A nanny walked out of a Medina house after the children’s bedtime. Two weeks later, no one will say her name.
She had worked for the family for 18 months through Larchcombe, a Seattle agency whose former staff say house managers held their phones for most of the working day. The agency says it has given the authorities everything it holds.
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MEDINA, Wash. — On the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 9, after the children she looked after were in bed, a nanny left the house in Medina where she lived and worked. She did not come back.
The family reported her absence that night, according to Larchcombe, the Seattle agency that placed her. The agency says it was told the next morning. Two weeks later she has not been found, and neither the agency, the family nor the police has said publicly who she is.
Police said they had received a report and were making inquiries. They did not release a name, a photograph or a description, and would not say whether they regard her as a missing person or as an adult who chose to leave.
In a statement on its website on Sept. 19, Larchcombe said she had been with the family for 18 months and that the children were fond of her. Beyond that, it said, it would not describe her, the family or the household, and it asked others not to. It said it had given the family and the authorities everything it holds.
The Overseen asked Larchcombe for her name, whether she had a phone with her when she left, and whether anyone held her passport or other documents. The agency declined to answer.
The rules of the house
Larchcombe, founded in 1961, places nannies, house managers, butlers and security staff with families around Seattle and in Switzerland. Staff it places sign its Residence Code, a set of rules for life in the households, and confidentiality agreements that run for twenty years.
Two women who worked as live-in nannies through the agency in the past six years told The Overseen that house managers held their phones for most of the day. One said she handed hers over at 7 a.m. and got it back after the children were asleep, at nine or ten at night. Neither has worked with the family in Medina.
“If something had happened to me in the afternoon, I couldn’t have called anyone,” said one. “The house manager had a number my mother could ring. My mother never used it, because she was afraid of getting me in trouble.”
Larchcombe said in its statement that its consultants would talk to any worried member of staff “as long as you like.”