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

[Banana]

http://robbsimmons.com/

Robb Simmons Photo

 

As many of you may have heard, my Fiancé’ Shantina “Kat” Smiley and her son Azriel James Carver are currently missing, in the Olympia Area.

The past 36 hours have been nerve racking, and full of fear pain and sorrow. I just want  my Fiancé’ and Azriel back home .  I want to marry her, and spend the rest of my days by her side.

The media has been putting out mixed stories.         

I am keeping updates via my facebook page, search for Robb Simmons. I have posted a lot of pictures of Shantina & Azriel

After several years, Shantina had made contact with her Step Father in Castle Rock. We had planned to go down and visit them.

I had Cub Scout Training that was planned to finish at 6:30

Shantina called me twice around 4:15 to let me know she was heading out.  I asked her grab my phone charger, since my phone was near dead.

My training wrapped up at 4:30, I figured that she was already on the road heading to Castle Rock, so I proceeds to Castle Rock as well

I stopped in Toldeo-Vader to make quick repair, when she called me at 6:45 from a phone. She asked me if I could grab her phone, because she had left. I let her know where I was at. She was in the Olympia area, but wasn’t quite sure of where, Azriel was hungry, so she pulled off. She made complaint of being in the traffic. She gave me the destination address and told me she would be there shortly.

I arrived in Castle Rock around 7:40, and found her Step Father’s house.  We started to get worried about 9:00pm,  I began to check in with the WSP about accidents. Her step father and I drove around the area to see if we could spot her. I called her Grandparents house in Brinnon with her Step fathers phone. They had informed met hat she had stopped at a house in Olympia around 10:10, to use the phone, and ask for directions, and let them know she was ok.  We went back to the Step Fathers home until 12:00 when we headed up I-5 to Olympia, we checked the two rest stops on the way back. We got a few hours sleeps, headed back up I-5 at day break, got a phone charger, recharged my phone, and went back up to Olympia and back to Castle Rock.   During this time I was in vigilant contact with the authorities for any information.

We went to get a bit to eat, when I received a phone call from the Thurston County Sheriff’s office. The had found the Van.  In a follow up call, they informed me that they had to pull it out of the bay at the end of a dead end road. I immediately headed up there and say the van.  As many of you know, I usually have a camera on hand, besides being waterlogged, the van did have some damage, but no broken windows. There was no sign of Shantina or Azriel.

I spent about 6 hours on the location talking to the detectives. I left there around 5:30, and had to make numerous stops to field phone calls from numerous sources, including the media. I stopped at my childrens mother house to sit with them around 8:00pm

Last night they brought blood hounds over, and took scent item.

I have no idea of why she would have ended up down that road. I know that  our family want both her and Azriel back home safe and sound.

Please pray for their safe return.  I already talked with Azriel’s Father in New York. That is a hard call to make.

 

[labubske]

Why was it(the stepdads house) so easy for him to find but not her...?  Why didn't she just say okay I am STOPPING right here where I am at...and you come to me?  Or am I reading this wrong?

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20000864-504083.html
Shantina Smiley Still Missing Days After Son's Body Found
March 22, 2010

Shantina Smiley and Aziel Carver (Credit: Personal Photo)

Shantina Smiley (Credit: Personal Photo)

SEATTLE (CBS/AP) Four days after Azriel Carver's body was found on an island beach in Puget Sound, police have still found no sign of his missing mother, Shantina Smiley.
More...

[Tracygirl]

This is so strange. I wonder what happened that night? do you think maybe she wondered away from the van, leaving her son asleep? Regardless of the outcome, I hope they find her soon. I bet the family is just so confused by all of this, it certainly doesn't make a lot of sense.

[Edward]

Something does not add up.
jmho

[MuffyBee]

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/23/investigators-following-leads-case-missing-silverd/
Investigators 'Following up Leads' in Case of Missing Silverdale Woman

Monday, March 23, 2010

OLYMPIA — Thurston County Sheriff's detectives are still "following up leads" in an effort to find Shantina Smiley, but are not conducting any searches for the missing Silverdale woman.

Detective Lt. Chris Mealy said Monday that investigators are working on several tips that have come into their office. But there's still no sign of Smiley, 29, who disappeared March 13.

Smiley and her 8-year-old son, Azriel Carver, were headed from Silverdale to her stepfather’s house in Castle Rock when they vanished. The van she was driving, found the next day, was abandoned and partially submerged in water on a remote Puget Sound beach north of Olympia.

Carver's body was found Thursday on a beach on the south end of Fox Island, near Gig Harbor. The boy's death was found to be an accidental drowning.

