What Really Happened to Oakley Carlson? We Demand Answers From Her Parents and DCYF
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Hello, everyone, and welcome back. I'm so happy to have you here with me today to discuss yet another case. And if you're new, then welcome. Be sure to click subscribe. So today we're gonna be talking about a case that is

Not easy to talk about. It has not been easy to prepare to discuss this one today. It's no secret that since I had my own child a year ago, I have covered a lot less cases involving children. And that's honestly because it is so much mentally for me to handle. It is so different being a parent, seeing these cases now. I just have a whole new...

perception of things, a whole new perspective. And this was difficult to work on. However, it is a case that desperately needs attention. And I wanted to encourage myself to just

Try and do it. And I wanted to shout out those, you know who you are, who have sent tons of messages to me about this case, submitted and got other people to submit a lot of forms to my request form asking me to talk about Oakley Carlson. And

I just want to warn you ahead of time that this is very difficult, very upsetting information that we're going to be going over. But like I said, it's extremely important. This case needs more eyes on it.

and they need action. I've been lucky enough to have connected with Jamie Jo, Oakley's foster mom, and she has been very helpful through this process. She's going to be featured in the episode today, and she's also going to be clearing up some information or helped me clear up information that has been reported incorrectly. And so...

It was vital to have her involved and I'm very grateful that she took the time to do so. I know it's not easy. Today we're going to be talking a lot about the failures of the system, specifically the foster care system. Even more specifically, the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families, or DCYF. If you're familiar with the foster care system, you know how broken it is throughout the country and throughout different parts of the world as well. And it's something that we really need to talk about

and absolutely needs serious fixing. And so today will be one of those episodes where you have the opportunity to be an active true crime consumer, to take steps to help Oakley and to demand answers from DCYF.

I will explain all of the ways that you can do that towards the end of the video, but I did want to mention the GoFundMe now. They have a $100,000 goal. I will be contributing to it, and I hope you can too. Even a dollar helps and can make a big difference, and so that will be linked below. But before we get into Oakley's case, I wanted to let you guys know that we have new offers

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Go ahead, get yourself one of those. I absolutely love these colors for fall. It was very hard for me to narrow down which colors I wanted for these because I love fall colors and there are so many great options, but I really love the way these two turned out. So those are available for a limited time at milehieremerch.com. I also have some new TCKR merch that has just come out. We have an

ivory long sleeve with a fall color scheme for the lettering and an emerald green t-shirt with the lettering in colors that were inspired by my background. You guys have been loving the embroidered designs and I'm glad you do because I love them too. I think embroidery looks so cool on merch. And so those are available also for a limited time at milehighermerch.com. Okay, let's jump into things here. So Oakley Carlson, beautiful little girl. She was born December 6th,

2016 to her biological parents, Andrew Carlson and Jordan Bowers. She was born in the very small town of Oakville, Washington. She had an older sister and an older half-brother and would eventually have a younger brother as well. And for the sake of their privacy, I will not be sharing their names. But

before Oakley was even one years old, she was removed from her parents' care and placed into a foster home through the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families, or DCYF. And this is unrelated to the removal from their care, but I did want to note that her biological father, Andrew, was previously a police officer, but was decommissioned after it was discovered that he was making false and misleading statements. And we'll talk

more about andrew later but on september 22nd 2017 her foster parents jamie joe and eric hiles became the center of her world and she became the center of theirs they were monumental in her life she got really lucky being placed with them they saw her take her first steps heard her first word they watched her grow into a beautiful funny outgoing little girl you're so cute

You blow me kisses. I'm going to.

Jamie Jo says that Oakley didn't know a stranger. She was very outgoing, loved everyone. She had a contagious smile and her empathy was unmatched. At such a young age, Oakley developed a level of emotional intelligence that take most children many, many years to learn. Oakley was special. She really cared about everyone. And one good example of that is after watching the movie WALL-E, which I'm sure many of you have seen, she was visibly upset when

when she saw that Wally, the robot, was lonely. And she only became comforted after she learned that Eve, another robot in the movie, became his friend. I thought that was so sweet. And at that age, it's so rare. You know, most toddlers are preoccupied with themselves. I mean, that's just natural. But she had something special about her where she wanted everyone to feel loved, everyone to be happy, even at such a young age. ♪

Oakley was also incredibly smart. She loved reading books and would sometimes make her foster parents read her four or five at night before going to bed. And most kids will sleep with a toy, a stuffed animal, a blankie, something like that. But Oakley liked to sleep with her books. And there was no wondering if Oakley loved you. She was extremely affectionate with those who showed her kindness to those who loved her. She was always snuggling, giving hugs, and she was always

just making everyone around her feel loved. Jamie Jo says that her and Eric felt lucky beyond words to have Oakley placed in their care. Oakley was a really easy baby and a good baby. She would pretty much eat anything. She would sleep through the night, just really jovial. I don't think that you would get the sense that she had been abused or neglected before she came to us. She was just always happy, like tried to make everybody laugh.

Yeah, always like especially if she did make you laugh, then she would try harder. She loved Mickey Mouse. So I can't tell you how many times we have heard the hot dog dance. The hot dog dance is still burning in my head. Yeah. And just like Daniel Tiger, princess movies. She loved to read.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See is one of her favorites. Yeah. I Love You, Blankie. I Love You, Blankie. I Loved You Since Forever. She could pretty much recite most of those books because we read them so often. She was super active. So we played a lot. We went to swim lessons at the Y. Yeah. And she was in dance. Yes. So she took dance from my dance teacher, which was really special. And she took jazz lessons.

the first year, which I don't think we could see any of her recital because of how hard we cried. Right. Yeah. I just couldn't see it. I had to watch the video later. Yeah. And then, um, she really wanted to be in a loud shoes class though. Um, which was, which was tap dance. She was great with a tap dance. Uh, we, I had a, like a board that we'd set out and she would practice and she would just love to dance around her loud shoes. Yeah.

