Search continues for missing Cheney teen
CHENEY, Wash. — It’s been more than a week since 15 year-old Jackie Doucette went missing from her Cheney home, and the search to find her continues.
Doucette disappeared Thanksgiving night when she went outside to look for her family’s two cats but never came back.
The Cheney Police Department received a tip that they should look for Jackie Doucette along the railroad tracks in Cheney. On Saturday, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office sent out Search and Rescue teams to comb the area to look for the missing teen.
“The longer she’s missing, the more serious this becomes to us,” said Police Chief John Hensley.
On Saturday morning, the Sherriff’s Office lead a search for Jackie along the railroad tracks in the southern end of Cheney, going five miles in each direction, and at Centennial Park. Search and Rescue teams looked on foot, on ATV, with search and rescue canines, and Air-One.
“Any tip we get we have to follow through on, so we work it through regardless of how solid it might be,” Hensley explained. “We felt this one warranted calling in the Search and Rescue.”
Search and Rescue teams were told to look for any signs of Jackie, specifically the pink jacket and shoes she was seen wearing in surveillance video from Rosa’s Pizza the morning after Thanksgiving.
Cheney Police explained Jackie has run away from home before, but never for this long, and never without contacting people she knew.
“She has a dear friend she goes to school with,” Chief Hensley said. “Jackie has always maintained contact with her even when she’s run away in the past and she hasn’t done so this time, so that’s another fact that troubles us.”
While Saturday was the first time Search and Rescue has looked for Jackie, Cheney Police have been investigating and following leads since her disappearance.
“Since about mid-week, the FBI has been working with us, and that brings in a whole bunch of resources we don’t possess at the local level, and they’ve been very helpful to us,” Hensley said. “Sheriff Knezovich, as of today, has allowed us have access to his resources to include the Search and Rescue team.”
But Hensley said, law enforcement still needs help from the public to find her.
“The bottom line is we need help,” he said. “We need people to look at her picture, and be on the lookout for her and report to the Cheney Police Department so we can move forward.”
The search was called off around 3:30 Saturday afternoon, and no new clues or information was discovered.
The Cheney Police will continue their search as they receive new leads.
