Teenager Kayla Croft-Payne hasn't been heard from since last April 28
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
VADER – When 18-year-old Kayla Croft-Payne first went missing, the little store in Vader displayed a flyer at their counter and handed out copies of the appeal for information about the teenager’s whereabouts.
Now, almost a year later, the small poster has moved, tacked to a wall by the door and surrounded by others offering items for sale, chimney cleaning services and even tutoring.
Still, not much more than a week goes by without a customer asking if anyone’s heard anything about her, according to clerk Kelli Gammel.
“It’s a sad story. A very sad story,” Gammel said.
While Croft-Payne moved away from Vader at least twice in her late teens, she would always come back. Her mother, Michelle Croft, lives in the small south Lewis County town.
Kayla Croft-Payne on Facebook
The teen would pop into J and G’s Grocery periodically, Gammel said.
“A very pretty girl, she could have been a model,” Gammel said. “Tall, slender. She was popular with a lot of people.”
Gammel, who’s known the teen’s parents since before Croft-Payne was born, describes her as somewhat “street-smart” but also gullible.
When Croft-Payne turned 18, she got several thousand dollars from a trust fund and moved into an apartment in Chehalis. That was September 2009. Neither the money or the new place lasted long, according to her family.
That’s when things spiraled out of control, Gammel said.
“The last time she came into the store, she was with an older man who kind of gave me the creeps,” she said.
Gammel says she’s picked up plenty of rumors about what happened to the young woman, but she had begun to bounce around and “we didn’t really know who she was hanging out with.”
“Somebody knows something,” she said. “But when Kayla disappeared, she wasn’t hanging out in Vader.”
Late last spring, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office put out a public request for any information on Croft-Payne, saying she was reported missing on May 5 by a friend who had not seen or heard from her for several days.
She hadn’t logged on to her MySpace internet account since April 28.
At the time, she was living in a trailer behind a place on the 200 block of Newaukum Valley Road, between Chehalis and Napavine.
She was very social, talking to friends online daily, sheriff’s detective Jamey McGinty said.
“Then it just stopped,” he said. “No contact with her attorney, her MySpace, Facebook. It just stops.
It was the sort of disappearance that prompted the sheriff’s office to put every available detective on it to track down leads for at least two weeks, according to McGinty.
But now, without new tips coming in, the case work is mostly routinely checking her Internet accounts and a nationwide database in case she were to get arrested, detective’s Sgt. Dusty Breen said earlier this week.
Croft-Payne has friends all over, some – who like she did – used drugs, according to those who know her.
She was raised by her mother in Centralia and Chehalis and then for about three years during middle school – when she got put into foster care – lived in the area around Toledo.
She spent six months in a drug and alcohol treatment program for pregnant women in Tacoma.
By March of 2009, she was clean, but wanted to get away from the drugs in Vader. She and the baby moved in with a married friend in Winlock.
At first, it went fine, said Cassandra Sines the friend who is now 24. Croft-Payne attended an alternative high school program, she said.
But then she was partying and not coming home to take care of her baby, Sines said. Methamphetamine was her drug of choice then, though later she used heroin, according to Sines.
By June, Child Protective Services put the child in foster care.
Kayla Croft-Payne on MySpace
The last time Sines saw Croft-Payne in person was in January 2010.
“I don’t know if she was on drugs or what that day,” she said. “She was kind of being bitchy, and we told her to leave.”
Still, they “talked” online almost daily. Croft-Payne was sort of addicted to social media, she said.
“The last couple of times I (messaged) with Kayla, she wanted to get clean,” Sines said.
It was Sines who gave the missing person information to the sheriff’s office. But the initial phone call on May 5, was made by Croft-Payne’s close friend Ashley Smith, who used Sine’s phone, Sines said.
“Ashley asked me to give her a ride to go find Kayla,” she said. “We drove to Onalaska, to Vader, she wasn’t there.”
Smith got panicky, called 911, and gave Sines’ name instead of her own, Sines said.
Neither Croft-Payne’s father or her mother know a lot about the friends their daughter was hanging out with in the months before she vanished.
“The drug scene’s been sucking her back for years,” said her father, Thomas Payne.
Payne, who’s 46 and lives in Longview, said even though his daughter was sometimes rebellious, she would always call.
He last spoke with her a month or two before she disappeared.
