‘SUSPICIOUS’

Family Fears Missing Washington State Couple May Have Been Abducted

Authorities have been hunting for well-known chiropractor Karen Koep and her husband, Davido, since Monday.

A missing Washington state couple may have been abducted, a relative said, as law enforcement conducts searches for the pair.

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office says Karen Koep and her husband, identified only as Davido, disappeared in “suspicious” circumstances that came to authorities’ attention on Monday, when deputies went to the couple’s home to carry out a welfare check. Law enforcement were sent to the property in the Lake Forest development in Lacey after one of the two had failed to show up for work.

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Deputies also found that the couple’s car, a gray 2015 Toyota Yaris, was missing from the residence. It was later found by law enforcement several miles away at an intersection in Olympia close to the Chehalis Western Trailhead, according to KOMO-TV. The sheriff’s office released an image of the car on Thursday asking for the public to get in touch if “anyone recalls seeing the vehicle over the weekend.”

“To ensure the integrity of the investigation we have not released many details,” the sheriff’s office added. It’s not clear exactly when Karen Koep and Davido vanished.

“It doesn’t appear that they went willingly,” Pauline Dutton, Karen Koep’s sister, told the New York Post. “I don’t really know that anyone had heard from them after Friday afternoon.” Dutton said that her sister “knew a lot of those people” in the sheriff’s office and said they are “working hard on this.”

“We have no direction to go,” Thurston County Lt. Mike Brooks told KING-TV, adding that evidence inside the couple’s home made detectives believe that the couple had likely gone missing together.

Brooks also said Lacey Police arrested someone Monday night after they were found to be in possession of something that belonged to the couple, but the individual was later released. He added that the person is a tenant of a property owned by the pair.

News of the disappearance of Karen Koep, a well known local chiropractor, has provoked an outpouring of shock and well-wishes from her patients. Flowers lined the wall outside her office this week, according to KCPQ. A sign on the door read: “Due to an emergency, Lacey Chiropractic is currently closed.”

“It’s really hard right now because we don’t have any answers,” Dutton told KING-TV, describing her sister as the type of person who would “jump out of her car in the rain to give you an umbrella.” She said the missing couple have been together for over three decades and described her brother-in-law as similarly altruistic. “He always was the first person to volunteer to step up to do anything,” Dutton said. “You don’t even have to ask him, he is there to be of service to others.”

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Dan Ladden-HallBreaking News Editor

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