“I heard she was thrown through a woodchipper.”
It wasn’t the average news tip in The Chronicle newsroom.
The words from the voice on the other side of the phone line were laced with fear, paranoia and concern.
The caller admitted she had been using drugs, but assured me the disappearance of her friend was not imagined in a state of intoxication.
The year was 2010, and the missing girl’s name was Kayla Croft-Payne.
Calls to law enforcement officials yielded the expected results; they had no information on the 18-year-old’s whereabouts, but due to her history, they didn’t rule out the possibility she had simply drifted to a new area as something of a transient with potential substance abuse issues.
Her so-called friends weren’t much help.
“None of the people that know her, deal with her or are friends with her are providing any information that will help us as far as locating her,” former Sheriff Steve Mansfield told me in 2010.
Over the ensuing five years, authorities chased many leads, including a tip that she had been forced into prostitution. Even a woodchipper was inspected with not a trace of DNA found.
The photograph of Croft-Payne released in an attempt to find her elicited a strong response from the community.
The photo showed a slight smile on the face of a beautiful girl.
Interviews with friends and family unveiled a darker side, though.
Kayla had struggled with heroin use, many said, and an overdose was the most likely factor as she seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. She had a difficult family life that led her down a path of rebellion and mischief, some told me.
I thought about Kayla as we completed our recent series on drugs in the greater Lewis County area.
An increasing number of users are switching from prescription pills to heroin. It’s a cheaper alternative that is now much easier to come by.
As anyone who has friends or family who have struggled with use of the drug knows, it’s also one of the hardest to kick.
Withdrawals are painful both emotionally and physically.
Release is found only at the end of another needle or a difficult recovery.
As readers of The Chronicle already know, investigators now believe the teen died of a drug overdose in Cowlitz County and was buried somewhere in Oregon just before she was reported missing.
Several searches have produced no results.
Her body remains hidden, but it is believed to be underground in a rural, wooded area somewhere across the Columbia River from Longview and Kelso.
It’s painful to contemplate the life of a young person coming to an end due to the pursuit of a drug that literally erases personality, hope and future and replaces it with a crushing desire for a debilitating high.
There are many like her still chasing the high in Lewis County.
The fact is, we might never be able to say she has been found, even if we’re all but certain what happened to her.
During a time of year when kindness and goodwill are prevalent nearly everywhere, we should direct it toward those who view the world through eyes fogged by drug and alcohol addiction.
They’re not derelicts and losers incapable of change.
They’re people who traveled down the wrong path.
Many need our help getting back to a world filled with meaning and possibilities.
Unfortunately, some, such as Kayla, never return.
•••
Eric Schwartz is the editor of The Chronicle. He can be reached at eschwartz@chronline.com or (360) 807-8224.