“She wanted to get away from all the people she was doing drugs with, get a fresh start, get her life together,” Payne said.
She wanted to see her younger sister, and asked if she could move in with him, he said. He told her only if she went into drug treatment first. She said she’d be down but didn’t make it, he said.
Not knowing, and not getting much information from the sheriff’s office has been agonizing for the union construction worker who is also father to a 10-year-old girl.
Kayla Croft-Payne, Department of Licensing photo
“I’ve got lots and lots of friends that would love to go out and look for her,” he said. “But we’ve got no idea where to start in the world.”
Late last year, detective McGinty asked Payne and his daughter to come in and give DNA samples, just in case they were needed, he said.
Payne tells Jada her big sister is just being a butt head and not calling, he said.
“All she knew is we were giving DNA to help find sissy,” he said. “She’s 10, she hasn’t put two and two together yet. Thank God.”
The part of the conversation with McGinty that has stayed him with the most, is the idea his daughter may have died from an accidental drug overdose and her body hidden by friends afraid of getting in trouble.
Payne hopes renewed attention to the case will bring someone forward with information.
“I don’t care, I just want to find out where she’s at one way or the other,” he said. “To put her to rest or get her help.”
Lewis County detectives say the last place they can verify Croft-Payne being seen is in Cowlitz County. She stayed at least one evening in a trailer park in the Toutle area, according to detective Sgt. Breen.
The theory she died from a drug overdose did come through the investigation, McGinty said.
Late last July, they had a cadaver dog search around a river in the Toutle area, but they did not get any definite “alerts” from the dog, according to Breen.
If Croft-Payne did succumb to drugs and anyone knows where she can be found, the sheriff’s office would like to hear about it.
Hiding a body is not a felony, it’s only a misdemeanor, according to Breen.
The teenager’s mother last spoke with her in April.
“She called, said she was on her way down and didn’t show up,” Michelle Croft said.
Last weekend, as she spoke about her missing oldest child, her 4-year-old grabbed a helium ballon from the living room wall of their home and ran outside, announcing she would “send it to Kayla.”
“We usually write messages on them,” Croft said. “We’ve had a rough time. At first she thought it was her fault sissy didn’t come home.”
Croft learned her daughter was reported missing by reading a newspaper article about it, she said. At first, she thought her daughter’s father was hiding her, she said.
The 44-year-old mother didn’t like seeing the sheriff’s office label her daughter transient. She wasn’t, Croft said.
“When she didn’t get her way, she’d stay with friends,” she said. “And when she didn’t get her way there, she’d be back.”
Kayla Croft-Payne
Croft said she doesn’t have much money because she doesn’t work, but she’s gotten help from Gammel in making missing person flyers. She driven from Tacoma to Portland, posting them in convenience stores, she said.
“The not knowing, it’s killing me, it’s killing me inside,” she said. “It’s hard to take care of Shelbie, sometimes I just want to lay down.
“But I feel like if I’m not out there putting pictures up, I feel like I’m giving up.”
Croft, who said she’s in recovery from meth addiction, has also been spending time with people in the drug world, hoping to learn something about her daughter’s whereabouts, she said.
“Kayla, she ran with people in their 30s and 40s,” she said. “She grew up fast because she got put into the system.”
She’s heard her daughter was hanging out with gang members from the Mexican Mafia in Longview, she said.
“I was told she was being trafficked for sex,” she said. “I was told she had a pretty high drug bill.”
But that’s just one rumor the mother of two has come across.
Sheriff’s detectives say Croft-Payne spent time in places such as Lewis County, Kitsap County and Grays Harbor County.
They’ve followed tips into Pierce County and even tracked down a wood chipper after they heard someone made comments she’d been put through one. It was covered with cobwebs, Breen said.
In June, they went to a court hearing where Croft-Payne was expected, in connection with getting custody of her baby.
“She was trying to get her child back, trying really hard,” McGinty said. “For her to not show up, it wasn’t like her.”
They checked with her grandmother in Montana, wondering if she left the state. She wasn’t there.
“There’s been tips she was alive,” McGinty said.
After hearing a rumor she was on the east Coast, Breen sent for a license photo, but it was another woman, he said.
Last October, it appeared Croft-Payne posted a message on someone’s else’s MySpace page, the detectives said.
But when McGinty contacted technicians at MySpace, he learned her comment was labeled with the date when the recipient opened it, not when she sent it, he said.
