Azriel Carver -- Found Deceased 3/18/10, Shantina Smiley -- Missing 3/13/10

Shantina Smiley and 8-Year-Old Son Missing, Van Abandoned (PICTURES)

March 16, 2010 3:39 PM



OLYMPIA, Wash. (CBS/AP) Shantina Smiley was "beyond lost" on a trip to her stepfather's house when she and her 8-year-old son Azriel Carver wound up on the backroads of Washington state, authorities said Monday.

PICTURES: Shantina Smiley and Son Missing

The minivan driven by Smiley was found partially submerged on a private Puget Sound beach with its doors open. A wallet containing the 29-year-old's driver's license, cash and credit cards was found in the van, but not Shantina or her son.

"Apparently she got stuck and abandoned the car," said Lt. Chris Mealy of the Thurston County Sheriff's Office. There was no indication, he said, that a crime took place inside the 2005 Dodge Caravan.

Divers searched the water off the beach on Monday while bloodhounds on loan to the sheriff's office scoured the nearby roadside.

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 Olympia to update him on her location because she had left her cell phone at home. An employee at an 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 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, after she didn't arrive at their planned meeting spot Saturday. Azriel is a second-grader at Vinland Elementary in Poulsbo, Wash. North of Tacoma, according to school principal Charley McCabe.

"I have no idea of why she would have ended up down that road," Simmons wrote on his Web site.

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."

Anyone with information on Smiley and her son's whereabouts should call Thurston County Crime Stoppers at 360-493-2222 or the Thurston County Sheriff's Office at 360-786-5500.

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

It doesn't sound good for this woman and her son. I wish for a happy ending, but from all the other disasters regarding missing women, I am not optimistic. I get panicky when I get lost while driving, and have a poor sense of direction which makes for a high state of anxiety. I don't know how far her destination was, but it's strange that she would leave home without her cell phone.

Shantina Smiley's Family Fears Abduction

Smiley's Last Hours Before Disappearance Showed Bizarre, Erratic Behavior

By EMILY FRIEDMAN and SARAH NETTER
March 17, 2010



The family of the missing Washington mother Shantina Smiley fear that she may have asked for help from the wrong people, endangering herself and her young son, who have now been missing for nearly four days.

Smiley's fiance, Robb Simmons, also told "Good Morning America" today that she has had a problem with alchohol and had a relapse last week.

The woman and her son disappeared Saturday after a series of bizarre events in which she fell in a parking lot, bought a corn dog and left it behind, knocked on a stranger's door for directions and then went in the opposite direction.

Her van was found partially submerged at the end of a narrow dirt road that was difficult for police to find, even in the day time.

"[Smiley] is too trusting," said Dana Carver, the aunt of 8-year-old Azriel Carver who vanished with his mom. "She is one of those girls who wears her heart on her sleeve."

"Who knocks on the door of a complete stranger at 10 p.m.?" asked Carver. "And who in their right mind goes down a dirt road at night. It's just too weird. You just don't do that in 2010."

"It could be possible that the wrong person picked her up," she said.

The worries of Smiley's fiance are fueled by concerns that the recovering alcoholic has slid back into addiction just days before she vanished on her way to visit her stepfather.

"I don't know how I'm able to keep going right now," Simmons told "Good Morning America" today.

Simmons said he last talked to Smiley Saturday afternoon before she and her son set out for her stepfather's home, about two hours away.

"She said she's getting ready to hit the road and I said 'Okay I'll see you on the road,'" Simmons said. He expected to catch with them so they could drive down together, but he never saw them again.

"I'm missing half my family right now," Simmons said. "It's an empty, scary dark place."

Simmons tried to remain hopeful as he addressed a message to Smiley. "I just want you home, baby. I want you and Azriel home. Everybody's hurting. We've got a lot of years left and a lot of plans," he said.

Jay Carver, the father of the missing boy, arrived in Seattle from his home in New York Tuesday to help look for his son and his former partner.

Carver told ABC News' Seattle affiliate KOMO-TV that he has been feeling "very helpless."

"I'm going to look around, and probably spend a lot of time looking in the woods. I know there's been a lot of people looking already," he said. "I'm going to see what they've already unturned and uncovered, and possibly, hopefully, maybe find him."

Smiley and Azriel haven't been seen since around 10 p.m. on Saturday when the two stopped at an Olympia, Wash., home to ask for directions.

"We could be the last people to have seen her. Like, ever," resident Taylor Williams said. "I really hope that's not the case."

Williams said Smiley didn't appear to be drunk or otherwise impaired, but seemed nervous and looked as if she'd been crying. She told the family she'd left the highway to find her son a bathroom.

