Six months on from the disappearance of Rose Linn Care Center nurse Cristina Ase , the 62-year-old’s friends and coworkers are struggling without the person they consider a family member.
Ase, a Vancouver resident, has worked as the nursing coordinator at West Linn’s Rose Linn Care Center for 15 years. Her friends and colleagues worried when she did not show up to work March 26.
With no one having seen or heard from her since then — and no new information from investigators in the past five months — those colleagues and friends are more concerned than ever.
“Everybody’s struggling terribly with it,” said Nicole Oquist, who also works at Rose Linn. “She was like the glue here.”
“She kept us all in line; when everyone was stressed out, she would tell us not to worry,” continued Amy Schauer, another of Ase’s colleagues. “We don’t have the glue anymore. The building is still running, it just isn’t the same. We all come in and do our jobs the same way, but it definitely has changed.”
After working with Ase for the past 15 years, both Oquist and Schauer grew close enough with her to consider her family.
Even those that have known Ase for a short time are also devastated, they said.
Since Ase has no family in the area, Oquist and Schauer have regularly checked in with detectives investigating her disappearance. Because she lived in Vancouver, worked in West Linn and was last known to have been in Portland, investigators from all three cities’ police agencies are collaborating on the case. The Federal Bureau of Investigations is now involved as well because Ase crossed state lines the morning of her disappearance, according to Oquist and Schauer.
A public information officer for the Vancouver Police Department told the Tidings there were no updates to share in Ase’s case but confirmed the FBI was involved, though VPD was still leading the investigation.
What investigators have revealed so far
Oquist and Schauer said detectives have not shared any new information about their investigation or findings since releasing an affidavit for a search warrant in April.
In that affidavit, officers from the Vancouver Police Department noted that, “there is probable cause to believe that Cristina’s sudden disappearance is related to a serious crime or immediately dangerous medical emergency.”
Ase reportedly left her home in Vancouver the morning of March 26 to head to work in West Linn. She never made it to work, though police tracked her phone to the Glenwood Park neighborhood of Southeast Portland later that morning.
The day after her disappearance, police discovered her car — with evidence it had recently been cleaned — a block from her home.
Ase left her Vancouver home for work at 6:30 a.m., like usual, on Feb. 27, March 1, March 5, and March 26, the day of her disappearance. On each of those mornings, she texted her boss around 6:50 a.m. that she would arrive at work around 8:30 a.m., though she usually reports for her shift at 7:30 a.m.
“It is unknown where she was in the intervening time between leaving her home and arriving at work at 0830,” the affidavit read. “It is worth noting, however, that she messaged her employer on each occasion approximately 20 minutes after (leaving) home.”
Phone records, according to the affidavit, indicated that Ase spent about three hours in the neighborhood around Glenwood Park in Portland the day she disappeared.
“The SE Foster Rd exit of I-205 is an exactly 20-minute drive from Cristina’s home (per Google Maps),” the affidavit stated. “It is likely therefore that she visited the area of Glenwood Park Portland before the day of her disappearance.”
Based on location data from her phone the morning of her disappearance, police said Ase likely moved around the park and to at least one residence nearby before moving to Southeast Flavel Street and 92nd Avenue, which is about three quarters of a mile from the park. Ase’s phone shut off in that area around 10 a.m.
The April affidavit also mentioned curious findings based on police’s search of Ase’s car, such as a white powdery substance consistent with a cleaning agent that was discovered on several surfaces inside the car.
Oquist and Schauer acknowledged some people online have suspected Anibal Diaz, Ase’s husband, to be involved in her disappearance, partly because he moved back to Argentina in the weeks after she went missing. Police spoke with Diaz after her disappearance but have not disclosed whether or not they believe him to be involved.
For their part, Oquist and Schauer said they check in with Diaz regarding Ase about once a month and say he is devastated by her absence.
“He said that it was just too much for him here, and he couldn't stay here or in that apartment without Cristina,” Schauer said of Diaz.
With both Ase’s and Diaz’s families still in Argentina, it makes sense why Diaz might want to to move back to be with family at a difficult time like this, Schauer and Oquist said.
The two colleages said they also check in with Ase’s sisters in Argentina about once a week.
Her sisters have not heard from her either, they said.
Ase’s colleagues said some people have criticized her family for not speaking publicly about her disappearance, but shared that the family asked them to advocate for Ase on their behalf as they don’t live in the U.S. or speak English.
Though it’s difficult with investigators offering no new information, Oquist and Schauer said they are not giving up hope that they’ll see Ase again. They are hopeful that someone who may have seen Ase around Glenwood Park the morning of March 26 will come forward and share what they saw.
“Trying to keep her name and face out there is our ultimate goal, because someone will eventually be like, ‘I know something.’ We're not going to give up until that happens,” Oquist said.
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