WA WA - Shantina Smiley, 29, & Azriel Carver, 8 (fnd deceased), Olympia, Mar 2010 - #1

[marcyjoy]

Hmm.. the man that SS has an order of protection against (from 2005) currently lives in Castle Rock. I really hope that isn't related.

Lawlady - SS's ex-husband (not AC's father) lives in Castlerock. Same person? I posted a link earlier today to the interview he gave last night...I'll look for it.

Link: http://www.king5.com/news/Search-to-continue-for-missing-Silverdale-mother-young-son--87648637.html

 

[Mendara]

I'm not finding anything hinky about RS. It's clear he wasn't anywhere in the areas she was when she was making phone calls.

Do we have the address of the home where she used the phone. I think it's hinky that it was only 4-5 miles away from where her van was found.

Me either but I find it strange that he is pleading with kidnappers and keeps saying he wants to marry her and she was his fiance. Why doesn't he think this was an accident and that she is in the water?

 

[RubyRed]

twitter per daughter,,

,sorry to say that there is no organized search party that I know of. I do not know how to get one but I'm sure Thurston sheriff knows
2 minutes ago

 

[Calliope]

Me either but I find it strange that he is pleading with kidnappers and keeps saying he wants to marry her and she was his fiance. Why doesn't he think this was an accident and that she is in the water?

Exactly. I can't help it, but when I read this I thought of Brandon Lockett pleading for *kidnappers* to feed and care for Aveion :furious:

Also:

"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."


Was the little dirt road marked as a dead end? What makes him think she knew it was a dead end?

 

[Mendara]

My question is how far from the water is the nearest road or home? Would there have been lights int he distance? I would imagine her lights were on and she would have seen the water.

My guess is someone backed her car into the water and removed them from the hatch in the back. IHO

 

[anyoldtime48]

Anyone who lives in that area near Zangle Rd know if there is a know transient camp in the woods around there? Heard something yesterday afternoon while listening to online scanner for Thurston about one, although with several channels in both ears at once, that may have been totally unrelated, but I THINK I heard "Zangle" and "transient camp" and possibly "north" (of the 8300 block Zangle where LE seemed to be staged) as all part of the same brief call.

If, and that's a huge IF, there are transients living in that area, I would not completely rule out a crime of opportunity, given that Shantina was clearly very lost and may have stopped and asked the wrong person for directions after the 10pm stop at the home on 46th Ave NE, which is her last know location.

Fiance (not husband) IMHO has no involvement in their disappearance. His whereabouts incredibly easy to verify while she was on video and otherwise known to be lost in Olympia area. I believe he tossed that info up on his web site to keep the media temporarily happy while he has been OUT and busy with LE trying to find Shantina and Azriel. No indication he is sitting at home playing on his computer, but down in the Oly area where she was last seen. And getting this out to the media as much as possible.

FWIW, LE currently staged(?) at the Lutheran Church at the corner of Boston Harbor Rd and 46th Ave NE, a couple blocks west of the home she was last seen at when she called her grandfather abut 10pm Saturday evening. Hopefully that is just systematic search backtracking from the van in the inlet back to where she was last seen.

I'm not convinced she was the one who drove that van into the water. If anybody has ever had a vehicle broken into, thieves aren't in the habit of closing doors. Granted she doesn't seem to have been entirely in her right mind (concussion perhaps, or maybe just very flustered being lost in the dark, and for so long), but I can't see them failing to close the doors if they gave up trying to get the van out of the mud and decided to walk for help.

And if they walked away for help under their own power, WHY not find a door to go knock on and ask for help? She'd already done that once. Plus, her son old enough and capable enough to get help if he was able to.

Maybe they headed into those nearby woods to wait for daylight if she was afraid to knock on another door late at night, if one presumes that they were indeed the ones who abandoned the van in the water.

None of this makes much sense, but I've seen no indication that her fiance could have possibly been where they were at the same time.

Inadvertently running into foul play seems most likely to me at this juncture. Or very, very lost in those woods. Weather should have been survivable the last few nights, but weather report is for lows below freezing starting Wed night.

Praying for Shantina and Azriel, her fiance and his kids and everyone related to this case for a happy resolution, but this long missing is very frightening prospect indeed.

 

[Texas Mist]

Search goes on for mom who abandoned van on beach

March 16, 2010 12:06 PM

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Washington authorities say the case of the mom who abandoned her van on a Washington beach continues to baffle them.