Probably the biggest picture you can get of Oakley is that she was genuinely just a happy baby, happy kid. She loved us. Like she always had her arm around us or she was hugging on us. She couldn't just like sit by herself and watch TV. She had to be like in one of our laps or touching us somehow. So yeah, good baby. I mean, just looking at the photos of her, how can you not love her?

love her. And Oakley meant the world to them. And because they knew what she would be facing if she was sent back home, they decided they wanted to formally adopt her. Now, without complicating the foster care system, there are two main outcomes that Oakley was facing. Either a child is placed back with their biological parents, or their environment is deemed to be not a safe fit, and they can be formally adopted. Obviously, there are more scenarios. Kids

age out of the foster system or they go from home to home. But this was the case for this instance because Jamie Jo and Eric really wanted Oakley to remain in their care. They wanted to formally be her parents. And they were really under the impression that that was what was going to happen because things with her biological parents were anything but safe. In July of 2018, the plan for Oakley with DCYF was changed to adoption rather than reunification. And

And they were so eager and excited to officially call this baby girl theirs. And of course, I am referring to Jamie Jo and Eric as her foster parents, but they're

It feels wrong to say that. I mean, they were her parents. They loved her like she was their own. They cared for her. They provided for her. They were her parents to me, in my opinion. But I don't want anyone to get confused. So I will be referring to them as her foster parents and Andrew and Jordan as her biological parents. Now, there are many reasons why Oakley was not safe in their home.

One of those reasons being that domestic violence was rampant in their house. In July of 2018, Oakley's biological father, Andrew Carlson, was arrested on charges of domestic violence after attacking Jordan Bowers, Oakley's biological mother. And even though he was ordered to obtain a domestic violence evaluation and complete the recommended treatment program,

he never did this. In fact, he started the domestic violence program but was kicked out after failing to attend the meetings. And that alone should have prevented Oakley from going back in their care, but it didn't. They were still granted supervised visits with Oakley, and even though it was clear she wasn't being taken care of during these visits, DCYF never stepped in to help. In March of 2019, Oakley was returned to her foster parents after one of these visits, and

First, it became clear to them that she wasn't being taken care of because her diaper hadn't been changed the entire time she was there with them. And then they realized that she had scratches on her face. And when Jamie Jo asked the supervisor what happened, she said she wasn't sure and nothing was ever done about this. She even emailed the DCYF caseworker to report the incident, but her concerns were just ignored, which is a pattern that you will hear a lot today and is extremely common.

extremely frustrating. DCYF failed Oakley and that was incredibly clear to her foster parents in September of 2019 when they were contacted by the organization letting them know that Oakley was no longer up for adoption and she would be returning to the care of her biological parents

in January of 2020. And that was just four months away at that point. And I truly cannot imagine how that must have felt for Jamie, Joe, and Eric to get that type of news, how scared they must have been, how heartbreaking that must have been. I don't know how foster parents do it,

I don't know how I would handle a situation like that, especially when you have become so close with a child, you care for them so much that they are practically yours and you're under the impression that they are going to be yours. And then you find out that they're going to go back to an environment that you know is unsafe. I just, I don't have words. That must be terrible. And at that point, that was just four months away.

And in any scenario, that reunification process should take a lot longer than four months, and it should be handled with extreme care. And the Hiles felt like Oakley was being rushed into it. In fact, on October 11th, they met with a caseworker to go over the exact concerns. And you want to know what they were told? First, they were told that Oakley wasn't their daughter, which obviously she's not their biological daughter. But after they had literally raised her from the time that she was nine months old, Oakley

and loved her so deeply. That kind of language was hurtful. And after that, they asked how are her parents going to support her when they knew that neither of them had a job. And they were told that

quote, being poor is not a reason for someone to not have their children. And to be clear, that's not what they meant. They weren't saying that they shouldn't have Oakley because they are poor. They were saying that they don't have jobs to support her and her needs. And that was concerning to them. They just wanted to know what plans were in place

to take care of her, how they were going to provide food, shelter, you know, the necessities that every child needs. And of course, they had other concerns as well. But even with these valid concerns, the process of reunification began. And

Andrew and Jordan were granted unsupervised visits with Oakley. And sadly, these visits were anything but a happy reunion. So those unsupervised visits started in October of that year. And one time, Oakley came back and told her foster parents...

Something that enraged them. I guess she had been allowed to play a game on Andrew's phone. And at some point, Jordan got mad about this and she hit him right in front of their two-year-old daughter. And, and, and, and, and, and, um, um, um, look, time to take a son from me.

Oh, and so... And he took his phone from you? Yeah. Did you have Andrew's phone? Yeah. I was watching Toko Maru. Okay. And then you take it. And then what happened? And Jordan put him back in his bed. And Jordan put... Okay. Jordan put Andrew back in his bed? Yeah. Oh.

Does she hit him, Oakley? Yeah. Him dead, like, really hard, like... Jordan, why did she hit him? Because him... Because her was... Um, him... He was being mean. Why was he being mean? Like... Hmm.

So less than two weeks after this, Jamie Jo sends an email to the social worker talking about her concerns, particularly about the overnight visits that would be starting soon, which is a normal part of the reunification process. Obviously, she was very concerned that domestic violence occurred in front of Oakley in the home, and she was worried that when the overnight visit started, that it would only escalate further.

And they got a response saying that not only is Oakley still going to be placed back in the care of her biological parents, but that it is going to occur by the end of the month. So as you can imagine, Jamie Jo and Eric are freaking out by this point. But that is exactly what happened. On November 29th, 2019, Oakley was put back in the care of Andrew and Jordan.

So for some context, in about June of 2019, we had been asked by the social worker if we would be interested in possibly taking Oakley's younger sibling once he was born. And we were like, yes, definitely. And that all kind of came crashing down in about a month. We don't know a lot about what happened because we're the foster parents and you don't get a lot of that information. But at the very beginning of Oakley's

and her siblings going into foster care, the social worker didn't do something that she was supposed to do. Like she was supposed to take the stand or she was supposed to present something. Yeah. There was a hearing. She didn't like give evidence or give testimony or something like that. I'm not sure the details. Oakley's biological mom, Jordan contested that it went to two different courts and she ended up winning, which that meant that everything in foster care was basically negated. And even though she'd spent like over 500 days with us, um,

The courts now saw it as she had entered foster care on as day one. So it reset the clock on everything. So July of 2019, we get a call from our CASA. Now your CASA is a court appointed special advocate. And they're supposed to be like the person that kind of fights for your child in court and says like, this is what should be going on to the judge.

