Homeless, addiction non-profit pauses outreach to search for missing woman

Volunteers with will be out in Lake Stevens Saturday to search for an Arlington woman who vanished nearly a year ago.

39-year-old Jessica Seybold was struggling with a meth addiction when she vanished last December, but was about to go into treatment.

She was last seen in the Trafton area near Arlington on Dec. 13, 2007.

She was trying to get her car back from a man who took it without permission, and according to her mother, Becky Woeppel, video-called the afternoon before she vanished from outside Angel of the Winds Casino, to say she was with a creepy man and scared.

Woeppel does not believe her daughter is alive.

According to local homeless and drug addiction outreach non-profit, The Hand Up Project, Woeppel and other family and friends of Jessica have received anonymous tips from people in the local drug community in Lake Stevens.

“Stating that they know exactly what happened — that an individual took her life and stuffed her in a black bag and tossed her in the river,” said Robert Smiley with the Hand-Up Project.

“She is presumed dead. She’s not had any contact, none of her Facebook accounts have been accessed,” he added.

Shari Ireton with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office says they have conducted multiple searches, most recently in September, but none have turned up any clues.

According to the sheriff’s department, they received a tip around 1 p.m. Friday about a missing person, but would not confirm that it was Jessica Seybold. Seybold’s mother, Becky, believes that her daughter’s remains are being searched for by local law enforcement in the Cassidy Lake Area near Catherine Creek Bridge.

Additionally, they have not searched the area in Lake Stevens Smiley referenced.

That’s why Smiley and other volunteers with the Hand Up Project will be putting their usual Saturday outreach and needle clean-up efforts on hold tomorrow, and instead, armed with video cameras and canoes, will head to Lake Stevens to search the area near the trail where they’ve heard the body might have been thrown.

“It’s quite a large area — we’re hoping to get as many volunteers as we can up there,” Smiley said.

Anyone who would like to volunteer can contact the Hand Up Project at 425-971-1774. They’ll be meeting at the park off 54th Street in Lake Stevens and searching from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

You’re also encouraged to call them with any tips or information.

You can also call the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office anonymous tip line at 425-388-3845.

There’s a $1000 reward for information that leads to the whereabouts of Jessica’s body.

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