MONTESANO, Wash. — The mother of a missing Grays Harbor County girl appeared before a judge Tuesday on charges unrelated to her daughter’s disappearance.
Jordan Bowers is held on $25,000 bail for four ID theft charges.
Her daughter, Oakley Carlson, has been missing for more than a year.
She had just turned five when detectives opened their missing persons case in December of 2021.
Detectives said Bowers, and Oakley’s father, Andrew Carlson have not cooperated with authorities in their daughter’s disappearance.
Detectives believe Oakley was last seen alive in February of 2021.
Both of her parents were charged, and convicted, on child endangerment charges for crimes related to their other children.
Investigators said the two children were exposed to methamphetamines and test results suggested the children may have ingested the meth.
Evidence for those charges came while police were searching for Oakley Carlson, said investigators.
Some of the evidence for the new charges were discovered at about the same time, according to court documents released Tuesday.
Detectives said Bowers fraudulently created four credit card accounts using personal information from friends and relatives.
Three of the cards were found clogging the toilet in a hotel room Bowers was staying in when police first started searching for Oakley in late 2021.
Bowers is accused of spending more than $40,000 with the cards, using the funds to shop at Walmart and eBay and getting cash to gamble at a casino.
Bowers was expected to post bail and be released from the Grays Harbor County Jail Tuesday night.
That concerned Shayna Richard, co-founder of the Light the Way Foundation.
Richard helped start the foundation to raise reward funds for Oakley’s case. The reward is now above $85,000, said Richard.
She would like to see Bowers remain in custody.
“We worry she would have the ability to move evidence, talk to people, maybe threaten people that might have some information,” said Richard.
Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office at 360-964-1729 or email: 206-964-1729.