They were recorded on a nearby store surveillance camera around 10:30 p.m. That video capped off an evening of strange behavior, including a late-night stop to buy a corn-dog that was paid for, but left on the counter, and a fall in a market parking lot.

When she was last seen, Smiley got directions to the highway from an elderly couple, and then headed in the wrong direction.

Smiley's actions seem to suggest she was disoriented as she headed farther and farther from where she was supposed to be.

Her minivan, with the doors open and no one inside, was pulled from the water on a Puget Sound beach Sunday.

Police wouldn't comment on Smiley's reported troubles with alcohol addiction. On Tuesday Lt. Chris Mealy of the Thurston County Sheriff's Office told ABC News, "This woman had no enemies, no history of domestic abuse and no spousal abuse. From all indications she was a very stable woman, a very loving woman."

Mealy was baffled how Smiley's car ended up in a pond at the end of a tiny road through the woods.

"I couldn't even find the access road, and it was light out," Mealy said. "You really have to know where it is. It's the kind of road you don't want to take because it's so steep and narrow."

"It's very rare for someone who doesn't know the area to wind up where her van wound up," Mealy said.

The Mysterious Disappearance of Shantina Smiley and Her Son

Smiley and Azriel set out around 5 p.m. from their home in Silverlake, Wash., to Smiley's stepfather's home 120 miles south in Castlerock, Wash.

Investigators found Smiley's wallet, ID card and credit card in the van, but no purse. There were also no overnight bags in the van, despite the fact that Smiley and her son were planning to go away for the weekend.

"We don't have a suspect because we don't know if it's a crime," said Mealy. "Our options are open. We're not saying it's foul play and we're not saying it's not, and we're not saying she didn't voluntary leave."

"We can't explain what the hell she was doing out there, if she was even out there at all," the lieutenant said.

Divers searched the waters for a second day Tuesday, but found nothing.

Asked whether it's possible that they got lost in the nearby woods, Mealy said that there are too many houses with porch lights on for them to not have been able to get help.

"I don't have any freaking clue what happened."

Almost two hours after she left her home for the trip to Castlerock, Smiley called Simmons, who was supposed to be rendez-vous with them in Castlerock. Simmons said that during the phone call Smiley asked him to bring her cellphone because she had accidently left it behind. Smiley also complained about the heavy traffic in the area, which Mealy says is common for the time of day.

Her bizarre journey is documented by a series of surveillance cameras. Smiley and her son were spotted just before 8 p.m. at a small mom and pop shop, the Handy Pantry Food Store in Olympia where surveillance video captures them making a purchase.

At 9:08 p.m. Smiley and her son pull into the Martin Way Diner where they ordered a corn dog to go. Surveillance video from the diner caught Smiley leaving the restaurant after paying, tripping and falling in the parking lot, and then getting up and driving away with her son.

They never returned for the corn dog.

Shantina Smiley Drove in the Opposite Direction of the Highway

Mealy said surveillance video also recorded Smiley and her son on the northwest side of Olympia peering into the windows of the Gull Harbor Market at 9:55 p.m., which was closed.

Smiley and her son keep driving, but away from the freeway. At 10 p.m. Smiley knocked on the door of a private residence where an elderly couple invited her and her son in and allowed Smiley to use the phone.

"The elderly couple gives the kid a piece of pizza, and Smiley calls her grandfather and says that these people are going to give her directions and that she got lost, but will be on her way," said Mealy.

Mealy also said that Smiley told her grandfather that she had been in an accident, but that authorities are not sure if she is talking about falling in the diner parking lot or another accident that has not yet been discovered.

The directions the couple gave Smiley to get back to the freeway are "not at all complicated," according to Mealy, who said the freeway is very well lit and would have been hard to miss.

Instead of taking the couple's directions, Mealy goes the opposite direction, again being recorded on the surveillance camera of the closed market.

"It would be obvious with anyone with any sense, but then again I don't know what her state of mind is, that you weren't heading toward the freeway," said Mealy.

"Unfortunately the next thing we know is that we're recovering her van from a private beach at 11:15 a.m. the next day," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TheLaw/shantina-smiley-suffered-alcoholic-replase-fiance/story?id=10122149&page=1

I'm very worried for these two.......

HLN is reporting that a young boys body has been found and they believe that it is the poor boy.

This is so tragic. What could have happened? There is video of them in a store with Mom buying wine. Apparently, Azriel's father has identified him....

That is a terrible ending. I wonder where the mom is. She better not be passed out somewhere.

