A report recently published by Washington’s child welfare agency gives new insight into the disappearance, and presumed death, of a young girl in Grays Harbor County five years ago.
A former foster mother of Oakley Carlson, who would have turned 9 in December, said reading the report confirmed a lot of what she knew but left her “shocked” by some of the decisions made by the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families.
“DCYF just lets kids fall through the cracks,” Jamie Jo Hiles said. Oakley was in Hiles’ care from when she was about 9 months old until right before her 3rd birthday, when she was returned to her biological parents.
The child welfare agency has declined to provide details on its involvement with the Carlson family for years. But when a court declared Oakley dead in July, state law required the agency to conduct a child fatality review and publish a report examining caseworkers’ response to allegations of abuse or neglect.
The report documents the family’s extensive history with Child Protective Services, the department’s decision to temporarily remove Oakley from her parents and concerns from some inside and outside the department that Oakley was returned to her parents’ care too quickly.
Questions still swirl around what happened to Oakley, whose disappearance has drawn widespread attention.
The last reported sighting of her, by someone other than her biological family, was in February 2021. It wasn’t until December 2021 that law enforcement learned she was missing. The Grays Harbor County sheriff’s office has presumed Oakley deceased, and authorities say evidence points to her biological parents’ involvement in her death — but without a body, the case has been difficult to close.
The sheriff’s office has said her biological parents, Andrew Carlson and Jordan Bowers, gave “conflicting and ultimately false statements” about Oakley’s whereabouts and remain suspects in the case. Both parents were later convicted of endangerment with a controlled substance concerning other children. Bowers was released from prison in the fall after serving time on another charge.
A history of CPS reports
According to the report, DCYF had received at least 14 calls about the family, some dating before Oakley’s birth.
Bowers, her partner and Oakley’s half-sibling were the subject of five reports in 2013 and 2014. The half-sibling was temporarily placed in out-of-home care, but was later returned home.
Oakley was born in December 2016.
In 2017, the department received allegations that Bowers yelled profanities at her 17-month-old, who was one of Oakley’s siblings, and was not getting the child necessary medical care. The report was closed after DCYF determined it did not meet the legal threshold for a response.
The following month, another caller reported similar concerns about medical care and made allegations about drug use and domestic violence. A CPS investigation was opened.
DCYF later filed dependency petitions — asking the court to declare the children were dependent on the state for protection due to abuse or neglect — for Oakley and her siblings, and law enforcement took the children into custody.
In January 2018, the court declared the children dependents after Oakley’s parents didn’t show up at a hearing, and the court repeatedly denied the parents’ motions to appeal. In August of that year, DCYF filed a petition to terminate Bowers’ and Carlson’s parental rights.
After the petition was filed, the parents began completing requirements to regain custody of their children, including parenting curriculum, substance use treatment and psychological evaluations, though Carlson was “discharged from domestic violence treatment due to non-compliance.”
In a statement, DCYF said a judge granted Bowers’ appeal, and the case never went to a termination trial. In 2019, a DCYF caseworker and court-appointed advocate for the children sought to change the plan to have Oakley adopted as the preferred option, but were denied.
In fall 2019, DCYF began allowing unsupervised visits in a step toward reuniting Oakley with her parents, the report states.
A caseworker met with Oakley regularly, the report states, and the girl did not make “any concerning statements” about the time spent with her parents. The caseworker documented that the children were doing well visiting Carlson and Bowers, according to the report.
The court approved a trial to return Oakley to her parents, with a caseworker making regular visits to the home.
A few months later, the pandemic hit. Then-Gov. Jay Inslee issued a mandate that DCYF conduct health and safety visits virtually rather than in person. In June 2020, the court dismissed the dependency case for Oakley, so she was no longer under court supervision or DCYF supervision.
When was Oakley last seen?
In January 2021, the department received a call — Hiles said it was from her — that Oakley was seen with scratches and bruises on her face. Hiles also reported Carlson had recently lost his job due to allegations of substance use. The next day, a DCYF caseworker went to the family’s home.
Bowers would not allow the caseworker inside, according to the report, saying she was afraid of CPS. The caseworker briefly saw Oakley through a sliding-glass door wearing only a diaper. They did not observe marks on her.
The caseworker interviewed Oakley’s sibling at school, who said they had been spanked the night before.
Reading about the visit — the last time a caseworker saw Oakley — angered Hiles.
“(It) made me sick to my stomach,” Hiles said. “I thought, ‘That’s it. That’s all you did to check on her. … That’s the last time my baby was OK.'”
‘Something is not right’
It’s unclear from the agency’s report when Oakley might’ve died.
In March 2021, two child welfare workers went back to the home and were again denied access. Later that month, the caseworker spoke with the father of Oakley’s half-sibling, and he said he had seen a “torch” on the counter and was concerned they were using drugs.
Around that time, Hiles said, a caseworker called and asked if she had seen Oakley recently.
Other medical specialists and educators who were contacted said they did not have concerns. The case was closed in late March.
In November 2021, three callers reported that the family’s home had recently caught fire and they were living in a home with structural damage. The reports were deemed insufficient to warrant a response.
Hiles questioned why the agency didn’t do more. She said she called CPS about the house fire and told a caseworker: “Something is not right. Something is wrong, and if something happens to these kids, this is on you.”
In a statement, the department said the allegations in the report did not meet the legal definition of abuse or neglect.
In December 2021, the school principal of one of Oakley’s siblings called DCYF and law enforcement asking for a welfare check. The principal reported that Bowers told her Oakley started the house fire by lighting the couch. The principal visited the home three times and said she never saw Oakley.
According to the report, the principal asked one of Oakley’s siblings about her whereabouts, and the child responded: “There is no Oakley.”
Bowers and Carlson told law enforcement officers that Oakley was living with her grandfather, the report states. The grandfather told law enforcement he had not seen Oakley in nearly a year.
The day after the principal called, law enforcement declared Oakley had disappeared and her siblings were placed into protective custody. Officers arrested Bowers and Carlson for obstructing law enforcement.
Report raises concerns
DCYF fatality review committee members spoke with staffers on the case who said the permanency plan changed from adoption to returning them home after the parents made progress in services. One of the child welfare workers said she expressed concerns to legal parties that the dependency case was moving too quickly to a transition home. Some people on the review committee also felt the transition was too fast, according to the report.
Hiles said she feels a supervised transition home should be longer than six months, DCYF should implement randomized drug testing and CPS should take allegations from mandatory reporters more seriously.
Sheriff’s detectives are considering a no-body homicide, Hiles said. But such cases are difficult to prove and prosecute.
Anyone with information about Oakley’s disappearance is asked to contact the Grays Harbor County sheriff’s office at 360-964-1770.
