30 Year Old Missing Woman Mystery

California Search A 30 year search for a missing loved one with ties to the Gulf Coast may almost be over.

by Debbie Williams

Published: Tue, March 25, 2008 - 3:40 pm CST Last Updated: Tue, March 25, 2008 - 4:44 pm CST

A 30 year search for a missing loved one with ties to the Gulf Coast may almost be over. It's been a cross country journey for the niece of a woman she never knew but is driven to find her and finally bring her home.
"How do you find a dead person? How do you find out if someones died, a Jane Doe?"
That's the question Joni Lapeyrouse started with when she began her search for an Aunt she never met. "Whatever happened to Sis? Everybody called her "Sis". Ever hear from Sis? What happened with that? We don't know."
Her name is Nellie Flickinger. She was just a few years younger than her niece when she disappeared.
In March 1979, Nellie Flickinger left her home and her kids with a promise. She was going to California to straighten out her life and she would send for them when she got settled. No one has seen or heard from her since.
After years of on-and-off searches, Lapeyrouse decided to give it another try. "Let me look again. Things are different now, there's more opportunities, there's internet, there's more connections."
She contacted "The Doe Network", an Internet clearinghouse of missing and unidentified people. Within 24 hours of posting Flickinger's information, a possible match. "It went from a person, to a box of bones. A person, to a body, that quick."
In California, Chief Deputy Kevin Wheeler of the Colusa County Sheriff's Office was also contacted. "We start matching things that may or may not match. We match the height, weight, date of find is consistent with the date of disappearance."
In 1982, a skeleton was found along Interstate Five in Colusa County. Very little remained, a few bits of clothing, a surgical plate on one leg and after a few months, without being identified, the were buried.
But there was something unique about the remains.
"Our Jane Doe does have a plate in her leg which makes it rise to a higher occasion for us," says Wheeler. Flickinger had a serious motorcycle accident in the 60's. Surgeons had used a plate to repair her left leg. It gives Lapeyrouse hope the search maybe over. "What's the chances of another Jane Doe? A person with a plate in a femor."
It's enough to exhume the body, something Wheeler says maybe a positive sign. "We want to disturb her the least amount possible."
For Lapeyrouse the latest developments are an answer to a prayer. "I look at her everyday. When something happens I say I'm working on it Nellie."
All that work may have finally paid off and a 30 year mystery maybe solved.
DNA testing is planned on the remains but the results could take up to a year to complete because of a back log of cases in the California crime labs.

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carl Says:

Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 8:01 am

Amen to that!I remember when i was trying to make my first computer and the ragging i took,“Is it going to take out your garbage for you?”,Is it going to pay your bills for you?”,that was before the wide use of the internet,now i can answer “yes” to that and a thousand times more,You are limited only by your imagination now,good and bad,sort of like the invention of the atomic bomb isn’t it? have a nice day!

BamaBob Says:

Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 7:33 am

Touching story and it says a lot about the power of the Internet. There are many negatives about the technology, but the power of shared information makes it worthwhile.

carl Says:

Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 6:14 am

I am glad the family will have some closure on the loved one finally.My wife recently found her aunt’s daughter that was taken over 50 years ago,when the girl was just a baby,and her aunt got to see and love on her baby one more time ,her aunt died shortly there after.It took over two years to find her ,but worth every minute of it.