Search reveals new details in Vancouver woman's 'suspicious' disappearance

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A newly released warrant has revealed new details in the “suspicious” disappearance of a 61-year-old woman several weeks ago.

Cristina Ase, a local nursing director, can be seen on seven billboards and thousands of flyers across the Portland metro area. An investigation showed she left her home near Southeast 123rd Avenue and Southeast Fifth Street on the morning of March 26 and hasn't been seen since.

"To see her one day and not the other...I want her to be alive, and I want her to be found, but it's just been too long. I feel helpless," Dalia Almada said.

Authorities said Ase’s husband reported her missing that night after the Rose Linn Care Center told him she never showed up for her shift. Her coworkers also called authorities that day.

“She normally reports to work at about 7:30,” her boss, Brady Waldroff, said. “She had texted another work colleague she was going to be late and then never showed up. When I reached out to her husband, her husband was shocked when I told him she hadn’t gotten to work.”

Ase's 2013 dark gray RAV4 was mysteriously found outside her home a day after her disappearance. Investigators said they found a roll of duct tape and several hairs inside, according to a search warrant document released on April 9.

Officials also said “the rearview mirror was askew and there appeared to be a powdery white residue, like a cleaning agent, coating several surfaces on the interior." 

According to phone records, Ase left her Vancouver apartment for work on Tuesday, as her husband reported, just after 6:30 a.m.

But instead of heading to her job in West Linn, Ase’s phone traveled south on I-205 to Portland – pinging off near the Southeast Foster Road exit at 6:47 a.m. A minute later, it arrived in a neighborhood north of Glenwood Park.

Records show her phone stayed in that area for three hours, during which Ase called in late to work at 7 a.m.

“Geolocational data points classified as 'high certainty' indicate that she was not stationary for the whole time – likely moving between the park itself and one or more residences,” according to police.

At 10 a.m., the device moves again to the intersection of Southeast Flavel Street and 92nd Avenue for about five minutes before shutting off for the last time. 

An investigation of Ase’s phone records revealed that she had “misled her employer and husband as to her whereabouts on at least two other occasions” – at least three times in about a year. On two of those occasions, she left home at 6:30 a.m. before notifying work she would be late 20 minutes later in the same way she had on the day of her disappearance. 

Police said it's unclear where she was at the time of these calls, but noted the Southeast Foster exit is exactly 20 minutes away from her home. 

"It is likely…she has visited the area of Glenwood Park before the day of her disappearance,” police said.

Further details of Ase’s disappearance remain unclear. Anyone with information about her whereabouts is encouraged to contact Vancouver police.

Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.