We met ours twice. I think he came to the house, I think, only twice. Yeah, if that. And we saw him at court a couple times, but definitely not somebody to be fighting on Oakley's behalf because I don't think he really knew anything about her. No. And so anyways, he called me in July of 2019, and I know exactly where I was when he called. And he said, well, you did the best that you could. Maybe next time just don't get so attached. And that was pretty much the consistency of our phone call, unfortunately. So...

When October rolled around, our social worker told us, yeah, you know, Oakley's going to start transitioning home. Eric and I went down to Grays Harbor and we had a meeting with the social worker and her supervisor. And basically I pulled up this whole list of all of Jordan and Andrew's like arrest records, faults as parents. You know, we brought up that like, where are they going to go? They don't have a house.

They don't have jobs. They didn't have a job. And the social worker said, poverty is not a barrier to having children. But it wasn't obviously not a barrier to reunite her. They didn't have to have a job. They didn't have to. Right. And we understand. We're not saying that like,

being in poverty or being homeless as a reason to lose your children. But what we are saying is it doesn't make any sense to take a child out of that and put them into a bad place. And that's where we were very confused. And we left that meeting with just being told, you know, she's not your daughter. And that was really hurtful to us. But what was even more hurtful is we were given the timeline that January 2020 is what we were looking at after the holidays, after the holidays. But then all of a sudden it was November very quick. And

Now, Oakley had never spent the night with her parents. So all of a sudden she was having full weekend visits with her parents, unsupervised visits with them. And then before she returned home with them in 2019, she had two weekends where she'd spent the night with them permanently. That's a lot of change for a two-year-old, almost three-year-old. And I can't explain how...

If that was like really hard for us, I can't imagine what it felt like for Oakley. And she had come home several times and told us that she was there for too long, that she wanted to come home. And what do you say back to that? Now, there isn't a whole lot that we know about what life was like for Oakley after she was placed back in their care, at least not right now. But...

We can gather a few things from court documents relating to custody of one of Oakley's siblings. And as a reminder, she had an older half-brother who spent half his time with his biological father, and she also had an older sister and a younger brother. And Oakley wasn't their only child that had been removed from their care. In July of 2020, Jordan was supposed to undergo a urinalysis for a custody hearing for one of Oakley's siblings. Well...

Court documents say that she told the social worker on the case that she knew how to pass one of these tests. And even when she submitted a copy of this urine test, it's reported that the results she submitted were illegible. Jordan needed to test negative for drugs in order to keep custody of her children. Yet she was willing to lie and cheat

her way through it. That same court document also says that CPS was unable to prove whether or not Andrew was doing drugs in the home around the kids, which he had done in the past because they never received any drug tests from him despite being required to submit them. And as you'll learn, Andrew and Jordan were in fact doing drugs

in their home, in the presence of their children. And another thing that we learned from court documents is that there was concern that both Andrew and Jordan were neglecting the medical needs of one of their other children who has disabilities. They were even provided with a gas card to get them to the hospital, and yet they still failed

to take this poor child to her appointment so that she could get medicine that is necessary for her livelihood. Now, the last time it's believed that this medication was filled was August of 2020, and this is going to be important to remember. So as December rolls around, Oakley turns four, and she went to go visit her grandparents for Christmas that year. But while visiting, it became clear to them that Oakley was not doing well. They said her face was sunken in,

and that she had scratches and sores on her face as well. It was clear to them that she wasn't the happy little girl that she used to be. Now, something I want to note here that Jamie Jo was able to clarify for me because a lot of the coverage on Oakley's story gets this part wrong. A lot of people have reported that Andrew's mom, Oakley's grandma, called CPS.

And she did not. In reality, in January of 2021, Jamie Jo saw a photo of Oakley that was provided by a mutual friend of the grandparents. And she also agreed that Oakley did not look well. And so she was hopeful that her grandparents would call CPS. But they didn't. In fact, she told me that she begged CPS

Andrew's mom to call CPS and she just wouldn't do it. And instead she told her that they had to quote, walk a fine line when it came to Andrew so that they could still see their grandchildren. So Jamie Jo as a teacher, a mandated reporter and Oakley's foster mother said,

knew she had to do something. So she ended up calling the Alma police chief and requested a welfare check on the children. And she was told by the chief that the children were no longer in her jurisdiction, but suggested that she call CPS and ask that they do the welfare check.

And the response she got from the intake man was not only extremely disrespectful, but it also completely disregarded her very valid concerns about Oakley's well-being. She was told that she could get in trouble for making false allegations and that if she didn't see the abuse herself...

Nothing could be done about it. Now, for as horrible as that was, and it was horrible, Jamie Jo's efforts weren't completely disregarded because it's been reported that on January 27th, someone from DCYF was sent to the Carlson home to check in on Oakley and her siblings as well. And this day would be the last sighting of Oakley by someone that is unassociated with the Carlson family. And we don't even know if it was that thorough.

And in my personal opinion, if it was that thorough, those children would have been removed from the home immediately and they weren't. So that tells me it was not thorough, but, but.

Anyway, so then two weeks later on February 10th, there was an alleged sighting by someone associated with the family. But take that with a grain of salt. So after Oakley returned, we didn't really hear anything. I feel like it's kind of radio silence for months. We had no visits with her. We didn't want to confuse Oakley by popping in and out of her life.

So we had no contact with her after she left us on November 29th, 2019. But we did kind of hear from family members that Oakley was, she was like a problem child, that she wasn't nice to her siblings, that she was just naughty, which I think was kind of shocking for us because

I don't think she wasn't that way when she was in our care. No, definitely not. That was kind of disappointing to hear that she was a problem child because I just didn't ever see her in that light. It was very concerning to us because a couple months after Oakley returned, COVID happened and we didn't know if...

