AZRIEL CARVER - 8 yo and his mother, Shantina Smiley - Thurston County/Olympia WA

The Thurston County Sheriff's Department is conducting a search for a
missing woman and her son.According to a sheriff's department
spokesperson, the 29-year-old woman and her 8-year-old son were on their
way from Silverdale to Castle Rock over the weekend. The woman's
fiance was the last person to talk to her when she called him Saturday
evening at around 10pm.Sunday afternoon, a person called the
Thurston County Sheriff's Office to report seeing what they thought was a
car in Dana Passage, just north of Olympia. Officers responded to the
scene and found a van completely submerged in the waters of Dana
Passage. The recovered van belongs to woman's fiancé, which the woman
would have been driving.The Thurston County Sheriff's Department
Search and Rescue teams are now combing the area for any signs of what
happened to the missing woman and her child.

NEAR OLYMPIA -

The search continues Monday in Thurston County for a
mother and her eight-year-old son. Their car was found in the waters of
Dana Passage, but they were no where to be found.



The last time someone heard from Shantina Smiley was Saturday night,
when she called her fiance.

Just a few hours later, on Sunday morning, her van was spotted partially
submerged in the waters of Dana Passage, which is just north of
Olympia.

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

Police say Smiley was heading to Castle Rock from Silverdale, but her
fiance, Rob Simmons, says it doesn't add up that she would even be in
the area of Dana Passage.

"Being that it was down a dead-end road, and then going down a dirt road
around a bluff to the water makes no sense," said Simmons, "she would
not go down that road, it's a dead-end."

Simmons says they don't have any friends in that area, and worries
something sinister may have happened.

"I'm scared that something bad happened," said Simmons, " and I just
want to say to whoever has them, send them home please, just drop them
off somewhere, let them be found, let them come home, let them be safe."

Shantina Smiley is 29-years-old, stands about 5'9" tall, and weighs
about 140 pounds. She has dark brown hair and brown eyes.

Her son, Azriel Carver is 4'2" tall, about 100 pounds. He has blond
hair in a mohawk style, and has brown eyes.

Simmons described them as a "Scout" family, because of how involved they
are with the Boy Scouts of America,

Friends say she is responsible, and very loving, and has no history of
drug use.

Monday investigators will continue to interview people around Dana
Passage who may have seen or heard something Saturday night.

If you know anything, or have seen anything, call 911, or the Thurston
County Sheriff's Office dispatch at 360-704-2749

NEAR OLYMPIA -

A woman heading to her stepfather's house was "beyond
lost" when she and her 8-year-old son took one wrong
turn after another through the backroads of Thurston County and onto a
private Puget Sound beach, authorities said Monday.

The minivan driven by Shantina Smiley, 29, was found partially submerged
Sunday with its doors open. A wallet containing Smiley driver's
license, some cash and credit cards were found in the van, but neither
she nor her son was anywhere in sight.

"Apparently she got stuck and abandoned the car," said Lt. Chris Mealy
of the county sheriff's office. There was nothing inside the 2005 Dodge
Caravan to make detectives think any crime happened, he added.

Detectives have traced Smiley's path from her home in Silverdale to the
far reaches of Thurston County, more than 50 miles north of her
stepfather's house in Castle Rock in Cowlitz County and far from any
road that would have led her there.

Mealy said Smiley had called her fiance Saturday night in northwest
Olympia to update him on her location because she had left her cell
phone at home. An employee at an east Olympia diner where she bought a
corn dog told investigators she left without her purchase and then
tripped and fell walking back to her van, but Mealy said the fall was
not serious.

The elderly couple who lived nearby said they let Smiley use their phone
to call her grandfather, gave her son a piece of pizza, and then
directed her back to the freeway. She wasn't heard from again.

"The homeowners said she acted nervous because she was lost," Mealy
said. She was not injured but spoke of an accident, which investigators
believe may have been a reference to falling down at the diner.

Mealy said that as she left the home, Smiley made another series of
driving errors that eventually led her to a hard-to-find dirt path and
driving onto the beach. "It gets dark up there. It gets really, really
dark," Mealy said. "I was there Sunday afternoon. I had trouble finding
that trail in the daylight."

