VANCOUVER, Wash. — New details from a search warrant show a missing woman's car "mysteriously showed back up" on her street a day after her disappearance, adding new layers to a puzzling case.
Cristina Ase, 61, disappeared on March 26. She didn't show up to work at Rose Linn Care Center in West Linn, where she works as nursing director, and her husband and boss reported her missing.
"We're between fear and sadness and still hope, we still hope we’re going to find her and bring her home," said Nathan Priest, maintenance director at Rose Linn Care Center.
Vancouver police initially called her disappearance 'suspicious' and 'far outside' of her normal pattern behavior. Since then, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) uncovered new details through a search warrant process, leading one detective to write: "There is probable cause to believe that Cristina's sudden disappearance is related to a serious crime or imminently dangerous medical emergency."
After leaving for work in her car on March 26 and going missing, Ase's car 'mysteriously' turned back up the next day. It was parked outside her apartment complex near her residence, according to the VPD search warrant.
Detectives said there appeared to be a "powdery white residue — like a cleaning agent — coating several surfaces on the interior."
VPD seized the vehicle and swabbed it for evidence, collecting numerous swabs and "several apparent hairs."
In tracking Ase's cell phone data, police found evidence that she drove from Vancouver to Southeast Portland on the morning of her disappearance, spending multiple hours in an area near Glenwood Park.
Detectives said there's a high certainty that Ase moved between the park itself and one or more residences.
After leaving her home at 6:34 a.m., Ase's phone was last pinged near Southeast Flavel Street and Southeast 92nd Avenue around 10 a.m. before being shut down.
Vancouver police suspect this is not the first time Ase had traveled to the Glenwood Park area, saying she has "mislead" her employer and her husband multiple times after leaving for work in recent weeks.
On Feb. 27, March 1 and March 5, Ase messaged her employer that she'd be late for work about 20 minutes after leaving home. A detective noted that the Southeast Foster Road exit of I-205 near Glenwood Park is a 20-minute drive from Ase's house.
Ase's friends and coworkers continue their efforts to help find her, saying she's sorely missed.
“In disbelief, it’s very out of character for her," said Sandy Hayden, a licensed practical nurse at Rose Linn Care Center. "Hearing about the cleaning product in the car gives me a very bad suspicion something bad has happened, and I don’t like thinking of that, it’s devastating."
Lamar Advertising also put up multiple billboards around the greater Portland area, asking for the public to share information about Ase's disappearance.
“We just want her to come back home, we want to know the truth," said Karen Cruz, a certified medication aid at Rose Linn Care Center. "If somebody knows something, if somebody saw something, we want to know the truth.”
Vancouver police are asking anyone who knows Ase, had contact with her in the past few weeks or might know something about her disappearance, to please contact them.
"Nothing quite makes sense, we keep wondering what happened and hoping to hear something - it doesn't feel right with her not in the building," said Matthew Schempert, a certified nursing assistant at Rose Linn Care Center.
The department asks community members to email Detective Nicholson at Jason.nicholson@cityofvancouver.us or Sergeant Ballou at Julie.ballou@cityofvancouver.us with any information.