Shaina Kirkpatrick (born April 22, 1999) and her younger sister Shausha Henson (born January 25, 2001) left Portland, Oregon with their mom Kimyala Henson (aged 21) from their home on April 4, 2001. Kimyala told people that the trio would be going to British Columbia, Canada, to visit Kimyala’s friend Christina Mayer. They would also be meeting a man that Mayer claimed was her husband Curtis. Shaina and Shausha’s father, Steven Kirkpatrick, said that neither he or Kimyala had met this Curtis guy before.
However, Christina Mayer’s husband was actually named Frank Oehring, who was fugitive from Missouri who was attempting to kill a former wife. Apparently Oehring was also a Satanist, and Mayer was a member of his group.
It has been established that Kimyala and the girls, then aged 1 and three months old, had spent the night at the Shasta Lodge in Redding, California. So they did make it over state lines. They also stopped in Sacramento (although one source claims that they were going to Alameda), about two and a half hours south of Redding, so that Kimyala could pick up her birth certificate. Kimyala may have been convinced by Mayer and Oehring that she needed her birth certificate to enter Canada. This was a few months before the September 11 attacks, so there were less restrictions to leave the country.
But since this Sacramento stop, Shaina and Shausha have not been seen again. Mayer and Oehring turned up in Florida on April 20, 2001. They were found at a rest stop, Mayer was dead with a gunshot wound to the head and Oehring also had a gunshot wound to the head and would die soon afterwards at the hospital. The deaths of Mayer and Oehring turned out to be a murder/suicide. Oehring left some letters stating that he and Mayer wanted to steal Kimyala’s birth certificate. In fact, Mayer had used Kimyala’s identity in Las Vegas shortly after the trio left their home in Oregon.
On April 28, 2001, Kimyala’s remains were found near Nixon Nevada, three hours from Sacramento. Kimyala had been beaten and shot, police believe that Oehring and Mayer were responsible for her death. But an extensive search of the area didn’t lead to where Shaina and Shausha might be.
There was a bloodstained hatchet in the car Oehring and Mayer were driving, which had traces of Kimyala’s blood on it, but no trace of the girl’s blood. There was also no evidence that the girls travelled with the pair to Florida, but both of the girl’s birth certificates were missing. It’s unclear if Oehring and Mayer hurt the girls or just sold them off to someone.
Steven Kirkpatrick, Shaina and Shausha’s dad, still hopes that girls are out there somewhere. At the time of the disappearances: Shaina Ashley (sometimes spelled Ashly) Kirkpatrick was one years old, about three feet tall and weighed twenty-four pounds. Shaina has a triangle birthmark on the back of her head. Shausha Henson, three months old, weighing about sixteen pounds, and suffered a broken collarbone at birth.
Because the girls lived in Portland Oregon, the authorities there are investigating, along with the FBI because they went over state lines. There’s very little information available in this case, which is sad.