Like, were they being supervised at all? Which they weren't. We now know that Washington DC UIF has said that they weren't able to do visits because of the virus, which I think we both think is total BS because as teachers, we still had to do things. You know, we both were out handing out graduation materials to students. We were making sure that things were happening in the education world. And that's really disheartening that an agency that's supposed to protect children

Basically just took a... They dropped the ball. Yeah, they just said, no, we're not going to do it. Yeah. And so in December 2020, Oakley went and visited her grandparents and I saw a picture. And I'd also heard rumors that Andrew had been fired from his job for using methamphetamine again. So I saw this photo of Oakley. She didn't look good. She looked very gaunt. She looked sickly. And I waited for their grandparents to call it in.

I honestly thought, okay, I'll wait. I didn't hear anything. So I reached out to our local police chief and she said, I can't really do anything because Oakville's out of my jurisdiction, but you're a mandated reporter. So I'm going to go ahead and suggest that you call. So I called CPS. I was pretty much just chided right away for calling. I can remember the gentleman saying that, you know, you can get in trouble for making a false accusation.

And Jamie definitely reminded the telephone operator that it's like, I'm a mandated reporter. I know what I have to do.

And he just told like, I...

And they said that parents can use drugs, they just can't hurt their children with them. That's when CPS starts to become involved, which I didn't even really know what to say back to that. So that was kind of the concerns of us is, you know, what do you do when you're hearing of abuse?

But nobody is really like addressing it like they should be. The rest of February goes by and the first half of March. And during this time, Jamie Jo is under the impression that Oakley is with her biological parents. But then on March 24th, Jamie Jo gets a cryptic call from DCYF asking if they have seen Oakley or her sister.

to which she says no. And keep in mind, this is the first time she's heard anything since she called CPS back in January. They never told her why they asked. They never explained what was going on. And then by the end of the month, the complaint was closed without further

them having seen Oakley. And we're not even sure what prompted DCYF to call and ask this. I'm assuming it's because someone was worried about the girls, but if that was the case, why did no one follow up after they weren't able to find them? Why did no one dig any further? It blows my mind how everything was handled up until this point, but it only gets worse as

And that brings me to November 6th, 2021, when Andrew calls 911 at 4.54 p.m. to report a fire. But he tells the dispatcher that he doesn't actually need anyone sent to help them because the fire is already out. In fact, he says the only reason he called was to make sure to report the fire for insurance purposes. And he tells the dispatcher that the fire started after his daughter Oakley got a hold of a cigarette lighter and lit the couch on.

on fire. And according to a GoFundMe that he created, in his own words, he said that he and Jordan fought this fire for hours until they finally put it out and that they didn't call 911 because they couldn't find their cell phones. Make it make sense. Oh wait, it doesn't. Because fire marshals investigated the scene and determined that the fire did not start on the couch. It started in the kitchen. Specifically, they figured out that it started outside.

from the microwave on the kitchen counter, which is a very big discrepancy if you ask me. But ultimately, it was this fire that led to the discovery that something much worse had likely taken place. So in the aftermath of this fire, the Oakville Elementary School principal, Jessica Swift, went to the home of Jordan and Andrew pretty frequently to drop off some supplies and support them during this time. And she was just doing this out of the kindness of her heart.

Her own daughter was friends with Oakley's sister, and so she just wanted to help support their family. But over time, when she would do these visits to the house, she started to wonder why she never saw Oakley. The other kids were always there, but Oakley never was. And every time she asked where she was, there

There was always some excuse. Oakley's in time out in her room. Oakley's with her grandparents. And Jessica definitely began to wonder, but she didn't have the full picture of everything. So she never had a reason to suspect that anything was horribly wrong. Jamie Jo, on the other hand, really started to worry. In mid-November, she saw that GoFundMe that Jordan and Andrew started to support them after the house fire. And something about it just didn't sit right with her.

Of course, it's not unusual at all to start a GoFundMe after something horrific like that happens, and so many people do, but something about it to Jamie Jo felt off. She felt off about the whole thing, and her gut was telling her something

and she listened to it. So on November 18th, she emails DCYF and lets them know about the fire in the home and tells them that she's worried that the children's lives could be at risk and nothing was done about it. The point of this email was to document her concerns and demand that police and CPS go and inspect the home after the fire. And I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that the email was never replied to.

Her suspicions about Oakley were right. And in December, everything started to come to light. On December 4th, 2021, Oakley's sister went over to Principal Jessica Swift's house to have a sleepover with her daughter. And of course, Jessica knew that she had some concerns since she hadn't seen Oakley at the house. And so she decided to ask her sister about it. But the response that she got was,

like nothing she could have expected. Oakley's sister became visibly scared. She curled up in a ball and began to cry and said, Oakley is no more. There

There is no Oakley. I'm sure this was beyond shocking to Jessica. Very upsetting to see this little girl in such pain and fear. And she didn't want to traumatize her any further, so she didn't ask anymore. And she certainly didn't want to send her back home, so she calls Jordan and tells her that the girls were having such a great time and asked if she could stay one more night. And Jordan didn't have a problem with that, so she did.

And then the next morning, as a mandatory reporter and also a concerned parent, she called Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office and requested a welfare check. Now, I haven't mentioned this yet, but because of the house fire, Jordan and Andrew and their kids were currently staying at an extended stay America hotel in the city of Tumwater, which is a different jurisdiction than Grays Harbor, where their home is located.

