Search for missing man in Tulalip turns up no clues

TULALIP — The search for Jacob Hilkin will have to continue.

A full day of scouring 700 acres in Tulalip on Sunday yielded no clues about the 24-year-old man’s whereabouts. About 100 people joined the search-and-rescue effort.

“It looks like we came up with nothing,” said Lt. Robert Martin with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.

Hilkin went missing Jan. 23 around 10:20 a.m. No trace of him has been found, despite persistent searching by his father, Matthew Hilkin, and family and friends.

“There was nothing I found in my daily searches,” Hilkin said.

The full-scale search for Jacob Hilkin on Sunday was the first organized by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. It included volunteers from King, Kitsap, Mason and Pierce counties, Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue, Everett Mountain Rescue and the Tulalip Police Department.

“It’s been what we’ve been asking for since day one,” said his mother, Marni Pierce.

Through some dense wooded areas and neighborhoods, search groups split up into grids to make the area more manageable. Efforts were focused along 27th Avenue, between Tulalip Resort Casino and Marine Drive NE, where he was last seen walking. The area runs parallel to I-5 with the Quil Ceda Creek Casino to the south.

Hilkin’s mother described the Glacier Peak High School graduate, avid snowboarder and fan of electronic dance music as a “gentle soul.”

“He was a typical 24-year-old boy,” she said. “He had no fear and was enjoying life.”

The night before Hilkin disappeared, he went to the Quil Ceda Creek Casino with two friends. Eventually, he told a friend he would take a bus home.

A woman later reported Hilkin walked into a homeless camp by the casino, where she said he tried to buy heroin. A Tulalip police officer found Hilkin alone and checked his ID just minutes later, while patrolling at the camp, according to the sheriff’s office. Hilkin told the officer he would catch a bus to his mother’s house in Everett. There’s no evidence he boarded a bus.

Hilkin is 5-foot-11, 160 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

After two months of not knowing, his parents are looking for anything that could help them locate their son.

“We love him and respect him and no matter what trouble he’s in, we just want him home,” Matthew Hilkin said.

Martin said the sheriff’s office major crimes unit will take over the search. Tips can be directed to the sheriff’s office at 425-388-3845.

Ben Watanabe: 425-339-3037; bwatanabe@heraldnet.com; @benwatanabe.