S2E11 - Still Searching for Hailey Athay: Shasta Ives Speaks

In this episode of Tragedy: A True Crime Podcast, we speak with Shasta Ives, a close friend of Hailey Athay and a passionate advocate in the ongoing search for answers surrounding Hailey’s disappearance.

Hailey vanished while mushroom picking in Washington, and despite search efforts and years of unanswered questions, those closest to her have never stopped looking for the truth.

Shasta shares what Hailey was like as a person and the friendship they shared. She also gives a firsthand account of the search efforts, describing the terrain, the volunteers who came together to help, and the determination of those who refuse to let Hailey’s case fade into the background.

But this conversation goes beyond the search itself. Shasta opens up about how Hailey’s disappearance has deeply affected her life and why she continues to advocate for attention and answers in Hailey’s case.

Behind every missing person case is a community still searching, still hoping, and still fighting for justice.

If you have information regarding the disappearance of Hailey Athay, please contact local law enforcement.

As with all cases, all parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law

Music License - JRKZ7XR86OGECJBI

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

In Tragedy, a true crime podcast, we discuss missing persons' cases, violent crime, and other sensitive topics that may be difficult for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Our show is a place where every story matters and every voice deserves to be heard. To support this podcast, you can subscribe at www.tragedy a true crime podcast.com for early access to new episodes. And join our Facebook community, Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast, for updates, discussions, and ways to support the families we feature. Welcome to Tragedy, a True Crime Podcast. I'm Elisa.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Today we're joined by Shasta Ives, a close friend of Haley Athey. Shasta knew Haley beyond the headlines, who she was, how she showed up for the people she loved, and the kind of light she carried into every room. She's here to help us remember Haley is a person and to share why her disappearance still weighs so heavily on those who knew her best. Thank you for being here and welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

One thing we like to do at the beginning of these shows, not something we started doing for season two, is kind of getting playing a little bit of a game. It's just a couple of questions to kind of you know get to know each other a little bit, you get to know more about us, and you know, and listeners get to know a little bit more about you.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Okay. All right. So here's the first one. Summer Olympics or winter Olympics? Summer. And why?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

I love the warm. I can't really do good in the cold.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

I I feel that much of the United States is experiencing some cold, but um not where we are. It it's nice here.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

It is nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

And I really love the Olympics. I know a lot of people really don't watch the Olympics, um, but for some reason it's something I've always found really interesting. I really used to watch a lot of the figure skating. I don't know why. I thought that was really fun and interesting. Um, but I think I could watch both. I don't necessarily have a preference for summer or winter. I like the swimming events. So I I, you know, it just gives me something to look forward to in the summer. So I think maybe I would say a little bit of each. All right, next question. What's your favorite holiday and why?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Um I would say Christmas, probably, because I have a three-year-old daughter and I love to watch her open the presents and the expressions on her face are priceless. How about you, Michael?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

What's your favorite holiday?

SPEAKER_02 2:34

With me, it's uh I would say it's probably gonna be Thanksgiving. Um, and it's because we spent years always hosting Thanksgiving, and then I kind of built this tradition of frying turkeys, which I got really good at after many, many years of doing it. And I just enjoy um the family get togethers and just the there's no pressure. It's everyone seems to have a good time, and I just enjoyed that being part of my life.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah, remember that one year we decided we were going to boycott hosting Thanksgiving, and so we just went we went up to the mountains by ourselves and we were so bored. We got we got our Airbnb and we were like, now what? This is so boring.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

What do we do now? I'm supposed to be frying a turkey. So we only did it one time, and like, let's go back to hosting because I it's one of those things we had taken for granted how much fun it was.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yep. And Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday too, but it's because you get everybody together, but you don't have the pressure of getting the just right present um for everybody. And then my second favorite is Fourth of July. I just love summer and staying up late. And now with those shows they have with the drones instead of the fireworks, those are amazing. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I haven't got to see one of those yet.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

They're definitely, if you ever see one, even just looking at it on YouTube, it's definitely worth seeing them. They've done some amazing stuff with what they're doing, and I I can I can imagine this is gonna start to become more and more popular.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah, I think it's safer too, right? Feels like it. Yeah, okay. And the last question. Um, tell us about a hobby that you really love. Um gosh.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

The pressure.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

I know. She did say she has she has a three-year-old, so hobbies might not be a thing right now. I know.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

They're they're really her hobbies, they're what we do. I mean, really, we like to we have a subscription to Chuck E. Cheese. She loves Chuck E. Cheese right now. And really, we try and check out all the Chuck E. Cheeses we can. If we pass by one, we gotta stop.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Okay, wait a second. I knew he's gonna ask you a question. Get ready. What is a subscription to Chuck E. Cheese? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

I you know, I don't do it. Her dad does, but um, I'm pretty sure he pees like a monthly amount, and we're allowed to go unlimited times every month. And she gets like so many points on a card when we go, and yeah, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

So it's it's free pizza, free games, both?

