Missing Woman’S Car Found Discovery Moves Weeklong Search To Whitman County

Authorities began searching a sparsely populated area of Whitman County on Tuesday after a missing Spokane woman’s car was discovered there.

A resident called the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office about 10:30 a.m. to report a green Ford Explorer abandoned on a farm-access road north of Oakesdale, Spokane police said.

The car, which belongs to Spokane resident Nancy Rockwell, probably had been there for at least a day, said Capt. Al Odenthal of the Spokane Police Department.

Rockwell disappeared Aug. 30 after driving the Explorer to a fitness center on Spokane’s South Hill. The 63-year-old woman has Alzheimer’s disease and sometimes becomes disoriented, relatives said.

She was not in the Explorer when it was found, Odenthal said. “Every indication is she was there with the vehicle (at some point),” he said. “There were no signs of violence.”

There were footprints in the area around the car, said Officer Dan Bunn of the Spokane Police Department.

Detectives were planning to search the car for clues, Bunn said.

Tuesday night, Spokane police said Whitman County authorities had confirmed that a farmer talked with Rockwell on Aug. 30.

Rockwell’s vehicle was stuck when she talked to the farmer, said police spokesman Dick Cottam. Rockwell asked the farmer the way to Spokane, Cottam said. Then she walked away after she asked directions.

Searchers covered 10 square miles on the ground and knocked on all doors in town, police said. Dogs were also used. Helicopters covered 100 square miles. Tuesday night the Air Force was going to continue searching using a helicopter with sensors that can detect heat.

The ground search was scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. today.

The discovery of the Explorer was welcome news to Rockwell’s friends and family, who have searched relentlessly for the woman since she disappeared. But they still worry about her whereabouts.

Nearly 80 relatives, friends and volunteers have been searching for Rockwell since she disappeared.

They have driven back roads in southern Spokane County, searched parking lots in the city and hired a helicopter to fly over the area.

They were happy Tuesday that there was some sign of her, but disappointed that she wasn’t found.

“I’m surprised that she hasn’t gone for help or surfaced on foot,” said her husband, Ed Rockwell earlier Tuesday. “I don’t think she’d be afraid to ask for help.”

Ed Rockwell said his wife is a strong-willed woman who worked at the state attorney general’s office. She developed Alzheimer’s about four years ago, he said.

Nancy Rockwell still drove around the west end of the South Hill in her Explorer, but wasn’t comfortable traveling anywhere else without a companion, her husband said.

The missing woman’s family is convinced she drove to Whitman County the day she disappeared, he said.

Still, they hold out hope that she is alive.

“There’s room for optimism,” Ed Rockwell said from the family’s South Hill home. “We have to trust in the Lord and the Whitman County Sheriff’s Department.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: TO HELP IF YOU SEE HER Nancy Rockwell, 63, is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Whitman County Sheriff’s Department at (509) 397-6266 or Crime Check in Spokane at (509) 456-2233.