PORTLAND, Ore. -- A winter storm heading for the Cascades threatened search and rescue efforts in the Columbia River Gorge on Monday, Katherine Huether's 24th birthday.
The Portland State University student first reported missing on March 4 was thought to be in the vicinity of Table Mountain, near the Bonneville Dam just across the river in Washington.
By mid-afternoon Monday the search had grown to include two helicopters, nine dog teams, more than two dozen search-and-rescue specialists and friends out looking for Huether, according to the coordinating agency, Skamania County Sheriff's Office.
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.
Huether's roommates reported her overdue to Portland Police on March 4. She had texted them that afternoon to let them know she'd be home around 8 p.m. from the hike.
Skamania County Sheriff's deputies found her car early March 5 but were unaware that it belonged to a missing Portland woman. Nearly a day would pass before the connection was made until a missing persons' report was filed Saturday night, March 6.
Huether 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 were not sure whether she even had a backpack, he said.
Days lost to searchers
Cox told KGW on Sunday that his office did not learn of a missing person report until Saturday, March 6, at approximately 9 p.m. -- about 20 hours after a deputy first ran a registration check on Heuther's car.
"The Skamania deputy received notification that the vehicle registration owner she had checked the previous evening was now showing as a missing person through the Portland Police [Bureau] through a missing persons report ... " and a search was immediately organized, initially focused in the immediate area, then widened and extended Sunday morning to include resources from police and sheriff's offices spanning both sides of the Gorge, Cox said.
Air support with heat-seeking radar was requested after a hiker on Sunday evening found a credit card receipt belonging to Heuther, searchers said. The receipt was found on Table Mountain.
The U.S. Air Force and Washington National Guard dispatched helicopters Monday afternoon as the storm front moved east. Snow was reported in Cascade passes and had fallen as far north as Seattle, although Gorge temperatures hovered in the low 40s, according to KGW First Alert Storm Team meteorologists.
Heuther's parents live in New Jersey.
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