PORT TOWNSEND — The family of a Sequim woman missing for a month left for Seattle on Saturday to hand out bagged lunches with Lauryn Garrett’s face on them to spread the word about her disappearance.
Eleana Christianson of Sequim, the mother of the 23-year-old missing woman, organized 400 bag lunches with donated sandwiches and snacks, all with her daughter’s picture affixed to them, to hand out in Seattle’s Belltown, West Lake and Capitol Hill neighborhoods.
Fred Garrett of Sequim, Lauryn Garrett’s father, and Christianson’s husband, Bret Christianson, also helped.
“[Port Townsend police] keep telling us she went across the water, so that’s why I’m going to saturate there,” Eleana Christianson said.
Lauryn Garrett was last seen at about 8 p.m. May 1 on video surveillance footage at the Port Townsend Safeway buying vodka and soda.
Minutes earlier, she had borrowed a cellphone from a man at the nearby Haines Place Park and Ride to call her father in Sequim.
She had arrived a day earlier than her father expected after her return from the Pioneer Center North rehabilitation clinic in Sedro-Woolley.
He got off the phone thinking she would catch a bus to Sequim from Port Townsend. No buses were running to Sequim that time of night.
She has not been seen or heard from since.
While police investigate, the family has been following leads on their own.
Eleana Christianson said that in the past week, she has received only random text messages that lead to no information.
Foul play not suspected
Officer Patrick Fudally, police spokesman, said Friday no information has emerged to suggest the possibility of foul play.
Family members have said they’re worried she is not OK .
“Still no contact with anyone she’s known previously in 23 years — that’s odd,” Eleana Christianson said.
Police have said they believe Garrett left Port Townsend voluntarily.
They suspect Garrett may be in the King County city of Shoreline because she previously lived there and because of a May 12 tip from a man who reportedly saw and spoke with a woman matching her description at a Shoreline bus station.
Shoreline is located about 9 miles north of downtown Seattle, bordering the northern Seattle city limit. It has a population of about 54,000.
The man told investigators he was “99 percent sure” it was Lauryn Garrett he had spoken with, Fudally said.
Fred Garrett and Eleana and Bret Christianson said last week they had spoken with this man and came to the conclusion that the lead was not credible.
Fudally said Friday he was not familiar with the information that led Lauryn Garrett’s family to believe that.
King County sheriff’s deputies canvassed the bus station area but found no more information, Fudally said.
“Without another sighting somewhere, there’s not much [King County deputies] can do than just keep the general patrol on the lookout for her,” Fudally said.
Arrest warrant
According to Clallam County District Court records, Lauryn Garrett has a $150 warrant for her arrest for failing to pay fines associated with a October 2013 guilty plea to making false statements to a law enforcement officer in Sequim.
The warrant, issued Feb. 6, is non-extraditable outside of Clallam and Jefferson counties, meaning she would likely not be taken back to Clallam County if arrested elsewhere in the state.
“We doubt she would hang out in the Clallam and Jefferson areas,” Fudally said.
Fred Garrett said Saturday he was aware of his daughter’s arrest warrant.
“I don’t have anything to add about that,” he said.
The multi-agency task force formed to investigate Lauryn Garrett’s disappearance plans to meet this week to pool all the information gathered in the case so far.
The task force — composed of Port Townsend police detectives, officials from Clallam and Jefferson County sheriff’s offices, and an FBI agent out of the Poulsbo office — had hoped to meet last week, but other responsibilities of the officers involved prevented it, Fudally said.
Check
Fred Garrett has said his daughter had a $55.50 check with her when she left the clinic in Sedro-Woolley.
As of Saturday, it has not been cashed, he said.
The last day she was seen, a witness said she left two duffel bags at the park and ride.
Lauryn’s mother found one of the bags May 7 near a trail through nearby Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park. The other bag has not been recovered.
Jefferson County Search and Rescue volunteers searched the 80-acre nature park May 16 and found no clues to the disappearance.
Description
Lauryn Garrett is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs between 120 and 130 pounds. She has brown hair and hazel eyes.
She has a tattoo of a bird behind her left ear and a tattoo of Washington state on her right wrist.
Anyone with information on Lauryn Garrett’s whereabouts should phone police at 360-385-3831, ext. 1, or, if it’s an emergency matter, 9-1-1.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