I can't imagine anyone getting THAT drunk on a half a bottle of wine. (but I'm not a drinker, so I'm not sure) Perhaps she mixed some medication with the wine she drank??? I have a feeling that she will also be found dead, in or near the water. How sad.

Search For Missing Mom Resumes Today; Son's Body Found On Fox Island

03/19/2010

Pierce County deputies confirm to Q13 FOX News that 8-year-old Azriel Carver's body washed up on a beach Thursday.


 

FOX ISLAND - The Pierce County medical examiner's office is planning an autopsy today to figure out how 8-year-old Azriel Carver died. The boy went missing along with his mother, Shantina Smiley, last weekend. Smiley is still missing. The search for her will resume today.

Police made the disturbing discovery of Azriel's body days after he and his mom vanished into thin air. The boy's body washed up on Fox Island Thursday.

When Jay Carver learned Azriel was missing, he hoped and prayed that it wouldn't end like this. He flew here from Buffalo, N.Y., this week and went to the beach where the body was found.

"This experience has shown me like you really don't know who you have in your life until they're gone," Carver said. "And it's sad."

"He had a great imagination, good sense of humor. He could have offered a lot to this world."

A woman walking on the beach spotted the body about 2 pm Thursday and called police. It didn't take long to figure out who it was.

"By the time we looked at the surveillance photos and we looked at the clothing on the boy we were pretty sure we knew who we had," said Pierce County Sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer. "But once the medical examiner and the detectives got here we were able to take a better look. We saw the Mohawk haircut. It's him."

Azriel and Smiley were on a short trip from Silverdale to Castle Rock Saturday evening when they disappeared. They were seen on surveillance video at an Olympia convenience store. Smiley, who is a recovering alcoholic, appeared to buy a jug of wine.

The next day, their van turned up on the beach near Olympia. A wallet containing Smiley's driver's license, some cash and credit cards was found in the van. Two mismatched shoes, an inhaler and an orange ball have washed ashore since the van was found. The items apparently belonged to the boy or his mother.

Then on Thursday, a half-empty jug of wine was found washed up nearby.

But what happened to his mother? Investigators believe if Smiley hasn't reached Fox Island yet, she soon will. If not, it is very possible that her body may have floated past the south end of the island.

"It's not unusual for a body to travel through a few different counties during a tide change, especially through here because the water moves really fast through some of these channels and we could have a body in Thurston County and through a tide change end up in King County," said Troyer.

A ground search along the beach turned up no sign of Smiley. Divers on a boat searched as well and a Coast Guard helicopter and sheriff's office plane flew overhead.

Investigators looked at phone records and talked to people who know Smiley or her son or may have met her Saturday night as she drove through back roads. Her fiance, Robb Simmons, told authorities she was a recovering alcoholic who had relapsed last week.

Meanwhile, Jay Carver has nothing left but regrets, because he hadn't seen his son in years.

"It tears me up inside," he says. "Nobody's gonna ever realize, like I said, if they're like any people who aren't playing the role of dad, let this be a lesson to you. It hurts."

http://www.the33tv.com/news/nationworld/kcpq-031810-boy,0,949579.story

Boy's father: 'He could've offered a lot to this world'

By KOMO Staff
Story Updated: Mar 19, 2010 at 3:48 PM PD



FOX ISLAND, Wash. - 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.

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.

http://www.katu.com/news/88574277.html

Abuse reported in home of drowned boy

By KOMO Staff
Story Updated: Mar 20, 2010 at 8:26 PM PDT

SEATTLE – An autopsy has found that the cause of death for an 8-year-old boy found on a Puget Sound beach Thursday is "accidental drowning." However, new information has surfaced that leads to further questions into the role that boy's mother had in his death.

The search for the Azriel Carver's still-missing mother was called off for the weekend, as reports surfaced she previously had been investigated for abusing and neglecting the child.

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 Carver were last seen Saturday night. Her minivan was found partially submerged in a cove off Budd Inlet near North Olympia at about 11:15 p.m. this past 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," including a broken arm and bruises, 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 Carver "acting out" in school, 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 and was called off on Saturday March 20, at least for the weekend.

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.

http://www.katu.com/news/local/88744867.html

I am SO sick & tired of Chrildrens Services "investigating" AFTERWARDS! WTH? After the child is already dead? Why waste the money to investigate what the hell they did wrong? 10 allegation and only THREE investigations?? I think THAT shows something as to what the hell they did wrong. No one will be charged within the agency. Use the "investigation" money to MAKE THINGS BETTER!

* A report was filed in June 2005 that Carver suffered "serious physical abuse," including a broken arm and bruises, by Smiley's former boyfriend. The complaint was investigated, and the boyfriend was arrested for assault - but never prosecuted*

This infuriates me! The parents truly failed this child. Very, very sad.

