LYNNWOOD, Wash. — Snohomish County sheriff's deputies searched a wide area around Lynnwood Monday night by ground and helicopter after getting reports of a woman being abducted off the street in front of passersby.
Sheriff's spokesperson Shari Ireton said the first 911 calls were made just before 6 p.m.
Two drivers reported seeing a young woman being grabbed and violently forced into an SUV by a man while she walked along Larch Way and Poplar Way, according to Ireton.
According to the witnesses, the man pulled over in a blue Ford Explorer, got out and grabbed the woman by the arm. One witness told deputies the woman was thrown into the driver's side door "like a rag doll."
Two witnesses chased the SUV for several blocks until it made a sudden U-turn and disappeared.
Deputies say just prior to the suspected abduction, the woman was seen walking alone out of an Albertson's store
and driving away in the same blue Ford Explorer she was seen being forced into minutes later, deputies say.
Witnesses describe the man as white or possibly Hispanic, 5 foot 9 inches tall with a light build and wearing a dark gray beanie and a dark jacket.
Investigators hope someone who can identify the woman from surveillance pictures will call them.