The Bellevue woman who went missing aboard a Bainbridge-bound ferry earlier this month may have killed herself, her husband said in an email to her work colleagues.
The Seattle Times reported today that Lynn Stafford-Yilmaz’s co-workers at Bellevue Community College, where Stafford-Yilmaz taught English, received an e-mail from her husband noting that she had “decided to end her life” before embarking on her late-night trip to Bainbridge.
A friend of Stafford-Yilmaz forwarded to the Times an e-mail from Mustafa Yilmaz that, in part, read: “Considering the situation, the note she left behind and the evidence, her family believes that Lynn decided to end her life that night. This was very unexpected for all of us.”
Stafford-Yilmaz’s unoccupied van was found aboard the Puyallup on Jan. 13 after the 10:55 p.m. sailing from Seattle. Her purse and other personal items were found on the passenger deck.
A search by the U.S. Coast Guard, Bainbridge Island Police Department and other agencies found no other sign of Stafford-Yilmaz.