So when the welfare check was requested, it was actually the Tumwater police that went and conducted it at the hotel. They went on December 6th at approximately 10 a.m. And when the door opened, Jordan was standing there with her two-year-old son in her arms. And their whole interaction with Jordan, what has been reported, was that

gives me chills and I'm sure you will feel the same. They asked her where Oakley was and she immediately said she's with her mom, with her mom. Jordan is her mom. Now maybe she meant her foster mom, but she said mom. So they ask her again, where's Oakley? And at this point she sort of turns around, looks around the hotel and then asks someone else who officers can't see at this point,

If Oakley is with their mom and dad. And then just a few moments later, Andrew appears at the door. And they ask him, where's Oakley? And he sort of just stands there and stares at them. So they ask again, where is Oakley? This time, Andrew musters up a few words and says that she's with her grandfather, his father. And so they ask for his phone number and address. And he tells them that he doesn't know it. I'm sorry, what? What?

your child is with someone and you don't know their phone number. You don't know how to get in touch with them. You don't even know where they are. And according to him, she's with his parents and he doesn't have their phone number or address. Come on. And after they keep pressing him, he eventually comes up with their phone number and address. But that hesitation speaks volumes. So they stepped away at that point to try and verify Oakley's whereabouts. And when they call the grandparents,

They tell them that they haven't seen Oakley in a year. A year. Remember how I mentioned Oakley spent Christmas with them in 2020? Yep. That is the last time that they saw her. So this is obviously shocking to them. And they immediately call CPS to see if maybe she was with her foster parents.

And that's when they found out that she wasn't. Oakley wasn't even in the foster care system at this point. So after this, they returned to the hotel room to let them know that Oakley was not where they said she was.

And Andrew's response to this was just frightening. He seemed completely indifferent that his child was missing. In fact, he seemed as if he already knew that she was missing, like nothing they were telling them was shocking. And then Andrew became angry and started shouting at them, saying he wasn't going to answer any more of their questions. And Jordan did the same. She didn't want to talk about the whereabouts of her child at all. The door was then slammed shut,

And that's when the investigation into the disappearance of Oakley Carlson began. We do know from court documents that at this point, moments after they left,

Jordan factory reset her phone. And that tells you a lot. Now, if everything we've been over so far didn't absolutely infuriate you, this definitely will. After Jordan and Andrew left the hotel with their two-year-old son, Andrew called the non-emergency police line and reported that his daughter was

was missing. That's right, he reported his child was missing after police alerted him that his daughter was missing. Why didn't they do this sooner? Like November 30th, for example, the day that they claimed they last saw her? I mean, by this point, it's December 6th.

They say that they last saw her November 30th. They took that long to report their daughter missing? So clearly, investigators knew something was wrong and they knew that her parents were likely responsible. So they followed them home and made an arrest. Jordan was arrested for obstructing an officer in suspicion of manslaughter and Andrew was arrested on only suspicion of manslaughter.

So now they only had 72 hours to find enough evidence to formally charge them, and time was ticking. Luckily, though, other investigators had secured a search warrant for their family home, and they began to look for any evidence related to Oakley's disappearance. And inside the home, several disturbing things stood out. For starters, there were clothes and toys in all the kids' rooms, except for the one in the back.

except for Oakley's and none of Oakley's belongings were found. None of them. And then they found blood spatter on the blinds near the front door and also on the front door itself.

And then they also found a bloody handprint in the hallway on the wall. And of course, blood samples were collected and tested. However, at this time, the DNA results are not shared publicly. I'm not sure if they will be in the future. I'm sure at some point they will, but...

at this point we don't know and luckily without hesitation oakley's siblings were removed from their parents care and taken in for a forensic interview and what they had to say is absolutely heartbreaking when asked about oakley her sister said that she didn't have a sister referring to oakley and then she said that oakley was her sister but not anymore because she hadn't seen her in a long time and

And then it got even worse. She said that her mom told her she wasn't allowed to talk about Oakley because she had gone into the woods and been eaten by wolves. The trauma that these children...

Have been through. I mean, to hear from your mother that your sister was eaten by wolves and that you're not allowed to talk about her anymore, it's just so terrible. Now, investigators did have to look into that and they determined that it wouldn't have been possible because there is not much of a wolf population in their area. So clearly that was something that her mother just told her so that she would stop asking questions. And as for Oakley's brother, it's been reported that he told them that

his sister would be put in a closet, possibly under the stairwell, and that he had seen his mother beat her with a belt. And there was also mention of Oakley possibly being starved

Now, I know hearing that is so upsetting. It's extremely hard to even say. And I want to remind you that all this happened on December 6th, all on the same day. And that would have been Oakley's fifth birthday. Because they only had 72 hours to find enough evidence to officially charge them, everything moved at very high speeds. All of that happened in one day. They interviewed them at the hotel. They arrested them. They searched the house. They interviewed the kids. They were arrested.

This all happened quickly. We are hoping for the absolute best, but unfortunately preparing for the worst. That's Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Brad Johanson speaking about missing five-year-old Oakley Carlson. We're hoping that maybe the child has wandered away or perhaps she's with a friend or a relative and the parents weren't forthcoming to tell us that. The girl's parents, 32-year-old Jordan Bowers and 36-year-old Andrew Carlson, were arrested Tuesday after not cooperating with investigators.

Tonight, Bowers and Carlson are in a Grays Harbor County jail facing manslaughter charges. And over the course of the next three days, a handful of agencies, including the FBI, searched the Carlson property, which spanned over 300 acres. So by this time, Oakley's foster parents

Jamie Jo and Eric were contacted asking if they could please help make accommodations for her sister and brother. And they made sure that her sister went with her former foster parents who knew how to administer her medication. And then they took her brother in themselves. On December 6, 2021, Oakley turned five years old.

And I remember that day, I was at lunch and I was going through my photo albums so I could make like a little blurb about her on my Instagram posts. And it kind of made me in my feels. So a couple hours later, I was doing my observation with our principal, which he was a new principal at the time. And I just burst into tears in his office. I explained to him, you know, he didn't know Oakley. He didn't really know like the whole situation. But I explained to him, I

I'm really sorry. Today's just a tough day for me. And you know, it's her fifth birthday. And I just, I can't stop thinking about her. And he was like, Hey, I understand. Like, I hope you get to see her again. And while this is happening, while we're meeting, my phone is kind of going off quite often. We were supposed to have a dance team banquet that night. So I figured it was just probably parents calling and asking me what they needed to bring or what they needed to do. But it was actually Grace Harbor County Sheriff's Office, as well as the

Grace Harbor DCYF calling me. So when I checked my voicemail, I had two voicemails, one from a social worker asking me if I could take Oakley's little brother and Oakley once they found her. And also the Grace Harbor County Sheriff's Office asking me if I had seen Oakley, which was like, no, I haven't seen Oakley. I of course run over to Eric's classroom, which was right next door to mine. And I feel like we jumped around and like celebrated the idea that Oakley was coming back to us.