I was really hoping that this mother wasn't like all the other ones that we read about so often - but every day and every news article paints her in a more and more violent light. it makes me sick to recall her fiance calling her "well bred" wth is that supposed to mean exactly??
i know that by all outward appearances, she doesn't LOOK like a drunk, and she doesn't LOOK like she abuses her children - but 10 complaints to CPS??? that's excessive to me. and then not even half of those were even followed up on. I think they need to implement a 3 strikes you're out rule for parents... maybe they need to make parents get a license too - I hope they find this lady so we can find out what she did to this boy...

She might not look like a drunk, but she had relapsed the week before and all indications are that she was driving drunk that night with Azriel in the car. I am baffled at moms who allow their boyfriends to abuse their children. It's unbelievable the mom's ex-boyfriend wasn't prosecuted for breaking Azriel's arm. The number of parents who fail their children continues to disgust me.

Here's a 47 photo gallery of Azriel & Shantina, if anyone is interested.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-504083_162-10002821.html?tag=page

'Love Like a Cloud' Surrounded Missing Silverdale Woman

By Chris Henry
Posted April 17, 2010 at 7:26 p.m.

There was mourning and missing closure in equal measure Saturday as family and friends of Shantina Marie “Kat” Smiley gathered to remember her as a young woman known for “that smile” and the courage to move beyond a tough past.

The 29-year-old Smiley of Silverdale, along with her 8-year-old son, Azriel Carver, vanished March 13 while driving from Silverdale to Castle Rock to visit relatives. The van she was driving was found March 14, abandoned and partially submerged in water on a remote Puget Sound beach north of Olympia.

Azriel’s body was found March 18 on a beach at the south end of Fox Island near Gig Harbor. The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that the boy’s death was an accidental drowning.

There are no new leads in the investigation of Shantina’s disappearance, but she, too, is believed to have drowned, according to Detective Sgt. Cheryl Stines of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office will still try to recover Shantina’s body for the sake of the family, Stines said.

“This is a hard day. It really is, not knowing and having to find some way of closure,” Robb Simmons, Shantina’s fiance of two years, told the crowd of more than 75 at Brinnon Community Church. “That’s the hard part. There are so many unanswered questions.”

Simmons spoke tenderly of the woman he met online, who became his soulmate and best support. Both have had hard times in the past, Simmons said, but together they were mapping a brighter future for themselves, Azriel, and Simmons’ two children Nicky, 15, and DJ, 11.

Shantina graduated in May from Olympic College and was looking forward to a career in medical billing.

“We had a lot of challenges, but she had my back and I had her back. She’s an incredible woman,” Simmons said.

During the initial investigation, Simmons acknowledged to a television reporter that Shantina was a recovering alcoholic who had recently relapsed. The couple had been under stress due to concerns about Simmons’ health that turned out to be unfounded.

Simmons said that he didn’t believe the relapse played any role in her disappearance.

Simmons daughter broke down as she spoke of the woman she quickly came to call “Mom.” The two shared many great girl talks and more than a few tears. Shantina always inspired her to reach for her dreams, Nicky Simmons said.

“I’m never going to forget that smile,” she said. “She was the mom I’ve always wanted. The two years I’ve known her were the best years of my life.”

Dolly Smith of Brinnon, Shantina’s grandmother, helped raise Shantina, beginning in third grade when her mother was unable to care for her, and also for a time while she was in high school. Smith and her late husband, Ron Edgell, then lived in Castle Rock.

“She was a joy, and she loved me and her grandfather,” said Smith, who has since remarried. “She loved Robb with all her heart. She love Azriel so much. She was a good mother to him,”

Dolly Smith shared that Shantina and the whole family struggled when Shantina’s mother, Tammy Brown, took her own life.

Members of Cub Scout Pack 4544, who turned out in force to the service, testified to Shantina’s warm heart for kids in general. Her fellow pack leader, Laura Brown, said she had “love like a cloud surrounding her.”

At the service, Cub Scout leaders also remembered Azriel and awarded him the “Spririt of the Eagle” award for members of the Boy Scouts of America who die before their time.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/apr/17/shantina-smiley-remembered-for-love-like-a-cloud/

Classmates of Azriel Carver meet to say their final goodbyes

By CHRISTOPHER CARTER
Central Kitsap Reporter Reporter
April 19, 2010 6:25 PM



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 Vinland Principal Charley 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.

Students were mostly silent as they listened to their principal recall Azriel's time at the school. A few took the opportunity to share their thoughts.

Another student said she remembered Azriel's concern for others.