Friends and family described Smiley as a responsible, mature, rational
woman. She has no history of substance abuse, Mealy said. Her fiance,
Robb Simmons, and Smiley's stepfather began searching for Smiley and her
son, Azriel Carver, after she didn't arrive at their planned meeting
spot Saturday. Azriel is a second-grader at Vinland Elementary in the
North Kitsap School District, according to school principal Charley
McCabe.

"I have no idea of why she would have ended up down that road," Simmons
wrote on his website. Mealy said Smiley has "no friends or relatives or
lovers or boyfriends in Olympia or Thurston County."

"Somebody somewhere knows something," Mealy said. "She could be missing
voluntarily. Something untoward could have happened to her. She could
have done something untoward to her son. We have no clue."

Thurston County sheriff's deputies had resumed the search for missing
mother Shantina Smiley and her 8-year-old son as of Wednesday afternoon,
said sheriff's Lt. Chris Mealy.Mealy said a boat is searching the area of Little Fishtrap, near
where Smiley's minivan was found abandoned and waterlogged on a rocky
beach Sunday morning. A bloodhound also is in the boat, to pick up a
scent if the mother and son were in the water, Mealy said.Dogs
are also searching the roads in the immediate area of Little Fishtrap -
off of Zangle Road in the Boston Harbor area, if the mother and son left
the area on foot, Mealy said.Smiley and her son, Azriel Carver,
were on their way to Castle Rock from Silverdale to meet with Smiley's
stepfather Saturday night, but never arrived at their destination.
Surveillance video from local stores show that they were in the Olympia
area near Boston Harbor Saturday night. They were last seen by a couple
at a home off of Boston Harbor Road at around 10 p.m. Saturday night,
when they stopped to use a phone and ask for directions back to the
freeway. Smiley had forgot to bring her cell phone with her for the
trip.In another development today, Mealy said someone in the area
of Little Fishtrap recovered several items that washed up on the beach
overnight Tuesday. The items include a half-full and corked wine bottle,
an inhaler, an orange ball, and two mismatched leather shoes. Mealy
said one of the shoes could be a child's shoe. He said Smiley purchased a
bottle of wine at the Handy Pantry in west Olympia, but investigators
aren't sure if the recovered bottle is the same one.Mealy said
investigators are trying to contact Smiley's fiancé, Robb Simmons, to
see if he can tell whether any of the items belonged to Smiley or her
son.

