Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Missing 4-Year-Old Oakley Carlson Declared Dead Four Years Later | Crime Alert 6AM 10.22.25

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

A judge declares Oakley Carlson legally dead. Her mother, Jordan Bowers, released from prison weeks before the ruling, remains a suspect. Damning revelations from Virginia Giuffre's posthumous memoir. Drew Nelson reports.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking Crime News now. Oakley Carlson has just been declared dead. Little Oakley's body has never been found lasting alive by someone other than her parents in 2021. Her Washington State disappearance finally reported by a school principal who overhears Oakley's sisters say her mom told her Oakley had, quote, gone out into the woods and had been eaten by wolves. Our Drew Nelson joins us with the latest. Nancy, even as detectives continue to treat her case as an open homicide investigation, a judge declared Oakley Carlson legally dead. Her mother, Jordan Bowers, who was released from prison just weeks before the ruling, remains a suspect. Records show the death declaration came in Pacific County Superior Court nearly four years after Oakley was last seen at age four.

The petition filed on behalf of her siblings. The ruling follows years of unanswered questions. since Oakley disappeared from her parents' home in Oakville. The child had once lived safely with foster parents, but in 2019, the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families returned her to her biological parents, Bowers, and Andrew Carlson. Detectives said the couple gave conflicting and false statements when asked about their daughter's whereabouts.

Both were later convicted of child endangerment for exposing their other children to meth. More recently, Bowers was sentenced in 2023 to 43 months in prison for identity theft and released last month. She remains on community supervision for one year. Detectives from the Grace Harbor County Sheriff's Office confirmed both parents are still considered suspects in a so-called no-body homicide case.

Jamie Joe Hiles, who was Oakley's foster mother, says the declaration of death came as a shock. She spoke to KOMO. I hope that they just keep seeing Oakley's face and maybe they just are like, okay, I need to come forward with what I know. Hiles says she still speaks often with investigators and finds Bauer's release unnerving. According to records, Oakley's six-year-old sister told investigators that their mother had told her not to talk about Oakley

and that she had, quote, gone out into the woods and had been eaten by wolves. Detectives described that as one of several disturbing comments that made them fear Oakley had been killed. No physical evidence ever supported that claim, but it helped establish what investigators called suspicious circumstances around the disappearance and led to Bowers and Andrew Carlson being treated as persons of interest. Hiles continues to advocate for Oakley. I think that just keeping her relevant just kind of refreshes everybody's memory that, yes, she is still out there, and it's important to keep her name alive. Oakley would have turned eight years old this year.

The reward for information in her case has grown to $100,000. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office at 360-964, 1729. Thanks, Drew. More crime and justice news after this. Virginia Joufrey's memoir, Nobody's Girl, is released six months after her death, describing how she was trafficked and raped by powerful men while trapped in Jeffrey Epstein's sex ring. She wrote that she feared she might, quote, die a sex slave. Joufrey says she was trafficked to, quote, scores of wealthy, powerful people. In one section, she described being taken.

to a, quote, well-known prime minister who she said, quote, raped me more savagely than anyone had before. She wrote that he choked her until she lost consciousness and laughed at her becoming fearful of him. Afterwards, she said she begged Epstein not to send her back, quote, I got down on my knees and pleaded with him. I don't know if Epstein feared the man or if he owed him a favor, but he wouldn't make any promises, saying coldly of the politician's brutality, you'll get that sometimes. The book also describes abuse that began. when she was seven years old. Dufre alleged that her father molested her as a child and traded her to a family friend.

Her father denied the claim. Her brother told NBC News that he confronted him, saying, quote, you sexually abuse your daughter. It's absolutely heinous what he did. Dufre says she was groomed by Galane Maxwell and trafficked by Epstein starting at age 16, forced to have sex with men in politics and business. She mentioned a, quote, gubernatorial candidate who was soon to win an election in a western state, and also, quote, a former U.S. senator. She also described to being trafficked

to Prince Andrew. Before they had sex for the first time, she said he guessed her age correctly, 17. Quote, he was friendly enough, but still entitled, as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright. His lawyers later paid her to settle her civil case. In another part of the book, she wrote that Epstein and Maxwell bragged about their friendship with former president Bill Clinton and how easily Maxwell could reach him. Juffray also said, said Epstein, quote, loved to boast about his friendship with Donald Trump and kept a framed photo of them together on his desk. She wrote that, quote, the powerful men who used me were never punished, but she wanted her story told so others would know what she endured.

Prince Andrew is under mounting pressure to leave public life forever as the new allegations deepen the embarrassment for the royal family. The book mentions Andrew 88 times. It also alleges his team tried to hire internet trolls to harass her. Andrew denies all wrongdoing. The pressure is also mounting over Prince Andrew's home at Royal Lodge in Windsor. A lease signed in 2003 says he paid a million pounds for a 75-year lease and spent $7.5 million on renovations. In return, he has paid, quote, one peppercorn, if demanded, in rent each year. The Crown Estate would owe him about 558,000 pounds if he gave up the property before his lease expires in 2078. MPs from multiple parties have called for an inquiry into how the arrangement was handled since Crown Estate profits go to the Treasury.

Royal biographer Tina Brown says Prince William and Princess Kate, quote, can't abide Andrew and want him and Sarah Ferguson to, quote, disappear from Windsor. Brown wrote that their presence near the new home of the Prince and Princess, quote, spoils life at their forever home. The king is said to have, quote, acted decisively, removing Andrew's remaining titles from the palace website and urging him to live quietly. Scotland Yard has confirmed it is investigating claims that Andrew asked a police officer to, quote, dig up dirt on Virginia Juffray. Her co-author, Amy Wallace, says Joufrey, quote, would have viewed it as a victory that he was forced by whatever means to voluntarily give them up.

She called it, quote, a step in the right direction and said Prince Andrew should finally share what he knows about Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. Thanks, Drew. For the latest Crime and Justice News, go to crimeonline.com, and please join us for our daily podcast, crime stories, where we do our best to find missing people, especially children, and help solve unsolved homicides. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace.