Newly disclosed court documents reveal that missing Washington girl Oakley Carlson, 5, had been confined in a secure “cell” beneath the staircase before she vanished in 2021.
According to Fox 13, investigators interviewed Oakley’s 6-year-old sister in 2021, after reports that she hadn’t been seen since earlier that year. The sister told investigators that after Oakley started a fire in the family’s Oakville home, she was beaten and put “under her mother’s bed and in the woods.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Oakley was reported missing after deputies arrived at her family’s home on December 6, 2021, to perform a welfare check, at the request of Oakville Elementary School Principal, Jessica Swift.
Swift said the first time she noticed something odd was when she brought supplies to Oakley’s parents, Jordan Bowers and Andrew Carlson, in December 2021, following a house fire that destroyed a lot of their belongings.
“Jordan had let us know that there was a fire so I had gone out to check on them and offer support and drop off supplies from the school right after the fire,” Swift told News Nation.
“I saw all the other kids running around and playing and I didn’t see Oakley and I thought it was a little odd. I asked where she was and they told me that she was in her room in time out.”
Two weeks later, Swift returned to the home and again, didn’t see Oakley. Later, Oakley’s sister went to Swift’s home for a playdate with Swift’s daughter, and that’s when Swift learned that Oakley had not been seen in a while.
“On a playdate with my daughter and Oakley’s sister, I asked questions about Oakley,” Swift told News Nation. “And it came out over the course of those questions that Oakley wasn’t living with them anymore. I can’t describe the feeling I had at that moment, sitting on that couch with that little girl when she said that.”
Swift said she immediately contacted Grays Harbor police and made a report. When police searched the home, they saw no sign of Oakley having ever been there. Oakley’s parents have both denied knowing what happened to her.
Oakley’s sister also told investigators that Bowers “told her not to talk about Oakley” who had “gone out into the woods and had been eaten by wolves,” according to court documents. Another sibling confirmed to police that Oakley had been physically abused.
Meanwhile, Oakley’s parents remain behind bars on unrelated charges. Earlier this year, Bowers was sentenced to 20 months in jail after pleading guilty to withholding medication from their 6-year-old daughter. Carlson was sentenced to a year in prison for charges involving the same daughter.
No one has been charged with Oakley’s disappearance, but Bowers and Carlson remain the prime suspects in the case.
An $85,000 reward, raised by her community through t-shirt sales and other functions, is currently available for anyone who has information that will lead to Oakley.
Anyone with information on the case should contact the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office at 360-533-8765 or send a tip to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
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[Feature Photo: Oakley Carlson/Handout]
