Search For Missing Mom Ended; State To Investigate Complaints Of Abuse

The Pierce County and Thurston County Sheriff's Departments have called off the search for a mother missing for one week. They say the search for 29-year old Shantina Smiley will only resume if new information comes to light.

The body of her son, 8-year old Azriel Carver, was found on a Fox Island beach Thursday. The medical examiner says the boy drowned and that it was an accident.


It's been a week since the two disappeared while driving from Silverdale to Castle Rock.

The boy's body had traveled 16 miles in the water from where his mother's van was found abandoned on an Plympia - area beach.

Childrens Protective Services spokesperson Sherry Hill says Smiley has been investigated for abuse and neglect.

Hill says, "We had ten referrals in the years between June 2005 and April 2009. Of those three were investigated," Including one in 2007 when Azriel was left unattended because Smiley , a recovering alcoholic, had passed out.

Hill says, "The child was placed with relatives and she received services dealing with substance abuse."

She went to rehab and regained custody the next year.

Now the question: Should the state have better protected Azriel Carver?

A State Fatality review is already underway.

Hill says, "We'll determine if everything worked the way it should have worked. If there is something we missed. If there is something we could have offered the family. We will evaluate the practice."

D.S.H.S. has 180 days to complete the review.

Meanwhile Friday searchers on the Fox Island found no sign of Smiley on Thursday. Divers on a boat searched as well and a Coast Guard helicopter and sheriff's plane flew overhead.

Thurston County authorities led the search since the van was found in their jurisdiction, but Pierce County took the lead once the boy's body was found within that county. Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said an aerial search for Smiley would be made during Friday afternoon's low tide.

A wallet containing Smiley's driver's license, some cash and credit cards was found in the van. Two mismatched shoes, a partially full and corked wine bottle, an inhaler and an orange ball have washed ashore since, and Mealy said the items apparently belonged to the boy or his mother.

There was no indication that a crime took place inside Smiley's 2005 Dodge Caravan, Mealy said.

Smiley was heading from her home in Silverdale to her stepfather's house in southwest Washington when she and her son vanished. Silverdale is about 16 miles west of Seattle, across Puget Sound.

Besides searching the area, investigators have looked at phone records and talked to people who know Smiley or her son or may have seen them Saturday night. Her fiance, Robb Simmons, told authorities she was a recovering alcoholic who had relapsed last week.

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.