A woman walking on the beach with friends Sunday found a small shoe,
an inhaler and a half-full bottle of white wine that had washed up about
a quarter-mile east of where a missing woman’s minivan had been found
on the shore that morning. On Wednesday, Thurston County
sheriff’s investigators were trying to link those items to the missing
woman, Shantina “Kat” Smiley, and her missing 8-year-old son, Azriel
Carver. The pair have been missing since Saturday night, when
they got lost on Boston Harbor Road before knocking on the door of an
elderly couple’s home about 10 p.m. to use the phone and ask for
directions.Smiley and Azriel were on the way Saturday from
Silverdale in Kitsap County to Castle Rock in Cowlitz – about a 130-mile
trip – but Smiley got diverted from Interstate 5 and ended up in
Olympia.
The shoe that washed up on shore Sunday was small enough that it
might fit a child, said Cora Tunbert, who found the items while walking
with friends near her Island View Court home. She also found a baseball
and an orange rubber ball, she said.“There’s always stuff on the
beach,” Tunberg said. “(But) it was an unusually large amount of stuff
on the beach.”She said she picked up the items and was ready to
throw them away Tuesday, but her husband called the sheriff’s office,
thinking they might be related to Smiley and Azriel’s disappearance.
Investigators arrived at the Tunbergs’ home Wednesday morning to pick up
the items, she said.Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy
confirmed Wednesday that Smiley had bought a bottle of wine at Handy
Pantry in west Olympia on Saturday night, before she went missing.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Cheryl Stines confirmed that Azriel uses an inhaler. Investigators
still want to see whether Smiley’s fiancé can definitively link any of
the recovered items as belonging to Smiley or Azriel, Mealy said. The
fiancé, Robb Simmons, lived with Smiley and Azriel. Mealy
cautioned that even if investigators confirm that the items belong to
Smiley and her son, it might not bring them any closer to finding the
pair.The search for Smiley and Azriel was focused Wednesday in
the area of Island View Court. Bloodhounds walked up and down the
streets, led on leashes by search-and-rescue volunteers. Mealy went up
in a Coast Guard helicopter to help search the shoreline.Charles
Grimmer, who lives on Island View Drive, confirmed that search dogs had
been to his home twice after his wife reported to the sheriff’s office
that someone had knocked loudly and repeatedly on their garage door
about 1 a.m. Sunday.Grimmer said he was half-asleep as his wife,
Rachel, was watching a movie, and they heard the loud knocks.“Bang,
bang bang bang,” Grimmer said, describing four knocks. He said his wife
was frightened.“We were thinking someone was trying to get in,”
Grimmer said.He said he activated the home’s alarm system, then
went to front door and looked outside, but he could see no one. After
his wife called the sheriff’s office, investigators came to the home
with bloodhounds.Stines confirmed that a search dog failed to
pick up a scent at the home. Grimmer said it’s possible that
someone could climb any number of sets of steep stairs leading from the
beach to homes on Island View Court, but it would be extremely dangerous
at night.“If you fell, you’d die,” he said.Some have
described Smiley’s activities in Olympia before she disappeared as
erratic.Smiley went to the Martin Way Diner before heading down
Boston Harbor Road on Saturday night, and she paid for a corn dog but
did not take it with her, Mealy has said. She was described by witnesses
as falling down in the parking lot, he said.Smiley had no ties
to the Olympia area.Smiley’s fiancé, Simmons, has told
investigators that Smiley is a recovering alcoholic and recently had a
relapse.After Smiley got directions to the freeway from the
elderly couple about 10 p.m. Saturday, she left in the minivan but went
in the opposite direction of the freeway, toward the water, Mealy said
Wednesday. She then drove on a steep dirt road in an inaccessible
residential area to the beach during low tide Saturday night, Mealy
said. The minivan ended up on the shore of Little Fish Trap northeast of
Boston Harbor, and that’s where Smiley and Azriel’s trail vanished,
officials with the sheriff’s office have said.

The fiance of the missing Washington mother Shantina Smiley, who vanished
five days ago with her young son, has told police that articles that
have washed ashore at a pond belong to them.
The search for Smiley and 8-year-old Azriel Carver took an
ominous turn when an area resident found debris along the edge of the
pond where Smiley's partially submerged van was discovered on Sunday.
The find included mismatched leather shoes, an inhaler, an orange ball
and a half empty bottle of wine with the cork in it.
Thurston County Sheriff's Lt. Chris Mealy said that Robb
Simmons, Smiley's fiance, told investigators that Smiley's son had asthma and
used an inhaler. Simmons also identified the smaller of the two shoes
and the orange ball as belonging to Azriel, Mealy said.

The Pierce County Sheriff's department confirmed on
Thursday that a child's body found washed ashore on Fox
Island is that of a missing Silverdale boy.
An intense search for a woman who appears to have
abandoned a van on a remote Puget Sound beach over the
weekend and disappeared with her 8-year-old son has been
going on since Sunday.
Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said a woman
out walking discovered the body on the shore.
Fox Island is about 12 miles north of the beach where 8-
year-old Azriel Carver and his mother, 29-year-old
Shantina "Kat" Smiley, apparently abandoned a van
Saturday.Smiley's body has not been found.
A boat crew searched the Boston Harbor area near Olympia
Wednesday using two dogs that tried to pick up the scent
of Smiley and Azriel. Dogs also searched the roads
and area surrounding the beach.
The search intensified on Wednesday after an area resident
recovered several items that washed up on the beach.
Police say a shoe that washed up on the beach over the
weekend probably belonged to Smiley.
Lt. Mealy says other items that washed up on the beach
also appear to be connected with Smiley and her son
Azriel.