Mealy asks anybody who has information to call the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office at (360) 786-5530, or their local law enforcement at 911.

[cookie]

this is all very strange....

[labubske]

this is all very strange....

It sure is...it just doesn't seem to make sense to me...especially her route...it didn't seem like a difficult route...and there are stores I would think that she could have stopped at...not at a stranger's house.  Have you seen any reports on this stranger...this was her last phone call and the van was found a few miles from there.  I know that her behavior was very strange...but it still doesn't add up.  It sounded pretty difficult to get to the area where the van was found.  Mapquest reports the amount of time to travel from Silverdale to Olympia is a little over an hour.  She said that she was heading out around 4:15pm...she called Robb at 6:45pm from the Olympia area  (2.5 hours later) to ask him to grab her phone that she ended up forgetting (even though she had just used it twice to call Robb and he asked her to grab his charger).  Also, this sounds as though Robb wasn't going to be going back home before heading out...if he is asking her to grab his charger.  Yet, she waited until 6:45pm to ask him to grab her phone.  Why not call earlier?  She had already called him a few times before heading out (maybe she didn't want to disturb the scout meeting though).  When she spoke with Robb stating that she was only in Olympia...she wasn't able to tell him where in Olympia she was...though she said that she stopped off for food (that seems to be an easy way to explain where you are at)...I know when I travel and I get hungry or the kids get hungry I pull off of the main highway or Interstate...and find a close place to eat...if asked where I was...even if I had never been in the area...I could say that I was calling from so in so...and its off of EXIT ##...I could give some location.  She didn't seem to be in a great hurry to leave Olympia...I wonder if she was stalling or waiting around to meet someone?  Why did she leave so quickly from Martin Way Diner at around 9pm?  She left the food behind and headed the opposite of where she should be going...The main highway that she would have taken to Castle Rock was right by her.  Maybe the directions that she was looking for wasn't Castle Rock.  Maybe with all of the recent stress (including a relapse) maybe she was meeting up with an old/new friend...and was lured into that bizarre area...I just believe that someone had to tell her how to get to that area...it doesn't seem to be one that you can just "end up at."  Here are the directions from Martin's Way Diner to the area where the van was found: http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Olympia&1s=WA&1a=2423+4th+Ave+E&1z=98506-4820&1y=US&1l=47.04604&1g=-122.86668&1v=ADDRESS&2c=Olympia&2s=WA&2a=[8100-8499]+Zangle+Rd+NE&2z=98506&2y=US&2l=47.15088&2g=-122.87951&2v=BLOCK not sure how to make that show link or how to paste pics here.
 It's late...but these thoughts came to mind.

[cookie]

did she take her son inside with her when she was at the diner where she left the food after she had ordered and paid for it?
If she left him in the van alone, wonder if a stranger had gotten into the van and Kat saw the stranger getting into the van where her son was and went running out there and was forced to get into the van by this stranger who then directed her to drive where she ended up? someone who had been following her? 

anything could have happened in this strange saga...I am totally confused by all of this....

[Nut44x4]

Funeral for missing woman's son

A small, private funeral is planned Wednesday for an 8-year-old boy whose body was found washed up on Fox Island last week.

Azriel Carver's 29-year-old mother is still missing

Thurston County detectives say they are following up on leads, including several tips, but they've called off an active search for Shantina Smiley.

The Silverdale woman and her son disappeared on a trip to Castlerock on March 13. Her abandoned van was found on a beach at Budd Inlet.

Azriel's body was found Thursday. An autopsy positively identified the boy, determined he had drowned and his death was an accident.

A wallet containing Smiley's driver's license, some cash and credit cards was found in the van. Two mismatched shoes, a partially full and corked wine bottle, an inhaler and an orange ball have washed ashore since, and police said the items apparently belonged to the boy or his mother.

According to police, there was no indication that a crime took place inside Smiley's 2005 Dodge Caravan.

http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=11&sid=301809

[Wyks]

Have read in different news reports that Shantina had asked for directions, yet it seems she didn't follow those directions, but went in the opposite way each time.   Also have read that at least once she was close enough to the freeway while asking for directions, that the directions may have been as simple as 'it's over there, just turn ------ to get there'. 

And yet.....

From the last stop she was at, she drives about 5 miles or so, again in the wrong way, down a road that dead-ends into someone's yard.   

Not being able (??) to spot the freeway even while close at the time, she manages somehow to drive down that road, find THIS little, narrow, gravel PATH, (not even an actual road), that cuts down from that property to the beach.  How did she manage that, without flipping the van or hitting every tree/shrub on the way down? 

