WA WA - Shantina Smiley, 29, & Azriel Carver, 8 (fnd deceased), Olympia, Mar 2010 - #2

[PaulR]

Maybe she was doing it because she had to tell her son something about why they were driving all over the place....Alcoholics go way out of their way to drink and to hide it. She had to tell her son something..

Then why end up at the beach? Granted, beaching your van would prove beyond a pretty reasonable doubt that you were lost, but why go that far for the kid?

 

[paris_paris]

Wasn't there an early video that showed her son paying for something at the register? Which stop was that? I thought she looked funny, like she was swaying on her feet at that stop.

The buying the wine video was at Handy Pantry. I should have added the video links to that timeline.

 

[dnrslucky1]

Maybe her fiancee had something to do with her recent contacts, her sons father and her stepfather.
Maybe he was trying to help her get beyond her past. I hope I am saying this right.

This could have been very uncomfortable for her. She may have had a difficult past, one she wanted to forget.

 

[90Nine]

Then why end up at the beach? Granted, beaching your van would prove beyond a pretty reasonable doubt that you were lost, but why go that far for the kid?

In my opinion, I think that she decided to find somewhere dark and quiet to park and stay the night. She ended up on that road and on the beach while looking. Probably trying to make a uturn and got stuck on the beach. I think the road ends on the beach. She probably didn't see how close she was to the water.

I don't know why she would not have gone to a hotel, unless she didn't want her credit card traced.

OR - I have seen this too many times to count: she saw a cop, it scared her and she panicked, wanted to get off of the main road because she was drinking and driving...ended up on that private road.

 

[PaulR]

The buying the wine video was at Handy Pantry. I should have added the video links to that timeline.

The way she moved in that video seemed strange to me, for someone who was sober. A bit too much movement? People who are inebriated tend to "over-exaggerate" body motions.

 

[Silver~Bell]

For those who don't know this about the sea in that area -- no one from there would go into the water voluntarily for a "swim." No one would even put their TOE in the water or play in the water, then slip in by accident. The water is extremely cold, all year round and certainly now. It means a quick death to fall or go into the water, willingly or unwillingly. Let me rephrase to say that no one IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would go into the water. This poor gal seems very, very erratic.

 

[RubyRed]

He would have been trying to be a good son.


I think they are in the water unfortunately Hope I am wrong.

Even if the 1am knock on the house is true, they didn't get an answer. Very well could have went back to the van to sleep. The water could have been higher, she very well could have fallen again. I think you mentioned before the water temp could have been in the upper 40's. I feel they are in the water also. That is why the boy couldn't get help, he can't.

 

[rosiebean]

Quoting from LogicalMinds in the first thread:

actually the "media" reporting is horrible in most cases lately...

Agreed.

I'm not going to try to excuse the reporting, but explain...

I'm on the other side of the coin...in PR for a college that is well known in its particular niche. Over the past few years, the media (particularly the print media) has changed drastically. Staffs are being cut by HUGE margins, reporters who are lucky enough to have a job now cover multiple beats (instead of just one), often in subjects they are unfamiliar with. In my current position, this has been a bonus...we've gotten lots (LOTS) of great regional coverage (mid-market dailies in three/four cities along the east coast) because the reporters are in dark about what they're actually reporting on. I work at an art college...three of the four arts editors/reporters I deal with mostly have NO background in the arts or reporting about the subject. They are more than willing to have us hand-feed them information about 'cool' events, etc. But this is short term...long term, we have to deal with reporters who have much more limited space (one column a week, if we're lucky) compared to the past and who are also getting more and more work dumped on them (one arts reporter has a background as a restaurant reviewer and is now covering 'art' AND education of all levels...ridiculous).

I imagine that the crime/police beats have been similarly affected.

Editorial staffs were among the first to go, too. Grammatical and factual errors abound.

Therefor, I take what I read in the paper with a grain of salt. There's usually a huge amount of truth in a story, but often inconsistencies are due to over-worked reporters with little knowledge of their subject matter combined with little to no editorial support.

