A newly released state report has detailed years of missed warning signs and repeated child abuse complaints in the case of Oakley Carlson, a five-year-old girl who disappeared from her Washington home in 2021. The child fatality review, published by the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), documents at least 14 referrals to Child Protective Services involving Oakley’s family and raises questions about whether she was returned to her biological parents too quickly despite ongoing safety concerns.
Oakley was last seen by someone outside her family in February 2021, but authorities were not alerted that she was missing until nine months later, in December 2021. Her parents, Andrew Carlson and Jordan Bowers, were never charged for her disappearance or presumed death, but law enforcement has maintained that they are persons of interest. In July 2025, Oakley was declared dead, triggering a legally required review of how caseworkers responded to allegations of abuse and neglect.
For Oakley’s former foster mother, Jamie Jo Hiles, the report confirmed her worst fears. Oakley lived with Hiles from about nine months old until just before her third birthday, when she was returned to Carlson and Bowers. Hiles told The Seattle Times: “I mean, honestly, when I read through it, it was just disheartening to read the countless red flags that were presented in regards to Oakley and her siblings.”
The search for Oakley began on December 6, 2021, after a school principal requested a welfare check when Oakley had not attended school for an extended period and her older sister made alarming statements during a sleepover. According to an affidavit, the sister said “Oakley is no more” and “there is no Oakley.” In a later interview, Oakley’s sister reportedly said their mother told her not to talk about Oakley and that Oakley “had gone out into the woods and had been eaten by wolves.” Oakley’s nine-year-old brother told detectives that Bowers would “put Oakley in the closet, possibly under a stairwell,” and that he witnessed Bowers beat Oakley with a belt and was worried about her starving.
Carlson and Bowers told investigators the last time they saw Oakley alive was November 30, 2021, but authorities found no evidence she was alive after a house fire on November 6 that displaced the family. Carlson claimed Oakley started the fire by lighting a couch, but investigators have not determined whether Oakley was alive before or after the fire. Hiles said she warned the agency after learning about the fire, but despite three reports citing the fire and unsafe living conditions, DCYF determined the allegations did not meet the legal standard for intervention.
In December 2021, law enforcement declared Oakley missing and placed her siblings into protective custody. Carlson and Bowers were arrested for obstructing an investigation and later convicted of drug-related child endangerment charges involving other children. Bowers was released from prison in the fall after serving time on a separate charge. The DCYF report notes that between 2013 and 2021, at least 14 referrals were made about the family, with multiple cases closed without intervention despite serious concerns.