In the first photo below.... On the right side, the *red arrow* marks where the narrow gravel pathway begins, which leads to the beach.  In the second photo, you can see the narrow gravel pathway going down, and the red dot marks where the van ended up, with the backend in the water. 

Just strange................. !! 

[Nut44x4]

I hope I am wrong, but I can't help but think that this is a 'Susan Smith' type of crime...can't put my finger on it, but things are not adding up.

[Tracygirl]

I hope I am wrong, but I can't help but think that this is a 'Susan Smith' type of crime...can't put my finger on it, but things are not adding up.

If we are all scratching our heads and thinking this does not make a bit of sense, then there is something not right. What we know of her behavior that night it was odd to say the least. That path is not one you would just find when looking for the freeway.

BTW Hi Wykes! Nice to see ya!

[Tracygirl]

No one is more directionally challanged then me, especially at night when I am in a place I don't know, but I think even I could find a freeway that was right there. 1/2 bottle of wine tells me she was drinking. If you don't drink for a while and are small 1/2 a bottle would make you more then just a little tipsy. I know I would be drunk. If she was on any kind of med, that would enhance the wine's effects too. But being drunk does that explain all of this?
Somehow her son ends up drowned in a pond off a small gravel path? 

[Wyks]

Hi TG, good to see ya too!   

This wasn't a 'pond', it was part of the puget sound, coming in from the ocean.  So it has swift currents, is extremely cold, etc.  A person could succumb fast in frigid water like that, especially if over-tired, etc.  I would think an inebriated person would succumb even faster. 

And yet.. it's not like they drove off a bridge and were out in the middle of deep water.   I cannot imagine how they both would have been in this water long enough to drown.  Seems they were close enough to the sand to just splash thru the water and hop onto land real quick.  Doesn't seem that it was awfully deep there.  Even if both of them got out of the van thru the rear hatch.     

It's hard to know what to think about this case.  Seems to me that if she really was in trouble, lost, disoriented, she had many opportunities to get help that night, yet didn't seem to try making anyone 'in person' understand her plight.  Even after getting the van stuck in the sand/water, seems she could have at least leaned on the horn til someone came to her rescue.  So.... since none of that was done, yeah.. it kind of makes me think of a 'Susan Smith' type thing too. 

[labubske]

did she take her son inside with her when she was at the diner where she left the food after she had ordered and paid for it?
If she left him in the van alone, wonder if a stranger had gotten into the van and Kat saw the stranger getting into the van where her son was and went running out there and was forced to get into the van by this stranger who then directed her to drive where she ended up? someone who had been following her? 

anything could have happened in this strange saga...I am totally confused by all of this....

sounds plausible.  I still think that it seemed as though she wasn't in a hurry to get out of Olympia.  It's like she was stalling Robb...and an interesting piece from her ex boyfriend gives some kind of insight...of ALL of the theories that he could come up with...he chooses to theorize that she took medication that made her pass out and that is the reason she ended up on the beach.  I am sure that he is aware of things that we haven't heard about.  Maybe b/c of the recent relapse with alcohol...she got a hold of an old contact...maybe that is why she was waiting around in Olympia...waiting for the person to get what she needed.  Now, this is only a theory...based on the observed behavior...not accusing.  Why didn't she call her step-father?  Wouldn't he be the best person to give her directions?  Most of the time it's not what a person does...it's what they DON'T do...that gives the real story.  Just a thought.

[labubske]

I hope I am wrong, but I can't help but think that this is a 'Susan Smith' type of crime...can't put my finger on it, but things are not adding up.

I have thought that too.  Was she intentionally getting herself on camera that night?  Attempting to look lost?

[Edward]

Thank you for the photos wyks 

One fellow said somebody was knocking on his door..But he did not answer it.. hmm
I am not sure that is creditable info.. But if it was ..One of them was NOT in the water.
Maybe he was and she could not find him.. ?? Then what did she do with herself ? commit suicide trying to find him ? did she knock on this fellows door for help first ??

ODD place to land and 1/2 a bottle will not make you that stupid.

I am just not sure what is going on here.

That vehicle should not have been in this location and she drove right by the front of some persons home !! like 20 feet away ..

At night in the country it is very dark..I know that.
I can't imagine telling the boy to jump in that frigid water..

So strange.

[darla]

I am just getting up to speed on this thread. I have a question. How can you determine an accidental drowning vs someone holding a child underwater til they drown? My hinky meter is way up the chart.
God Bless this sweet child.

[cookie]

Hi Darla!

perhaps with a drowning that is not determined to be accidental,there would be pressure marks to hold the person underwater if they were resisting? not sure how they determined it accidental...
this is certainly a strange case to say the least....