Smiley and Carver had captured national media attention. Many questions remain, including why she took a haphazard route north of Olympia before parking on a remote beach. There have been revelations of her struggles with alcohol, and surveillance footage showed her buying an oversized bottle of wine — which later washed ashore corked and half-empty — the night she disappeared. She was previously investigated by Child Protective Services.

But friends and family say they knew a woman who’d gotten a degree in medical coding and billing, who was an active mother dedicated in her son’s Cub Scouts, and who was preparing for a marriage.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that Carver died of an accidental drowning and found no signs of trauma. They are awaiting the results of a toxicology test.

In Thurston County, investigators have no new leads to follow, said Sheriff’s Detective Lt. Chris Mealy.

“They’ve pretty much dried up,” he said.

They aren’t ruling out any theory but are working on the assumption that Smiley ended up in the water.

The remaining questions may never be answered, Mealy said.

“We’d like to have closure, as would everybody else,” he said.

Anyone with information can call the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office at (360) 786-5530.

[Edward]

If she knocked on one guys door and he did not answer... Then she knocked on another.

There is no way that van door was open in the back without her walking around to open it.
So they were not in deep water.

It would be considered and opportunity for a bad guy...
woman walking around in the middle of the night seeking help.


The foot tracks around the van and leading to the van and away from the van would tell the tale if they were visable when the van was found.

One thing that gets me is the food purchase and then leaving before they got the food.

Stopping to use another persons phone..

She trusted people like everyone is her friend. Bad people love that. The perfect victim.

I really doubt she threw herself in the water.

Any scenario is possible.

That van windshield has what appears to be military base stickers on it on the lower left corner.

[labubske]

I LOVE these two pictures.  It's just so sad.  The photos were taken from → http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=243140172&albumID=1185136&imageID=13746951

[Banana]

wow those are good pics

made me want to cry too 

[Wyks]

The following was posted by Robb, Shantina's fiance: 

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http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewThread&entryID=32238497&categoryID=0&IsSticky=0&groupID=102165904&Mytoken=EEF18A85-30A6-45C8-9097D21358D6D312144005


DJ Cynthetek
M/39
SIlverdale, and over there,
Washington


Posted:  Mar 10, 2007 3:35 AM

Hey everyone, my name is Robb, and my girlfriend suffers from migraines, and it has had a very big effect on our relationship, she is moving out tommorow. Now I don't suffer from migraines, but I had acute cadnium posioning in 98, so I know it sucks, really bad.

I do a lot of six sigma work, so I suggested that she keep a journal, so we can identify the triggers for the effects. So far chocolate has popped up as a trigger.
But even after eliminating the chocolate, she still has them.

I will be doing soem research into what cause migraines to develop, and hopefully to find and offer support for those of use who have loved ones who suffer from migraines.

Robb

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