WA WA - Hildegard Hendrickson, 79, Chelan Co, 8 Jun 2013

[Treelights]

" A photograph of a Seattle woman who lost her way while searching for mushrooms north of Lake Wenatchee this summer will be featured on a popular fungi calendar. Half the proceeds from the sale of the calendar will go to Chelan County Search and Rescue, the organization that put countless hours into the search for Hildegard Hendrickson. Hendrickson, 79, a well-known mushroom hunter from Seattle, was never found."

"Seattle photographer Machel Spence said Hendrickson was a good friend and known by many in the state’s mushroom collecting community. A photograph Spence took of Hendrickson gathering morels will be the June page on the calendar. Spence, who makes and sells the fungi calendar each year, said she wanted to dedicate the 2014 calendar to Hendrickson as well as help out the many good people who spent so many hours searching for her."

http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2013/nov/09/good-food-sharing-pumpkins-and-a-fungi-tribute/

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/952845-129/hunting-the-mushroom-hunter-a-year

Multiple PSMS members, including Powell, believe only one conclusion: foul play. They point to her years of experience and her “pragmatism.” She wouldn’t have ventured far from the trail, they believe. She couldn’t have gotten lost—certainly not so far as to be invisible to search teams...

To find answers where there were none, those familiar with Hendrickson have come up with theories. Two women who were foraging around the time reported a suspicious man with a scar on his nose. He had asked a few pickers a few too many questions and made them uncomfortable: “Are you picking alone?” “Are you hunting with men, or women?” “Do you know there are dangerous people around?”

<snip>

Cook imagines Hendrickson’s disappearance may have involved commercial pickers, but as an accident. “It’s a tight logging road that’s hemmed in by willows and other overhanging vegetation, windy and narrow. People drive too fast sometimes. I wonder if someone didn’t accidentally hit her while she was picking near the road, panic, and hide her.” Even if that’s not exactly what happened, Cook is in the camp that some wrongdoing was involved. “It was a hard site to get lost in, and you didn’t have to walk far to find morels. It just doesn’t add up. At this point, you have to look at foul play.”

 

[KateB]

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/23131/11
Status Missing
First name Hildegard
Middle name R
Last name Hendrickson
Nickname/Alias
Date last seen June 08, 2013 13:00
Date entered 01/07/2014
Age last seen 79 to years old
Age now 80 years old
Race White
Ethnicity
Sex Female
Height (inches) 64.0
Weight (pounds) 180.0

Dental Status: Dental information / charting is currently not available
DNA Status: Initial inquiry underway
Fingerprint Information Status: Fingerprint information is currently not available
Images: There are currently no images available for this case. (??)

Hildegard has been missing one year today.

 

[sasha17]

A news article from July 2019 on her disappearance: Into the woods: Six years later, the mystery of Hildegard Hendrickson remains

 

[MissMYB]

Watched a video recently regarding this story. Seems to me she was removed from the area by means of foul play. Lots of interesting internet chatter and YT comments regarding the dark side of morel hunting. Hmmmm. RIP beautiful lady.

 

[Aurora90]

Yup, I recently read about the dark side of morel hunting as well. I lean heavily towards foul play as well.

 

[waitin'4thewrld2chg]

I had no idea there was a dark side to morel hunting before reading the above posts. And I have been sitting right here in Chelan County in Washington for years and years, the county where the disappearance occurred. Who knew that a mushroom had an underworld? But it makes sense in a way. The variety is hard to cultivate and there is demand. I do believe, also, that it is most likely that this lady, sadly, met with foul play and was removed from the area. She may have had mobility issues and the search appears to have been intensive.