Mother, son missing after van found on beach in Washington

Mother, son missing after van found on Wash. beach

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The fiance of a mother whose minivan was found on a private Puget Sound beach is using his Web site to plead for information leading to the safe return of the woman and her 8-year-old son.

Officials found no sign of Shantina Smiley, 29, of Silverdale or her son, Azriel Carver, after the minivan they were driving to her stepfather’s home in Castle Rock was discovered north of Olympia early Sunday.

Investigators say the doors of the car were open and her wallet was inside.

Thurston County sheriff’s investigators are treating the case as suspicious.

Smiley’s fiance, Robb Simmons, has posted pleas for help on his Web site.

“The past 36 hours have been nerve-racking and full of fear, pain and sorrow,” Simmons wrote.

Jim Pribbenow, who found the vehicle, told The Olympian the back hatch and side door were open, the front end was stuck in the mud, and “you could see where the wheels had spun in trying to back out.”

Simmons and Smiley’s stepfather started searching for his fiance and her son after she didn’t arrive at their planned meeting place Saturday.

Smiley’s grandparents told Simmons that Smiley had called from a house in Olympia and said she had stopped to use a phone and ask for directions. She wasn’t heard from again.

“I have no idea of why she would have ended up down that road,” Simmons wrote.

Azriel is a second-grader at Vinland Elementary in the North Kitsap School District, according to Charley McCabe, Vinland’s principal.

Staff was notified Monday of his disappearance, and McCabe sent out an e-mail alerting parents.

“We are all concerned for their safety and remain hopeful that they will be found soon,” McCabe wrote.