SALT LAKE CITY -- Their music has been heard throughout the world, now Jon Schmidt of The Piano Guys is hoping the world will hear his plea for help to find his missing daughter.
Crews are searching the Tooth Rock area near Portland for 21-year-old Anna Schmidt. Her family says she went hiking Sunday but hasn't been seen since.
Anna, who also goes by Annie, moved from Utah to Oregon for the summer. Now that's where her mother and father are looking for her.
“Annie is really adventuresome, she just goes and does all sorts of things,” said Michelle Schmidt, Annie’s mother.
But her family worries Annie’s adventurous side may have gotten her lost or injured somewhere in the mountains.
“Kind of in shock I think to be honest,” Michelle Schmidt said. “I have to face the reality that she may not still be alive
Now her family's focus is on finding her.
“I'm going up with my boys and just kind of got to go find our Annie,” Jon Schmidt, Annie’s father, told a news crew in Portland.
“I'm sure there will be time for emotional breakdown and all of that, but right now is not the time,” Michelle Schmidt said.
The last time the family heard from their daughter was Sunday when she posted on social media.
“I saw she was up in the mountains, then Monday I didn't see any posts or snaps or anything like that, which is really unusual because she posts everyday,” Michelle Schmidt said.
Tuesday Michelle sent Annie a text.
“OK, I’m getting worried, why aren't you answering me,” Michelle Schmidt said of that text.
Still no word. Then on Wednesday, Michelle flew to Oregon for a camping trip with her daughter that they'd been planning for weeks. But Annie didn't show up at the airport.
“I just got a rental car and went to her apartment, and when I showed up her roommate was really alarmed because she said, 'I thought you guys were gone. I thought you were already camping, she's been gone since Sunday,'” Michelle Schmidt said.
That's when the search began. On Thursday, police finally got a ping from Annie’s phone, hoping it would take them to where she was on the mountain. Instead it led them to her car, near the Columbia River Gorge. After sitting there for days it had been broken into and ransacked.
Police say there are no signs of foul play and they don't believe she was suicidal.
“I think she's been injured or something, or lost, injured, or lost, that's what my gut says,” Michelle Schmidt said.
Anna's family knows people here in Utah can't do much in terms of searching, but they are asking for prayers at this time.
