ARLINGTON, Wash. — Dozens of neighbors held a demonstration urging the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office to further help find a missing Arlington man with autism.
People lined the streets at the corner of Smokey Point Boulevard and Highway 531 in Arlington Saturday afternoon.
“He’s kind of our child right in our neighborhood,” said Jerry Grisham, a neighbor.
Jonathan Hoang, who has autism, has been reported missing since March 30.
First responders searched throughout the community for him, however, Hoang’s family said they believe the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office mishandled the case.
“They didn’t issue an endangered missing persons alert until five days after he went missing. We have concerns about how they’re handling my brother’s case,” said Irene Pfister, Jonathan’s sister. “They should have done that on day one. He fit the criteria on day one to issue an endangered missing person alert and they failed to do that.”
Pfister said her family spoke with the sheriff’s office earlier this week and tried to provide detectives with more details that their private investigator had gathered.
“Major Crimes has taken over the case as of I think eight days ago, and we’re struggling to get them to cooperate with our PI. We presented them with hours of video footage what our PI has assured us as leads,” she added.
“We spent hours this week talking to detectives from Major Crimes. They have come out and personally spent hours at my parents’ house simply to tell them, ‘We don’t have the time and this is not our priority. We have other cases, and we don’t have the man power.”
Several neighbors at the demonstration, like Jerry Grisham, told KIRO 7 News that detectives haven’t reached out to them to gather more information.
“There have been no detective, no major crimes. There has been nobody contacted us directly,” he said. “It puts a lot of doubts in people’s mind.”
He added, “There’s no comfort there. You wonder if it’s going to happen your kids, what’s the response going to be?”
KIRO 7 News reached to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office to get more details.
A spokesperson said the sheriff’s office spent more than 4,000 hours searching for Hoang. More than 150 searchers, drones, a helicopter and K-9 teams were searching throughout the community over a six-day search, the office added.
“The lead detective is actively following up on all tips and detectives continue to review additional surveillance footage in hopes of identifying any possible sightings of Jonathan. The family/PI provided the lead detective a thumb drive of information on Thursday and he spent many hours on Friday reviewing the footage and documents provided. He has been in communication with the private investigator.
Our investigations lieutenant also met with the family for several hours yesterday to help sort through some of the confusion related to Jonathan’s case and answer any additional questions they have,” the sheriff’s office wrote.
“We understand the pain, grief, and uncertainty his loved ones are facing, and we are committed to the same goal—bringing Jonathan home. We continue to ask for the public’s help. Anyone with information regarding Jonathan Hoang’s whereabouts is asked to call 9-1-1.”
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