And then I called my dad and I told him to sit down and he was so excited. And then like the kind of panic set in of we're getting a toddler, uh,

a five-year-old and it's her birthday. And I still have a dance team banquet that night. So kind of craziness. I'll never forget though, when the little brother was dropped off with us, he was in a Monsters, Inc. onesie and rubber boots and he was dirty. It looked like he had a play date outside and just rolled around in the dirt and just

was not even had his face wiped or anything. Yeah, no. So that was really a traumatizing night. I don't think either of us slept. Anybody slept in the whole house. And then the next day we went to Target to go get him clothing because he didn't have any clothes. And we got him just a ton of outfits and I'm in the toy aisle and I get a call from my friend and she's like, hey, did you know that Jordan and Andrew are currently in court for manslaughter? Which I thought, oh my gosh, like they killed somebody. No wonder why their kids were

in hiding, then she was like, no, it's, it's for, it's for Oakley. Like they, they killed Oakley. And I'll just never forget basically running out of target, throwing up and then talking to the detective and him saying, yes, it's just a holding pattern right now. We're investigating. And then I still have never heard from Washington DCYF. They've never called me and said,

Oakley is missing. My last text to the social worker is when I asked her if a queen bed would be okay for Oakley and the social worker just responded with, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. So I've never been like formally told that Oakley is missing, possibly dead. So good job, Washington DCYF. You know, after that, it was too difficult to

and grieve. So Eric and I talked about it and we decided that it wasn't in his best interest if we continued to be his parents because we knew that we

We couldn't. We weren't in the right mind space to take care of ourselves, let alone a two-year-old. Yeah, who needed a lot of help. He did. And then unbeknownst to us, another family member stepped up to take him into their care. So a social worker showed up a day or two later and picked him up and took him to them. That's 48 hours. I don't think we'll ever...

be able to forget ever. As for what the police knew in the first few days, the last confirmed sighting of Oakley by someone unassociated with the family was on January 27th, almost a full year before Oakley was reported missing. As I mentioned, there was that February 10th sighting, but because it was someone who was associated with the family saying that,

They were going off the January 27th sighting. Either way, it had been months since anyone had seen her and the police were asking the public to come forward with any information. But sadly, nothing of value was learned and the 72-hour hold on Andrew and Jordan was running out. Of course, there's no question that they wouldn't be granted custody of their kids if they were released.

Luckily, though, the release never happened. Remember earlier when I said that Jordan and Andrew failed to take their daughter to the hospital for an appointment to get medication that she needed?

Well, investigators found out that they hadn't given their other daughter this medication for 15 months. And as a result, on December 9th, they were charged with the abandonment of a dependent person in the second degree and bail for each of them was set at $150,000. Even though these charges are unrelated to Oakley's disappearance, it meant that they would remain behind bars even just for a little while longer. And it wasn't long after this that investigators uncovered more incriminating evidence. ♪

On December 10th, Oakley's brother and sister were brought into the DCYF office to provide hair samples. And when they were tested, it became clear that both of them had been exposed to high levels of methamphetamine. And her younger brother tested positive for levels high enough to indicate that he possibly may have ingested the methamphetamine himself before.

rather than just being exposed to it in the air. And of course, these findings resulted in the additional charges of child endangerment with a controlled substance in January of 2022. And while they were behind bars, crowds of Oakley supporters gathered outside Grays Harbor County Jail demanding answers. Jamie Jo and Eric themselves gathered alongside supporters and loved ones to advocate for their baby girl, who they desperately wanted to find alive.

and they will not stop until they do. Oakley was miserably failed by DCYF, and I personally believe that this could have been avoided completely if intervention had taken place early on. So we have a lot of frustrations with DCYF, probably too many to name, but...

It seemed like a recipe for disaster for the children to be returned how they were. I can't imagine being a recovering addict and having a newborn baby and a toddler and a child with special needs and an older child, uh,

All returned. From no kids in her in their care to having three kids full time. Yeah, sounds it sounds like recipe for disaster. They knew they were going to fail, but they didn't follow up on them. So there were no drug tests. There were no check ins. And I think it's kind of easy to see how Oakley was able to slip through the cracks.

when she's not being followed up on the case was closed by June of 2020. So even though there weren't visitations, the social worker signed off on Oakley and her siblings being permanently placed with their family. Everything was just so rushed. We don't understand why it was rushed, especially after having her for almost three years.

and then returning so quickly. We do know that when I called in January of 2021, that services were offered by a DCYF social worker to Jordan and Andrew, and they basically said no, which to me is a red flag. I think if you are extending services when you see that somebody is struggling and they decline and they seem hostile about it, that should be a red flag. My other complaint or another frustration is that when...

I called and was kind of chided that I called in January. It made me feel stupid for calling in. And I shouldn't feel stupid for calling in about a child's welfare, especially as a mandated reporter. And so in November, I felt even more stupid for calling and raising a concern. I also emailed the social worker, which I emailed the social worker and I sent her pictures of the GoFundMe. I was just ignored, which...

When I sent those pictures to the social worker, I could tell that she had accessed them because she had to request access to look at them. And she did, but I never heard anything from her. Feeling like I was completely ignored, I also asked two other people to please call in the CPS about the fire and they never heard either. So our state's DCYF is very...

They're ignorant. They're lacking. They're lacking. I think that there are good social workers, but in our case, I feel like we had the worst of the worst. And to even like explain even more about that is that we requested an investigation. We begged for one. I put an information into the ombuds office, which they are kind of like the cousin to a state agency where they kind of investigate any complaints.