SPEAKER_00 4:54

No, it's it's free games. Um, you get like a discount, I believe, on like pizza and the food, that kind of stuff. Um, possibly even a birthday package. We really go for the games.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

No, understood. Whenever I think of that, I was you know, I used to always threaten uh an Emma, um Elisa's daughter, that we were gonna take her Chuck E. Cheese for her 16th birthday, and she was she was so mad, especially considering I sold it one time where I literally pulled into the parking lot and she's like, No, I don't want to go. Um, but then I also had a friend of mine in high school that that was actually Chucky. So he was the guy who walked around in the mouse outfit. In the mouse outfit, and we made fun of him all he he he made a mistake when he let us find out that's pretty good for all.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Because we did nothing but in fact we kept going to Chuck E. Cheese even as we were in high school just to watch him walk around and deal with us.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

That is so funny. Now I remember Chuck E. Cheese being a reward, but the only time I would take her is when she'd had teeth pulled. So and she had a lot of teeth pulled, like I think 12 or 13 or 14 over the course of a year and braces and all that. So Chuck E. Cheese was the reward for having to go to the dentist, but I think by the time she was 16, it really wasn't a reward anymore. It was a threat. That's hilarious. Okay, there we go. I did not expect to talk about Chuck E. Cheese.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

I didn't. That's why we do this.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

That's an amazing question. Um, how about you, Michael? Do you have a hobby that you'd like to talk about?

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Um, yeah, everyone who knows me knows that my hobby is fly fishing. And so fly fishing is it's elevated more than just a hobby. It's more of a religion at this point. And so I do I fly fish all over the country and I was a guide for Rocky Mountain National Park for a while. So um that's one of the things I miss about now we're in Florida because it's not easy just to go grab my fly rod and run out to a river now because it's not it's just not that type of area. So um, but you know, we're gonna be heading out there this summer, so we'll be getting the fly fishing bug taken care of.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Well, I remember we did go to Washington and we did a bunch of fly fishing in Olympic National Park and Mount Rainier National Park. Um, so we were out there, I think that was two years ago. Two years ago. We spent, I want to say like three weeks. We did not get as far north as North Cascades National Park. As you can tell, maybe that's my hobby, visiting national parks. But that was incredible. We had some paddle boarding and that was a great trip.

unknown 7:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

It was.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

I love it. Uh well, that was really fun, Michael. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah, I love it. All right. So let's talk a little bit about Haley. So we want to start with um, what do you want people to know about Haley?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Well, she is one of my best friends. I've known her for 15 plus years. And she is one of the most like genuine and big-hearted per people I've ever met. Like, no matter who you are, if she just met you, if she's known you forever, she she'd always like if she's seen you crying or going through something, she'd always be the first one there to like, hey, what's going on? Are you okay? And then try and cheer you up at the same time. She like her smile was so contagious. She could literally walk in a room and anybody would just she's just so bubbly, so full of personality and life. Um I just want people to know that she's loved and she's missed. And no matter where she's at, um we will keep seeking to find her and bring her home and seek justice for her because that's what her daughters, she has three beautiful daughters that are at home waiting for her. Um so we just ask that people keep their eyes and their ears open and if they know anything to please reach out, even to just me, if they would don't feel comfortable reaching out to the sheriff's department, if they would like to remain anonymous. Um, yeah, that's really what we've just been trying to find her for the last year and try and find any kind of lead information that anybody could give to us to find her or where she last was, any kind of information.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

And so in the days and maybe even months leading up to her disappearance, did you notice anything um different or unusual or something as you reflect back, anything that stood out to you leading up to when she disappeared?

