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Bottle Of Wine Emerges As New Clue In Case Of Missing Mother, Boy

Surveillance video taken the night 29-year-old Shantina "Kat" Smiley disappeared shows her buying a jug of wine that looks like one found half-empty on the beach near her partially submerged van.

The grocery store surveillance video -- taken at a West Olympia mini-mart and obtained by KIRO 7 Eyewitness News on Wednesday -- shows Smiley pulling the 1.5-liter bottle of wine from the store shelf, buying it and other items, and leaving with her 8-year-old son, Azriel Carver.

UNCUT: New Revelation In Video Of Missing Mom
WATCH IT: Revelation Resumes Water Search

Police on Wednesday confirmed to KIRO 7 that a wine bottle like the one Smiley purchased was found washed up on the beach overnight. It was capped, unbroken and half empty.

Earlier Wednesday, Smiley's fiancé, Rob Simmons, told the "CBS Early Show" that Smiley is a recovering alcoholic who had a recent relapse. But he said he believes alcohol had no role in her disappearance.

"I don't think alcohol is a factor. She loves her son too much," Simmons said. "She knows better than to go out and drive on the road. She doesn't want to get in any trouble with the law."

Smiley's brother, Travis Wallingford, agreed.

"She would never do that," he told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Richard Thompson.

Also found on the beach were two mismatched leather shoes, an inhaler that may have belonged to Azriel, a baseball and water bottles. The items may have come from the van.

The search was back on Wednesday afternoon after someone in the area recovered several items that washed up on the beach overnight.

In other developments, Azriel’s father, Jay Carver, flew to Sea-Tac Airport from New York Tuesday night to aid in the search for his son. Carver said he talked to his son two weeks ago by phone.

"He's just an incredible boy and real smart kid. I want to find him, that's basically the bottom line. I want to look for him and hopefully find him and bring him home,” Carver said.

He said Smiley is a great mother and would never do anything to hurt her son.

Search dogs were brought back out late Wednesday afternoon to search for the missing pair in a neighborhood near the beach where someone thought they heard pounding on their door Saturday night.

“I have to start putting that little space in my heart and my soul that my prayers might not be answered," Simmons said. "That that phone call I'm expecting is not going to bear the news we want to hear.”

Investigators said Smiley and her son left Silverdale at about 5 p.m. on Saturday and were planning to go to Castle Rock to visit family.

UNCUT: Interview With Smiley's Fiance
TIMELINE: Last Known Locations Of Missing Mom
SLIDESHOW: Mother, Son Disappear; Van Found

Along the way, surveillance videos captured the two at a mini-mart and in the parking lot of a gas station. She also stopped at a diner in Olympia, ordered food, but left without taking it and later stopped at a grocery store.

She also knocked on the door of an Olympia house and asked for directions to the interstate.

She didn’t find the interstate and ended up on Zangle Road Northeast where she drove her van down a private road and onto the beach. Investigators don't know where she went from there.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Thurston County Sheriff's Office.

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