UPDATE 4:07 P.M. DEC. 27: No evidence Allyson Watterson was hiking in North Plains, deputies now say

The search for a missing 20-year-old woman will continue Friday, but the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said deputies will look for her without the aid of the nearly 100 volunteers who turned out to search on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sheriff’s deputies have been looking for Allyson Joy Watterson, who was last seen Sunday while hiking off Old Pumpkin Ridge Road near North Plains. On Thursday afternoon, Deputy Tony Morris said searchers had found some clues that would lead them to focus their search in a specific area and limit it to trained search and rescue crew members.

“We’re going to slow it down quite a bit,” Morris said on Thursday around 4 p.m. “We want to really focus and not miss a single thing.”

Morris said the sheriff’s office had received some new information that would direct its search but didn’t elaborate on what searchers had found. He said the area they were searching is heavily wooded with a lot of undergrowth, and they would need to get more of their resources into the area, including police dogs.

“We’re trying to find out more about the items we’ve found,” he said.

Benjamin Hunter Garland.

The last person to see Watterson was Benjamin Garland, 21, whom police identified as the missing woman’s boyfriend. According to police interviews with Garland, the two were hiking off Old Pumpkin Ridge Road and got separated.

Garland was arrested on Tuesday on charges police say are unrelated to Watterson’s disappearance. He has been charged with fraudulent use of a credit card, third-degree theft, unauthorized use of a vehicle and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Watterson is about 5-foot-7 and 120 pounds, has brown hair that is currently dyed teal, a tattoo of an eye on her left shoulder and a tattoo of a fairy on a spider web on her left arm. She was last seen wearing a hooded sweatshirt, black jeans and boots and carrying a red backpack.

—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

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