UPDATE Thurs. Oct 9 10pm

By Tim Clifford
Search and Rescue crews have succeeded in finding Paula Reuter, the 21 year old restaurant manager from Seattle, who went missing with her two dogs while hiking near Mount Defiance.

Reuter had parked her car at the Ira Falls trailhead on the morning of Oct. 6 to hike with her two dogs when she became disoriented and lost, eventually losing all sense of direction and being forced to camp for 3 nights in the wilderness. Her disappearance was deemed a missing persons case by Seattle police by the evening of Oct. 7.

The crew aboard the Snohawk helicopter spotted Reuter and her dogs alone on a trail and lowered a member down to confirm identification. Once a positive identification was made the helicopter returned to a nearby airfield for a quick refuel before airlifting Reuter and her two dogs to safety.

Interestingly, crews used a picture from Reuter’s Instagram page, her last post to social media before she became lost, that showed an area of forested hillside and was captioned with “can’t see I-90 from here”. This post provided rescue crews with an idea of where to begin their search.

Reuter sustained the three nights by building a fire and scavenging for mushrooms. She fed her two dogs with beef jerky that she had in backpack.
Reuter is reported to be feeling fairly healthy but exhausted after her ordeal.

UPDATE Thurs Oct 9 3:15 pm

King County Sheriff's Search and Rescue helicopter have located the hiker and is working on it as of now.

Original Post
The King County Sheriff’s Office and Seattle Police Department are asking the public for information on a woman who went missing with her two dogs near Snoqualmie Pass on Oct.6.

Paula Reuter, a 21 year old restaurant manager from Seattle was last seen hiking with her two dogs in the Mason Lake or Ira Springs trail on the morning of October 6. After being unable to locate her or her dogs the Seattle Police Department has begun treating this as a “missing persons” case with the King County Sheriff’s Department conducting searches in the area.

Reuter, originally from California, has dark brown hair and weighs approximately 120 pounds. She was hiking the trails with her two dogs, both black and white medium sized dogs.

Volunteers with Search and Rescue as well as sheriff’s deputies are currently searching the trails on foot and are waiting for a fog bank to clear so that a helicopter can be deployed to aid in the search.

Police and the Sheriff’s Department are asking for any hikers who remember seeing a woman who fits Reuter’s description on those trails between Oct.6 and Oct.7 to call in with any information. The best phone number to call is (206) 296-3311.