PORT ANGELES — The car in which a missing man drove off from the Lyre River campground with his toddler daughter Friday morning was found this morning, abandoned.
Searchers now are looking for signs of Jared T. Egnew, 21, and his daughter, Madison E. Egnew, who is 1 year and 10 months old, said Ron Peregrin, Clallam County Undersheriff, at 11 a.m. today.
“When we find the car abandoned like that, we become worried,” Peregrin said.
“Now they’re exposed to the elements and that’s what really kicked our search into a higher gear.”
Deputies searched for the car all night since Egnew and his daughter were reported missing at about 8:17 p.m. Friday, Peregrin said.
The car, a blue 1999 Taurus, was found at about 10 a.m. today stuck, but not wrecked, on a remote logging road 10 or 15 miles from the campground, about three miles south of state Highway 112 and some 25 miles west of Port Angeles.
Egnew left the Lyre River campground at about 11 a.m. Friday to take Madison, who was crying, for a drive to calm her down.
“There was no evidence that a fight had occurred,” Peregrin said.
“It did not appear that there was any kind of dispute. He just took off with the baby because the baby was fussing he was going to take her for a drive to calm her down.
“And he never came home.”
At about 3 p.m., the child’s mother, Kayla A. McComb, began calling Egnew’s friends from the nearby home of relatives, unsuccessfully seeking any news of him.
Her mother, Julie Batchelor, reported Egnew and the child missing to the sheriff’s office at about 8:17 p.m.
After finding the car, deputies called in search and rescue crews, Peregrin said.
The Coast Guard began assisting the search Friday night, with a helicopter crew combing the area around the campground.
The Civil Air Patrol is on standby alert, Peregrin said.
The couple were living in the campground, he said.
Egnew is described as a white male, about 6-feet-tall and weighing 244 pounds.
He has dark brown shaved or buzz-cut hair and a goatee.
He is wearing an AC/DC gray long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans.
He reportedly has glaucoma, wears contacts, and is ADHD, the sheriff’s office said in a prepared statement.
The child has “dirty blond colored” shoulder-length hair frequently worn in a ponytail, and green or hazel eyes.
Her ears are pierced with colored stone stud earrings.
The child — who is 33 inches tall and weighs about 26 pounds — is wearing a red long-sleeve shirt, blue jeans, brown boots and red socks.
“There were no supplies for the baby taken and there might be a bag of clothing in the car,” the sheriff’s office statement said.
“Egnew and the baby might be wearing different clothing.”
Although deputies have found no evidence of foul play, they are treating the search area as a crime scene, Peregrin said.
Anyone with information is asked to phone 9-1-1.