That said, this case sounds as though the mother was slowly going off the deep end the entire time she was 'lost'...she was drinking, not thinking rationally, and in the end...and this breaks my heart...I think the answer lies in the water. I had a high school friend drown in knee deep water with friends watching...the friend who drowned could not swim, those watching could...and they tried to help and were almost drowned themselves. If the mother was drunk and did something stupid once the van was stuck...her son very well could have tried to help her...and there you go. Very sad. I'm really hoping that I'm wrong.

 

[RubyRed]

Maybe her fiancee had something to do with her recent contacts, her sons father and her stepfather.
Maybe he was trying to help her get beyond her past. I hope I am saying this right.

This could have been very uncomfortable for her. She may have had a difficult past, one she wanted to forget.

When people are inebriated , they can become overly sentimental. Reach out to people from their past, that they wouldn't normally, if they were sober. Then end up regretting it.

 

[BeanE]

Please help me with something. I swear I read somewhere in the multitude of stories, either yesterday or the day before, that someone had seen the van go down that road or parked on the beach around 10:30pm. If anyone happens to come across it, could you please link it in?

TIA
BeanE

 

[breanna]

After reading all the posts and articles, I think sadly that Shantina was drinking and driving around aimlessly to avoid doing what she was supposed to do. I think she may have walked into the water and her son followed blindly or tried to help her.

Some of the streets in Olympia can be confusing. I've had to rescue my son at least twice in downtown Olympia because he just doesn't get the one way streets and how they connect.

Add alcohol to that and she could have been just totally out of it and not understanding where she was.

I think we may read in the next few days that a body or bodies have washed ashore, but it is the Bay, and it's huge. So IDK. Just MHO.

 

[eyes4crime]

The way she moved in that video seemed strange to me, for someone who was sober. A bit too much movement? People who are inebriated tend to "over-exaggerate" body motions.

She looks more zoned out then inebriated. MOO Let's not forget she recently relapsed and was taking anti-anx meds at the time. If she wasn't used to that combination, the confusion and disorientation the two caused probably crept up on her and took her by surprise.

I do think the upcoming visit with a step-father she hasn't seen in a couple years, along with her fiancee's illness, was extremely anxiety producing and perhaps caused her to take a couple extra pills. MOO

 

[90Nine]

I've highlighted my comments below:

This timeline is based off my conversation with Lt. Chris Mealey.

5 p.m. – Shantina and her son leave their home in Silverdale, Washington. Their destination was Castle Rock, Washington (about 50 miles away).


6:45 p.m. – Shantina stops off at an unknown location and calls her fiancé Robb Simmons. She tells him her cell phone was left at home, and she was hoping he could bring it with him on his way to Castle Rock later.

-at this point she should have been lost. why didn't she say anything to him about being lost? I hope they verified that she called him. For all anyone knows, he could have called his own phone from a pay phone. I honestly don't think he's guilty, but I do think that there were some major problems before she left. Also, perhaps she was only calling him to ask him to bring the phone so he would think she was still on her way..throw him off a little bit.


7:55 p.m. – Lt. Mealey says there is video of Shantina stopping off at the Handy Pantry, where she made a purchase and left.

Wine purchase So far she had been on the road for 3 hours to travel 50 miles and did not ask for directions when she purchased this wine.


9:08 p.m. – Shantina stops off at the Martin Way Diner and orders one corndog to go. This is odd because this is a sit down diner, not an establishment you order carry out from. Although she placed the corndog order, she did not pick it up. Instead, police say Shantina walked outside, tripped before getting into her van, and drove off with her son.

9:55 p.m. – Lt. Mealey says there is more surveillance video of Shantina stopping off at a local store on a rural county road. The store was closed, so she left.

10:00 p.m. – Shantina and her son stop off at a residence occupied by an elderly couple. She used the phone in the residence and called her grandfather to say she was lost, and there was an accident of sorts, but she did not elaborate. The elderly couple fed her son a slice of pizza and gave her directions to get back on the main road.

Shantina left the residence, and made a wrong turn. Somehow, she ended up about five miles away on an abandoned beach. When found, her mini-van doors were open, and it was stuck in the sand. It appears she drove far out, and tried to come back to the road. The van got stuck, and she left it there.

