Shantina “Kat” Smiley, and her missing 8-year-old son, Azriel Carver Missing in Washington/ Son's Body Found/ CPS investigated abuse in the past/ Search for Smiley called off

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press Writer Donna Gordon Blankinship, Associated Press Writer – Tue Mar 16, 10:14 pm ET

SEATTLE – Despite searches by divers, boats and aircraft, investigators have yet to turn up any solid leads in the weekend disappearance of a Washington woman and her 8-year-old son.

Shantina "Kat" Smiley, 29, of Silverdale, and her son were en route from their Kitsap County home to her stepfather's house in southwest Washington when they vanished. Silverdale is about 16 miles west of Seattle, across the Puget Sound.

The van Smiley drove was found Sunday, abandoned and partially submerged in water on a remote Puget Sound beach in the Olympia area.

"It's almost like she vanished out of thin air," said Chelsie Woodard, 32, of Castle Rock, whose father used to be married to Smiley's mother.

Investigators were talking to people who know Smiley or her son and those who may have met her as she drove through the back roads of Washington state on Saturday night. Her fiance, Robb Simmons said Tuesday that Smiley is a recovering alcoholic who relapsed last week, KING-TV reported.

Simmons said she had been under stress lately. He had been having health issues and fears he might have cancer, and suggested this past week that they get married, he added.

But he said he doesn't believe the relapse played any role in her disappearance.

"The idea she would stop and drink is not a realistic thing," he told the television station. "I do not see her doing that, I don't see her doing that, putting herself at risk, getting in trouble with the law, putting her son at risk."

Thurston County sheriff's Lt. Chris Mealy was not immediately reachable Tuesday to discuss Simmons' comments.

Carie Tonovitz, of Silverdale, said in an e-mail Tuesday that Smiley was a good mother who was very wrapped up in her son's life. Tonovitz, Smiley and Simmons are den leaders of their sons' Cub Scout group.

"Kat and Robb are cute to see together, great parents, good people," Tonovitz wrote. "Kat and Robb are very involved in Scouts, Kat going so far as to sleep on the gym floor a couple of weeks ago with the Cub Scouts. I snuck home because I was unwilling to do that."

Detectives say they're trying to learn all they can about Smiley's emotional state.

"I'm trying to be optimistic. I'm trying to be hopeful," Simmons told KOMO Radio on Tuesday. "I just want to hear that she's safe."

Woodard described her younger stepsister as smart, nice and happy and her nephew as outgoing and energetic. She said she and Smiley had not been in touch recently but planned to catch up when Smiley disappeared.

"She likes to do family things and outdoor type things just like anybody in Washington state," Woodard said. "There's nothing out of the ordinary about her."

video here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100317/ap_on_re_us/us_mom_son_missing

Detectives Search Van Of Missing Mother, Son

Posted: 4:59 pm PDT March 16,2010Updated: 6:39 pm PDT March 16,2010

THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. -- A dive team continued to search for a missing mother and her son while detectives searched their van that was found partially submerged in the water.

Shantina Smiley, 29, and her 8-year-old son, Azriel Carver, have been missing since Saturday when she was on her way from Silverdale to Castle Rock.

TIMELINE: Last Known Locations Of Missing Mom
SLIDESHOW: Mother, Son Disappear; Van Found

A Thurston County dive team dropped a tripod in the water Tuesday with a sonar device attached to it. The device will scan the bottom of Dana Passage where Smiley’s van was found on Sunday.

"It takes a 360 degree picture basically. A sonar image -- we're mapping the bottom of the Sound," said Greg Elwin of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives also obtained a warrant to search and obtain fingerprints from the van driven by Smiley.

Inside the van, investigators found children's coloring books, car keys and miscellaneous items, but nothing that can direct them to the whereabouts of Smiley and her son.

It also appears the water went no higher than the top of the seats.

Despite video surveillance in stores that shows Smiley and her son moving through Olympia before they vanished and an extensive search on the ground and the water -- so far, there is no sign of them.

"It's completely baffling. This is just one element of it, the possibility that these people are in the water. There are so many theories as to what happened," Elwin said.

Thurston County Sheriff's Lt. Chris Mealy said investigators don't know anything more than what they knew Sunday.

The missing woman’s fiancé, Robert Simmons, told KIRO 7 reporter Richard Thompson that Smiley is an alcoholic and that she had a relapse last week and began drinking again.

He said he doesn’t think it has anything to do with her van ending up in the water or their disappearance.

Smiley's stepsister, Chelsie Woodard, said everyone in the family thinks something different about what happened to Smiley, because so little information about her disappearance has surfaced.