SEATTLE — A Pierce County sheriff's spokesman says "we're 99 percent
sure" that a child's body found Thursday on an island beach in Puget
Sound is that of an 8-year-old boy who vanished with his mother last
weekend.
Spokesman Ed Troyer says the body found by a beachwalker on Fox
Island, southwest of Tacoma, has the same clothing Azriel Carver was
wearing and the same mohawk haircut. The Pierce County medical examiner
plans an autopsy and will make the final identification.
A beach, water and air search was launched in the Fox Island area for
any sign of the boy's mother, 29-year-old Shantina "Kat" Smiley of
Silverdale, who disappeared with the boy last Saturday night. Her
abandoned minivan was found on a remote Olympia-area beach about 12
miles south of Fox Island.

The body of an 8-year-old boy who disappeared Saturday night near
Olympia has washed up on a remote Fox Island beach, officials said
Thursday.
Pierce County Sheriff's Office spokesman Ed Troyer said the clothing on
the body matches that of 8-year-old Azriel Carver, who disappeared along
with his mother, Shantina Smiley of Silverdale.
Troyer said the Pierce County Medical Examiner will need to determine
the cause of death.
The body was found Thursday afternoon on the south end of Fox Island,
near Paiute Road, by a woman who was out walking her dog on the beach,
Troyer said.

The Fox Island beach near where the child's body was found is seen in this photo.

Lt. Chris Mealy of the Thurston County sheriff's office said tidal
currents could have carried a body from the Budd Inlet area, where
Carver went missing late Saturday, to Fox Island over a period of days.
"Yes, absolutely," he said, when asked about the possibility. "The Dana
Passage goes right up that way," Mealy added, referring to a tidal
system between Olympia and Tacoma.
Troyer said deputies are now out searching the beach in both directions
for any sign of Carver's missing mother, Shantina "Kat" Smiley, 29.
In addition, a Coast Guard craft and Pierce County sheriff's boats are
out searching the waters around the island.
Carver vanished Saturday night, along with his mother, Shantina "Kat"
Smiley, 29, while on their way to Castle Rock from Silverdale.
Deputies have been searching for the missing pair ever since their
minivan was found submerged in a small cove off Budd Inlet near North
Olympia, with the doors open.
Bloodhounds also have searched the roads and the area surrounding the
beach, but were unable to pick up a scent.
Deputies did recover several items that washed up on the beach in Budd
Inlet on Tuesday night that belonged to Smiley, including leather shoes,
an inhaler and an orange ball. A half-full and corked wine bottle also
was found.
The missing boy's father, Jay Carver, was on the scene of the search
Thursday near Olympia, hoping for any signs of his son. Carver flew in
from Buffalo, N.Y., late Tuesday night in hopes of aiding searchers.
He said his heart sank when he heard the news that the boy's body had
been tentatively identified.
"I was just hoping to find them safe somewhere to where I can come
through and have them, and find them alive ... didn't play out that
way," he said. "He could've offered a lot to this world. It's just a
shame that he's not here."

Smiley and her son were headed to her stepfather's home when they
disappeared over the weekend.
"It's almost like she vanished out of thin air," said stepsister Chelsie
Woodard, 32, of Castle Rock, whose father used to be married to
Smiley's mother.
Detectives have determined that Smiley turned off Interstate 5 in the
Olympia area while enroute to Castle Rock, and was seen by several
people who described her as appearing to be confused and lost.
A wallet containing Smiley driver's license, some cash and credit cards
were found in the minivan, but neither Smiley nor her son was anywhere
in sight.
"Apparently she got stuck and abandoned the car," Mealy said. There was
no indication that a crime took place inside the 2005 Dodge Caravan, he
added.
An employee at an east Olympia diner where she bought a corn dog told
investigators that Shantina left without her purchase and then tripped
and fell walking back to her van, but Mealy said the fall was not
serious.
The elderly couple who lived nearby said they let Smiley use their phone
to call her grandfather, gave her son a piece of pizza, and then
directed her back to the freeway. She wasn't heard from again.
Mealy said that as she left the home, Smiley made another series of
driving errors that eventually led her to a hard-to-find dirt path and
driving onto the beach.
Friends and family described Smiley as a responsible, mature, rational
woman.
Smiley's fiance, Robb Simmons, and Smiley's stepfather began searching
for Smiley and her son after she didn't arrive at their planned meeting
spot Saturday. Azriel was a second-grader at Vinland Elementary in the
North Kitsap School District, according to school principal Charley
McCabe.
Earlier this week, Smiley's fiance said the woman had a drinking problem
and relapsed last week. However, Robb Simmons doesn't believe Kat would
do anything to endanger her son.
"To think that she would be drinking on the road with her son, that's an
insane idea. I don't believe that would happen," he said.

