PORT ANGELES — National Park Service rangers planned to continue their search today of the shoreline and waters of Lake Crescent for a Port Angeles woman whose red kayak was found Saturday evening.
Margaret Mary Baker had been telling friends she intended to take her own life on her 60th birthday, which was Friday, the last day she was heard from, according to Port Angeles police records.
Baker’s 2016 brown BMW SUV was found parked on East Beach Road west of Port Angeles early Friday evening, about 24 hours before her newly purchased, overturned kayak was found about 1 mile east of Barnes Point.
It was discovered submerged in water near a rocky shoreline along U.S. Highway 101, park spokeswoman Penny Wagner said.
“It was found with the [paddle] tucked under the bungee cord and a life jacked clipped into it,” she said.
“It’s very tragic, just this whole situation.”
Wagner said Baker, an orthopedic surgeon and Port Angeles Symphony French horn player, was seen on Friday about 4 p.m. near her vehicle.
Anyone who was in that area on U.S. Highway 101 or East Beach Road who has information on Baker, who is described to be 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, should call or text the park’s tip line at 888-653-0009.
“At this point, we are doing as much as we can to get more information from the tip line to find her,” Wagner said.
Wagner said efforts will be made to borrow an underwater remote-control rover vehicle to search the lake, which is more than 600 feet deep.
After Baker’s sister reported her missing on Friday, Port Angeles police looked for her car at hotel parking lots in the city and at Salt Creek and Freshwater Bay, according to police records.
Port Angeles Police Officer Whitney Fairbanks found Baker and spoke with her early Friday afternoon.
“Margaret said she was not suicidal but was going through a difficult time,” Fairbanks said in the report.
Baker had called a friend earlier Friday.
“Margaret had said that she was going to celebrate her birthday by getting a kayak and taking it out on a lake,” according to Fairbanks’ report.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