"He had a big heart because if someone was hurt, he'd make sure they were okay."

It was Azriel's smile that some remember most.

"He really did have that infectious smile, a great energy," McCabe said.

Azriel will also be featured in this year's yearbook, with a page dedicated to his memory including quotes from students, McCabe said.

Azriel's memory was also honored Saturday at the memorial service for Smiley in Brinnon.

Representatives from Cub Scout Pack 4544 were at the service to commemorate Azriel's membership in the group.

Azriel was working on his wolf patch before he died, and was honored with the "Spirit of the Eagle" award given to scouts as a posthumous recognition.

"It's an unfortunate honor," said Steven Hirsch, district executive for the Orca district of Boy Scouts of America.

Hirsch also presented Simmons with the wolf badge, as a tribute to Azriel.

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

Shantina Smiley: Still missing; family holds memorial service Saturday, fiancé still holds out hope

April 19, 9:32 PM
Seattle Headlines Examiner
Isabelle Zehnder


Shantina Smiley with her 8-year old son, Azriel Carver

April 19, 2010 - “Shantina made my life complete,” Robb Simmons, Shantina Smiley’s fiancé told Examiner.com Sunday. “She was taken from me and it was hard holding a memorial service for her when I still don’t know what’s happened to her.”

“I hope this is not good-bye,” Simmons said. “When you don’t have closure all you’re left with is hope.”

Shantina went missing Saturday, March 13. She planned to visit her step-father in Castle Rock, who she had not seen for years. The trip should have taken about two hours.

She forgot her cell phone and decided to stop in Olympia to call Simmons and to get her 8-year old son, Azriel, something to eat.

She had plans to meet up with Simmons at her step-father's house later that evening.

The next few hours turned out to be a series of events that have left police and Shantina’s family with more questions than answers.

“There are so many questions but there are zero answers. Everyone has a theory,” Simmons said. “There’s a three-hour time-span and no one can come up with a solid theory as to what happened to Shantina that night.”

She spent hours in Olympia, driving from one place to the next, her actions caught on store video. Her last stop was at the home of an elderly couple that gave her son a piece of pizza and gave Shantina directions back to the freeway.

It is a mystery why she went the complete opposite direction and ended up down a dark dirt road that led to a private beach.

“Something just doesn’t smell right,” Simmons said.

The next morning neighbors walking along the beach discovered Shantina's van partially submerged in the water and there was no sign of either Shantina or Azriel.

On March 17 items belonging to Shantina and Azriel showed up on the shore about 50 feet from the van.

Initially, it was believed the items floated out into the Sound and were washed up.

But Captain Chamberlain told Examiner.com he doesn’t believe that could have happened, and that the most likely scenario would be those items would have been in a backpack that the pair might have taken with them as they walked down the beach.

Simmons told Examiner.com Sunday he does not believe that theory because some of the items were not in the backpack but were loose in the van, including the ball that was found on shore on March 17. He said that ball had been rolling around on the floor of the van for weeks.

Simmons is hoping beyond hope that Shantina will still return to him alive. His family has been grieving the loss of Azriel, and now they try to make it from one day to the next, dealing with the unknown.

“I’m taking my kids to Seattle today to go for a walk at the Arboretum. I have to keep them busy. My son (DJ, 11) is the kind of person that will sit and dwell on something,” Simmons said. “This is the type of thing we would have done with Shantina and Azriel as a family. We miss them so much.”

Simmons said he believes investigators will be doing another dive this week in the waters of the Puget Sound, looking for Shantina or any clues into her disappearance. Police presume she drowned like her 8-year old son, Azriel.

“Shantina is a wonderful woman,” Simmons said. “I know people have said many things about her, not all good. But I believe people are allowed to change. We got together, talked about our past, worked on a future plan, stitched up that plan, and then made it even better. We planned to be together for the rest of our lives.”

When asked how he and his two children were coping, Simmons said, “The kids have a good network at school. My co-workers are very supportive. I’m trying to keep busy, to keep working on the plan we put together and still hoping she’ll come home.”

Simmons said this has been a very difficult time for both of his children. His daughter, Nicky, 15, was very close to Shantina and considered her a mom. She misses her terribly and said the two years she had with Shantina in her life were the best years of her life.

“The only way we’ll know what happened to her,” Simmons said, “is for her to show up or if someone comes forward.”

About 75 people attended the memorial service held at Brinnon Community Church.

http://www.examiner.com/x-34328-Seattle-Headlines-Examiner~y2010m4d19-Shantina-Smiley-Still-missing-family-holds-memorial-service-Saturday-fiance-still-holds-out-hope