No New Developments In Case Of Missing Grant County Woman

There are no new developments in the case of a Grant County woman who's now been missing for over a month.

Thirty-one-year-old Irene Fleming was reportedly last seen by her family on the afternoon of Feb. 25 when she left a residence in the 4900 block of Road U Southwest near George on foot.

Grant County Sheriff's Office spokesperson, Kyle Foreman, says investigators have had to limit the steps they can take to locate Fleming because there is no reason to believe she is in any danger.

"We don't have enough evidence right now to support a search warrant which would allow us to ping her phone to locate her. Doing so without a warrant is considered a legal invasion of someone's privacy. If evidence comes to light that she is in some type of peril, then we will approach the judge again to see if we can get a search warrant."

Foreman says it's not yet known if Fleming's disappearance and lack of contact with her family is voluntary, but the act of breaking communication with others by itself is not enough for law enforcement to take action.

"People can choose to discontinue contact with other people and go out on their own. That might qualify them as missing to the people who've been cut off, but if we find the person who's stopped communicating and they say 'I don't want to be in contact and want to be off the radar', then we have to respect their privacy and we leave them alone. In this case, we don't know exactly what the situation is."

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The Sheriff's Office says a credible tipster at an East Wenatchee business claims to have had contact with a woman named 'Irene' who matched Fleming's description several days after her family reported her as missing. Since then, there have been no further sightings of Fleming.

In the weeks since her disappearance, numerous commenters on the sheriff's office's social media postings about Fleming have offered a variety of speculations regarding her possible whereabouts, including several details which investigators have asked the public to refrain from expressing publicly.

The sheriff's office also clarified rumors surrounding the arrest of a possible suspect in Fleming's disappearance on March 22. In a social media comment, investigators said the suspect in question, a man named Clint Bryson - who other commenters said was acquainted with Fleming, was arrested for providing false information about his identity to deputies in an unrelated matter and also had an outstanding warrant.

Fleming is 5'1" tall and weighs approximately 100 pounds with brown hair and grayish-blue eyes. She typically wears a bull-style nose ring and was last seen dressed in a brown jacket, blue jeans, and brown boots.

Anyone with information about Fleming's disappearance or whereabouts is being asked to contact either Rivercom Dispatch at 509-663-9911 or MACC Dispatch at 509-762-1160. Tipsters can remain anonymous.