The Latest: Missing Washington state family found alive

MONTESANO, Wash. – The Latest on the search for a missing family in Washington state (all times local):

9:45 a.m.

Four members of a Washington state family missing since Tuesday have been found walking near a store in Mason County, about 55 miles southwest of Seattle.

The sheriff's office in neighboring Grays Harbor County, where the family lives, said Thursday morning that it didn't immediately have details of the family's condition, beyond that they're alive. Deputies were on their way to the meet them.

Steve Shumate, chief criminal deputy with the sheriff's office says Jason and Melissa McAlister and two of their children, ages 8 months and 2 years, appear to have left home to take a drive Tuesday while their older two children were at school. They didn't return as expected Tuesday afternoon to meet the older children at the bus stop.

They were found near a general store in Matlock, Washington.

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3:42 a.m.

Authorities in Washington state are searching remote logging roads for a missing couple and two of their four children.

Jason and Melissa McAlister and two of their children, ages 8 months and 2 years, appear to have left home Tuesday while their older two children were at school, said Steve Shumate, chief criminal deputy with the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office.

The family's home is in a rural area southwest of Seattle, about 20 miles north of the town of Montesano. They were reported missing Tuesday evening after no one showed up to meet the school bus bringing the older children, ages 5 and 7, home, Shumate said.

The family's landlord, who also lives at the property, told authorities he had spoken with Jason McAlister, 33, before leaving the house at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Shumate said. McAlister reportedly told him the family planned to do some chores, then maybe go out for a drive and come back by 3 p.m.