PORT ANGELES — Police on Monday were “earnestly trying to locate”‘ a 15-year-old runaway in the hopes that she was not the female found dead Sunday on a path above the Waterfront Trail near Hollywood Beach.
Port Angeles Police Chief Tom Riepe said officers had revised their estimate of the young woman’s age, originally thought to be in her early 20s.
She was described as Caucasian and of medium height and build.
The missing teenager, who also fits the general description, ran away from her foster home last Thursday evening, Riepe said.
She was known to have visited the brush-laden bluff where the body was found near the foot of Vine Street about a block east of the Red Lion Hotel.
Police on Monday interviewed a man who said he was the runaway’s brother.
The body had been outside for “some hours,” Riepe said, and animals had eaten away some facial features, making identification more difficult.
Riepe said dental records might have to provide identifying evidence.
An autopsy was being conducted late Monday afternoon.