UPDATED 7:45 P.M. SATURDAY: Sheriff’s office suspends search

UPDATED 5:19 p.m. Friday

As the Washington County Sheriff’s Office announced a dramatic shift in the report of events leading up to Allyson Watterson’s disappearance, deputies acknowledged their emerging concerns about the timeline since the 20-year-old woman disappeared.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, Washington County Detective Mark Povolny said there had been a 30-hour delay between the time Watterson was last seen and the time she was reported missing.

“That’s concerning to us," Povolny said. “We’re trying to put together what happened during that time.”

He added that while search and rescue crews are continuing to search in the same area, off Old Pumpkin Ridge Road in North Plains, the time delay meant that Watterson could no longer be in the area.

Povolny also said police have received reports that either Watterson or her boyfriend, Benjamin Garland, might have knocked on a door in that area around midnight on Sunday. Deputies are asking anyone in that area who heard a knock at their door to alert them, even if they didn’t answer the door.

He also said they’re looking for some information regarding Watterson’s cellphone. Povolny said that about a month ago, someone gave a cellphone to Watterson’s mother, Misty Watterson, who then gave the phone to her daughter. Povolny said police want to know who owned the phone before Allyson and Misty Watterson, because they believe that might give them information about the cellphone provider and access data that could help them track the location of the phone.

Meanwhile, Povolny said officials are trying to put together a timeline of what happened between Watterson’s disappearance and when she was reported missing.

Povolny said a homeowner in the North Plains area reported seeing Watterson and Garland shortly before noon on Sunday. Watterson has not been seen since. Another homeowner in the area found Garland asleep in his truck Monday morning, and around 5:30 p.m. that day, Garland’s father, Don Garland, reported Watterson missing.

According to Deputy Brian van Kleef, Don Garland said he and his son had spent that day searching for Watterson and were unsuccessful.

The sheriff’s office earlier in the day had said they have no evidence that Watterson and her boyfriend were hiking in the North Plains area where she was last seen, a complete change from their initial reports about the woman’s disappearance.

For days, the sheriff’s office maintained that Watterson, 20, and Benjamin Hunter Garland were traversing the rugged and privately owned woods off Old Pumpkin Ridge Road on Sunday when they became separated — an account officials are now saying came from Don Garland.

The two men were initially reluctant to make an official report because Benjamin Garland had multiple outstanding warrants for his arrest, van Kleef said.

When he finally contacted authorities, Don Garland said his son and Watterson had been on a hike together before losing each other, according to the sheriff’s office.

“We’ve never been able to verify this narrative,” van Kleef said of the incident he’d described in a news release sent to reporters Tuesday.

Don Garland could not be reached for comment.

Povolny said they were still trying to find out more about where the two were and what they were doing prior to Watterson’s disappearance.

“This isn’t open area. I wouldn’t expect them to just be out here hiking,” Deputy Tony Morris said during a news conference as searchers spent a fourth day looking for the missing woman. “If I knew exactly what they were doing it would probably help me in my job.”

Misty Watterson, Allyson’s mother, told reporters Friday that her daughter and Benjamin Garland had been in North Plains to visit a friend when their car broke down.

The two got separated as they left to go get help, Misty Watterson said.

“That’s why they were out here,” she said. “They weren’t out here doing bad stuff.”

Van Kleef said the sheriff’s office has no evidence of this, either.

“We don’t know what they were doing out there,” said van Kleef. “We certainly don’t have a broken-down car.”

Benjamin Garland was arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges and pleaded not guilty in a Washington County court to charges of theft, fraudulent use of a credit card, unauthorized use of a vehicle and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Watterson is about 5-foot-7 and was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, black jeans and brown Calvin Klein boots when last seen, the sheriff’s office said. Watterson also had a red backpack with her.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632 and Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320

Contact Shane at skavanaugh@oregonian.com and on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

Contact Jayati at jramakrishnan@oregonian.com and on Twitter @JRamakrishnanOR

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