21-year-old’s disappearance ‘indescribably painful,’ WA family says. Search ends

The search for a missing 21-year-old man with autism has ended 10 days after he vanished from his Washington home, deputies said.

Jonathan Hoang was last seen at about 7:30 p.m. March 30 in Arlington, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

“Each day he’s been missing has been indescribably painful for our family. He is gentle, kind, funny, and so loved. Please help us find him,” his family wrote on a Facebook page dedicated to finding him.

He was reported the day after he was last seen, deputies said, and it’s believed he left the home with his iPad but not his phone or jacket.

Search teams quickly spread out to find him using ground teams, police dogs, drones and helicopters, deputies said in an earlier post.

They looked for him for more than 4,000 hours over the course of six days and couldn’t find any trace of him, deputies said.

His cellphone and computer were also analyzed but “nothing of evidentiary value was found,” deputies said.

Search efforts have since been called off.

Deputies said search teams will do “periodic checks in the area” and follow up on leads.

There is no evidence of foul play or evidence he was taken against his will, deputies said.

His family said they do not know what Hoang was wearing when he disappeared.

Deputies said he is verbal, can have conversations with people and knows the names of his immediate family.

But they say he struggles to problem-solve and does not have the skills to look for help.

“If lost, he likely doesn’t know to put himself in a visible space for searchers. He will not be able to relay his own address or phone numbers,” deputies said.

Hoang takes a bus to school and to return home, but he does not use public transportation, his father commented on Facebook.

Arlington is about a 50-mile drive north from Seattle.