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Haley struggled with addiction off and on. Um she was currently bottling her addiction in the time she went missing. Um so I I myself have almost 10 years clean. And so I didn't always get to see her every day, you know. Um, I have to kind of keep a distance, but I always messaged her, you know. I always checked on her, like, hey, how are you doing? What are you doing? Love you, miss you, you know, that kind of thing. Happy holidays. And it was one of those situations where it was coming up on the holidays. I had actually drove, I was driving down the road and I seen her walking, and I was like, what? And I stopped and pulled over and picked her up and gave her a ride and kind of talked to her and gave her a ride somewhere, told her I loved her and I missed her. We talked about trying to get her into an inpatient facility and detoxing and getting her the things she would need for that. So I continued messaging her after I'd gave her that ride, and that was probably the beginning of November. So around November 11th, I messaged, I had seen her at Safeway on Ocean Beach Highway in Longview. I seen her and she asked me if I could give her a ride, and I told her yes, and I'd be waiting for her outside. And I was out in my car, and I seen her come out of the doors while she was having troubles with her card she was trying to use. So she told me it's okay, I could just go, and she talked to me later. So I went home and I'd messaged her, hey, sorry, hope your card worked out, that kind of thing. I'd talked to her a few times after that. And that's when I kind of noticed around November 17th, maybe a few days later, I noticed her she wasn't active on Facebook. I was like, oh, that's odd. Well, I kind of kept an eye on that for I don't know, maybe like a week or two, and I was like, I noticed she hadn't been active at all. And that's not like Haley. She did tell me when I gave her a ride somebody had stolen her phone, but that she still had her tablet to get on Facebook with, and that's how she would communicate with people, and that she had planned on trying to get another phone. So I was like, when she hadn't been active for a few weeks, um, I had reached out to a few people and just said, Hey, have you seen Haley or have you talked to her? And they just kind of told me, you know, she's just kind of doing her thing. So when Christmas had came, so it was Thanksgiving, and um I had messaged her and said, Happy Thanksgiving, and my message had gone through. Sorry to be kind of jumpy all around. Um my messages had gone through. Well, I noticed when I because I would message her, hey Haley, I'm worried, I'm worried, where are you? I love you. Hey, just message me. I'm not trying to bug you about treatment or anything. I just want to know you're okay. Um, my messages stopped going through on Facebook or on Messenger, and that was really off to me. It like said could like messages could not be sent anymore. So I was like, okay, what is going on? So I'd reached out to a few friends that I knew if anything, they would know what was going on with Haley, like either if she got clean or if she was in jail, anything. They hadn't heard anything, so I waited a little bit longer, and it was Christmas time, messaged the Facebook profile, and my messages still didn't go like they would send on my end, but they would say like still not being sent. Um January 3rd, I I had reported Haley missing. Like I had made Facebook posts asking has anyone heard of Hayley or heard from Haley or they've seen her or anything that I was worried. There was comments that they haven't seen her for a few weeks. It wouldn't be the first time she's disappeared. Um, not since she was with so-and-so. Then on January 4th, I had made another Facebook post just saying, please help me. I've called KPD, knocked on doors, drove everywhere, stalked houses, messaged everyone I could think of, and I would read those comments. And those comments would be like, Oh, the last time I seen her, she was with so and so, or um, so nobody's seen her over the holidays, or the last time I seen her was on Thanksgiving Day, going out mushroom picking with so-and-so. And then there'd be comments like, oh, the last time I seen her was in Kelso at the laundromat with this person. So I'd try and follow all those leads, like message those people, go speak with them, go to the laundromat, ask people around there, that kind of thing. There was nothing, still no Haley. On January 4th, I called the police department, the sheriff's office to be exact, and I filed a missing person's report because I had not seen Haley. Nobody that I had talked to had seen Haley in four plus weeks. That's not like Haley. On that same day, I made a post for the missing people of Washington State, and I gave her description, the last places she's known to be. Um tattoos, and the last time she was possibly seen. January 6th, I was able to speak to some friends that said Haley had used their phone. They said they were able to get her Facebook passwords and stuff from the core of their phone, so they gave me those so I could give to the police department to go through and be able to see if they could get any information from her Facebook because it was working and then it wasn't working for the messages. On January 6th, I had made a Facebook post. I just wanted to update everybody as to what was going on. I said, I don't know where Haley is. I have ideas of who she was last seen with, but I have not made contact with the said person. I am trying. Her Facebook messages have not helped at all. I'm still working on that. I have searched places that I will be going back to, and if no luck, then with search and rescue. I am trying to check every place possible. I've reached out to so many people in and out of addiction that it's insane she has not been spotted or contacted anyone. So, yes, this has me on high alert. This is not like Haley. Not one person I have talked to has seen her, but I'm not giving up. Please pray. There was like a lot of comments on that post saying where they thought she could be or who she could be with. Um, one comment kind of had us all a little shocked. They said they had messaged the person she was supposed to be with when she went out mushroom picking, and the girl said the guy immediately blocked her. Like the second she asked about Haley, he just blocked her. And they've been friends for like 20 plus years. So she said that was very odd. He's never acted like that. I never got to make contact with him myself. Still to this day, I have not. On January 7th, I had made another Facebook update that had said, uh, you guys who still haven't fann Haley, I'm trying so hard. I've been out every day knocking on doors, following leads, everything. I feel like today I didn't get anywhere. I mean, I got some addresses checked off the list, but it's frustrating and hard. I feel like so much wasted time today. Every time I get a new lead or a new address and show up there in high hopes that this is it, this is where she is, and it's nothing. I'm not going to lie, I'm getting exhausted, but I won't give up. I'm so sick. I just want to find my friend. I feel like I'm running out of ideas or scenarios. I need ideas, I need help. The only thing I can think to do is start reaching out to the gentleman I've talked to and see if I should get a group of us together and go with his dogs and possibly search areas or areas given. How many can come help Friday or Saturday? I need a group. These areas are huge. Keep please keep praying. So just during these times, I haven't stopped. I am I've barely slept. I won't lie. The first six months of Haley missing, I probably slept for three hours a night. I was constantly like trying to follow leads, find her, follow up on anything and everything. I'd go out at two o'clock in the morning, like, especially when it first started snowing. I didn't want anything to be lost if I could find it. On January 25th, um, I set up, I believe it was our search first group, our first search group. Um, and we searched the Coal Creek area. On February 1st, I also set up a search group, and this time we searched Kelso area. I made a post on February 3rd asking for help trying to find Haley with a bunch of pictures because February 3rd is National Missing Persons Day. On March 11th, the Daily News shared Haley's story. On March 17th, the main suspect was arrested for again for a DOC warrant while searched. Police found a firearm, so he has also had a chart, got a charge for that while he was incarcerated. On March 18th, we had shirts made to bring awareness to Haley's name and story. Around May 3rd, we set up another search to meet in Castle Rock and search the same area again. Because they're very vast areas. On July, we started noticing around July 30th, we started noticing a activity on Haley's Facebook. Um somebody took it upon themselves to go on and off of her Facebook, and then they decided to take it a step further and start changing things on one of her Facebooks. The things they decided to change and say and do were very foul and inappropriate to say the least. I don't know what their intentions were with that, but I can tell you it wasn't very nice just because of the things they said.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Just so I'm clear on that, let me sorry to interrupt.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