Shantina’s family and friends have been searching the area ever since. Initially, Lt. Mealey told me Shantina has no mental health issues, and overall seems to be a responsible mom. I confirmed that Shantina is employed with the Kitsap Medical Group in the billing department, and everyone is distraught that she is missing. Investigators are currently diving into her bank account and cell phone records. Investigators need your leads on this case.

 

[Calliope]

Then why keep stopping? You think this is a hoax of some sort?

I've said a couple of times it has that feel about it. I do believe if RS isn't outright lying, he's lying by omission. His statements and timelines are inconsistent if not contradictory. Whatever the hell is going on here, it's not simply a matter of her getting lost in Olympia, drinking or not.

Getting from Silverdale to Olympia isn't that hard - stay on 16, then jump on I-5. Assuming she was drinking sometime on the way, once she got off the Interstate, she would have had a hard time getting back on.

Drunk drivers can generally "drive" themselves from their neighborhood bar to their home. Put them in an unfamiliar area, which Olympia was for SS, and it's easy to get lost.

IMHO.

By what posters here and commenting on various articles have said, what the police have said, and what witnesses have said regarding how close I-5 was to her various stops and how easily she could have reached the interstate any number of times along the way, she would have had to been deliberately trying NOT to find it.

 

[mysticrose]

Search for mom and son resumes after items discovered on beach

Smiley's stepgrandfather, Silas Smith, said Smiley made the same drive from Silverdale to Castle Rock a couple of weeks ago.

"She was looking forward to seeing her stepdad and his daughter," Smith said Wednesday. He doesn't think the trip "had anything to do" with Smiley's disappearance.

"We haven't heard nothing," he said. "We're just waiting for good news."

Smiley, whose maiden name was Kanally, lived with her grandmother Carolene and her late husband, Ron Edgell, in Castle Rock while growing up. She also came to live with the Smiths in Brinnon in 2008, Silas Smith said

Snip>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Simmons said Smiley is a recovering alcoholic who was under a lot of stress and relapsed last week. But he says she would never endanger the boy.

According to court documents, Castle Rock police arrested her April 13, 2005, for driving under the influence of alcohol. Because the arrest was her first DUI, she qualified for deferred prosecution — a chance to have the charge dismissed if she successfully completed alcohol treatment and other requirements. The Department of Licensing showed the charge was due for dismissal this April 13

http://www.tdn.com/news/local/article_2f1f3c74-318a-11df-b07e-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=story

 

[PaulR]

According to court documents, Castle Rock police arrested her April 13, 2005, for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Wow.

And there it is. IMHO.

 

[pufnstuf]

I hope she wasn't depressed and suicidal. Finding out that her mom committed suicide really bothers me. Hopefully she wasn't driving around until her little boy fell asleep so she could take both of their lives. I'm not saying that's what I think happened, I just can't figure it out.

I hate to admit it, but I've had exactly the same thoughts as you. Very very sad. I hope this is not the case.

 

[Calliope]

Olympia is not Silverdale and not Castle Rock. Just because a city is in between, doesn't mean she is familiar with it at all.

I live in the area, so I'm a local, but if you dropped me off in Tacoma or Olympia (both cities I've driven through numerous times), I'd be lost without a GPS.

At one of the stops (Lord only knows which one by now) someone commented that she was only a couple of blocks from the interstate. Straight shot.

You think you'd get lost in that case? Really?

 

[mtrooper]

OK I am working on family dynamics...I cant find anything suggesting that her mother commit suicide.

http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...03&srchb=t&prox=1&db=&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-b

 

[mysticrose]

Video of the boys dad at the link:

Lancaster man in WA to find missing son

Updated: Wednesday, 17 Mar 2010, 10:15 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 17 Mar 2010, 10:15 PM EDT

SEATTLE, W.A. (WIVB) - The search continues in Washington State for a missing mother and son with family ties to western New York. The boy's dad from Lancaster has joined in the search.

Jay Carver said, "I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna find him."

Jay Carver of Lancaster doesn't know what else to do. His 8-year-old son is missing, along with the boys mother. Shantina Smiley and her son Azriel mysteriously disappeared Saturday night. Jay hasn't seen his son in years, but says he had to go the Seattle area to look for him.

"There's just nothing that I can even really bring to words to try to figure out what's going on," said Carver

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/Lancaster-man-in-WA-to-find-missing-son