Dori: Former foster mom grieves for 5-year-old missing daughter after return to biological parents

While 5-year-old Oakley Carlson’s biological parents are behind bars on child endangerment convictions, the girl’s foster mom says she hasn’t given up on the hope that Grays Harbor County or Washington state authorities will find the missing girl alive.

But as days go by, foster parent Jamie Jo Hiles told The Dori Monson Show she grows increasingly frustrated with state officials who returned Oakley to Andrew Carlson and Jordan Bowers in November 2019. Hiles and her husband, Erik, cared for the little girl for more than two years after she was placed with them at age 7 months.

Now, according to investigators, Oakley has not officially been seen since February 2021; her biological parents – who have a history of drug use – claim she went missing in November 2021.

“I don’t know how anybody in their right mind – a judge, a social worker, or anybody – thinks this is okay, not only for Oakley but for her siblings to put them back in this situation,” Hiles said.

A week-long Gray Harbor County Sheriff’s Office investigation of the biological parents’ property in December 2021 turned up nothing of Oakley. In fact, documents show, there were no clothes or toys belonging to the girl on the family’s premises. Carlson and Bowers have denied knowing about Oakley’s whereabouts.

Early this spring, Carlson and Bowers were convicted on separate child endangerment charges connected to their other children. Reports indicate two of three children remaining in the home were found to have “extremely high” levels of methamphetamines in their systems. Carlson could be released as early as August.

When asked by KING 5 TV reporter Austin Jenkins about Oakley’s disappearance during a press conference last week, Gov. Jay Inslee said he had “all sorts of inhibitions and inabilities” to talk about this, citing “privacy laws.” The governor referred questions to the state’s Family and Children’s Ombuds office.

But Hiles told Dori that she has called and written to the ombuds office several times with concerns about Oakley’s welfare since the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) required the Hiles to relinquish the child back to Carlson and Bowers. The former foster mom said she has heard nothing back.

“It’s a state agency. Why isn’t our state governor looking into this?” Hiles challenged.

“It just makes me ill, it’s sick that I would have given anything to raise this little girl and her biological parents don’t want to even acknowledge that she’s missing,” Hiles told Dori and his listeners.

During the almost two years Oakley was with the Hiles, she blossomed with dance and swim classes, and progressed quickly in preschool, the foster mom said.

Even though both parents have been jailed in connection with endangering Oakley’s siblings, Hiles remains hopeful for the little girl she once called her own.

“I want to read her more bedtime books,” she said. “I still have a college fund for her that I pay into every single month. I will not stop thinking and fighting for her. I just can’t stop.”

Listen to Dori’s entire interview with Jamie Jo Hiles about her missing former foster daughter, Oakley Carlson

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