A 14-year-old girl last seen off Old Highway 99 SW near Centralia on Wednesday afternoon has triggered a statewide Missing Indigenous Person Alert, the third such alert tied to her disappearance since late June. Nayleea Shelton-Eddy was last seen around 3:30 p.m. wearing a black shirt and black leggings, according to the alert. She is described as 5 feet 5 inches tall, 105 pounds, with blonde hair with pink coloring and green eyes.
The Washington State Patrol activated the alert on behalf of the Thurston County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating under case number 26-003761, according to WSP Missing Person Alerts. Anyone who spots Shelton-Eddy is asked to call 9-1-1, while anyone with other information can reach the sheriff's office at its non-emergency line, 360-704-2740. The state patrol only issues these alerts when local or tribal law enforcement formally requests one after filing an official report, per its own operating guidelines.
A Pattern Along the Same Stretch of Road
This is not the first time Shelton-Eddy has disappeared from the area. According to The Daily Chronicle, she was reported missing twice in late June and early July under a separate Thurston County case number, 26-002975, each time prompting its own statewide advisory. Washington State Patrol social media updates from late July indicated she had also been reported missing on July 10 before being found safe roughly a month before this latest disappearance.
The location itself carries a jurisdictional quirk. Although Old Highway 99 SW in the 98531 ZIP code carries a Centralia mailing address, the stretch actually sits in unincorporated Thurston County, which is why county deputies rather than city police are leading the investigation while the state patrol handles the public broadcast.
How Washington's Alert System Works
Washington was the first state in the nation to create a standalone alert system for missing Indigenous people, after Governor Jay Inslee signed House Bill 1725 into law in March 2022 and the program launched that July. The bill was prime-sponsored by Representative Debra Lekanoff of Anacortes, the only Native American woman then serving in the state House, and was requested by the state Attorney General's office.
Under state law, RCW 13.60.010, being an Indigenous person is itself treated as an endangerment factor, meaning law enforcement can request a statewide alert as soon as an unexplained disappearance is logged into the National Crime Information Center database — without needing separate proof that the person is in physical danger. Because no vehicle description is tied to Shelton-Eddy's case, her alert will not appear on the electronic highway signs the state patrol reserves for cases involving a verified vehicle, per agency guidance.
Statewide Numbers Behind the Alerts
The alert system has been used often since its 2022 launch. A June 2026 report from the Washington Attorney General's MMIWP Task Force found the state patrol issued 220 such alerts between July 2022 and April 2026, resulting in 203 people recovered alive, five found deceased, and 12 still missing. Indigenous Washingtonians face a missing-person rate of 34.32 per 100,000, more than four times the statewide overall rate of 8.04 per 100,000, according to data reported by Real Change.
Repeat disappearances involving youth, like the pattern seen with Shelton-Eddy, remain a particular concern for local sheriff's departments and tribal advocate networks working within the state's broader missing and murdered Indigenous people framework. For now, Thurston County investigators are asking anyone with information on her whereabouts to come forward as the search continues.
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