OAK HABOR -Police and 30 volunteers will search a heavily wooded area on Whidbey Island today for Elaine Sepulveda, a 15-year-old Oak Harbor girl missing since Nov. 6.
The search is the fourth since Sepulveda was reported missing by her parents.
Officers searched beachfront areas on Monday and Tuesday, but found no trace of the girl, Oak Harbor Capt. Rick Wallace said. Investigators have no specific evidence that prompted the search of the woods, he said.
“It’s in the general area of where she was last seen,” he said. “We’re investigating every possibility.”
Volunteers and police will comb about two miles of dense woods and underbrush. The land is owned by the U.S. Navy and is near SE Regatta Drive and a Navy housing area in Oak Harbor where Sepulveda lived.
Sepulveda’s family is also stepping up their efforts to find the 10th-grader, who is 5 feet tall and weighs 115 to 130 pounds.
Family and friends will hand out more fliers today in Oak Harbor and are making arrangements to get her photo posted across Washington, Oregon and California, said her mother, Mary Jimenez.
“Sometimes, like last week, I had so much hope she’s out there. This week, it’s different,” Jimenez said. “I’m feeling scared, afraid something terrible has happened to her.”
Her daughter apparently sneaked out of the house about 2:45 a.m. Nov. 6 to meet an 18-year-old man in the area of SE Fourth Street and Regatta Avenue. The man told police the last time he saw Sepulveda she walking toward her home.
Detectives are trying to determine why the man had clothing the girl was wearing when she left her house, Wallace said.
Sepulveda’s friends told police the man was her boyfriend, but he has denied having a relationship with her, Wallace said.
Detectives became suspicious of Sepulveda’s disappearance when her identification and money were found at her home.
“I still believe she’s not a runaway,” Jimenez said. “There’s nothing missing from her room, and it’s been too long. She would have called.”
Friends have told police that Sepulveda was four months pregnant. Her mother didn’t know whether those rumors were true, but said that wouldn’t keep her daughter away.
Sepulveda’s 17-year-old sister has a 1-year-old baby, Jimenez said.
If Sepulveda is pregnant, “I’m not going to throw her out on the street,” Jimenez said. “She might be scared, but she could come to me.”
Investigators received reports that Sepulveda had been seen near Fort Lewis in Piece County and in King County, but they could not verify that she’d been to either of those places, Wallace said.
“There’s been a continual flow of reports she’s been seen, but we haven’t received as much information as we’d hoped for,” he said.
Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
