Shantina Smiley: Growing Fears of Foul Play, Mother and Son Missing Four Days
SEATTLE (CBS/AP) Shantina Smiley and her 8-year-old son, Azriel Carver, have been missing for four days and investigators have resumed their search - even as her family fears foul play.
PICTURES: Shantina Smiley and Son Missing
A boat crew searched the Boston Harbor area near Olympia, Wash. Wednesday using two dogs that tried to pick up the scent of 29-year-old Smiley and her son Azriel. Dogs also searched the roads and area surrounding the beach.
Police had previously stopped searching because they had uncovered no leads, but that changed after an area resident found several items that washed up on the beach.
Smiley, of Silverdale, Wash. located 40 miles north of Tacoma, and second-grader Carver vanished into thin air Saturday on a 120 mile road trip between Silverdale and Castle Rock to visit the little boy's step-grandfather. Along the way, Smiley made stops to call her fiance Rob Simmons asking him to bring her cell phone, which she had left behind.
The items found on the beach included two mismatched leather shoes, a half-full and corked wine bottle, an inhaler and an orange ball, Thurston County sheriff's Lt. Chris Mealy said.
One of the shoes could be a child's shoe, according to Mealy, adding that Smiley purchased a bottle of wine during her travels around Olympia on Saturday night. Sheriff's Sgt. Cheryl Stines told The Olympian that Azriel uses an inhaler.
Smiley's fiance said that Smiley was a recovering alcoholic and had relapsed last week. Her family fears that she fell back into addiction and possibly trusted the wrong person along her route.
The last known report of Smiley and her son was about 10pm Saturday when she got lost in Olympia, Wash, and knocked on an elderly couple's door to ask for directions to the freeway, only to go the opposite way.
Dana Carver, the aunt of 8-year-old Azriel Carver who vanished with his mom, said Smiley was too trusting and it may have gotten her into trouble.
"She is one of those girls who wears her heart on her sleeve...who knocks on the door of a complete stranger at 10 pm," Carver told ABC News. "You just don't do that in 2010...it could be possible that the wrong person picked her up."
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.
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