A 17-year-old girl was last seen near East North Bend Way in North Bend, Washington, at approximately 3:40 p.m. Washington State Patrol issued a Missing Indigenous Person Alert on her behalf. Lorena Willard Gabel is described as 5 feet 4 inches tall and 115 pounds, with auburn hair and brown eyes, and she was last seen wearing a brown hooded jacket and gray sweatpants.
The alert was issued by WSP Missing Person Alerts
on behalf of the King County Sheriff's Office. WSP posted the alert Monday. Anyone who sees Gabel is urged to call 9-1-1 immediately.
A Jurisdiction in Transition
North Bend sits roughly 30 miles east of Seattle along Interstate 90 in the foothills of the Cascade Range, a spot that functions as a hinge point between suburban King County and the major transportation corridors heading into the mountains, according to background cited on Wikipedia. That geography matters here: the King County Sheriff's Office took over municipal policing duties for the City of North Bend on April 1, replacing a 14-year policing contract the city had held with the Snoqualmie Police Department, per reporting from the City of North Bend.
Washington State Patrol also has a more direct physical presence in the area than it has in decades. The agency reestablished a dedicated North Bend detachment in late 2023, based out of the Fire Training Academy off Interstate 90.
How the Alert System Works
Washington's House Bill 1725 passed the Legislature on March 7, 2022, and the Missing Indigenous Person Alert program began in July 2022, according to a bill report from the Washington State Legislature.
More than 80 percent of the over 150 Indigenous individuals reported missing statewide between July 2022 and mid-2025 were recovered with the help of MIPA, according to the Washington State Attorney General's Office in a report from its Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force. Hoodline has reported that a large majority of MIPA activations involve missing juvenile runaways and that alerts can prompt renewed contact.
A Disproportionate Crisis
The alert for Gabel arrives against a backdrop of stark statistical disparity. Indigenous residents make up roughly 3 percent of Washington's population but account for more than 7 percent of the active missing person cases tracked by Washington State Patrol as of late 2025, KING 5 News reported, with state officials noting that missing person data often undercounts Indigenous cases because of incomplete racial identification in police reports.
Hoodline has previously reported on MIPA activations elsewhere in the state, including a Ferndale teen found safe earlier this month.
Anyone who sees Gabel is urged to call 9-1-1 immediately.