Woodard was looking forward to Smiley's arrival with her son around 7:30 or 8 p.m. Saturday evening. They were going to spend the night at her house and get more thoroughly re-acquainted after a few years of being out of touch while they lived in different parts of the country.

"She likes to do family things and outdoor type things just like anybody in Washington state," Woodard said. "There's nothing out of the ordinary about her."

She said Simmons also seems like a really nice guy and that they seem to get along well. Woodard called her nephew outgoing and energetic.

Simmons has posted information about the events leading up to and following Smiley's disappearance on his Web site http://robbsimmons.com.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/22859850/detail.html

WASHINGTON: Mother and Son missing timeline (update)



A mother and her 8-year-old son vanished over the weekend, creating a mystery that is leaving investigators stumped. Shantina Smiley and her son Azriel went missing on Saturday evening in Olympia, Washington. They left their home in Silverdale, Washington around 5 p.m. and were heading to her step-father’s home in Castle Rock. Shantina’s van was found early the next morning, abandoned near the North Gull Harbor. Police say the doors were open, cash, license and a credit card were left inside, but Shantina’s purse was gone. The search continues today to find this family as investigators put divers in the water, helicopters in the air, and are sending police patrols door-to-door. Robb Simmon’s, Shantina’s fiancé, has created a website with his timeline of events.

I spoke with Lt. Chris Mealey from the Thurston Sheriff’s office, and the following is based off the timeline he has constructed on this case:

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.

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.

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. Lt. Mealey told me Shantina has no mental health issues, no substance abuse problems, and she is a responsible mom. I confirmed 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. I spoke with another investigator who is in charge of the tips and he says right now the tip flow is moving very slowly. Investigators need your leads on this case.

If you have any information, please contact the Thurston Sheriff’s Office: 360-786-5500

http://www.michellesigona.com/2010/03/washington-mother-and-son-missing/

Police: Body on Wash. Beach Is Missing Boy
AP
The island where the body washed up 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.

SEATTLE -- A child's body found Thursday on an island beach in Puget Sound is that of an 8-year-old boy who vanished last weekend with his mother, a Pierce County sheriff's spokesman said.
Positive identification was based on Azriel Carver's clothing, mohawk haircut and "looking at pictures of him," spokesman Ed Troyer said.
The Pierce County medical examiner's office plans an autopsy Friday to determine cause of death.
The body was found on Fox Island, southwest of Tacoma.
No sign was found Thursday of the boy's mother, Shantina "Kat" Smiley, 29, of Silverdale, who disappeared with him on Saturday night. Troyer said the beach was searched about 500 yards in each direction from the boy's body. Divers on a boat searched as well and a Coast Guard helicopter and sheriff's office plane flew overhead.
That search may resume Friday, depending on weather, he said.
Smiley's abandoned minivan, partially submerged with its doors open, was found Sunday on a remote Olympia-area beach about 12 miles south of Fox Island.
A wallet containing her driver's license, some cash and credit cards was found in the van, but neither she nor her son was anywhere in sight.
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 told KING-TV. "It's a sad turn of events."
Two mismatched shoes, a partially full and corked wine bottle, an inhaler and an orange ball have washed ashore since the van was found.
Thurston County sheriff's Lt. Chris Mealy said the items apparently belonged to the boy or his mother.
Smiley was heading from her home in Silverdale to her stepfather's house in southwest Washington when she and her son disappeared Saturday night. Silverdale is about 16 miles west of Seattle, across Puget Sound.
Besides searching the area, investigators looked at phone records and talked to people who know Smiley and her son or may have met her Saturday night as she drove through the back roads of Washington state. Her fiance, Robb Simmons, told authorities she was a recovering alcoholic who had relapsed last week.
"We are grieving the loss of Azriel, and praying for Shantina. We are all severely hurting. We are getting the family together so we can grieve together, and so we can have some sort of peace right now," Simmons told the television station late Thursday.
He told The Associated Press he had no comment.
Mealy said there was no indication that a crime took place inside Smiley's 2005 Dodge Caravan.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/03/16/childs-body-search-missing-washington-boy-mom/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r5:c0.000000:b0:z

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.

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/03/18/1113853/clues-add-to-mystery-of-missing.html#ixzz0ib6u4Rg9

The last time Shantina "Kat" Smiley was seen, she walked up to a stranger's house Saturday night outside Olympia and asked to use the phone.

The 29-year-old Silverdale woman then got directions back to Interstate 5.

And then she disappeared, along with her 8-year-old son, Azriel Carver, never arriving at a relative's house in Castle Rock.

Sunday morning her fiance's van was found partially submerged in Budd Inlet.

Thurston County sheriff's detective Lt. Chris Mealy said there are no signs of foul play in or around the van, and that while the case is being called "suspicious," no suspects or persons of interest have been identified.