And even though there are a million pieces of evidence where we know that Jordan Andrew did things that DCYF should have put as a red flag, unfortunately, they chose to go ahead and ignore that and say that there were no wrongdoings with Oakley's case. I honestly think that had Washington DCYF listened to us,

I guarantee you Oakley would be running around right now in our house. So Andrew's parents, Oakley's grandparents, the ones who were concerned about her when she stayed with them over Christmas and didn't call CPS about the abuse, even though Jamie Jo had begged them to.

released their own statement saying that they had been fully cooperative with police. The statement reads, "...the Carlson family have been and continue to be fully cooperating with this investigation. Our only objective is to find our granddaughter Oakley. We're praying that Oakley will be found soon and also for the multitude of good people working around the clock to make that happen. We ask that the media respect our privacy during this very difficult time and we do not wish to make any further statement for now."

Thank you. On February 7th, 2022, Jordan and Andrew both pled not guilty to two counts of endangerment with a controlled substance. And despite attempts to prove his innocence, Andrew was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum of 12 months in jail and would not be allowed to have unsupervised contact with any person under the age of 18, with the exception of his biological children. Yes, you heard me right. 12 months. One year is all he got for exposing his children to meth. And it gets even worse.

He didn't even have to complete the full sentence. He was released in August of 2022 and is a free man living in Wenatchee, Washington. As for Jordan, she ended up pleading guilty to the charges that she faced and was sentenced to 20 months. And the only reason she got a longer sentence was because she had previously been convicted of five separate felonies related to drugs and theft. And as Jordan was escorted out of the courtroom, supporters gathered once again to demand answers and justice. Woo!

And if you feel heartbroken and frustrated listening to this case,

Just imagine how Jamie Jo and Eric feel. They have teamed up with a missing persons advocacy group called Light the Way to spread the word about Oakley's disappearance and the circumstances surrounding it. Together, they've started petitions, attended DCYF board meetings, and much, much more. In fact, in July of 2022, they held an auction and a dinner and were able to raise almost $50,000 to put towards the reward for information. And now that reward currently sits at $86,000.

Come a slight bit to the right. Perfect. Putting a face to the still unsolved case. She was such a cute baby. Detectives believe it's been nearly a year and a half since anyone's seen five-year-old Oakley Carlson safe. These guys have been by my side probably since middle of December. Jamie Jo Hiles was Oakley's foster mother before Oakley's parents regained custody and Oakley vanished.

Hiles raised awareness about the case early on and caught the attention of Shana Richards in Massachusetts. - As time went on and Jamie Jo was looking for help,

we felt like we could help her. Richards established a foundation and is visiting Grays Harbor County this weekend for a Paint the Night Pink auction Saturday night. The reward in Oakley's case is top $25,000. They'd love to double that by the end of the year, if not sooner, to get someone to come forward. Where is Oakley?

Pressuring the parents has not worked. Oakley's mother, Jordan Bowers, and her father, Andrew Carlson, are currently in custody on child endangerment charges for exposing their other children to methamphetamine. Oakley Carlson's father is set to walk out of the Grays Harbor Jail here in less than three weeks. Detectives tell us they're worried he might leave town, even destroy evidence.

So those volunteers feel like they need to raise as much money as possible as soon as possible. And in 2023, House Bill 1397 was proposed, otherwise known as the Oakley-Carlson Act. The bill specifically focuses on maintaining the safety of children who have been removed from a parent based on abuse, neglect,

It also talks about the tragedy of Oakley's disappearance and how her being removed from her foster parents' care and placed into the arms of her birth parents raises serious questions about the effectiveness of Washington's child welfare policies and bureaucracies. The legislature intends to A, improve the operations and oversight of Washington's child welfare system and B,

B, create positive change from the sadness and sorrow of young Oakley's disappearance. Essentially, the legislature is hoping to implement clear and specific standards for young children to be reunited with their birth parents that help reduce risk of harm to those children.

New at noon, the first public hearing took place in Olympia this morning for the Oakley-Carlson Act. The bill is named after the Grays Harbor County girl who disappeared when she was five years old. The bill would create stricter requirements for a child to be returned to their birth parents who have lost custody. It would also require casework supervision for a minimum of five years before closing a case instead of six months.

And it would allow the court to determine the need for continued intervention if there is evidence of drug use or if a parent is convicted of crime against children. But sadly, this bill didn't pass.

And I don't think I'll ever understand why. So the Oakley-Carlson Act or HB 1397 was really just a comprehensive way of making sure that children were protected once they were reunified in foster care. With that, it was more connection of, you know, who's checking in on that children or on that child. So doctors, teachers, family members. Also, it had more drug testing. So it would be for up to five years. Right.

And I think that while there was still some editing that could have happened on HB 1397, it didn't even get to that point. It was killed very early on in the legislative section. So session. Yeah, I think part of it, the reason why it didn't pass is that it was the first draft going through. And from what we've heard from other people, like,

legislation very rarely passes the first time it goes through. So I went to testify for it. And right away, I was basically told that it was not going to get to vote. Representative Tannison, she works with the Department of Children, Youth and Families often. And I felt like it was probably a very big threat to have a bill that would almost hold social workers super accountable. A lot of people that were against the

HB 1397 said it was too expensive. And that's really disheartening to me knowing how much money we spend on other things, but we are not willing to spend it on quality social workers, drug testing, and ensuring the safety of children. I do want to share with you that an investigation into DCYF was performed at the request of Governor Jay Inslee. And that was done because the belief that they rushed Oakley back into her biological parents' care. And it's possible that they could be found at fault

at least partially. People were, and still are, extremely furious that DCYF never stepped in and removed Oakley from her biological parents' care even after Jamie Jo made several legitimate concerning reports to them. So, the Office of Family and Children's Ombuds, or OFCO, was tasked with investigating their actions or...