Croft-Payne’s MySpace page also appears as though she logged on in July, but it wasn’t her, that’s when the company logged in to check her account, he said.
The detectives don’t know what happened to her, but they’d like to find her.
“Our minds aren’t settled whatsoever,” Breen said. “However, the more time goes by … it doesn’t look good.”
The sheriff’s office has shared a copy of her case file with law enforcement officers in Cowlitz County.
Kayla Croft-Payne
For McGinty, who estimates he investigated some 150 missing or runaway person cases during his four years as a detective, this one is different.
“I’d get runaways, at least four a month,” he said. “Sometimes they’d come back that night, sometimes the next day.”
She is the first who has not surfaced, he said.
Croft-Payne is a white female with blue eyes and brown hair. Detectives say now she is probably about 5-feet 9-inches tall and 130 pounds.
Anyone with any information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 360-748-9286.
Anonymous tips can be left at: Crime Stoppers of Lewis County 1-800-748-6422 or the sheriff’s office online crime tips page.
•••
A vigil is planned for Kayla Croft-Payne at 6:30 p.m. on April 28 at Penny Playground in Chehalis, at Southwest 13th Street, off Interstate 5 exit 76.
Organizers are looking for donations of purple and green helium balloons. For information, contact Jerome Painter at jeremy@zebracomputers.com
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
i moved to wa about 15yrs ago from ca i to got into the drugs here i did not know her but understand my son did and said they we friends i had heard about her missing and felt very bad for the family and friends who love her i was talking one afternoon to a friend one day (dont know how much is fact) but she told me she was living in a trailer somewhere (winlock,vader cant say for sure) she also did herion woke up one night to two male friends and they were with a young pretty girl (who she said was k)she was high but she went back to her bedroom went back to bed in the morning when she woke her two male friends were there but not k (again this is just what she told me) that k did od and the two males barried her somewhere
Please feel free to share any info about this missing persons case. very much interested. I welcome anything that has to do with this case. send info to: Blakeman2213@gmail.com
Can’t say and cavedweller:
First off I am not with the police at all or this cult. I am interested in hearing more though. Such as where exactly are the entrances to these caves and your full stories. I feel you left out some details possibly… Please email me at somebodyinterested@hotmail.com
I have seen cults coming together in the caves beneath Winlock.
There is another place where cults used to go, it was here, I once saw Kayla Croft-Payne with a tall man holding her hand.
Brunson’s Hollow.
Off of Roe Road, off of the Winlock-Vader highway.
It’s all logged over – leaving only the headstones of the KEARNS family, owned by the Snow Family.
It was here that I saw her, forming a circle with many other people around a fire. I was ghost-hunting but when I saw a cult was doing something there, I thought it best to leave.
Especially when the girl who looked over her shoulder at me was the girl on the Missing Person’s flyer at the little grocery store.
She is alive.
My friend is a psychic – she hasn’t quite figured out how to control her gift(s) yet but one thing is for sure; my friend took a hold of Kayla’s Missing Person flier in her hand and it all flahsed before her eyes.
My friend broke down and started crying.
She started shaking and covering her ears saying, “they won’t let her out – they won’t let her go. She doesn’t exist anymore.”
I tried to ask her where Kayla’s body was and all she said was “Morton.”
This friend can see things play out in her mind, she has also made comments to me about Joyce Moyer and Lindsey Baum and someone named Keith Howell the third? (don’t know that last one)
If anyone needs more info than this, email me at:
ky.legallner@live.com
This young girl could very well be a victim of someone making her work the streets I just read this story for the firs time and feel for all of those involved I have a daughter that just turned thirty and I worry everyday the people she hangs out with but these older men get these real young girls and make them work its like they aren’t seen out in public it’s something to check on someone out their knows something and they need to step up so this young lady can go home to family my prayers go out to you and hang on it’s got to be tough I know how I feel and sometimes it feels like it is the end but I just hang on when I don’t see my daughter for three days my mind imagines everything and she is thirty but looks eighteen hopefully someone well do the right thing a say something take care
I feel so sad for her family and friends. My prayers are with you. I agree Lewis County is not known for solving serious crimes like missing persons or murders. Sad! I hope the family gets some ansers with another agencey being called in to get this resolved for you. If she crossed state lines I believe the FBI should be involved and why hasn’t a special task force been set up? You have been patient and understanding long enough. I wish you the best.
