Missing Woman's Car Found Near Tukwila
TUKWILA - The car that Sandi Johnson was driving before she disappeared Friday was found today in a supermarket parking lot near here.
And relatives of the missing Kirkland woman were furious when they found radio and television stations had news of the car's discovery before they did.
Her wallet was found yesterday morning in a parking lot at the Eagle Hardware store in Seattle's Rainier Valley.
King County Police said Johnson's 1993 Ford Escort station wagon was found about 6 a.m. in a Thriftway lot on South 120th Street at Des Moines Memorial Drive South, near the Rainier Golf and Country Club.
Police spokesman Jerrell Wills said officers found the keys in the ignition and Johnson's cellular phone in plain view. The car doors were unlocked.
Wills said police are still treating the case as a missing-persons investigation, although he conceded the situation is "much more serious now that Sandi's car and wallet have been found."
"The police didn't call us to let us know they found Sandi's car," said Dana Sutliff, Johnson's sister-in-law. "Everyone here is very upset."
Johnson, 28, failed to meet a friend for lunch in Bellevue Friday. A relative learned she made a four-minute call on her car phone at 9:53 that morning. The call was from the Bellevue area, Sutliff said.
Her husband, Greg Johnson, from whom she is separated, called police Saturday morning after he found a note at his house that said his wife had not picked up their two children from the baby-sitter's Skyway home the night before.
King County Police Detective Larry Peterson said police will be checking out all calls made on Johnson's car phone over the past few days.
Ed Gilbert, Sandi Johnson's uncle, who lives a few blocks from where her car was found, said a relative works at the Thriftway store where the car was found.
Anyone with information is asked to call county police at 205-7803.