By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – A Port Angeles mother is asking for the public’s help in locating her adult daughter, who was last seen on January 10 in Port Angeles.
Keri Ellis says her daughter, 23-year-old Leelah Smith, has been listed as a Missing Indigenous Person by the Washington State Patrol on behalf of the Lower Elwha Tribal Police Department.
Smith was last seen with Theodore Rundquist of Port Angeles after he was released from jail because of a domestic violence assault on Leelah Smith. Neither of them have been seen or heard from since. Kerri Ellis says it’s extremely out of character for her daughter to be out of touch.
“She was calling me at least once a week before this, and if I needed to reach her, I could kind of put it out into the community and everybody was really responsive and could find her pretty quickly and get her to contact me. She didn’t ever want me to worry about her, so she let me know she was safe and things were okay and she was still around. I’m just afraid that she’s somewhere that she doesn’t want to be, or maybe being held against her will, and I don’t want to leave her in that situation.”
Ellis says there are multiple warrants out for Theodore Rundquist, and because it’s a missing indigenous persons case, the FBI is involved in the nationwide search.
Leelah Smith is described as 5’ tall, 95 lbs., brown hair, brown eyes. We’ve included her photo and that of the man she may be with along with this story on our website and Facebook page.