A day after a missing boy's body was found on a Puget Sound beach, an
autopsy has found that his cause of death was "accidental drowning,"
according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office.
Meanwhile, the search resumed for his still-missing mother as reports
surfaced that she previously had been investigated for abusing and
neglecting the youngster.
Thurston County sheriff's spokesman Chris Mealy said Friday that
deputies in a boat were looking for Shantina "Kat" Smiley, 29, of
Silverdale.
Smiley and her 8-year-old son, Azriel Carver, were last seen Saturday
night, and her minivan was found partially submerged in a cove off Budd
Inlet near North Olympia at about 11:15 p.m. Saturday.
Azriel's body was discovered Thursday by a local resident on a Fox
Island beach -- about 18 miles away -- and Mealy said strong tidal
action in the area easily could have carried the boy's body that far.
Meanwhile, Child Protective Services confirmed that it had received
10 complaints involving Smiley and her son over the past five years, and
that three of the complaints had been investigated.
That portrait of the relationship between mother and son differed
dramatically from an earlier statement by Smiley's fiance, Robb Simmons,
that he didn't believe she would do anything to endanger her son.
According to CPS spokeswoman Sherry Hill:
· A report was filed in June 2005 that Carver suffered "serious
physical abuse" by Smiley's former boyfriend. The complaint was
investigated, and the boyfriend was arrested for assault -- but never
prosecuted.
· In March 2007, CPS investigated a complaint that Smiley had
physically abused her son, but the complaint was closed as "unfounded."
· In August 2007, the agency found that Smiley was negligent in
caring for her son after she left him unsupervised while she was passed
out from alcohol intoxication. The boy was placed under the care of
relatives while Smiley received substance abuse treatment, then returned
the next year to his mother's care.
· Another referral was made to CPS in April 2009 about Smiley and
her son, but no details were immediately available. "We're still waiting
to find out how much contact we had at this time," Hill said.
CPS will now conduct an extensive "fatality review," which involves
going over every aspect of the case to see if mistakes were made by any
agency along the way.
"We will look at all activity we had with the family ... in the
fatality review," Hill said. "We're going to scrutinize every action."
Hill said it is not fair to blame CPS for the boy's death without
further information.
"I dont believe it is fair to jump to that conclusion, when you have
to look at people going through treatment and making an effort," she
said.
"Any death of a child is tragic, and a child's death is even more
troubling when that child has been served by the child welfare system
and when a death is due to child abuse or neglect at the hands of an
adult that was entrusted to care for them - it's even more
heartbreaking. ... We continue to learn from these tragedies."
Searchers in the vicinity of Fox Island so far have found no sign of
Smiley. The search is being coordinated by the Pierce County Sheriff's
Office.
Deputies were able to recover several items that washed up on the
beach in Budd Inlet on Tuesday night that belonged to Smiley, including
leather shoes, an inhaler and an orange ball. A half-full and corked
wine bottle also was found.
The missing boy's father, Jay Carver of Buffalo, N.Y., flew out to
Washington state to aid in the search for his son. He said his heart
sank when he heard the news that the boy's body had been tentatively
identified.
"I was just hoping to find them safe somewhere to where I can come
through and have them, and find them alive ... didn't play out that
way," he said. "He could've offered a lot to this world. It's just a
shame that he's not here."
Smiley and her son were headed from Silverdale to her stepfather's
home in Castle Rock when they disappeared over the weekend.
Detectives have determined that Smiley turned off Interstate 5 in the
Olympia area while enroute to Castle Rock, and was seen by several
people who described her as appearing to be confused and lost.
A wallet containing Smiley driver's license, some cash and credit
cards were found in the minivan, but neither Smiley nor her son was
anywhere in sight.
"Apparently she got stuck and abandoned the car," Mealy said. There
was no indication that a crime took place inside the 2005 Dodge Caravan,
he added.
An employee at an east Olympia diner where she bought a corn dog told
investigators that Shantina left without her purchase and then tripped
and fell walking back to her van, but Mealy said the fall was not
serious.
The elderly couple who lived nearby said they let Smiley use their
phone to call her grandfather, gave her son a piece of pizza, and then
directed her back to the freeway. She wasn't heard from again.
Mealy said that as she left the home, Smiley made another series of
driving errors that eventually led her to a hard-to-find dirt path and
driving onto the beach.
Smiley's fiance, Robb Simmons, said the woman had a drinking problem
and relapsed last week.

