MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Blood stains were found in the car of a Mountlake Terrace woman who disappeared last week and whose body was found in a culvert Sunday.
Police in Mountlake Terrace discovered the blood on the passenger seat of Cheryl DeBoer’s Subaru.
The Snohomish County medical examiner confirmed Tuesday that it was her body found in the culvert. The cause and manner of her death are pending further investigation. She was 53.
DeBoer’s car was discovered Feb. 8, the day she went missing. It was parked in the 23400 block of 58th Avenue W, near the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center where she often met up with a friend to commute to her job in Seattle.
Police also found what was believed to be blood on the inside portion of the passenger side door, according to a Feb. 10 search warrant seeking phone records.
At the time, police were investigating the case as a possible kidnapping.
The search warrant helps establish a timeline.
A surveillance system at the DeBoer’s home shows her husband leaving the house around 6:50 a.m. Feb. 8, a few minutes before Cheryl. He arrived at this work in Mukilteo around 7:15 a.m.
Another surveillance video at the intersection of 236th Street SW and 56th Avenue W showed what appeared to be Cheryl DeBoer’s vehicle passing at around 7 a.m. headed westbound.
At 7:02 a.m. a text was sent from Cheryl DeBoer’s phone to a carpool friend saying she forgot her identification badge needed for her job at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
“Just go without me,” the text said. “I’ll probably ride home with you.”
Her friend wrote back asking how long it would take and saying that she would wait.
The text back to the friend estimated that DeBoer’s trip back home would take 10 minutes.
Her friend waited until nearly 7:30 a.m. and tried sending her a message and calling her at that time. It appeared to her that DeBoer’s phone had been turned off.
Detectives learned that the phone was “powered down” shortly after DeBoer’s last text.
Cheryl DeBoer’s work badge later was found at the home.
Police, friends, family and others spent long days searching for her.
Her body was found about 12:30 p.m. Sunday in a drainage culvert on city-owned property just off of Cedar Way, southeast of DeBoer’s home.
“We don’t know how she got there,” Mountlake Terrace Police Cmdr. Kevin Pickard said.
On Tuesday, more than two dozen volunteers from Snohomish and King county search and rescue units continued to look for evidence around Lyon Creek near where DeBoer’s body was found Sunday. They began the grid search around 8 a.m. and continued well into the afternoon.
Earlier, technicians with the Washington State Patrol crime lab collected evidence and processed the scene.
Anyone with information that might help in the investigation is asked to contact detectives Heidi Froisland or Sgt. Mike Haynes at 425-670-8260.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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