SKAMANIA COUNTY, Wash. -- The father of a 24-year-old Portland woman missing in the Columbia River Gorge since March 4 joined search and rescuers Wednesday morning, nearly one week after she disappeared.
"We are still holding out hope that Kate will come back to us alive and we'll be able to hold her and talk to her again -- and tell her how much we love her," Bob Heuther said, choking back tears at a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
Katherine Heuther has not been seen or heard from since the afternoon of Thursday, March 4, when she text-messaged her roommate to say she was going hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. Her car was found at the nearby Bonneville Dam trailhead at 1 a.m. Friday by sheriff's deputies - but she was not yet considered a missing person.
Saturday, her roommate officially filed a missing person report with Portland Police. A massive search-and-rescue effort was launched along the trails around the Bonneville trailhead and it eventually grew to include Table Mountain, after a hiker found a receipt belonging to Heuther on the trail.
Experienced in wilderness
Bob Heuther described his daughter as "an experienced hiker" who had grown up in the wilderness. Skamania search coordinators hoped that experience would help her make it out alive if she had become lost or injured while hiking near the Pacific Crest Trail.
"It really comes home how rugged and how difficult this is," Huether said on Tuesday, as he experienced first-hand the vast terrain his daughter could be lost in.
Overhead flights continued as some 30 specialists searched the area. A winter storm was moving out and skies were clearing. But snow had fallen overnight and rain was forecast all week.
Searcher Sharon Ward, who spent time Monday looking for Heuther, told KGW that the trails had been searched "really well" and that "it was frustrating" the hiker had not been located.
The lot is well-used by dayhikers heading into the Gorge wilderness areas. Those heading up to Table Mountain often park there.
But Heuther was thought to be heading out the Pacific Crest Trail. Earlier Thursday, a suspect was reportedly flashing others on the trail that Heuther was believed to be hiking on. Undersheriff Dave Cox said his office was not connecting the suspect to Heuther's disappearance. But, he added, all leads were being considered. Flasher on trail
View Missing Hiker in a larger map
The search had expanded this week to include two helicopters, nine dog teams, more than two dozen search-and-rescue specialists as well as friends. The search was focused on a a 12-square-mile area where the Pacific Crest Trail heads north into Washington state, and where Heuther's car was found, empty, early March 5. Timeline: Kate Heuther search and rescue
Skamania County Undersheriff Dave Cox said his office was unaware that the empty car in the trailhead parking lot belonged to Heuther. She'd been missing two days before an official missing person report was filed, according to Portland Police.
Heuther's family lives in New Jersey. Her father, Robert, was expected to land in Washington on Tuesday morning.
Last contact
Heuther's roommates last heard from her about 3 p.m. on March 4. She texted them, letting them know she was on a dayhike in the Gorge and would be home around 8:30 that night. At 1 a.m. Friday morning a Skamania County sheriff's deputy found her car at the trailhead. It was not reported stolen or registered to a missing person at the time, according to Cox.
Heuther was not thought to be carrying any communications devices; her cell phone was in her car, Undersheriff Dave Cox said. He did not know how prepared she'd been for the hike. Her roommates said she was an experienced hiker but were not sure whether she had a backpack.
SLIDESHOW: Search for hiker
On Sunday, another hiker found a credit card receipt bearing Katherine Heuter's name. The receipt was found near the Table Mountain trail.
Days lost to searchers
Over 48 hours passed between the time Heuther told friends she'd be back and when Skamania County first learned the car parked at Bonneville Dam trailhead belonged to her.
Deputies learned at approximately 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 6, that the car was registered to a missing person. That was about 20 hours after a deputy first ran a registration check on Heuther's car.
"The Skamania deputy received notification ... and a search was immediately organized," Cox said. Within hours his office had corraled resources from Portland to Hood River in the effort to find Heuther.
KGW Reporters Erica Heartquist and Kyle Iboshi contributing from Skamania County
