Today, her family members and some of the community organized search efforts to find her.
“Rachael, we love you, we want you to come home, it doesn’t matter what you’re thinking, everybody wants to see you come home safe, we’ll have our arms open for a big hug. We want you to get the help you really need, so please come home, we love you,” said Rachael’s brother, Kevin Behnke.
39-year-old Rachael Michelle Behnke went missing 8 days ago in the Grants Pass area.
Her brother, Kevin, says the mother of 4 has never disappeared for this long.
“Most the time she’s either come home or checked herself into a facility,” he told me.
He says Rachael suffers from severe depression, which became worse with the isolation of the pandemic, leaving her family beyond concerned of where she might be and if she’s okay.
Her family members are jumping into action – handing out flyers, searching back roads in Selma; hoping to find a trace of her.
Currently, 10 groups of 3 people are looking for her.
“Nobody has seen her or heard from her since Friday around 1 p.m, we were told by the police that at 6th Street and Redwood [Highway] is the last time there was a hit on the camera [of her] so we believe that she went west,” he said.
Kevin Behnke says Rachael recently reconciled with her spouse and got a new job. He doesn’t believe she was on anyone’s bad side and he doesn’t know if she went off her medication.
“There’s a potential of self-harm, and so we’re trying to find any clues… God forbid, anything did happen… she got stranded, or you know, the area we’re looking has some bad people in it,” Kevin said.
Behnke is described as 5’4”, around 200 pounds, and has long blonde hair and blue eyes.
She was last seen wearing sweatpants, a white shirt, and a mauve winter jacket with a fur-lined hood.
She drives a white 2016 Ford Explorer.
If you have any information, contact the Grants Pass Police Department.
If you would like to get involved with the search for Rachael, you can contact her brother Kevin on the ‘Rachael Behnke Search Group’ Facebook page.
You can also reach Kevin directly at (541) 450-9443.
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