Storm may have swept away woman
A Napa woman has been missing for more than a week, and police and friends are continuing their search for her, focusing on the Napa River area where authorities fear she may have been swept away during recent atmospheric-river storms.
Crystal Lea McCarthy, 37, has vibrant orange hair and hazel-green eyes and is about 5-foot-5 and 155 pounds. She was last seen in Napa on Dec. 13 at about 9 p.m. near Lincoln Avenue and Silverado Trail, and was possibly on the Napa River Trail between Lincoln Avenue and Trancas Street, according to a missing-person flier.
According to police, it was raining heavily when McCarthy went missing. She asked a roommate about an umbrella before apparently leaving their house on Lincoln Avenue, said Sgt. Peter Piersig of the Napa Police Department.
Her boyfriend, Drew Wright, said he last saw McCarthy when they ate dinner together at their home before he went to work. She called later to say she was getting a
snack and would see him when he got home, he said. When he returned home around midnight, he discovered her missing.
“I haven’t seen her since,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
No foul play involving Wright, the roommate or other friends is suspected, Piersig said, and all are cooperating with police. McCarthy’s phone was found in her home, and her bank accounts haven’t been touched, he said.
Wright and a friend, Deanna Reister, said McCarthy may have visited a nearby homeless encampment and accompanied a homeless man to a store to purchase alcohol, an event they say was captured on surveillance video the night of her disappearance. Piersig confirmed that account and said police have spoken with the man, who is not considered a suspect.
Wright said McCarthy empathized with the homeless and had occasionally visited encampments, and witnesses told police that McCarthy had recently befriended a homeless woman and had been providing her and others food and beverages, Piersig said.
“She always wanted to be very charitable,” Wright said. “She’s always been very empathetic toward the homeless. She used to do lots of homeless outreach when she lived in Oakland (before moving to Napa).”
Friends have been searching for McCarthy since she went missing. Police said that Wright found some of McCarthy’s belongings on the west bank of the Napa River, which was running high the day of her disappearance.
“We suspect she went in the rushing river based on the proximity of her personal belongings, but it is entirely possible she walked away or was taken away,” Piersig said. “Since we can’t rule out that she met foul play, we will continue to investigate.”
Police have searched along the river, enlisting the help of a California Highway Patrol helicopter on another mission in the area and a Napa fire boat. When a fisherman reported what appeared to be a body with red hair in the river on Sunday, a Napa County Sheriff ’s Office boat joined the search along with a drone team. No body was found, Piersig said.
Napa police have received multiple tips, but none of the sightings have led to finding McCarthy, Piersig said. Police are continuing their investigation and ask that anyone with information contact Detective Brandt Keown at (707) 257-9592 or bkeown@cityofnapa.org.
McCarthy’s friends conducted one larger search on Sunday, Wright and Reister said, and are planning another. They’ve also set up a Facebook page, Find Crystal Lea McCarthy.