Lt. Chris Mealy of the Thurston County Sheriff's office said Tuesday that investigators don't know anything more than what they knew Sunday night.

They continue to talk to people who know Shantina Smiley or her son and those who may have met her as she drove through the backroads of Washington state on Saturday night.

Divers, boats and aircraft continue to search the water near where her van was found on Sunday. Investigators are taking another look at the van now that it has dried out. And the sheriff's office has sent someone to Kitsap County to continue the investigation near Smiley's home.


http://www.ktvl.com/articles/continue-1194315-washington-mom.html

 

[Texas Mist]

Anyone who lives in that area near Zangle Rd know if there is a know transient camp in the woods around there? Heard something yesterday afternoon while listening to online scanner for Thurston about one, although with several channels in both ears at once, that may have been totally unrelated, but I THINK I heard "Zangle" and "transient camp" and possibly "north" (of the 8300 block Zangle where LE seemed to be staged) as all part of the same brief call.

If, and that's a huge IF, there are transients living in that area, I would not completely rule out a crime of opportunity, given that Shantina was clearly very lost and may have stopped and asked the wrong person for directions after the 10pm stop at the home on 46th Ave NE, which is her last know location.

Fiance (not husband) IMHO has no involvement in their disappearance. His whereabouts incredibly easy to verify while she was on video and otherwise known to be lost in Olympia area. I believe he tossed that info up on his web site to keep the media temporarily happy while he has been OUT and busy with LE trying to find Shantina and Azriel. No indication he is sitting at home playing on his computer, but down in the Oly area where she was last seen. And getting this out to the media as much as possible.

FWIW, LE currently staged(?) at the Lutheran Church at the corner of Boston Harbor Rd and 46th Ave NE, a couple blocks west of the home she was last seen at when she called her grandfather abut 10pm Saturday evening. Hopefully that is just systematic search backtracking from the van in the inlet back to where she was last seen.

I'm not convinced she was the one who drove that van into the water. If anybody has ever had a vehicle broken into, thieves aren't in the habit of closing doors. Granted she doesn't seem to have been entirely in her right mind (concussion perhaps, or maybe just very flustered being lost in the dark, and for so long), but I can't see them failing to close the doors if they gave up trying to get the van out of the mud and decided to walk for help.

And if they walked away for help under their own power, WHY not find a door to go knock on and ask for help? She'd already done that once. Plus, her son old enough and capable enough to get help if he was able to.

Maybe they headed into those nearby woods to wait for daylight if she was afraid to knock on another door late at night, if one presumes that they were indeed the ones who abandoned the van in the water.

None of this makes much sense, but I've seen no indication that her fiance could have possibly been where they were at the same time.

Inadvertently running into foul play seems most likely to me at this juncture. Or very, very lost in those woods. Weather should have been survivable the last few nights, but weather report is for lows below freezing starting Wed night.

Praying for Shantina and Azriel, her fiance and his kids and everyone related to this case for a happy resolution, but this long missing is very frightening prospect indeed.

:Welcome-12-june: , anyoldtime

Great first post --thank you for listening on the scanner!!

 

[Amster]

uh-oh....fiance on Fox with Shep. Told Shep that Shantina is a recovering alcoholic and had relapsed last week....he started to say something about his health problems but drama queen Shep cut him off.....

 

[RubyRed]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...86,-122.831268&spn=0.337291,0.891953&t=h&z=11


FINALLY....Sorry for the delay.

If you zoom in on this map it does look like a house, nearby.

 

[RubyRed]

uh-oh....fiance on Fox with Shep. Told Shep that Shantina is a recovering alcoholic and had relapsed last week....he started to say something about his health problems but drama queen Shep cut him off.....

That is not good. Could account for her falling down, forgetting cell, drunk while driving so not knowing where the heck she is. That poor boy!

 

[Texas Mist]

uh-oh....fiance on Fox with Shep. Told Shep that Shantina is a recovering alcoholic and had relapsed last week....he started to say something about his health problems but drama queen Shep cut him off.....

yeah - uh-oh is right....initially he made it sound like she didn't have problems like that...guess we shoulda read thru the lines since we initially heard she didn't have a drug problem, huh. :waitasec:

This is not getting better.

 

[eleven]

uh-oh....fiance on Fox with Shep. Told Shep that Shantina is a recovering alcoholic and had relapsed last week....he started to say something about his health problems but drama queen Shep cut him off.....

