Six-year-old Oakley Carlson was last seen alive in Grays Harbor County two years ago Friday.
A silent gathering was held Friday evening at the Capitol in Olympia to support the search for Oakley, and to support a new house bill called the Oakley Carlson Act.
The story of Oakley’s disappearance in Oakville two years ago deeply affected two women in other states — one from Massachusetts and one from Missouri — who are founding the Light the Way Missing Persons Advocacy Project.
The group is supporting changes in child welfare policies and giving foster children more rights. The Oakley Carlson Act, known as House Bill 1397, would reform the way the Department of Children, Youth and Families handles foster children like Oakley. That agency took Oakley from a foster family who warned the agency about the girl’s safety, and put her back with her birth parents, Andrew Carlson and Jordan Bowers.
Carlson and Bowers are the prime suspects in Oakley’s disappearance. Some of the people at Friday’s gathering have raised $85,000 for information about Oakley’s disappearance.
If passed, the Oakley Carlson Act would make a number of changes to protect children who have been removed from a biological parent based on abuse, neglect or abandonment.
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