Missing Person: Deanne Hastings
Age at the time of disappearance: age 35
Date Last Seen: November 3, 2015
Location Last Seen: Spokane, Washington
Date Located: STILL MISSING
Deanne was a beautiful, vibrant young woman who had everything going for her. She was engaged and was in college for beauty school. She, however, was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder which were at heightened levels during her episodes which caused her to disappear for days at a time. During these episodes she remained in contact with her phone, responding texts, she just needed her space to get thru these moments. She always came home.
Thru time, her episodes became more manic. At one point she checked herself in to a psychiatric center in Idaho, completed the program and was released. She knew this was a problem, but she managed it by taking her pills, seeing doctors and acknowledging the problem was there.
Then she met her boyfriend Mike where they moved in together, were planning a wedding and started college. Everything a girl wants.
November 3, 2015 was her first day of cosmetology school. She was excited and ready to go. Mike got out of work late, came home and saw a letter that she wrote stating she had a great day was running to the store five miles away. She was not answering. Mike drove to that store in hopes of finding her but it was closed. After some time he used the phone’s GPS to locate her phone. He followed that trace which lead him to locating her abandoned vehicle parked in a public parking lot at 919 West Sprague Avenue in a rough part of Spokane, Washington. It was across the street from the ‘Knitting Factory’ which is a venue for local musicians and comedians.
The building was locked. There’s no one around. He called her phone which he heard ringing in her locked vehicle. He knew something was terribly wrong. He stayed at her car all night long thinking she may come back to her vehicle.
November 4 at 8:00 A.M. he called her school thinking she may have gone straight there. She didn’t show up. The man at the school who spoke to Mike discussed her disappearance and wanted to help by making missing persons posters and put them up around town. They gathered friends and started their search.
Mike then receives a call from his credit card company which targeted a purchase at the Trading Company, a local grocery store 15 miles southwest in Cheney. He didn’t go. He went back to her car hoping she would go there. He waited hours.
He later decided to leave her vehicle again and go to the grocery store in hopes of getting details on the transaction. He showed people in and outside of the store the poster. No one saw her. He asked for surveillance video at the time the purchase was made, which wouldn’t be successful until the next day, over 24 hours after her disappearance.
Mike files a missing person report, explaining her mental health condition along with the known details he had. Mike then contacted the Media for their help in creating awareness. It was at this time the family heard via friends that Deanne was missing.
They then confirm the last known contact Deanne had was at 10:00 P.M. that night, to text her teenage son and let him know that school was great.
November 6, the surveillance video at the grocery store was ready. It showed that about Noon on November 4 she was there, she was acting erratically and waving her hands while continuously looking over her shoulder. She purchased four energy drinks, string cheese, birthday cake candles, cigarettes and a bottle of vodka.
A store owner witnessed seeing Deanne walking in to the store seemingly disoriented and called the woman ‘Mommy’ saying someone had kidnapped and drugged her.
Another witness were two women who saw Deanne sitting nearby. They offered to call her family and even drive her home. Instead she was combative and refused, so the women called 911.
An officer and an ambulance arrived, but Deanne was combative, said she was fine and wanted to be left alone. She did however tell the officer that she was drugged and kidnapped. She walked away and headed toward the coffee shop. Police had no reason to confine her and let her go. There is no public intoxication law in Spokane. Deanne did nothing illegal and refused help.
November 7, a man called in with a tip, saying he had picked Deanne up at the Knitting Factory on November 3, 2015. He worked there at the time and said he spent time with her that night, had a cigarette with her, then she came home with him without having any sexual encounter. The next morning he said they drove to the store so he could buy cigarettes and when he got back to the car she was gone. Her keys were left inside his car and gave them to Mike. Mike went back to Deanne’s car and opened it, finding her purse and wallet. He noticed several credit cards were missing. Mike moved her vehicle. Soon after, this man picked up and moved to Florida.
November 8, Detectives started their investigation. They pulled her phone records and pinged her location but found nothing suspicious. They looked in to her credit cards, and found a surveillance camera that showed three people were using her credit cards in Spokane and Spokane Valley. The cards showed they were used November 7 and future dates in both Spokane and Spokane Valley at grocery stores, pharmacies and convenient stores. The identity of the man using the cards was Randy Riley.
Randy Riley’s former landlord told the police that she saw Deanne still with Riley and lying in the street. A second witness came forward and said they saw Deanne in the same area oriented, and the witnessed asked if she was ok.
Detectives located Randy. He said that he and his friend James met Deanne near a storage unit, hung out with her and were drinking. Deanne gave him her credit cards and told him to go get himself something to eat. He had no idea where Deanne could be.
Weeks later Deanne’s driver’s license was found on the ground in downtown Spokane at Sonnenberg’s Deli.
December 10 Randy was finally charged but only for identity theft. During questioning he changed his story. He said that it was November and that Deanne went up a hill to go to the bathroom and never came back down. The next day he was moving his belongings from his residence and went back to where Deanne was staying in the woods. He found her coat and shoes but not her. He said he found her credit cards inside her coat and later threw out her driver’s license.
James said that when Deanne went to the bathroom in the bushes she didn’t come back right away, and when he went to go check on her she didn’t want to move from that spot. He said Randy was up there for several minutes then came back alone and never saw Deanne again. This was about 300 yards from Deanne’s home. Nothing was found in the search near that area.
When Mike was questioned, he said they didn’t have any problems, but a text message was brought up that Deanne sent to a friend of hers stating that she was 99% sure that Mike had drugged her the other night. Mike said that weeks prior to her disappearance Deanne was telling him she thought the neighbors were drugging her water supply. He said he felt she wasn’t taking her medication normally at the time because she was having trouble with the insurance paying for it.
January 2016 there was a Facebook set up for Deanna’s disappearance and James had written to the administrator of the page and wanted to talk to someone in Deanne’s family and would tell them whatever they wanted to know. When James spoke to them the conversation got heated and James hung up without giving any additional information. It is believed he was going to confess to information that wasn’t yet known.
Deanne is still missing. If you have information on her disappearance or whereabouts, please do the right thing and give this family some peace. Please contact the Spokane Police Department at (509) 456-2233
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