Missing ferry woman found safe

Missing ferry woman found safe
Surveillance video from a Shoreline hotel taken Tuesday morning around 4 a.m. shows Amy Story at the counter.
LAKE FOREST PARK, Wash. -- A woman who went missing off a Washington State Ferry and spent three days wandering around the greater Seattle area has been found safe.

A person noticed a woman hitchhiking on Ballinger Way NE in Lake Forest Park around 12:30 a.m. Thursday. The witness recognized the woman as Amy Story and called police.

An officer responded and found Story sitting outside the Lake Forest Park Market. She told the officer her car had been stolen off the ferry and she was walking to a relative's home in Bothell.

A short time later, the officer reunited Story with her parents, who were staying at a local motel.

Her family says Story is tired but otherwise in good health.

On Monday, Story drove onto the M/V Tacoma ferry for the 2:55 p.m. sailing from Bainbridge Island, officials with the Washington State Ferries said. When the ferry docked in Seattle, Story's car was found abandoned on the upper car deck. Ferry workers noted several personal items belonging to Story still in the car.

A search of the ferry came up empty, as did a subsequent Coast Guard search of the surrounding waters Monday evening.

But further investigation of surveillance video from the Tacoma shows Story walking off the ferry when it docked in Seattle.

Her family said Story had medical issues and had wandered off dazed in the past.

Surveillance video captured Story on tape at a Shoreline hotel early Tuesday morning, and she was spotted several hours later near the Seattle Center.

Her family expressed their gratitude to the Seattle area police, Coast Guard and ferry personnel for their hard work in tracking Amy down.