Snohomish County detectives Friday examined a missing Arlington couple’s two vehicles that a search-and-rescue helicopter team spotted a day earlier down a remote embankment near Oso.
Snohomish County detectives Friday examined a missing Arlington couple’s two vehicles that a search-and-rescue helicopter team spotted a day earlier down a remote embankment near Oso.
The Land Rover and Jeep Wrangler, owned by Patrick Shunn and Monique Patenaude, who disappeared under suspicious circumstances, were apparently driven off the embankment in the wooded area, sheriff’s spokeswoman Shari Ireton said Friday morning.
“It’s a very difficult place to get to, even on foot,” Ireton said. “Whatever the vehicles reveal will lead us to our next step.”
Investigators reported no evidence Friday night as to the couple’s whereabouts. Both vehicles, found about 200 feet from each other, had extensive damage, she said.
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Searchers weren’t readily able to access the vehicles after the helicopter team spotted them Thursday, she said. Detectives returned early Friday to inspect them, as well as look around the area where the vehicles were discovered.
The married couple, who live on Whitman Road along the Stillaguamish River, not far from where the deadly Oso mudslide occurred, were last seen Monday.
Shunn failed to show up to his job in Kirkland on Tuesday, and Patenaude was last seen getting her mail Monday afternoon.
Neighbors found the couple’s dog and livestock untended Tuesday, according to family members and authorities. They reported the couple missing Tuesday afternoon.
Shunn’s brother, Erik, who this week has taken to social media and contacted media outlets to get the word out on his missing loved ones, wrote on Facebook that he had “a bad gut feeling on this one.”
Court records show the couple are embroiled in a legal dispute with neighbors, some of whom Shunn and Patenaude claim have harassed them and trespassed on their property with recreational vehicles and unleashed dogs.
The couple sought an anti-harassment order against one neighbor, but a Snohomish County court commissioner dismissed the petition in January, ruling the incident appeared to be an unintentional issue involving dogs.
Ireton said Wednesday detectives had no suspects in the couple’s disappearance.
Sheriff’s investigators continue to search for the couple. Anyone with information about the case should call the anonymous tip line, 425-388-3845.