NACHES (AP) — Crews spent another day Thursday searching for a Union Gap woman who has been missing for almost a week in mountainous forestland west of Naches.
Kaylean Johnson, 20, was last seen riding a motorcycle with a 61-year-old Yakima man near the Little Naches campground, off Highway 410 east of Mount Rainier National Park, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported.
The man, Patrick Frawley, was found along the highway Monday, disoriented and dehydrated after making his way out of the woods. According to the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office, he told responders that the motorcycle had gone over an embankment and that the pair walked until dark before spending the night in the woods.
The next day, Frawley said, Johnson decided to walk ahead and seek help, due to Frawley’s health and slower pace. It took Frawley until Monday afternoon to reach the highway, he said.
“When we separated, she was in good health. She wasn’t hurt,” Frawley told the newspaper from his room at a Seattle hospital Thursday.
He declined to give further details, citing instructions from the sheriff’s office.
“The family’s having enough problems dealing with this, including me,” Frawley said.
Frawley described Johnson as his niece, but some of her relatives at the search site said they did not know Frawley and that he and Johnson were not related, the newspaper said.
Teams from several counties, including Kittitas, Yakima, King and Spokane, and the U.S. Forest Service have spent several days searching. They found the motorcycle and a fire pit where the two may have spent the night, the Kittitas County sheriff’s office said.
About 40 people were involved in the search.
Johnson was described as 4 foot 11, 190 pounds, and was last seen wearing a pink tank top, shorts and a Harley Davidson jacket.
