Friend of murdered girl missing - victim found along wooded trail

September 19, 2003

By RAY LANE / KING 5 News

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – It’s an agonizing situation for any family – a young girl missing, believed to be in harm’s way and no one knows where to look or what to do.

She was friends with a murdered young girl and now a missing 14-year-old is the center of a new investigation.

The past two months have been unbearable for Valorie McMillan. Her 14-year-old daughter Micaela has vanished.

“This is not like her not to contact anybody,” she said.

What has her so concerned is what happened to one of Micaela's friends, Ashley Parks, whose body was found two weeks ago along a wooded trail in Olympia.

KING
Micaela McMillan
“They were pretty close. They hadn’t known each other too long, but they spent a good amount of time together,” she continued.

Ashley went missing nearly the same day in July that Micaela did.

“I find it very hard to believe that two girls from the small town of Bellingham turned up missing at the same time. Maybe it’s just coincidence. I hope that’s all it is, but that’s not what my heart tells me,” she said.

Bellingham Police have few leads in Micaela's disappearance, especially since none of her family or friends have seen or heard from her.

“Adults more often than not we can track with credit cards, cars and things like that. With juveniles, we don’t have any of the normal things that we’d be able to track with,” said Sgt. David Richard, Bellingham Police Dept.

But just recently detectives started taking a close look at Micaela's computer and the hard drive. Police say the man accused of killing Ashley Parks met her in an online chat room and brought her to Olympia.

Valorie McMillan now wonders if Micaela met big trouble on the Internet herself.

“Micaela wasn’t known to be on it a lot, but she did use the computer and was online,” said Valorie.

Bellingham Police have talked with detectives in Olympia. At this point they do not believe the suspect in Ashley Park's death is connected to Micaela's disappearance.

Micaela's family says they do not think she's around Bellingham, but believe someone may have taken her south, quite possibly to the Olympia area.

Micaela is described a white female with brown hair in a pony tail, 5-foot-7, 120 pounds, brown eyes, slender build, last seen wearing white T-shirt, black pants and a gray, hooded sweatshirt.