It’s one of the last sunny mornings in early September, and in a remote field in eastern Grays Harbor, a small knot of men and women gather, talking quietly amongst themselves next to a pair of vans — one from the sheriff’s department, one from King County 4-by-4 Search and Rescue.
They stand in easy familiarity, with an occasional bark coming from the row of cars — all trucks or mid-sized, sensible SUVs, offroad-capable types — from the other members of the team.
They’re gathered there that morning to comb a region for any signs of Oakley Carlson, missing several years now, hoping to find what happened to her.
Oakley was reported missing from the Oakville area on Dec. 6, 2021, and the last credible sighting of Oakley was 10 months prior, on Feb. 10, 2021.
Oakley’s biological parents, Jordan Bowers and Andrew Carlson, have not cooperated with the investigation into Oakley’s disappearance or with efforts to find her.
Both were released from jail last year after being arrested for child endangerment charges linked to another one of their children being exposed to drugs. Bowers was rearrested on unrelated identity theft charges and is currently serving her sentence.
“In the simplest terms we were looking for anything that is not natural to the area. Discarded items, markers, unnatural depressions, or human remains,” said Chief of Special Services Paul Logan of the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office. “This type of search in itself is very difficult in that anything may be a clue, and you don’t know what may be important until it is located and investigated.”
The autumn sun warms the field as the people brief assignments, comm channels, timing, marking, the drone plan, medical provision for all members of the team.
“Do we know where the nearest vet is?” one searcher asks, and is answered.
Searches can be executed in a number of ways. Early searches when Carlson’s disappearance came to light saw hundreds of people come out and sweep areas in the county flagged by the sheriff’s office as areas of interest, Logan said.
This morning, there’s less than a dozen humans on scene. But there’s other ways to carry out a search than manpower. Dogs can smell things that a human never could, and drones can get a bird’s eye view that affords a revealing perspective, catching anomalies humans might miss.
“Adding the components of the drones and area scanning software with (the search dogs) allows us to conduct a more thorough search of the area in real time. We are able to identify anomalies in the area in real time and direct human searchers and dogs to that exact location to evaluate any point of interest,” Logan said. “Every element we can add to this endeavor which reduces the guesswork helps us achieve our ultimate goal, which is locating Oakley Carlson.”
With the day’s search briefed, dog handlers and members of the sheriff’s office drive out to their deployment line, parking their cars, and getting their dogs out and set before plunging into the treeline, disappearing into the dense foliage in just a few yards.
The dogs all have distinct personalities, searchers joke — some aren’t bothered who their handler on a search is, while others are more particular. Some are feisty, some are sweet, all of them are good dogs.
The search is of an area that the dry weather has made more accessible. Teams of a dog and handler cleared their sectors on the ground, while the drone flew a grid. The drone handlers program the width of the search lanes, the height and other factors, to best suit the terrain.
As the drone is operating, it flags dozens of anomalies that its handlers, operating out of their King County Search and Rescue van, check out, and will pass on to the dog teams to check out. Things like anomalous colors, shapes or other things the software recognizes as being out of place get flagged. This leads to lots of false positives, but the drones are getting better, the team said.
“Progress was definitely made during this search. Often being able to rule out a location is helpful in that it allows us to focus our efforts on a different area, and we always hope the next area searched will be the one,” Logan said. “There are always next steps in this type of investigation. These will include additional interviews, analyzing electronic data and additional searches in areas which are still being identified during the ongoing investigation.”
The search didn’t turn out a result, Logan said, but the sheriff’s office isn’t deterred.
“This case will never be over until we locate Oakley Carlson,” Logan said. “We continue to investigate this case daily, and will continue to do so.”
More information on Oakley’s case and opportunities to help with the search effort can be found at https://justiceforoakley.wixsite.com/home.
Anyone with information that could aid law enforcement in their search for Oakley is encouraged to contact the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office at 360-533-8765 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST. To speak to a detective directly, contact Logan at 360-964-1729 or email sodetectives@co.grays-harbor.wa.us.
