PORT TOWNSEND — Officers with several law enforcement agencies continued to investigate Tuesday the disappearance of a Sequim woman last seen in Port Townsend about a week and a half ago.
“We still at this point don’t have any solid leads on how to proceed that I’m aware of,” said Officer Patrick Fudally, Port Townsend police spokesman.
Police detectives, members of the Clallam and Jefferson county sheriff’s offices, and an FBI agent from the Poulsbo office have formed a task force to search for Lauryn R. Garrett, 23.
“The investigation is still moving forward,” Fudally said.
Task force members Tuesday morning followed up on a reported sighting of Garrett on Monday night at a Sequim-area business.
The woman seen turned out not to be the missing woman.
“Just another dead end for us,” Fudally said.
A witness saw Garrett at about 7:47 p.m. May 1 at the Haines Place Park and Ride near the Safeway supermarket on Sims Way.
She was seen just after that on Safeway surveillance video buying a bottle of vodka and a bottle of soda, according to Fudally.
The investigation was brought back to “square one” earlier this week after police learned a North Olympic Peninsula woman who they were told tried to cash a check written to Garrett at the Port Townsend Safeway actually tried to cash a check written to herself.
She had nothing to do with Garrett’s disappearance, police said.
“The big thing is, since we have no leads, we’re trying to cross things off,” Fudally said.
“We’re trying to cross off ideas so that we can try to narrow it down.”
Fred Garrett had told police his daughter was in Port Townsend planning to catch a bus to Sequim on May 1 when she called him with a borrowed cellphone.
He told police she had a $37 check with her.
The check had not been cashed as of Tuesday, Fudally added.
Reports last week had erroneously stated that Lauryn Garrett had tried to cash the check herself May 1.
She was headed back a day early from a rehabilitation clinic in Skagit County, according to her father.
The man whose phone Garrett borrowed to call her father told police he saw her walking toward the Safeway after she left two duffel bags in a tree-lined area near the park and ride, police said.
The missing woman’s mother, Eleana Livingston-Christianson of Sequim, found one of the two duffel bags in bushes near the park and ride Wednesday.
The other bag has not been found, police said.
Police found Garrett’s personal items and a receipt for the Safeway purchase in the recovered bag, Fudally said.
Garrett is 5 feet, 7 inches tall; weighs between 120 and 130 pounds; and 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 about 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.
