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

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Also, just watched the surveillance video and noticed Azriel was sitting in the back seat of the car. At what age can kids start sitting in the front? (I know there are recommendations, not sure the age). Why would he be sitting in the back?

Although he might have wanted to sit in the back regardless if the minivan had a TV for the kids.
 
Is it odd to anyone else that he is in contact with both her ex-boyfriend and her ex-husband? I can understand the father of the boy...but the ex? And which was is, your battery was dead or you were in a bad cell reception? And despite what ANYONE says, if I go missing, I would imagine my husband being too busy with me being missing and all to put up a web site with his alibi on it.
 
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.
 
No, Kitsap is where Shantina and her fiance live. Cowlitz Co. is where they were headed (and where Shantina grew up). Brinnon, where the grandparents live, is in Jefferson Co.

Perhaps the welfare check was performed while the fiance was in Castle Rock, just to be sure that Shantina and Azriel weren't at home? It also sounds like the fiance is staying at a hotel in Olympia while the search is ongoing, so maybe the sheriff was checking up on the property/the fiance's children.

Thanks, just to clarify, so 3 counties are in play?

Kitsap = SS home.
Cowlitz = Stepfather home/grew up
Thurston = Olympia (where van found)
 
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.

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

My gut feeling is she didn't drive the van down that road. She would have known immediately she wasn't on I-5. moo
 
Also, just watched the surveillance video and noticed Azriel was sitting in the back seat of the car. At what age can kids start sitting in the front? (I know there are recommendations, not sure the age). Why would he be sitting in the back?

Although he might have wanted to sit in the back regardless if the minivan had a TV for the kids.

In PA its age 12.

Regarding the back hatch left open. For some reason my thinking went to "not wanting to walk in the water/mud and climbed out the back. It looks really muddy there. Wondering if the car was sinking/moving foward without her help and they decided to get out fast. IMO. Just thinking out loud.
 
I hope this didn't happen, but if her son fell asleep and didn't awake when they became stuck, she could have picked him up. In the dark in her dazed state, she could have then carried the sleeping boy the wrong way -toward deeper water instead of dry land.

That thought is chilling.

But I think the cold water would have awoken the boy. I have to say I am really really bad with directions and so I can understand her confusion, however she must have made more calls to the Fiance or her stepfather if she was lost. Why would she go through all the trouble to stop at a random home and call her grandparents??? - Why not call the fiance, see where he is and if he can meet them because they are lost, call the stepfather and do the same? Did she do this? Are there voicemails to his dead phone?

If she had money why not stop and get change for a payphone? Why leave the corndog, did she see something or someone that made them leave?

Were there any other items int he car, junk food that they bought?

Did she think she was arriving on a dirt road and would find another house to make a call and then found herself int he water - was she sleepy, sick?

Did she stop at another home that we don't know about? Was she taken and then someone else tried to submerge her car but changed their mind?

The odds of this being a crime of opportunity are low.

It has to be an accident or a planned crime. IMHO
 
Is it odd to anyone else that he is in contact with both her ex-boyfriend and her ex-husband? I can understand the father of the boy...but the ex? And which was is, your battery was dead or you were in a bad cell reception? And despite what ANYONE says, if I go missing, I would imagine my husband being too busy with me being missing and all to put up a web site with his alibi on it.

I don't know how much I trust those Examiner.com articles....I had the link for the timeline from Examiner.com in the OP, but I didn't paste the info into the OP because I hadn't checked out/verified the details from other sources.

:twocents:
 
In PA its age 12.

Regarding the back hatch left open. For some reason my thinking went to "not wanting to walk in the water/mud and climbed out the back. It looks really muddy there. Wondering if the car was sinking/moving foward without her help and they decided to get out fast. IMO. Just thinking out loud.

The car was backed into the water, so getting out of the back hatch would have meant actually stepping out directly into the cold water vs getting out the front doors onto sand or rocks.

jmoo
 
In Washington, kids have to be 13 to ride in the front seat.

Just a comment on the area, having previously lived in the Olympia area for 14 years...these areas of Boston Harbor and East Bay are very confusing to me. I admit, I am severely challenged in the direction arena, but every road looks the same and many houses are set back from the road in a pretty wooded area. While it isn't desolate, many homes are on acres and I find it confusing.

THis also leads me to agree with previous posters that I can't imagine this being a crime of opportunity.
 
That thought is chilling.

But I think the cold water would have awoken the boy. I have to say I am really really bad with directions and so I can understand her confusion, however she must have made more calls to the Fiance or her stepfather if she was lost. Why would she go through all the trouble to stop at a random home and call her grandparents??? - Why not call the fiance, see where he is and if he can meet them because they are lost, call the stepfather and do the same? Did she do this? Are there voicemails to his dead phone?

RS's website said SS only recently got re-in touch with her stepfather, so she may not have known the phone number off the top of her head (since she didn't have her cell phone). If RSs phone really was dead, the grandparents might have been the only phone number she remembered.
 
Ok gotta another question...so the van was parked on the beach or got stuck in the mud on the beach right? Were there any footprints? If the ground was soft enough for the van to get stuck, there would surely be footprints! Were there one set of prints, or 2? :waitasec:
 
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.
 
Ok gotta another question...so the van was parked on the beach or got stuck in the mud on the beach right? Were there any footprints? If the ground was soft enough for the van to get stuck, there would surely be footprints! Were there one set of prints, or 2? :waitasec:

The footprints immediately around the vehicle were probably washed away when the tide came in. If Shantina & son kept walking along the shoreline, those footprints may have been washed away as well (or they may have been walking along the rocky kind of beach prevalent in Puget Sound -- there is not a lot of sandy beaches). It's possible that they may have walked some distance along the shore before going back onto solid ground -- their footprints might be preserved there, but unless tracking dogs picked up on their scent, it would be nearly impossible to find the prints if they went any distance from the car.
 
If the dogs tracked the scent any distance away from the van, then that means they were in the van when it was beached.
 
Photos: Few clues in search for mom, son

s587-s1.thumb.prod_affiliate.38.jpg


A slide show of the beach, tire tracks, LE searching, diver in water

.http://www.theolympian.com/2010/03/16/1174186/search-continues-for-missing-silverdale.html
 
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