"We haven't established there has been a crime committed. We just don't know what happened to her," he said.

Mealy said he couldn't venture a guess how similar cases are resolved.

"I could probably say they end unfortunately."

Mealy said Smiley's fiance, Robb Simmons has been "extremely cooperative" and has not been identified as a suspect.

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

Smiley's wallet was found in the van, but her purse is missing. Mealy said the wallet contained Smiley's one and only known credit card, cash and her driver's license. Simmons told Mealy that Smiley normally takes an overnight bag on similar trips, but was unsure if she took one this time. No extra clothes or bags were found in the car.

Mealy said Smiley and her son left the Silverdale area on their way to Castle Rock to visit Smiley's step-father around 5 p.m. Saturday. Simmons was supposed to meet Smiley there.

Smiley called Simmons at around 6:45 p.m. from a pay phone, asking him to bring her cell phone, but Simmons was already on his way.

Mealy said surveillance tapes show Smiley visiting a convenience store in west Olympia just before 8 p.m. where she made a purchase.

An hour later, Smiley bought food at The Martin Way Diner in east Olympia. Mealy said a waitress confirmed Smiley had come in to buy food, witnessed her fall down in the parking lot and leave without taking the food.

Smiley reached a residence north of Olympia around 10 p.m. Mealy said he doesn't know what was said in the phone call, but that Smiley mentioned something about an accident. Mealy said it is not clear what that accident was, if it was related to the van, or the injury she sustained at the east Olympia diner.

Mealy said Smiley was given directions back on the freeway, and that it where the trail ends for investigators. The van was found less than 10 miles from the residence.

The van likely went into the water that night, Mealy said.

He said the area in which Smiley disappeared is rural but in a wealthy neighborhood with houses overlooking the water. He said the roads, including the one near where the van was found, are narrow and dark.

Although Carver is considered missing, an Amber Alert has not been issued because law enforcement has not determined whether there was an abduction, Mealy said.

Since the disappearance happened in Thurston County, the Kitsap County Sheriff's office is not taking an active role. However, deputies did make a welfare check to a residence at the request of the Thurston County Sheriff's office, said deputy Scott Wilson with the Kitsap County Sheriff's office.

Smiley has no known history of drug use or mental health problems, Mealy said. Smiley is described as a 5-foot-9-inch white female weighing 140 pounds and has short brown hair and brown eyes. Carver is 4 feet 1 inches tall, 100 pounds and has blond hair in a mohawk and brown eyes.

The North Kitsap School District notified parents through an e-mail that the student is a second-grader at Vinland Elementary in Poulsbo.

The school has an additional counselor on staff today for any students or staff, said Principal Charles McCabe.

"We are hopeful right now," he said. "We are just watching and waiting."

http://www.seattlepi.com/sound/416825_sound87673977.html

Don't you know that those people whose door was banged on feel badly, thinking that it was them, and that they could have helped? Of course, I don't blame them for not opening the door...You never know these days who's going to be out there...

Smiley has no known history of drug use or mental health problems, Mealy said. Smiley is described as a 5-foot-9-inch white female weighing 140 pounds and has short brown hair and brown eyes. Carver is 4 feet 1 inches tall, 100 pounds and has blond hair in a mohawk and brown eyes.

Last night on NG, she said Smiley is/was a"known recovering alcoholic who had recently fallen off the wagon and that the son had complained that his mother had fallen down."

GRACE: Right. You know -- you know, Sheriff Troyer, I do believe you`re correct about it being found in the other jurisdiction.

To Matt Zarrell, our producer on the story. Liz, let`s show that shot of items recovered. Wasn`t the jug of wine discovered half empty?

MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes, it was, Nancy. It was discovered about a quarter of a mile from where the van was found. Now, she was seen at the mini-mart on surveillance about 7:50 PM Saturday night, buying the jug of wine. The jug was found half empty, corked, not broken at all.

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Ann in New Hampshire. Hi, Ann.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. A pleasure to be on your show.

GRACE: Thank you for calling in. What`s your question, dear?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, I thought I heard somebody say that they witnessed her stumbling and falling after buying the wine. Why would anybody let her get in the car and drive with a young child after seeing that? I just feel the public needs to be more involved when it comes to a case of a child and stand up and go to that woman and say, You should not be driving. You know what I`m saying, Nancy?

GRACE: I know exactly what you`re saying, Ann in New Hampshire. And you know what? You are exactly right. To Matt Zarrell. What do we know about the mom allegedly stumbling?

ZARRELL: OK, now, Mom was at a diner at about 9:08 PM that night. Mom orders a corndog to go, pays for it, doesn`t take it. She comes out of the diner, and reports are she stumbled and fell in the parking lot. She HAD appeared sleepy at times. The boy even talked to residents. They had stopped at a house at about 10:00 o`clock to ask for directions, and the boy even mentioned to the couple staying at the home that his mother had fallen. But police are saying that they did not believe that the fall was serious, that she just had hurt her knee.