should I say, inactions. If you've never heard of them, OFCO is an office tasked with providing impartial investigations related to issues surrounding agencies that serve children, youth, and families. Basically, if someone accuses an organization like CPS or DCYF of wrongdoing, they come in to investigate. But for whatever reason, DCYF was cleared of any wrongdoing. They did, however, say they found areas of improvement,

but that they did nothing wrong. And one of the most frustrating parts of all of this is DCYF won't hand over any of their case files relating to Oakley. They're saying it's against the law to do so, which seems very convenient. And until Oakley is found or someone is convicted of wrongdoing, they will not release these papers. Also, and this is going to piss you off, the DCYF caseworker, Angela Fries, was prosecuted.

promoted after Oakley's case. There is an interview with someone from DCYF. It's available on YouTube. I can't put it in because it's copyrighted. I'm going to link it below. It was so much excuse making. It's so frustrating to listen to. In my opinion, if there is no wrongdoing on behalf of DCYF, why not just hand over these papers? I don't understand. They're clearly just using the law as a convenient way to cover up their mistakes. And that is just

in my opinion. Now, I said earlier that Andrew was released on parole before completing his 12 months, and he is currently a free man. Luckily, though, the same can't be said for Jordan. On January 15th, 2023, literally just minutes after being released for serving on the endangerment charges, Jordan was arrested on several charges of identity theft. It turns out that when she and Andrew left that hotel back in December of 2021, she

she flushed a stolen credit card down the toilet. Yup. Now, the thing about these charges, even though they seem unrelated to Oakley's case, and this is just alleged, but some people believe that Jordan sold Oakley for money to help fuel her gambling addiction. That

That's right. One of the theories about Oakley's disappearance is that she was sold into an illegal adoption ring. It was uncovered that Jordan had been using stolen money to fuel her gambling addiction. And is it possible she got desperate enough and did the unthinkable to her own child in order to continue gambling? Now, I don't know if I necessarily believe this theory. There's

certainly not enough proof. I did want to mention it though, as a possibility, even though investigators are operating under the assumption that Oakley is no longer alive. And you do have to think back to those blood samples that were tested and the results have not been made public yet.

but police have them. As for the identity theft charges, Jordan faced three counts of first degree identity theft and one count of second degree identity theft. Her trial for these charges began on July 25th, but she ended up striking a deal. She accepted a 36 month plea deal, but is receiving credit for time already served since she was arrested back in January of this year.

As of May 3rd of this year, our friends over at NECMEC have released an updated age-progressed photo of what they believe Oakley would look like now. And I really encourage you all to take a few seconds to really look, look, look,

at this image. Forgetting Oakley isn't an option and her true supporters are not going to stop fighting for her. In July of this year, Jamie Jo and Eric launched the Oakley Carlson Book Drive in her honor. Their goal was to donate 500 books to local foster visitation centers, daycares, and libraries. Each book donated would include a sticker with Oakley's face on it and the writing with love and hope

for Oakley Carlson. So now let's talk about ways that you can help. First, you can write or call Governor Jay Inslee and ask for an outside secondary investigation into this case. Jamie Jo and Light the Way have come up with a very well-written sample letter that you can easily just copy paste to ask the secondary investigation be done. Please consider doing this. It is so easy to do. It'll take you a

couple of minutes max and can make a huge difference. I will have both the phone number and the electronic form to send that sample letter available in the description. You can also voice your opinion to Washington's DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter using another sample letter that will also be provided in the description. It really couldn't be easier to copy that letter and send the email yourself. All you have to do is put in your

own name and the date. You can also help by sharing Oakley's missing persons flyer because even that small act can make such a huge difference. And lastly, you can donate to the GoFundMe. The reward for information is currently at $86,000, but Jamie Jo, like I said, has a goal of reaching 100,000 by the end of this year. Let's get them there, guys. I know we can. Even a dollar could make a huge difference. I know my audience is so generous.

let's do this for them. Let's do this for Oakley. They wanted to make it clear that if the reward is never claimed, the funds they collect are going to be used for things like a headstone, memorial service, and even a scholarship in Oakley's name. For our call to action, we have worked with a really great advocacy group called Light the Way. They're amazing. One of them was just out here for a couple days, and they have worked day and night to find justice for Oakley, and not just Oakley, but

missing people all around the United States. We ask for people to contact Governor Jay Inslee because he's never addressed the situation. He's never said Oakley's name. He's never written back to us, which we have contacted him multiple times. Unfortunately, Patrick Dowd, who works as the ombud, he doesn't think there were any wrongdoings in Oakley's case, which there very much were, and we know that there were. So we are asking Governor Jay Inslee for an outside secondary investigation

investigation into Oakley's case. We feel that there were many wrongdoings and we believe that it should be an unrelated investigation office that looks into Oakley's case. Our next one is to contact Ross Hunter, which Ross Hunter is the person, the very ill-equipped person in charge of DCYF. He has done multiple interviews where he said that he's really uncomfortable, which that makes me laugh a little bit because I'm like, you're uncomfortable? Right.

But he also is refusing to take any accountability in DCYF and how it is ran. And so on Light the Way's website, there is a template that you can use too if you don't know what to say. But just contacting Governor Jay Inslee and Ross Hunter and kind of putting that pressure on those people to really take accountability for Washington State DCYF and make sure that people that are in charge of children are actually like helping children and not hurting them. I know that this case was extraordinary.

extremely upsetting and so very frustrating. I wish I had more to share with you. I wish there was more that could be done at this point. All we can do is continue to raise awareness, continue to fight. If you want to learn more, you can visit the Justice for Oakley website and stay up to date on everything that they're doing. That will be linked below. I will also link any social media connected to the case. If you're able to follow and send some support that way, that would be so appreciated. I already know you guys are going to send endless support to

in the comments and thank you in advance. That is unfortunately all I have for you guys today. That was incredibly heartbreaking to report on and to work on. And I just, it's so hard with children. They're just so innocent. I don't understand how anyone could harm a child in that way. It is truly evil. I'm really thankful for people like Jamie, Joe and Eric. They're incredible.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.