An 87-year-old Orcas Island man has been missing since he walked away from his home on Mount Woolland Road near Eastsound and never came back. Kent Sawyer was last seen around 6 p.m. Tuesday, and the Washington State Patrol activated a Silver Alert on his behalf early Wednesday morning at the request of the San Juan County Sheriff's Office.
According to the alert issued by WSP Missing Person Alerts, Sawyer is described as 6 feet 3 inches tall and roughly 170 pounds, with white hair and gray eyes. He may be wearing jeans, a white shirt and a blue sweatshirt. Investigators say his disappearance poses a credible threat to his health and safety, and the case has been logged under San Juan County Sheriff's Office case number 26-005729.
Washington's Silver Alert system, established in 2015 under RCW 13.60.010, broadcasts emergency notifications through highway reader boards, listservs and social media whenever a person 60 or older with cognitive impairment goes missing, according to prior Hoodline reporting. Unlike AMBER Alerts, Silver Alerts do not trigger the mandatory wireless phone alarms or television broadcast interruptions that accompany child abduction cases, per the Washington State Patrol's public guidance.
A Race Against the Clock on Rugged Terrain
The search comes with real urgency built into the science of wandering. Data from the Alzheimer's Association shows roughly 60 percent of people with dementia wander away from home at least once in their lives, while state legislative findings note that up to half of wandering seniors missing for more than 24 hours suffer severe injury or death. That statistic helps explain why local authorities escalated Sawyer's case to a statewide alert so quickly after he failed to return from his walk.
Orcas Island itself complicates any search. It is the largest island in San Juan County, spanning 57.3 square miles of dense forest, rolling terrain and steep ridges that climb to 2,409 feet at Mount Constitution, according to World Atlas. Eastsound, where Sawyer lives, is the island's commercial and civic center and home to the bulk of its roughly 4,500 to 5,400 year-round residents, but the surrounding area shifts quickly into secluded, rural acreage that can swallow a disoriented walker.
Limited Local Staffing, Regional Backup on Standby
On-island emergency response is led by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office working alongside Orcas Island Fire & Rescue, which keeps just two on-duty personnel at Station 21 in Eastsound and otherwise relies on volunteer firefighters spread across seven stations, per the department's own account. That thin staffing is why island authorities routinely lean on outside help: San Juan County emergency services maintain inter-agency agreements with regional partners including Airlift Northwest and the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound for specialized air and maritime search support, according to San Juan Island Fire and Rescue.
There is local precedent for a search like this ending well. In December 2019, a 67-year-old disoriented Orcas Island resident was found alive after 18 hours in cold rain and thick woods, following a search that pulled in more than 30 search-and-rescue personnel from 15 regional agencies, the Islands' Sounder reported at the time. It is not yet known whether canine units or additional search-and-rescue teams have been deployed to the island for Sawyer's case, nor whether weather is complicating the current search.
How to Report a Sighting
Under state guidelines, police agencies that issue an Endangered Missing Person Advisory or Silver Alert must immediately enter the person's details into the Washington Crime Information Center and National Crime Information Center databases, ensuring Sawyer's information is tracked across state and federal law enforcement systems. Anyone who spots him is asked to call 9-1-1 immediately, while non-emergency tips and other information can be routed to the San Juan County Sheriff's Office through its dispatch line.
The case also lands amid a broader legislative push to sharpen how Washington tracks these alerts. During the state's 2026 legislative session, lawmakers introduced SB 5822, which would require the Washington State Patrol to publish annual reports detailing Silver Alert activations, recovery times and outcomes, according to BillTrack50. Sawyer's case is the latest in a string of Silver Alerts issued across Washington in recent weeks, following similar searches for missing seniors in Seattle, Greenwood, SeaTac, Wenatchee and Burien.
