Sequim Gazette staff

Fred Garrett has confirmed a Port Townsend Police report that his daughter Lauryn Garrett, a 23-year-old Sequim woman who had been missing since May 1, was seen in a Fred Meyer store in Shoreline on June 3.

Patrick Fudally, public information officer for the Port Townsend Police, said Lauryn Garrett went into the store on Tuesday at 5 p.m. and attempted to return merchandise without a receipt while providing identification that did not belong to her.

“Absolutely (relieved),” Fred Garrett said about the news. “I’m still concerned with her safety over there. (But) she looked healthy. We can move on from here.”

Fred Garrett said the Fred Meyer clerk was familiar with Lauryn; the two were involved in activities in the Forks area as children, he said.

The clerk then asked Lauryn “Do you recognize me?” and after hearing she did, told the Sequim woman that her family members were looking for her and that she should call them, Fred Garrett said.

Fudally said Lauryn Garrett responded that she already had contacted her family. The Garrett family, however, say they’ve have had no contact with her since she’s gone missing.

The employee then called Fred Garrett’s brother Justin, who in turn contacted Fred and law enforcement officials.

Fred Garrett said Port Townsend Police emailed a photo from a Fred Meyer surveillance video, and he confirmed it was his daughter.

The clerk told police that Lauryn Garrett did not appear to be in any physical or mental duress.

The clerk told Lauryn Garrett, Fudally said in a report, that she would not accept the return items and needed valid identification. Garrett responded that she would go get her identification but left the store and did not return.

Port Townsend Police Detective Jason Greenspane obtained surveillance video of Garrett in the store and she appeared to be alone.

The person whose identification Lauryn Garrett tried using at the Fred Meyer store reported her I.D. was either lost or stolen to Washington Department of Licensing but not police, Port Townsend officials said.

Fudally said the police encouraged the clerk to report the loss/theft of her identification to the Seattle Police Department and learned the I.D. was replaced in April 2014.

“Based on Lauryn’s confirmed identification by her father (Fred Garrett), the fact that she seems unwilling to contact family members, and there was no sign Lauryn was in duress or any danger, the Port Townsend Police in coordination with the task force members have determined Lauryn is no longer missing for the purpose of our investigation,” Fudally said. “We would still encourage Lauryn to contact her family or law enforcement to ease her family’s concerns.”

Fred Garrett said he wasn’t sure what the family’s next steps will be.

“I’m worried for her,” he said. “I’d like to make contact with her.”

First missing

Lauryn Garrett, a 2009 Sequim High School graduate, who was last seen on May 1 in Port Townsend in Safeway buying liquor and soda, was to meet her father, Fred Garrett, on May 2 at the Port Townsend ferry.

However, she phoned her father at about 7:30 p.m. on a borrowed cell phone the evening before, asking for a ride.

Her father said she was traveling to Sequim from Sedro-Woolley after finishing two months in the Pioneer Center North chemical dependency center.

Lauryn Garrett is 23, 5 feet 7 inches, with brown hair, hazel eyes, weighs 120-130 pounds and has a tattoo behind left ear of a bird and a tattoo on her wrist of Washington.