PORTLAND, Ore. -- A winter storm hampered efforts to find a hiker missing in the Gorge. Katherine Heuther, who's 24th birthday was Monday, left for a day hike near Table Mountain on Thursday and hasn't been seen since.
A new storm brought snow to the Columbia River Gorge.
The last contact from the Portland State University student was a text message she sent to a roommate around 3 p.m. Thursday, March 4, saying she was headed out for a day hike and expected to be back home around 8:30 p.m. that night.
Heuther's roommates reported her overdue to Portland Police when she did not return. Her vehicle was found at the Pacific Crest Trailhead near the Bonneville Dam, just across the river in Washington. That's the starting point of a popular 7-mile hike to Table Mountain.
SLIDESHOW: Search for hiker
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. The sheriff's office learned Saturday night that a missing person's report had been filed, which included vehicle registration matching the car that had been found at the trailhead.
Heuther 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 said she was an experienced hiker but were not sure whether she had a backpack.
The only other clue so far was a credit card receipt with Heuther's name on it, found by another hiker on the trail near Table Mountain.
By Monday afternoon, the search for Huether had expanded to include two helicopters, nine dog teams, more than two dozen search-and-rescue specialists as well as friends.
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.
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.
