Sheriff’s Office ends search for missing Snohomish man

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office called off the search for Henry Groeneveld on Monday.

The 63-year-old Snohomish man went missing around 10 a.m. on Dec. 11. He was last seen by his wife at their home in the 400 block of Union Avenue. Groeneveld abruptly told her he was going to the river, according to an agency news release. Stress from work and an argument with his wife, who has a disability, may have contributed to his decision to leave.

“There will be no more active searches,” said his daughter Liz Dickson, and the last one she and her siblings are holding on Saturday, Dec. 23, which starts 8:30 a.m. at the McDonald’s at 917 Ave D in Snohomish. “I am not going to be asking the community to go out anymore after that. We will still be searching ourselves.”

She said the public’s reaction to help was immediate and more than she could have hoped for. Dickson said she doesn’t want to continue to ask anyone to get wet and cold looking for her dad. They have already done so much for her.

People came from as far as Arlington and Lake Stevens, and were searching in Sultan and Clearview, she said. Volunteers went out on horseback to survey trails and took their personal vessels out on the area’s waterways.

Dickson said she does not believe responding law enforcement did their due diligence to find her father, and said some were rude to her during the process. She said she was frustrated they initially treated the case as a potential suicide. She said she wished they had tried harder and used more resources in their efforts.

Snohomish Police led a search the week Groeneveld went missing that encompassed the Snohomish and Pilchuck Rivers, the Avenue D Bridge, railroad trestles and First Street, according to the news release. The county’s major crimes unit took over efforts once no leads were left to pursue.

The sheriff’s search and rescue helicopter and marine unit have scanned riverbanks, according to the release. Search dogs were also used and surveillance footage has been viewed.

Active searches were called off Monday, Dickson said. They won’t resume until a new lead turns up. She said she is not sure how much hope she has at this point.

“I just don’t know anymore. I had full, 100-percent faith he was alive until Tuesday, but now I really don’t know,” she said.

Groeneveld volunteers regularly at the Monroe Correctional Complex, with a humanitarian aid organization and his church in Snohomish. If he met someone once, he would remember their name, Dickson told the Monitor. He was loved by and touched so many people, she said.

Groeneveld is 5-foot-7-inches and weighs 150 pounds. He has gray hair and blue eyes, and was last seen wearing a red knit cap, brown pullover shirt and blue U.S. Postal Service pants. He may have facial hair now.

The sheriff’s office asks that the public call 911 with any information on Groeneveld’s whereabouts. Anyone who wants to contact Dickson to volunteer can call her cell at 425-346-0109 or visit a Facebook group dedicated to finding her father.