Patrick Shunn, 45, and Monique Patenaude, 46, were last seen Monday. Neighbors reported the couple missing Tuesday afternoon after finding their livestock untended, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
Two days after a married Arlington couple disappeared under suspicious circumstances, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in finding them.
Patrick Shunn, 45, and Monique Patenaude, 46, were last seen Monday. Neighbors reported the couple missing Tuesday afternoon after finding their livestock untended, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
Shunn went to work Monday, but he failed to show up Tuesday at his job at an aircraft-interior refurbishing firm in Kirkland. Meantime, Patenaude was last seen about 1 p.m. Monday near the couple’s home in the 27800 block of Whitman Road, near the site of the Oso mudslide.
“Their disappearance is considered suspicious because it’s unusual for them not to be in touch with their work or their family and friends,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Shari Ireton said Wednesday.
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Over the past two days, Shunn’s brother, Erik, has taken to social media and contacted news outlets to get the word out on his missing loved ones.
“Pat did not show up for work nor did he call in,” Erik Shunn wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday. “That is very uncharacteristic of him. Pat and Monique have pets and livestock and they haven’t been taken care of the last day and a half.”
Shunn’s uncle, who is also named Patrick, said family members from Oregon were on their way to the couple’s home Wednesday morning.
“Both vehicles are gone from the house and both cellphones have been shut off,” the uncle added.
Detectives with the sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit are now investigating and looking for the couple’s vehicles: a tan 2000 Land Rover Discovery, with the Washington license-plate number AR02639; and a black 1995 Jeep, with the Washington license-plate number of WB02789.
Court records show the couple are now embroiled in a legal dispute with neighbors, some of whom Shunn and Patenaude claim have repeatedly trespassed on their property near the Stillaguamish River with recreational vehicles and unleashed dogs. A trial on the civil case has been set for later this year.
Erik Shunn noted on Facebook on Wednesday that a neighbor had “harassed Monique and is not a good guy.”
“He is squatting on a property adjacent to Pat and Monique’s,” Erik Shunn’s post added. ”He is missing too and I think if they can find him, we will get some answers.”
Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, a neighbor named as a defendant in the couple’s lawsuit said he didn’t know anything about their disappearance.
“I know police are investigating it and doing everything they can,” he said. “Other than that, I don’t really have any comments.”
Asked if detectives are examining the couple’s legal dispute as part of the investigation, Ireton said: “We’ll look at everything. We don’t have any suspects at this point.”
Anyone who has information about the investigation should call the sheriff’s anonymous tip line at 425-388-3845.