Photo of the missing Kayla Croft-Payne to be featured on long-haul trucks

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The face of a missing Chehalis girl will soon be pasted poster-sized on the sides of truck trailers that travel throughout the country.

Kayla Croft-Payne was reported missing on May 5, 2010  by a friend who hadn’t seen or heard from her for several days. She was 18 years old and living outside Chehalis.

Gordon Trucking, in Pacific, will unveil Croft-Payne’s poster on Friday morning adding it to their fleet that highlights missing children from Washington and Oregon.

“The whole idea is just to get, in her case to get her picture out there,” Washington State Patrol Lt. Ron Mead said. “They get a lot of exposure they wouldn’t otherwise get.”

Mead said her image will be placed on multiple trailers.

Gordon Trucking already features other youngsters, such as Kyron Horman, who was 7 years old when he disappeared in Portland. A new age-progressed picture of Kyron and two other children are currently being added to the fleet, according to Mead.

It’s part of a partnership called Homeward Bound, involving private industry and the state patrol, according to Mead.

When Croft-Payne turned 18, she got several thousand dollars from a trust fund and moved into an apartment in Chehalis. Neither her father or her mother knew a lot about the friends their daughter was hanging out with in the months before she vanished.

Last year, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said it had followed tips up into Pierce County, and down into Cowlitz County, saying the last place they could verify she was seen was a trailer park in the Toutle area.

“As long as there is hope, we have a responsibility to keep that hope alive,” Mead said.
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For background, read “Kayla Croft-Payne: Missing Lewis County teen’s parents still seeking answers” from Friday March 25, 2011, here ^[2]