Police confirm possible sighting of missing Oregon mom in San Juan Islands
FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. -- Authorities confirmed that they are investigating a possible sighting of missing Dundee, Oregon mother Jennifer Huston in the San Juan Islands.
Huston, 38, has been missing since July 24th after she left her kids with her husband to run errands. She has not returned home or been seen since.
San Juan Country Sheriff's deputies told KPTV that a couple visiting the islands are convinced that they saw Huston on board a ferry traveling from Anacortes to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island on the morning of July 31st -- a week after she was reported missing.
Deputies say they have contacted the Seattle-based firm in charge of the ferry company's security and have asked for surveillance camera footage from the ferry in question.
San Juan Country Undersheriff Bruce Distler told the station that the couple said the woman was blonde, in her 30s, and driving a green SUV with a cracked windshield.
Distler said that the tip was so descriptive that it prompted deputies to alert the police department in Newberg, Oregon, where Huston was last seen.
"If that was her on the ferry, she could be on Orcas Island right now, she could be on Lopez, she could be on Shaw, she could be anywhere using the ferry systems," Distler told the station.
“Hard to say; there’s been so many potential sightings of Jennifer," Jennifer's husband Kallen Huston said on "Fox and Friends" about the possibility of the sighting being legitimate. "Of course, I get excited each and every time.”
"We need a place we can zero in on to search," he told FOX.
Huston said he began to break the news to his older son that his mother is not really on vacation.
“This is not something that Jennifer would ever do," her father, Bill Turner, said on "Fox and Friends."
Huston is 5'7" with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing black and pink Nike shoes and black yoga pants. She was driving a dark green 1999 Lexus LX 470 with Oregon plates WXH 011. The SUV had a U-shaped crack in the windshield on the passenger side and a Yakima ski rack mounted on the roof.
Sightings of Huston have been reported as far away as Michigan, but authorities say the specifics of the San Juan Islands tip has captured their attention.
"It's not something that's just another tip," said Distler. It's something that is serious enough that we're gonna take a look at it and make sure everything pans out."
Any tips or leads should be referred to the Newberg-Dundee Police Department by calling 503-537-1246.
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FOX 12 Oregon and FOX News contributed to this report.