Auburn Girl, 15, Missing Nine Days Before Statewide Native Alert Goes Out

A 15-year-old girl last seen walking off SE 386th Way in Auburn nine days ago is now the subject of a statewide Missing Indigenous Person Alert, after the Washington State Patrol activated the advisory on behalf of the King County Sheriff's Office. Dawnah Dominick was last seen around 6 p.m. on August 19, wearing a brown hoodie and white pajama pants, heading in an unknown direction. She is described as 5 feet 4 inches tall, 160 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

The alert, posted by WSP Missing Person Alerts, notes that Washington State Patrol received the completed alert request on August 28 — meaning nine days passed between Dominick's disappearance and the activation of the statewide advisory. That gap reflects built-in procedural steps under the state's Missing Indigenous Person Alert law, which require local or tribal law enforcement to first file a missing persons report and enter the case into the National Crime Information Center database before WSP can process a MIPA request, according to the Washington State Patrol. The case has been assigned number C26023507, and anyone who sees Dominick is asked to call 9-1-1; the King County Sheriff's Office can also be reached at its non-emergency line, 206-296-0970.

 

Missing Indigenous Person Alert (MIPA) - Dominick - Auburn, WA pic.twitter.com/Dc5W9B13UL

— WSP Missing Person Alerts (@WSPMissingPers1) August 28, 2026

 

Last Seen Near Lozier Ranch on the Reservation

SE 386th Way, where Dominick was last seen, sits on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation in King County, according to the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, land that stretches near Auburn between Seattle and Tacoma. Community missing-child posts from A Voice For The Voiceless, Inc. add that she was last seen specifically near Lozier Ranch on the reservation around the same 6 p.m. timeframe on August 19. Public community updates from Missing & Murdered Relatives indicate Dominick was previously reported missing in September 2025 alongside another youth and was located alive.

How Washington's Alert System Works

Washington became the first state in the nation to launch a dedicated Missing Indigenous Person Alert system in July 2022, enacted under House Bill 1725 and codified in RCW 13.60.010, according to the Washington State Legislature. The law treats missing Indigenous people as automatically endangered, a designation meant to cut down on administrative delays before alerts go out. WSP only activates these alerts at the request of local law enforcement, and troopers act as the state's distribution channel once that paperwork is submitted.

Because no vehicle or license plate information is attached to Dominick's case, state guidelines mean her alert cannot be displayed on Washington's electronic highway message signs, which the Washington State Patrol says can only show MIPA alerts when vehicle details are available due to character limits. Instead, non-vehicle cases like hers are distributed through email lists, WSP's social media accounts, and news broadcasts.

A Pattern Playing Out Across Auburn and the State

This is not the first MIPA case tied to the Muckleshoot area in Auburn this month. Earlier in August, WSP activated another advisory on behalf of the King County Sheriff's Office for an Indigenous person missing from the same area, a case Hoodline previously reported. Statewide, the system has a strong track record: a June 2026 report by the Washington State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force found that 64 MIPA alerts were issued in 2025, with 59 of those people safely located. Between July 2022 and April 2026, WSP issued 220 total MIPA alerts, with 203 resolved, and the system's first six months back in 2022 saw 17 alerts result in 13 successful recoveries, according to the task force and WSP's own historical data.

That track record offers some reassurance even as questions persist about the lag between disappearances and public alerts, a pattern seen in other recent Washington cases involving missing Indigenous teens. For now, the search for Dawnah Dominick continues, with investigators asking anyone with information to contact 9-1-1 or the King County Sheriff's Office.