GRAYS HARBOR — A Grays Harbor County official has confirmed a body washed ashore Oct. 23 is that of Kingston resident Teri A. Dascher, 47.

Her boating companion, John Phillips Stapp of King County, has not yet been found, Rick Scott, Grays Harbor County undersheriff said Monday morning.

Dascher reportedly left Kingston in September. She and Stapp were planning to sail his 25-foot Coronado sailboat to the islands in the South Pacific, Scott said.

“The last few weeks they were in the marina in Westport having some work done on the sailboat,” he said.

The pair left the marina on Oct. 18 and presumably headed south, Scott said.

Dascher’s last known communication was a cell phone call to a friend in which she confirmed the pair were under way and were in “heavy seas,” Scott said. Dascher told her friend she was inside the boat trying to keep things in place, while Stapp was topside steering the boat.

A local beachcomber discovered Dascher’s body — and what appeared to be the boat’s rudder and miscellaneous items from the boat — about 9 a.m.

“It could have been old debris from another wreck or something floating around, we couldn’t tell,” said Coast Guard spokesman Shawn Eggert.

A Coast Guard helicopter and C-130 airplane searched for the sailboat Friday. The search was suspended.

Scott said those efforts were hampered by bad weather and because the Coast Guard did not have a navigation plan on file.

Neither Stapp nor the remains of the boat have been found.

Scott said he believes the death to be the result of a “tragic boating accident.”

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Staff writer Andrew Binion contributed to this report.