The Washington County Sheriff’s Office on Friday said it had no evidence that Allyson Joy Watterson and her boyfriend were hiking in the North Plains area where she was last seen, marking a dramatic shift in the account of the moments leading up to her disappearance.

“This isn’t open area. I wouldn’t expect them to just be out here hiking,” Deputy Tony Morris said during a news conference as searchers spent a fourth day looking for the missing woman. “If I knew exactly what they were doing it would probably help me in my job.”

For days, the sheriff’s office maintained that Watterson, 20, and Benjamin Hunter Garland were traversing the rugged and privately owned woods off Old Pumpkin Ridge Road on Sunday when they became separated.

That account came from the boyfriend’s father, Don Garland, who reported Watterson missing to authorities Monday night, said Deputy Brian van Kleef, a sheriff’s spokesman.

According to van Kleef, Don Garland said he and his son had spent that day searching for Watterson and were unsuccessful.

The two men were initially reluctant to make an official report because Benjamin Garland had multiple outstanding warrants for his arrest, van Kleef said.

When he finally contacted authorities, Don Garland said his son and Watterson had been on a hike together before losing each other, according to the sheriff’s office.

“We’ve never been able to verify this narrative,” van Kleef said of the incident he’d described in a news release sent to reporters Tuesday.

Don Garland could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Misty Watterson, Allyson’s mother, told reporters Friday that her daughter and Benjamin Garland had been in North Plains to visit a friend when their car broke down.

The two got separated as they left to go get help, Misty Watterson said.

“That’s why they were out here,” she said. “They weren’t out here doing bad stuff.”

Van Kleef said the sheriff’s office has no evidence of this, either.

“We don’t know what they were doing out there,” said van Kleef. “We certainly don’t have a broken-down car.”

Benjamin Garland was arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges and pleaded not guilty in a Washington County court to charges of theft, fraudulent use of a credit card, unauthorized use of a vehicle and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Watterson is about 5-foot-7 and was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, black jeans and brown Calvin Klein boots when last seen, the sheriff’s office said.

Watterson also had a red backpack with her.