Thurston County sheriff’s officials said Friday that they were no
closer to figuring out what happened to a missing Silverdale mother and
her son after an autopsy revealed the 8-year-old boy had drowned.“There’s
a lot of theories” about what happened to Shantina “Kat” Smiley, 29,
and Azriel Carver, sheriff’s Sgt. Cheryl Stines said. “We may never
know.”There still was no sign of Smiley. A search plane spent
Friday afternoon flying over Point Fosdick, part of the Tacoma Narrows,
the Fox Island area and the shoreline but found no trace of the missing
mother.“The tides are down so we’re going to get our best view
now,” Troyer said as the plane took off from Thun Field south of
Puyallup.
State officials confirmed Friday that 10 complaints of abuse or
neglect involving Azriel were reported to Child Protective Services
between June 2005 and April 2009.Three were investigated, said
Sherry Hill, spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Health
Services. Of the three: • A June 2005 complaint involved an
allegation of serious physical abuse against Azriel. One of Smiley’s
ex-boyfriends was arrested, but charges were never brought. CPS
investigators never determined whether the ex-boyfriend or Smiley was
responsible for the abuse, Hill said. • A March 2007 complaint
involved an allegation of physical abuse against Azriel by Smiley. “We
determined it was unfounded,” Hill said. • An August 2007
investigation was triggered by an allegation that Smiley left Azriel
unsupervised “because she was passed out” from alcohol consumption, Hill
said. That complaint originated out of Longview, she said. After
the complaint was investigated, Azriel was placed in the care of
relatives as Smiley completed a substance-abuse service program, Hill
said. After Smiley completed the program, Azriel was returned to
her care. Hill said CPS will conduct a “fatality review” of
Azriel’s death because of a complaint in April 2009, in which one of
Azriel’s teachers notified CPS that he was “acting out” in class, and
during an interview with Smiley, she told the teacher of Azriel’s
history with CPS. CPS conducts a “fatality review” in any case
involving a deceased child who has been the subject of a complaint to
CPS within a year of the child’s death, Hill said.The information
about CPS investigations does not change investigators’ approach to
trying to find Smiley, sheriff’s Lt. Chris Mealy said.“Right now,
we’re working under the theory that they went into the water and never
came up off the beach,” he said.Azriel’s body was found Thursday
on the southern edge of Fox Island, about 16 nautical miles from where
his mother’s van was found four days earlier. The Pierce County
Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and determined the boy
drowned and ruled his death accidental. A toxicology report will be
conducted, which is standard procedure.“There’s no signs of
violence to the body,” Stines said after receiving a report from
investigators present during the autopsy. She declined to elaborate.Smiley
and Azriel were last seen Saturday night north of Olympia. Her minivan
was discovered Sunday morning, stuck on a beach at Little Fishtrap,
northeast of Boston Harbor.In the hours and days afterward,
Thurston County sheriff’s investigators tracked the mother and son’s
movements based on interviews and surveillance footage. The two
had been headed from Silverdale to Castle Rock in Cowlitz County on
Saturday but stopped in Olympia. They were seen at several stores and a
diner. The last sighting was about 10 p.m., when they went to a
home on 46th Avenue to ask for directions back to Interstate 5. The
minivan was found the next morning. Some of their belongings washed up
later about a quarter-mile east of where the van was found.A
woman walking her dog along Fox Island’s Pebble Beach found Azriel’s
body just before 2 p.m. Thursday. Law enforcement aircraft and boats
searched the waters off Fox Island and deputies walked the beaches but
found nothing.

