MI MI - Ida Richardson-Anderson, 21, Detroit, 18 Sept 1958

Bump for Ida! This is the first I've heard of this story and am reminded of Rose Cole. Rose was ordered by the State of Michigan to attend a rehabilitation center in California that turned out to be some sort of separatist "church". I was born and raised in Michigan and just find it odd that two people, women, were dealing with the Michigan court system and mysteriously disappeared...troubling.

Two cold case detectives came and took a DNA sample a few months ago. I was notified that it was now entered into the NAMUS system.

For those not familiar with this, in 2004 a law was passed ordering the U.S. Justice Department to set up a system whereby family members of missing people could enter mitochondrial DNA into the NAMUS database for possible matches with Jane and John Does.

Many police departments do not know this exists, or that it is free of charge.

Here is the web link to info about NAMUS:

http://namus.gov/

No new updates to report except that my sister I was adopted with died of cancer after an 8 year battle.

Bump

This month marks 52 years that Ida has been missing. Come home soon.

Danny, have you heard anything on the Delwaware possible match yet? It's been almost 2 years, there should be an answer by now.... I am checking to see if any new Moser info has surfaced on the internet...

Bumping for this case. Any results from the DNA database?

I would like to add to the post where someone mentioned she may have been forced into a mental hospital. Danny, I don't want to upset you but the more info the better, I think at least.

In college I did a study on mental illness. If I remember correctly it focused on lobotomies. I learned a lot about mental hospitals in the first half of the 20th century. As you already know, not good places. Even in the 50s. Women especially, were thrown into these hospitals for their entire lives for everything from being annoying to not following social norms. One example - a husband was irritated by his wife and thought she was too moody, complained too much about chores or something like that. Forced her to get a lobotomy, the thing pretty much erased her entire personality and she turned into a robot. A couple threw their teenage daughter in because she was too "rebellious", wanted to move out of state I recall, and she lived her entire life in there. She of course went insane after a few years, though she went in normal.

My poetry professor was alive in the 50s (not sure if he was a kid or a teen or both). He was a very, very quirky person (lived in Tibet for a time, rambled about mormons in class, etc). He told us that the 50s were the most horrible decade because society believed everyone should fit into a specific mold - think Leave it to Beaver. Anyone that was different was an outcast. Thank god for Kerouac and the beatniks (lol - English major here)
My point is that it is not far fetched at all that the judge threw her in there. Maybe he thought she was promiscuous or something - the reasons for throwing people into those places were endless.

I know the above is pretty much common knowledge. Found some more info on mental institutions in the 50s, specifically lobotomies.

I think there's a chance she was forced one and lost all feelings.

"Because this new form of lobotomy could be performed so quickly and easily, the trans- orbital craze swept the nation’s asylums. Freeman himself performed over 3,000 lobotomies and was labeled the traveling lobotomist. Trans- orbital lobotomies were performed on hundreds of Athens Asylum patients in the early 1950s. In a local newspaper, on November 20, 1953, the headline read “Lobotomies are Performed on 31 Athens State Hospital Patients,” and the article boasted that nearly 25 of those who received surgery would be able to go home with their relatives Sunday. Freeman and the trans-orbital lobotomy stirred up harsh criticism from those who learned of his flamboyant methodology. Due to the number of complications and deaths that resulted from the procedure, it was referred to as “psychic mercy killing” and “euthanasia of the mind.” This was by far mental health care’s darkest hour."

Another interesting quote:
"Shortly after the asylum population explosion in the mid 1900s, when mental health treatment was arguably at its worst..."

http://www.toddlertime.com/advocacy/hospitals/Asylum/history-asylum.htm

The first annual Missing in Michigan Event was held on May 7th, 2011 at Ford Field in Detroit, MI. The slideshow was made to commemorate the families of the missing that attended the event.

Ida is included.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2gXGL6xQLA

I have received confirmation from the Delaware ME that Ida has been ruled out as being the Delaware Jane Doe.

What a sad story. I hope Ida is out there and your family is able to find her. I would second the recommendation about putting a request for information up at ancestry--genealogists are very good at locating people and probably have resources that you may not even know about to try to locate Ida or Carol Moser

I believe I have found the correct Carol Moser. I have just sent this info to Trackmissing.org, who have been working on her case. Crossing my fingers that this is the right one, and that something comes of it...

Hello everyone. I've been following for awhile, but I thought I would add a few things and get your feedback.

AskAlice made a good point on the possibility that life was real tough for her back then. Accordingly, that may have been the reason that the adoption took up to two years to finalize.......the judge granted time to the parents to prove they were capable of taking care of 3 young children. When time passed and neither showed up or were able to prove stability, the adoption was closed....hiding all records of where the children went.

Claudette also made a good point about the mental institutions and hospitals. She may have been too ill to show up in court that day to take them to Florida, which looks bad in the eyes of the court. Or she may have been admitted for a longer period of time.

I have a couple of ideas, but I'm not to sure if anyone has looked into them. First, it may be easier to get her medical records if she was declared dead. Her sister/brothers could probably get this done easier than her children.

Lastly, I been looking for her in the doenetwork and NamUs sites, probably like most have. But, I've been looking for older persons because of the posts like the two mentioned above. Interestingly, there is one female that was found in Monroe County in 1986. She is the age at which Ida would have been in that time frame and she also had brown hair. She was wearing a shirt that said Sumpter, MI and I know it isn't too far from Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti.

I hope this helps and feel free to comment. I will post the pic and link below to the Jane Doe.



https://identifyus.org/en/cases/8380

Bumping for Ida

Is there a list anywhere of rule outs for Ida???? Thanks!

I just found this page, I was looking for a match for a woman found in Hernando county, FL, 1972. I searched several sites and found Ida's page for 1958 on the Charley site. I did email NamUs about Ida because no one has come forward in all these years, I think this woman may be estranged from her family as she wasn't missed. Ida's vitals match up, but I still hope she is alive and out there, living her life as best she can.

Thank you so much, JL Cauling! Would you mind posting her picture? Which paper was this from?

PS - I tried to message you, but it said your message inbox was full. Just thought I'd let you know.

Thank you again!!

Danny
Ida's son

Thank you

I followed up and submitted DNA to the medical examiner. It was not a match.

Thank you so much for this info.

I followed up and submitted DNA to the medical examiner in the New Delaware area. It was not a match.

Thank you so much for this info.

Lets keep focusing on this case and see if we can gain momentum.

Given the judge's comments I do think it's likely that she was committed to a facility. Is anyone working on pushing for her records?

I found this in an article about Ypsilanti. I know the author is not speaking about Ida, but it lends perspective on some of the reasons people were being held there and their conditions. This in particular reminded me of Ida's situation.

"I was particularly upset when I was assigned to work with a young mother who seemed pretty sane to me. Her diagnosis was for a character disorder because she wanted to have her children go to live with their father while she sorted her life out. I was told that any mother who wanted to do that must be insane."

http://www.behavioral.net/blogs/terry-axelrod/historic-asylums-ypsilanti-state-hospital-how-far-have-we-come

I was researching institutions as well. In Pennsylvania there is a mental hospital that has been demolished but they had a grave yard behind the institution. Patients died there and were buried there, so I would check with any mental hospitals to see if they did the same thing.