I DO agree that Keith Howell III should be looked at, but I am wondering if authorities already ruled him out in a lot of these cases? Sounds like the guy was really too psychotic to cover his tracks, however, we all know that mental illness usually progresses over time. Maybe he was more deceptive before his psychosis really kicked in.
Interesting allegations “cant say.” While I suppose what you are saying could be true, if “thousands” of children have been sacrificed, how is it only a handful of bodies have ever turend up? It would be pretty difficult to hide that many human remains and not have someone stumble upon or find it one day. Not to mention that when a child disappears these days, you usually hear a lot about it from the media. If that many kids were disappearing, the public would be freaking out. Without providing anything whatsoever to back up what you say here, it sounds like a lot of easily said, unsubstantiated bullshit to me.
Cant say- How did you come across this information?
I have heard a couple times people stating, at first around the mid ’80’s on KITI’s old talk show and again around 2001 on KELA’s talk show about an alleged pedofile ring consisting of some prominant locals. But no solid confirmations.
I will say in the late ’90’s while living in Tacoma a then young nieghbor and his friend were talking about a stint they both did at Green Hill and some farm affiliated with it that they alleged had people running it that liked “little boys”.
How do these people aquire their victims, and from how far away?
Missing kids do get noticed, although from these local missing people cases, they seem to just as soon become forgotten by the public as quickly.
Police corruption is real, the Seattle Police department definately had some corrupt elements in it in the early ’90’s. Fact is that corruption led to hundreds of millions of dollars being “earned” by some. But I wouldn’t want to pay for what they own.
@cant say – Thank you for encouraging me to look up the history of Winlock. I found a neat article written in 1952 by C.C. Wall. The high school class did the research. I did find several fires in the town, but mostly I just enjoyed the history of the small town. http://www.winlockwa.govoffice2.com/vertical/Sites/%7B131FF39D-640A-4A04-8D6F-F1B120929459%7D/uploads/%7BAF9467A8-11F6-435F-B3B2-5C830CF7957E%7D.PDF
have any of you herd of a cult killing children in winlock because thats what happend to all those people including kayla but this cult is bigger than you think theres police and other high classed officels in this cult so theres nothing you can do to stop it. its been going on past the year of 2000 and way beyond if you have any info on her dont contact the police for all we know they could be in it and if the police that you contact arent involved you bet theyll help the other police and not you.just a tip police always have other polices back no matter if they know its wrong theyll help the bad one.And if you really do care invest cults in winlock and not to be roud but this cult is alot bigger than kayla missing this cult has sacrifieced thousands of childrend if you do want to know about kayla ill tell you its not good but im not saying more because of how dangerouse this is what ever you do dont talk to any one you dont trust by heart and espesiolly not any one in the town of winlock thats where the cult is but not in winlock under it there caves under winlock the story of winlock is winlock got burnt down a long time ago and it was built over but the goverment denies it but that burnt down town is the sancuwary of the cult whatever you do never ever go in a cave near winlock alone im sorry but im saying no more
Glad to see this case getting some recent exposure. I have long been wondering about the seeming inability of law enforcement agencies to crack any of the missing person cases in this area.
Nancy Moyer- Thurston county, Lindsey Baum- Grays Harbor county
Kayla Kroft- Lewis/Cowlitz counties or the little boy who disappeared from his school in either Vancouver or Portland? Kyrun Hormon? Is that his name, not sure.
Then there is the 14 year old girl described as a runaway from Lakewood who’s body was found in Centralia City Lights resevoir around 2009. I think all these people disappeared that year, did they ever find the woman who’s van and young son’s lifeless body were found along a shoreline around Olympia a couple years ago?
I find it odd none of these cases in different jurisdictions have yet to be resolved. And the lack of media coverage is troubling.
I have thought about Keith Howell III myself as a possible suspect, Moyer, Baum and Kroft all went missing while he was selling meat door to door.
I even wonder about the young guy from Morton who is charged in Thurston County and I think Cowlitz for assaulting young boys in public restrooms. His father was the late music teacher who had some legal troubles of his own shortly before he died.
I really do hope u find her
Please if anyone has any information on my sister Kayla please let the authorities know. My family has been torn apart by this. Its been almost 2 years and that is way too long to deal with the hurt and pain of not knowing what has happened to someone that you love and care about. She is someones mother, sister, and daughter.