Jay Carver, the Buffalo area father of eight year old Azriel Carver,
says that following cremation and a service in
Washington State he hopes to bring his son's remains back home to
Western New York for burial. Police say the child's body washed up
Thursday on Fox Island near Tacoma, Washington.
An autopsy performed today determined the child drowned.
Azriel Carver and his mother Shantina "Kat" Smiley of Silverdale,
Washington were the subjects of a massive police search. The search for
Smiley continues Friday in the area of Puget Sound.
Carver said by phone that he now thinks Smiley was confused and
displayed signs of erratic behavior on Saturday. He says the theory is
she somehow drove down onto a private desolate beach and her van got
stuck in the sand. Carver says authorities think she and the boy fell
asleep and then the quickly rising tidal waters surged around the van
with Smiley and her child trapped inside. Carver says they apparently
tried to get out of the van but were swept away by the strong currents.
Police say their investigation continues and they are still looking
at various possibilities in the case.
Lt. Chris Mealy of the Thurston County sheriff's office says he got a
call from Pierce County officials Thursday afternoon to say
they responded to a report that a child washed up about 12 miles from
where Azriel's mom's van was found Sunday morning.
Earlier in the day, authorities said a shoe that washed up on a Puget
Sound beach over the weekend probably belonged to the woman who
apparently abandoned a van on the beach and disappeared with her
8-year-old son.
Lt. Mealy says other items that washed up on the beach also appear to
be from 29-year-old Shantina "Kat" Smiley of Silverdale and her son.
Thurston County Investigators are examining Smiley's bank records and
court and public records and talking to people.
Smiley and her son vanished Saturday night. Her van was found the
next day. Wednesday, police found a half empty bottle of wine on the
beach not far from where Shantina Smiley's van was found.

This is not the service family and friends planned for 8-year-old
Azriel Carver. His grandma said, "We were really hoping this was
going to be a prayer of thanksgiving." Instead, it's a Saturday
afternoon memorial service on Grand Island. Azriel's lifeless
body was found Thursday in Washington State's Puget Sound. "Though
Azreil was here for such a short period of time, he was always in our
hearts. And unfortunately, that's where he will reside for ever now,"
expressed his grandmother. Azriel's father, Jay Carver, is from
Lancaster but has spent much of the week in Washington state, since his
son and former girlfriend, Shantina Smiley, disappeared last weekend.
Smiley's vehicle was found, but her whereabouts are still unknown.
As for Azriel's father, Jake Nietopski said, "He's just trying to do
the best he can. He appreciates all the love he's got back at home. He
knows they're waiting for him to get home. And I know he's just hanging
in there trying to get by." This at a time when Washington State
Child Protective Services confirms 10 complaints of abuse or neglect,
involving Azriel, were filed between June 2005 and April 2009. An
autopsy revealed Azriel drowned. "Sometimes when we pray, the
answer is no. It's like a kid when they get the answer, no. Sometimes
they just want to know why," the priest explained. Those who knew
Azriel said he was funny, like his father. Family and friends
are using humor to mask the pain, and hope these words will help the
child's father. "I hold your hand and whisper in your ear. If
you're sad today, daddy, remember I am here."

The Pierce County and Thurston County Sheriff's Departments have called
off the search for a mother missing for one week. They say the search
for 29-year old Shantina Smiley will only resume if new information
comes to light.

The body of her son, 8-year old Azriel Carver, was found on a Fox Island
beach Thursday. The medical examiner says the boy drowned and that it
was an accident.

It's been a week since the two disappeared while driving from Silverdale
to Castle Rock.

The boy's body had traveled 16 miles in the water from where his
mother's van was found abandoned on an Plympia - area beach.

Childrens Protective Services spokesperson Sherry Hill says Smiley has
been investigated for abuse and neglect.

Hill says, "We had ten referrals in the years between June 2005 and
April 2009. Of those three were investigated,"
Including one in 2007 when Azriel was left unattended because Smiley , a
recovering alcoholic, had passed out.

Hill says, "The child was placed with relatives and she received
services dealing with substance abuse."

She went to rehab and regained custody the next year.