When you say they were making changes on her Facebook, are we talking about posting or did they have access to her profile?

SPEAKER_00 20:57

They did actually post.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

So they post, they weren't doing things as her or in her profile. They were just posting on her page.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Both.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Both. Interesting. So they were able to get the password to her Facebook account.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Yeah, they had changed like things. They added like a song to her Facebook profile. They changed her job place. Um they had come on and initially made a post saying, I don't care about family, I don't care about anything. And I think they were gonna try and portray like they were Hayley, but it didn't work because immediately the Facebook was blown up. Like people calling, Where are you? Where what are you doing, Hayley? And that's when the truth showed that it wasn't really Hayley, is because their replies to the comments, where are you? We're worried, da-da-da. They were saying stuff like, I'm in hell, and very vulgar, explicit things that shouldn't be said about somebody missing. You know? Um yeah, very foul things. Around August 18th, the gentleman that said so I think I actually skipped a part and I apologize. Um after I had reported Haley missing, the detectives had done searching and talked to people. They had came to the conclusion that um a gentleman was the last person she was to be seen with and they were supposed to go mushroom picking. Well, the said person was arrested for a DOC warrant. While they were incarcerated for that, the detectives had gone and talked with them. The said person said yes, Haley and him were out mushroom picking, but that he lost, left Haley out there, and yeah, went on, called for a ride and went on about his day. I'm not quite sure how the rest of that played out, but um he directed the detectives to a supposable area they were, and they went out with canine dogs and searched the area, but had no had no luck. So that is the gentleman I'm referring to in this. Um while he was arrested the second time and he was searched, that's when he got the he got a possession of a firearm. They found a firearm firearm on him in Clark County. And while he was in Clark County waiting to plead for that charge, um, Wakayakum County had filed a vehicle or homicide charge for a woman that had been killed six months prior to Haley missing. I guess the gentleman was driving erratically with his passenger and they had wrecked, and the passenger had lost her life. And so they had investigated that for a year and they decided to press charges. So the gentleman that is suspected in Haley's case is currently incarcerated for another woman's stuff, you know. And um, he has trial coming up February 9th through the 12th. We're kind of just waiting to see how that plays out. Hopefully, while he is incarcerated for all of this, we can get some answers for Haley.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

