Kenna Harris
If you see Kenna Harris, call 911 or the sheriff’s anonymous tip line at 425-388-3845 and give as many specific details as you can provide.
Tips can also be submitted anonymously to Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound at www.crimestoppers.com or by calling 1-800-222- TIPS (8477).
MONROE — Kenna Harris, 25, has been missing since March 31. More than two months later, her family, friends and the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit continue to search for information that may help in locating her.
Kenna is described by her mother Kelli Harris as friendly, kind, and possessing a soothing voice with a boisterous laugh that is contagious. “She likes to talk with her hands and she asks a lot of questions,” Kelli Harris said.
She has ongoing cognitive issues due to the effects of a traumatic brain injury from a high-speed rollover accident six years ago. Kelli Harris said that as a result her daughter experiences memory problems and can be quite impulsive.
Kenna stands five-feet-eight-inches tall with short, reddish-brown hair and hazel green eyes. The rollover accident fractured her spine, leaving a large scar extending from the nape of her neck down to the mid-back area.
Kenna graduated from Monroe High in 2012 where she was a scholar and multisport athlete. She continued to enjoy swimming regularly at the Snohomish Aquatic Center, because it didn’t hurt her back after recovering from her injuries sustained in the crash.
On March 31, she was last seen wearing a black down jacket, a gray knit beanie hat, dark blue jeans, black athletic shoes and a long black knitted scarf. Kenna was also carrying a black backpack with light blue and yellow accents, to which she had strapped a light green yoga mat.
Kenna told her dad that morning that she didn’t want to go to her job at Walmart, but he encouraged her to go, Kelli Harris said. When the DART bus for those with disabilities arrived to take her to work, Kenna was gone. A neighbor reportedly spoke with her briefly around 11 a.m.
Close to noon, Kenna went to a Chase Bank in Monroe and withdrew the remaining $230 in her account. Shortly thereafter, she got on a Community Transit bus by the Rite-Aid and rode it to the stop near Washington Tractor in Snohomish. She then started to walk back toward the Snohomish Station shopping center on Bickford Avenue. Kenna was last seen stopping into a Subway sandwich shop at the station, at approximately 1:15 p.m., to inquire if they had gluten-free bread.
From there it’s as if Kenna vanished. “We know that she was at (Snohomish) Station, we know the time and from there we really haven’t had any credible sightings or tips that have materialized,” said lead detective on the case Dave Fontenot.
He said that they have all available mechanisms in place to detect if she creates any kind of an electronic footprint such as using her cell phone, social media or bank accounts.
Her phone’s last network connection was at 12:26 p.m. when she was most likely boarding or already on the bus from Monroe. Kelli Harris worries that her daughter might have forgot to recharge her phone the night before or that it possibly broke.
Walmart directly deposited Kenna’s next paycheck on April 2, but that money has remained in her account since then.
Fontenot said that in addition to reviewing surveillance videos, “search and rescue has been out multiple times canvassing and searching that area.” Efforts have included the use of drones and search dogs for wooded patches.
Kenna’s family has posted missing person banners at Snohomish Station and in town. They distributed flyers from Idaho to California with the help of friends and members of their church. Notifications have been sent to regional and national law enforcement agencies.
Because she is an adult, and so far, there are no indications of criminal activity or violence associated with her disappearance, the active missing persons case is not a criminal investigation at this time.
But Fontenot said that given the circumstances he’s worried for Kenna, “There’s been very few cases in my (27 year) career that have been more peculiar as far as someone just vanishing.” Even if she doesn’t want to go home, he would still like to have contact with her for the family’s sake.
Kelli Harris said her daughter had recently expressed an interest in trying to move out of the family’s house in Monroe, but nothing was imminent and that it’s not like her daughter to fall out of contact with the family. Kenna had also gotten cleared to drive two weeks before she disappeared.
If Kenna is currently in a new living situation, Kelli Harris said the family just wants to make sure that she’s in a safe place. “Nobody is mad at her for taking off.”
She said the family prays every day to be reunited with Kenna. “We would probably go for sushi, if that’s what she wanted to do, or we’d just want to hug her and be together to do whatever Kenna wanted.”
Crime Stoppers and the Harris family have combined to offer a $5,000 reward for information that assists in locating Kenna. Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the sheriff’s anonymous tip line at 425-388-3845 and give as many specific details as they can provide.
Tips can also be submitted anonymously to Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound at www.crimestoppers.com or by calling 1-800-222- TIPS (8477).
