By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Detectives ran into somewhat of a dead end when they followed up a family member’s lead that the 2010 disappearance of Lewis County teen Kayla Croft-Payne may be related to a photographer she met with on a website called Model Mayhem, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said today.
Kayla Croft-Payne
Using a search warrant to get information in mid-March from the company that houses information for the site, deputies were told there was no account history on the website for Croft-Payne, according to the sheriff’s office.
Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said in a news release detectives worked with Internet Brands Inc. looking at all the accounts from Western Washington. They checked the young woman’s identity information, email addresses and used facial recognition imagery in reverse, according to Brown.
Croft-Payne was 18 and living in rural Chehalis when she was reported missing in the spring of 2010, by a roommate who hadn’t seen her for several days.
Her aunt, Karen Hinton, recently told detectives the girl’s last posting on social media sites suggested she had gone to get pictures taken for a modeling portfolio and asked them to look into Model Mayhem. Hinton had begun working with a Vancouver, Wash.-based organization.
In March, National Women’s Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation contacted numerous members of the press to describe how Croft-Payne is one of three young women around the country who posted photos and information about themselves on the same modeling website and left for modeling only to never return home.
Brown indicated today that when detectives briefed family members of what they discovered, they were told a family member had located the particular account she had seen and it turned out to be on a different modeling website.
The sheriff’s office will follow up on the new information, Brown stated.
Last week, the Vancouver group announced it has created a task force to investigate online modeling sites which are involved in criminal activity, saying it is aware of many cases that involve rape, trafficking, murder and other violence and abuse toward females.
Brown says the sheriff’s office is actively following up on all leads and tips related to Croft-Payne’s disappearance. They ask anyone who knows anything about the case please call them or contact Crime Stoppers of Lewis County, at 1-800-748-6422.
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For background, read “Kayla Croft-Payne: Family of missing girl questions link to modeling website” from Monday April 29, 2013, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
I agree that the investigation into that website should have been immediate.
One thing that is all over the news is those three ladies that were locked up for 10 years, and just now escaped. Two of them were minors, but the third (or rather first in the house) was already an adult when she went missing, and the police didn’t look into her missing status since, as an adult, she had the right to go missing. If Kayla had disappeared before her 18th birthday, then maybe the search would have been timely, and perhaps more thorough.
I think that if those two tweakers from So. Cal get charged for their rescue, then that will affect a lot of cases. Sad to say, but the police have their hands so full with innocent people, that when a druggie comes up missing it’s just “part of the culture” rather than a little child that has been kidnapped.
I would be devastated if one of my children was involved in drugs, and to end up missing would be more than terrible. A parent always has the hope that their child will turn from their druggie ways, and to go missing doesn’t increase their odds of coming back clean and healthy.
Her**parents….
I still think they should be looking into sickos preying on girls who are using this and other modeling sites. Young girls like this, want so desperately to live their dream that they will do literally anything and these dirtbags know that. Also I call bs that this site has no record of her at all. The mom n others say she was using it so whatever. I’m sure it’s just more of LC’s fine police work. Tax dollars at hard work. At any rate, also what’s the deal with the best friend selling her out in the last article and saying “oh she could have been killed by someone she owed drug money to” and that far reaching sex traffic shit? Sounds like she’s grasping at straws or trying to make this girl look bad or both. Weirdo. Anyway I hope they don’t let this girl become a distant memory for only get parents to worry about. It’s already been a year and they are JUST NOW investigating the modeling agency?! Plenty of time for them to wipe their records clean. Ugh… Effing morons.