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October 22, 2025 7 mins

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.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alert I 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 twenty twenty one, her Washington State disappearance finally reported
by a school principal who overhears Oakley's sister say her

(00:22):
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 hert nancy.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
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

(00:53):
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 twenty nineteen, the Washington Department of
Children youth and families returned her to her biological parents,
Bowers Andrew Carlson. Detectives said the couple gave conflicting and

(01:15):
false statements when asked about their daughter's whereabouts. Both were
later convicted of child and nagement for exposing their other
children to meth. More recently, Bowers was sentenced in twenty
twenty three to forty three months in prison for identity
theft and released last month. She remains on community supervision
for one year. Detectives from the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's

(01:36):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
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.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yles says she still speaks often with investigators and finds
Bowers really 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

(02:19):
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

(02:41):
this year. The reward for information in her case has
grown to one hundred thousand dollars. Anyone with information has
urged to contact the Gray's Harbor County Sheriff's Office at
three six zero nine six four, seventeen twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Thanks Drew. More crime and justice news after this.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Virginia Giuffray'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 Geffray says she was trafficked to quote scores of wealthy,
powerful people. In one section, she described being taken to

(03:24):
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 Epsteine 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

(03:44):
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. Giffrey alleged that her father molested her as
a child and traded her to a family only friend.
Her father denied the claim. Her brother told NBC News
that he confronted him, saying, quote, you sexually abuse your daughter.

(04:08):
It's absolutely heinous what he did. Geffrey says she was
groomed by Glaine Maxwell and trafficked by Epstein starting at
age sixteen, 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 US senator. She also described to

(04:28):
being trafficked to Prince Andrew before they had sex for
the first time. She said he guessed her age correctly
seventeen 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

(04:49):
Clinton and how easily Maxwell could reach him. Geffrey also
said Epstein quote love to boast about his friendship with
Donald Trump and kept a framed photo of them together
on his 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

(05:11):
the new allegations deepen the embarrassment for the royal family.
The book mentions Andrew eighty eight times. It also alleges
his team tried to hire internet trolls to harasser. Andrew
denies all wrongdoing. The pressure is also mounting over Prince
Andrew's home at Royal Lodge and Windsor. A lease signed
in twenty oh three says he paid a million pounds

(05:32):
for a seventy five year lease and spent seven point
five million dollars on renovations. In return, he has paid
quote one peppercorn if demanded in rent each year. The
Crown Estate would owe him about five hundred and fifty
eight thousand pounds if he gave up the property before
his lease expires in twenty seventy eight. MPs from multiple
parties have called for an inquiry into how the arrangement

(05:54):
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

(06:15):
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 as investigating claims that Andrew asked
a police officer to quote dig up dirt on Virginia Gufrey.
Her co author Amy Wallace says Guffrey quote would have
viewed it as a victory that he was forced by

(06:36):
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.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Thanks Drew for the latest crime and justice dease. Go
to crimeonline dot 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 solved homicides.
With this crime of art, I Nancy Grace
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Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace

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