Idk if what Kim Scott said was true. but I knew Kayla only 4 months up until she was missing. & that shady creepizoid guy I think your talking about. his name is Issac, on Myspace his name was Issac(don vito) The last time I seen her that’s who she was with. Anywho, The last time I saw her she told me about a modeling site, and that she was going to meet with a manager. & that right there should be checked out because They’re are notable scams that portray themselves as modeling agencies that kidnap people. It’s the oldest one in the book everyone wants to be famous.
R eyes b everywhere!!!
There is a person leaving messages on many of the missing or mysterious deaths on the internet. On you site she appears as Kim Scott. She called the Nikki LaDue January Tip line last night and left 3 long messages similar to what is on your site. Is there anything you can do to stop this malicious behavior?
I was a friend of Kayla’s back in 8th and 9th grade… Its a shame that there hasnt been more done. She isnt only a missing teen she is also a missing mom & SHE IS A PERSON! God bless her and her beautiful baby. Please God bring her home safely. Her family, friends & child miss her dearly! I have faith she is alive & hope she turns up soon! Kayla please come home. You are loved by so many!
Kayla was kidnapped by carlos castro and his son daniel. She lives in cheney Washington. The people who kidnapped her and 1,000
other missing people who are living here and spokane,Washington. They all have the same names and are using different last names. Kayla is living with julian rapadas at 712-Simpson pky cheney,Washington the telephone number is 509- 235-2018. I found the address in the coles reverse directory.
When the police call please have them block out there number so they wont know who it is. I am going to court this next month so i
can get all these people free from being held against there will. You can leave me a message at 509-228-3641. Please dont call the cheney police department because there are 5 people who are kidnapping them. Donald james tunnicliff,John tunnicliff Daniel castro,Robert fisher. I hope we get all of them home soon. Thanks,Kim
lewis county is a poorexample for police dept. my opinion im sticking to that
sad..sad..sad..sad..sad…sad.:(
profiler’s ink, get ahold of me. keysring@yahoo.com
you know me. we’ve talked many times. I have something to tell you. or email me how to contact you, I have only your old contact info.
you can message me on facebook under skyecase/keysring@yahoo.com, I’m on missing kayla’s fb page.
This is getting rediculis, the stupid cops should of found her or something already, whats your job good for if you don’t even do it…
Bounty Killers inc: 2 Freeking months ago, Human Remains were found in Morton, & the Findings stated that it is not Lindsey Baum or Nancy Moyer. Could the Remains belong 2 Payne, & why the Freek r the Taxpayers being told anything????????
The Lewis County Sherriff’s office needs to do something, besides sit on there butts checking her social network accounts! For God sake, this is a missing person, A PERSON, that may have been murdered or something. Why are they not doing more to find her???
yah well how come lewis county dont go out and search for this poor girl oh just another runaway like austin king right.
theres seariously something wrong with this for cops not to search for her.its not right for lewis county just to sit back and do nothing .
Profilers inc. Considering the Fact the Police r not Releasing any Details about the Recent Find of Human Remains in Morton, its no wonder People sit around saying Oh I hope this, & Oh I hope that.
Profilers inc. The Recent Find of Human Remains in Morton Raises more Probabilites.
Profilers inc: who is the Older Guy that came into the Store with her. Do the Police have a Composit Sketch, & do they have a Line on this Guy. What r the Locals doing 2 Find her, & sitting around saying oh I hope they find Her isn’t Going 2 find Her.
this is do sad i hope they bring her home!!!
Profilers inc., Does things the Old Fashioned Way, they Impose their Will on Preditors who like 2 Impose their Will on Defenseless Woman & Children. What u gonna do if Profilers comes 2 Impose their Will on u.
Kayla Croft is my cousin I miss her more than ever… we were so close as kids. I hope she is found soon..
Profilers inc., When Profilers inc make up their Mind 2 Find Someone they get Found. Why do u think they Pay us:
Profilers inc., Profiles Missing Persons, & 1 Probable Theory is that Kayla Kroft Payne Fell Prey 2 Bernard Howell III. After all, 2 Underestimate Howell would b a Grave Error, & make no Mistake about it.
My prayers to her family and friends.. I hope she is found soon..