Now the question: Should the state have better protected Azriel Carver?

A State Fatality review is already underway.

Hill says, "We'll determine if everything worked the way it should have
worked. If there is something we missed. If there is something we
could have offered the family. We will evaluate the practice."

D.S.H.S. has 180 days to complete the review.

Meanwhile Friday searchers on the Fox Island found no sign of Smiley on
Thursday. Divers on a boat searched as
well and a Coast Guard helicopter and sheriff's plane flew overhead.

Thurston County authorities led the search since the van was
found in their jurisdiction, but Pierce County took the lead once
the boy's body was found within that county. Pierce County
sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said an aerial search for Smiley
would be made during Friday afternoon's low tide.

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 Mealy said the items apparently
belonged to the boy or his mother.

There was no indication that a crime took place inside Smiley's
2005 Dodge Caravan, Mealy said.

Smiley was heading from her home in Silverdale to her
stepfather's house in southwest Washington when she and her son
vanished. Silverdale is about 16 miles west of Seattle, across
Puget Sound.

Besides searching the area, investigators have looked at phone
records and talked to people who know Smiley or her son or may have
seen them Saturday night. Her fiance, Robb Simmons, told
authorities she was a recovering alcoholic who had relapsed last
week.

Jay Carver, Azriel's father who flew here from Buffalo, N.Y.,
this week, went to the beach where the boy was found. Troyer said
the father was not involved in identifying the body.

"You really don't know what you have in your life until they're
gone," Carver said.

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.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011393025_missing20m.html
The Pierce County medical
examiner's office said Friday that 8-year-old Azriel Carver drowned and
that his death was an accident. The search for the boy's missing mother,
Shantina Smiley, 29, resumed Friday, including an aerial search in the
vicinity of Fox Island where the boy's body was found, but nothing new
was found.


By Times wire services and Staff



THURSTON COUNTY SHERIFF



Azriel Carver was found dead Thursday on
beach.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office said Friday that
8-year-old Azriel Carver drowned and that his death was an accident.

The boy's body was found Thursday on a beach at the south end of Fox
Island.

Another day of searching on Friday yielded no news in the hunt for
the boy's missing mother, Shantina Smiley, 29, of Silverdale, Kitsap
County.

"No, we haven't heard of anything being found," Thurston County
sheriff's Lt. Chris Mealy said Friday night.

Thurston County had a boat in the water Friday looking for Smiley.
snipped

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/kitsap/ckr/news/91562274.html
snipped

Classmates of Azriel Carver meet to say their final goodbyes

By CHRISTOPHER CARTER
Central Kitsap Reporter Reporter

Apr 19 2010

Referring to Azriel Carver's big smile, Vinland Elementary
School Principal Charley McCabe asked the second-graders: what is an
"infectious smile?" "When he laughed, it made other people laugh so much,"
said Nathan Willis, 8, a classmate of Azriel's.
Second-graders at Vinland Elementary School congregated
Monday to say goodbye to a classmate and a friend. Azriel's body was
found March 18, five days after he disappeared with his mother Shantina
Smiley while en route to Castle Rock to visit a relative. His death was
ruled an accidental drowning by the Pierce County Medical Examiner.
"This is still, five weeks later, very difficult," said
McCabe, of the death of 8-year-old student Azriel Carver.
Smiley's fiance, Robb Simmons, Azriel's great-grandmother
Dolly Smith and uncle Travis Wallingford, were also in attendance.

wow, what a sad story. Do they believe that she is alive and hiding or drowned as well?

Per your request yvette--- Michelle Sigona appears regularly on HLN with NG and JVM. Here's her story from a few weeks ago.

http://www.michellesigona.com/2010/06/where-is-shantina-smiley/

Excerpt...

It’s been more than three months since Shantina Smiley and her
8-year-old son Azriel Carver went missing off a beach in Washington
State. Sadly, Azriel’s body was found shortly after they disappeared,
but there’s been no sign of Shantina. I spoke with Lt. Chris Mealey
from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office this morning and he said,
“It’s still an open case and if we get information we will move on it as
quickly as we can.” He also said that the leads have fizzled out and
there is a chance she went into the water with her son, but they have no
official confirmation on that.