I do have um a question. I was seeing on social media and some other places that I've been looking at, there are some images of her with someone, like going out in the evening. Is this the same person that you're talking about? I'm not quite sure. You've seen images of what? Um, I saw on social media that there were some um video taken of her where she was out with someone. This is what I saw publicly. Um, someone she had met online, and that was like the last visual image of her. Is that accurate? Because that's what I remember reading.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

To be honest, I don't know. I'm not quite sure what it is you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Okay. This is a good thing to clarify um that sometimes what is out there on social media or you know, isn't necessarily the what really happened. So um I will go back and do some double checking on that because this is why we have these conversations. If somebody were just to search her name um and say, hey, what happened, they're going to possibly come across the same information that I had that it said she'd met somebody online and she was going to meet him to go out, you know, for dinner or something like that. But you're describing something totally different as far as the mushroom picking. So that's why I just wanted to get some clarity on that. And it sounds like maybe it's a different story that I was reading. Yeah, I'm not quite sure. I'm so sorry. Okay. No, that's okay. That's why we ask these questions and get the clarity. Now, I do really like that you started talking about how law enforcement um was supporting because I'm hearing you going out, of course, because you're a good friend of hers and doing everything you can possibly do. Um, and I'm wondering, was there any support from law enforcement with all these things that you were doing? Uh or were they sort of off doing their own searching?

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Tell me more about that. To be honest, I can't really speak on what they're doing because I don't really know it's an open investigation, so they haven't really shared too much. The only thing we've really been told is the situation had stated he left Lost Haley in the woods on Thanksgiving Day in Rose Valley area, and Haley has not been seen since. I personally do know the or don't know the detective, you know, but I personally, if I have people reach out with information and say, hey, can you pass this along? I definitely do.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

You did also mention some um canine searches. Can you talk a little bit more about that organization? Oh, the canine searches.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Um so I know the sheriff's office has gone out to areas and searched with their canine team. Um, here locally, we do also have a gentleman that trains canine units. And he you can pay, he's like a private investigator. You can pay for his services as well, and he can go out with his dogs and search. We had actually created a GoFundMe for instances like that. If that was the route we were going to go. Um, we created it so that if we needed to hire a private investigator or let's say those search and rescue dogs that are private, we've printed flyers, stickers. Um, we've done shirts to help spread her name and awareness to her story. Contacted news stations. I've reached out to influencers and podcasts, just like you guys, thank you so much for covering her story.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Talk a little bit about the impact that her disappearance has had on you. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

You're gonna make me cry. I definitely say my life has changed dramatically this last year. I don't think there's not a day that has gone by I haven't thought about her or where she could be or what I need to do to help bring her home. It's hard, it's rough. I can only imagine what her family is going through. If me as a friend, I feel this. I feel her daughters deserve to have their mother, you know, um, home. And if that's not the case, they at least deserve somewhere they can go and visit and talk with her and bring her flowers. She has two younger daughters that they're pretty young. So I don't know if they'll get to remember everything. And that that's really hard.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

And if anyone has any information, I've heard you talk about I think it's the Kelso Police Department. You also talked about the sheriff's office. What would be the best place for people to contact with any information they might have?

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Sorry, excuse me. Yes, the Called County Sheriff's Office. The phone number is 360-577-3092, and the case number is 825-247, and the detective on the case is James Hanbury.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

And is there anything else that you'd like to share about Haley that we did not give you an opportunity to share?

SPEAKER_00 30:06

I don't believe so, but I just want to say thank you guys so much for sharing her name and her story. And anybody out there that's listening, please, if you know anything, even if you think it's the smallest detail, it could be the biggest thing to us. Please just reach out. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

You've been listening to Tragedy, a true crime podcast. Our purpose is to honor victims by sharing their stories through the voices of friends, family, and those whose lives were forever changed. If today's episode resonated with you, we encourage you to subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast so these important stories continue to be heard. Together, we can preserve their memories and ensure their voices are never forgotten. If you have ideas for cases we should cover or questions about what you heard, you can connect with us through our Facebook group, Tragedy a True Crime Podcast, on X at Tragedy Podcast, by email at Tragedy a True Crime Podcast at gmail.com, or by visiting our website www.tragedy a true crime podcast.com. Thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us next time.