Hmmmm....this is not something my loved one would state on a nationally televised tv show. It doesn't really have any bearing on the search, so I wonder why he would divulge this sensitive information? Seems kind of careless.....

 

[Calliope]

Thanks. They must have just been added, I just read the article a few minutes ago and didn't see them.

http://www.robbsimmons.com/

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.

Is it just me, or does he seem to focus a lot on phones?

Also a bit odd to me is detailing exact times... 6:45, 7:40, 10:10. His penchant for being so specific about time seems to end once the van is found.

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.

This makes no sense. Again, for someone who was posting such detail this is very vague; he didn't know (or neglected to ask) where she'd pulled off to feed her son? And if she was so lost and didn't know where she was, why would she say tell him she would 'be there shortly'?

I stopped in Toldeo-Vader to make quick repair, when she called me at 6:45 from a phone.

Where is that, and is it 55 minutes away from Castle Rock? Where is Brinnon in relation to Castle Rock?

 

[Calliope]

Hmmmm....this is not something my loved one would state on a nationally televised tv show. It doesn't really have any bearing on the search, so I wonder why he would divulge this sensitive information? Seems kind of careless.....

Why indeed.

 

[TakeNote]

Martin Way (where the diner is) is a major thoroughfare in Olympia/Lacey, though the area of the diner is less traveled than the parts closer to central Oly or Lacey. Still, it there would be a large number of cars passing this area on a Saturday night.

Gull Harbor is on the way to Boston Harbor, a small community. While this is a less traveled area, there are lots of houses in this area so there is some vehicle traffic here, especially on Boston Harbor Rd. I'm not sure exactly where the car was found, sounds like it might be near here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...119205,-122.893925&spn=0.062377,0.163078&z=13

Sounds like what happened is this:
Shantina & Azriel set out for Castle Rock. Not sure what condition she is in or what may have happened along the way, but they arrive in the Olympia area (via I-5 south) later than they had intended. One or both are hungry, so they stop at the Martin Way diner (easy to get there from the Pacific Ave. exit on I-5) for food. They leave before getting the food for some unknown reason; Shantina is disoriented, according to staff. Shantina drives down State St. If she turned left at Plum St., it would take them directly to I-5 south; instead, she turns right at that intersection, which puts her on East Bay Dr., which turns into Boston Harbor Rd. Her car is found not far off of Boston Harbor Rd.

what i dont get is why she would have taken a right if she needed to get onto the freeway.....taken a right led her pass the eastbay on eastbay drive headed towards boston harbor....it would have been clear to her she wasnt headed to the free way......something is up......i havent read on yet....so sorry if this has been talked about.....

 

[Amster]

That is not good. Could account for her falling down, forgetting cell, drunk while driving so not knowing where the heck she is. That poor boy!

Yes, poor little guy. Breaks my heart. He, no doubt, knows what it's like when she's drunk. Even made an excuse for her behavior at the diner..."mom hit her head"....

I wonder if any alcohol was found in the van?

 

[coklat]

yeah - uh-oh is right....initially he made it sound like she didn't have problems like that...guess we shoulda read thru the lines since we initially heard she didn't have a drug problem, huh. :waitasec:

This is not getting better.

This case has always reminded me somewhat of the woman who drove her minivan filled with kids the wrong way on the highway in NY -- the erratic behavior, the lateness, the calls to family that didn't quite have enough information to provide the necessary help -- but this was not a similarity that I wanted to hear. I think we all hope that whatever caused her disorientation was something minor and fleeting, that she and Azriel are huddled in the woods somewhere, but this is not a good development. Sadly, it would explain her odd behavior that night.

 

[coklat]

Where is that, and is it 55 minutes away from Castle Rock? Where is Brinnon in relation to Castle Rock?

Toledo-Vader is a couple of small towns just off I-5, maybe 10 miles from Castle Rock. This is a pretty empty stretch of I-5, and Toledo/Vader is one of the few exits with services available in the area. There's a back road between Vader and Castle Rock that's more pleasant/scenic than I-5.

Brinnon is another place entirely; as the crow flies, it is not far from Silverlake, where Shantina & Robb live.

 

[RubyRed]

Hmmmm....this is not something my loved one would state on a nationally televised tv show. It doesn't really have any bearing on the search, so I wonder why he would divulge this sensitive information? Seems kind of careless.....

I think it also helps to know she relapsed. I am sure LE know. This could make it more likely they are lost and there isn't a perp involved. But this statement from LE takes on a new meaning

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."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20000562-504083.html

Hope this little boy is found safe.