GRACE: Out to the lines. Denise, Illinois. Hi, Denise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, Nancy! How are you?

GRACE: I`m good, dear, although I`m very concerned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m heart-broken...

GRACE: I`m very concerned. I`m distraught about this case...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh!

GRACE: ... because we were told at the beginning that this young lady was a recovering alcoholic...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right!

GRACE: ... and that she had fallen off the wagon, and then goes on -- God help that little boy -- a 120-mile trek...

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1003/18/ng.01.html

Investigators with Child Protective Services investigated complaints of abuse of the boy whose body was found Thursday three times in recent years, an agency representative told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.
Sherry Hill of CPS told reporter Chris Legeros that of 10 complaints filed involving 29-year-old Shantina Smiley and her son, 8-year-old Azriel Carver, three were investigated.
Investigators looked into a June 2005 complaint that Azriel suffered serious physical abuse at the hands of Smiley's ex-boyfriend, and the man was arrested but never prosecuted, Hill said.
Investigators concluded a March 2007 complaint that Smiley abused her son was unfounded, Hill said.
In August 2007, CPS investigators found Smiley neglected the boy when he was unsupervised while she was passed-out drunk. Azriel was taken from his mother's care but returned to her after she got treatment, Hill said.
Hill said CPS is now conducting a review of the case to see whether the agency made mistakes.
Meanwhile, the Pierce County medical examiner's office on Friday said Azriel, whose body washed ashore on a Fox Island beach, drowned.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/22891964/detail.html

Jay Carver, the Buffalo area father of eight year old Azriel Carver, tells 2 On Your Side 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.

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=75383&catid=13

Autopsy of boy yields few clues

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.

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/03/20/1116931/autopsy-of-boy-yeilds-few-clues.html#ixzz0ilY4Edzj

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Department won’t search for Shantina “Kat” Smiley over the weekend. They’ll meet Monday morning to devise a strategy for early next week, said spokesman Lt. Chris Mealy.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/20/search-missing-island-lake-woman-pauses-weekend/#ixzz0ilYY7hVL

Poor child...His life must have been a roller-coaster, with no firm footing

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.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/mar/23/investigators-following-leads-case-missing-silverd/#ixzz0jAFw2Ui6

Island County Sheriff’s Office detectives are investigating whether a human foot that was found Aug. 27 on Whidbey Island may have come from the body of one of two dead Kitsap County women.

The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office has forwarded information on Shantina Smiley, the 29-year-old Silvedale woman who disappeared in March, and Kara Radabah, the 19-year-old Bremerton woman whose decomposed body was found Aug. 1 in Illahee State Park, to the Island County Sheriff’s office, Island County Detective Ed Wallace said.

Officials from four other jurisdictions, including one in British Columbia, have also contacted Wallace.

“I’m getting phone calls from everybody,” he said Thursday.

The foot was found on a beach on the east side of Whidbey Island, near the town of Greenbank. It was intact minus a couple toe bones and, based on its size, appears to have come from a woman or a juvenile, Wallace said. It did not appear to have been severed, but rather was disarticulated or separated during decomposition, he added.

The foot, which did not have a shoe, may also be related to at least seven feet with shoes that have washed up on British Columbia shores over the past four years, Wallace said. His department is in contact with Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia.

The Whidbey foot has been sent to a DNA testing lab at North Texas State University for analysis, but it may take several months to get the results, Wallace said. The evidence was sent out of state rather than to the Washington State Patrol crime lab, which has an even greater backlog of cases.

Smiley and her 8-year-old son, Azriel Carver, were headed from Silverdale to her stepfather’s house in Castle Rock March 13 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 March 18 on a beach on the south end of Fox Island, near Gig Harbor. The boy’s death was found to be an accidental drowning.

Remains of Kara Radabah, who was last seen by her family on May 13, were found Aug. 1 in Illahee State Park by search and rescue crews. The young woman, who suffered from schizophrenia, told her parents she had not been taking her medications before she disappeared.

Radabah’s body was missing a foot, so her case has been included in those that may be related to the Whidbey foot. There was no reason to suspect she met with foul play, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office reported shortly after the discovery of Radabah’s body.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/sep/02/two-kitsap-cases-among-those-that-could-be-to/

Any news on his mother(smiley) being located yet? I would hate to think that she got away with murder.

I check every so often and don't find a thing. The skeletal remains of a woman found last month .....it was determined that she died sometime between the 1960s and 1990s. At first it was thought it might be Shantina Smiley, but it wasn't.