Family of missing Mountlake Terrace woman say she would never take off on own

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Wash. -- Family and police are continuing their desperate search for 54-year-old Cheryl DeBoer. Investigators are calling her disappearance suspicious.

Police said Cheryl may have walked through a pathway to the nearby Mountlake Terrace park-and-ride on Monday morning, but nobody’s seen her since.

Her husband was the last person to see her. Her family is desperate to find her.

“If anybody has seen or heard from her, please call us,” said Kevin Pickard, of the Mountlake Terrace Police Department.

Police said they are focusing all their effort to find DeBoer. Investigators revealed Cheryl planned to meet up with a friend at the transit center to commute to her job at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center. But Cheryl sent her friend a text message saying she was running late. She never showed up to meet her friend or at work and hasn’t been seen since.

“This is pretty bad. It’s really hard,” said family friend Juan Heredia.

Family members and friends plastered fliers displaying Cheryl’s picture throughout the park-and-ride and surrounding streets. Cheryl's mother, sister and niece held a news conference Wednesday night to appeal for help in finding her. They said she was a responsible person who would never take off on her own. Cheryl's husband didn't attend the news conference, they said, because he is too distraught.

Heredia is hopeful someone saw her.

“She was really, really nice person, to us, to me, to my kids,” he said. “She knows my kids since they were little.”

Friends said Cheryl has worked for Fred Hutch for 15 years and they have no reason to believe she would disappear without telling someone

Investigators found Cheryl’s car parked on nearby 58th Avenue but until investigators get a warrant they can’t look inside.

Police insist they will search high and low until Cheryl is found.

“That’s our concern,” said Pickard, “We want to know her whereabouts and that she’s safe.”

A police K-9 track did not locate Cheryl during a search with local police and sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, police scoured through surveillance video at the transit center and nearby businesses looking for clues.

Investigators ask anyone with information to call the Mountlake Terrace Police Department at (425) 670-8260.