Hi all,
I issued a FOIL request to the Syracuse PD asking for the case file and expected at least a partial reply because Lillian was not believed to be the victim of any crimes; she was simply an elderly dementia patient who wandered off. My demand was denied. The agency stated that it’s an active investigation and distributing records could compromise the case. I appealed the FOIL denial all the way to the mayor’s office on the grounds nobody suspected criminality, and that there was no way she was still alive. They sent me a sloppy boilerplate rejection letter rehashing the same points about how it’s still an open investigation until she is found or some other closure is reached. That was disappointing.
Nevertheless, I would like to share some threads worth pulling on:
- A news article shared earlier in the thread by HeatherA revealed that Lillian may have been headed to 336 Douglas St. to see her daughter, “Mrs. Michael P. Detor”. A search of the Onondaga County real estate database shows Michael P. Detor in fact owned the house until 1994. (See: Picture 1)
- Regrettably, a search at Find-A-Grave revealed he died in 1991. (See: Picture 2)
- Michael P. Detor’s wife’s name appears to be Thelma Santay, per the above obituary. An ancestor search (See: Picture 3) reveals Thelma Santay’s mother was Lillian Elizabeth Ashley. There’s a good chance Lillian Elizabeth Ashley is Lillian Bottrill considering both would have been 68 in 1968, although I’m not understanding how she got the name Bottrill. Ideas?
- Assuming Lillian Elizabath Ashley is Lillian Bottrill, her husband George Herbert Santay died a few years after she disappeared (See: Picture 3). And both of her daughters (Thelma and Phyliss) died in 2001 (See: Picture 4). I cannot find anything whatsoever about Phyliss but isn’t it curious how Thelma’s obituary is silent as to her mother? (See: Picture 5)
- It would have been nice to reach out to the police officer handling her case, Ambrose Linehan, but he died in 1989. (See: Picture 6)
- After checking property ownership records for Lillian’s last known address (405 Merriman Ave) it appears the house was demolished over a decade ago. The house directly next door has had the same owner since 1999. There is little to no chance anyone there would know anything about Lillian so that’s probably a dead-end road
- There are 8 properties in all of Onondaga County registered to people with the last name “Bottrill”. There are almost certainly other Bottrills living in the area who don’t own property, or their residence is registered to someone else. A quick public record search would easily draw up a list of names. A deep dive on the above obituaries will undoubtedly turn up surviving relatives, some of which may have heard stories passed down over the years. Perhaps a friendly ping letter could not hurt, something along the lines of “hey, do you know anything about Lillian Bottrill who went missing in 1968? If so, please write back.” The worst that could happen is they don’t reply. The best thing would be if they offered clues.
My theories? All are purely speculation but let me ask this from the jump: How many other senile women matching her description could have been wandering the greater Syracuse area at that precise time? If Lillian was the confused hitchhiker picked up near the corner of Dorwin Ave and Route 80, then the good Samaritans who gave her a ride were probably weirded out by her strange behavior and more than happy to let her out on Cedarvale Rd. and Tanner Rd. without questions because they had no idea she was the subject of a missing person search until a day or more later.
What bothers me about the hitchhiking thing is what led her to tell the driver to take her to that particular intersection? Who on earth could she have known there? After driving around in that vicinity numerous times, I can say firsthand that it is
very rural and remote. There’s not much but a couple farm houses, fields, small streams, a few little ponds, marsh, and clusters of woods. 50+ years ago it was even more undeveloped, and I don’t think the golf course existed.
Theory #1: Lillian was dropped off by the good Samaritans, wandered aimlessly, then collapsed and died from natural/accidental causes such as exposure (it was very hot, per the weather report shard by Bit of Hope) or another method which rendered her unidentifiable. She was not found until after she faded from the public eye. Given the technological restraints of the era such as no cell phones, primitive forensic tools, absence of AI facial recognition, limited television ownership, and zero internet, whoever found the corpse had no idea who she was or that she was even missing. They might not have even known Syracuse PD was on the lookout for an endangered missing person. Her corpse was never identified, no one claimed the body, so she was buried in a Potter’s field as a Jane Doe.
Theory #2: Lillian wandered, ended up in a body of water, swamp, drainage ditch, or other out of sight place and her remains are sitting under nearly 60 years of muck.
Speculation over. I don’t know where City of Syracuse, Town of Onondaga, or Onondaga County would bury a Jane Doe, but that might be a great place to look because it is extremely unlikely that she ever made it out of those jurisdictions. Does anyone know what those municipalities do with Jane Does?
