FamilySearch has several Ida Mae Lees, born in Arizona & New Mexico, including some that died at an advanced age.
I do not mean to devalue this lady's life in any way -- what if she left her job without a word & returned home?
Although the DNA submission goes against that.
Are there quotes from family seeking her?
Just thinking out loud, y'all know I'm really good at that!
JMHO YMMV
Ida certainly could have left her job and gone home without her telling her employer. Her family members could have let the hotel think she had disappeared. But the presence of DNA sample suggests her whereabouts are not known to her family. Her employer is unlikely to have provided one since the time of her disappearance was decades before DNA technology. Even if her employer turned over a hairbrush with strands of her hair, or used articles of her clothing, these things probably would not have been kept all this time. They probably would've been destroyed to make space for newer cases.
She could have left and not told her family, and made a new life for herself somewhere else. Her family might have thought that, and when years went by and she had not contacted them, perhaps it was then they reported her missing. Many things are possible without information to the contrary.
I have a few theories that would be easily confirmed or dismissed if the investigating officer would be willing to share information on this forum. I am trying to think of a way to persuade him to do that. There's no email contact I'm aware of, so calling or writing him are the only other options. If someone here has advice on the correct way to contact law enforcement, let me know.
This is all speculation. I believe Ida Mae did not show up for work sometime in the month of November, 1956. At some point, her employer or a friend of hers who also worked at the hotel, attempted to contact her. Ida may have lived in an on-site dormitory or lived in an apartment off-site. I noted that
Ida was last known to be working at a hotel in November of 1956 and has not been since.
From that statement I'm assuming her family reported her missing. My theory is that her family members discovered she was missing some length of time after she disappeared. They knew she was working at a hotel, but didn't know or remember the date she was absent from work. That Ida reportedly went missing November 1, 1956, suggests in the absence of an exact date, the first of the month was chosen. I also believe her employer noted within days of her disappearance because she didn't wasn't at work as scheduled. Someone, a co-worker or a friend, attempted to contact her. When Ida couldn't be found in her room or apartment, her employer MAY have contacted her family. Or they may have assumed she had run off with someone, and did not take the trouble to contact her family. Her family, may have subsequently discovered she was missing when they noticed she had not called, written, or visited for some time.
Either the family reported her missing to local LE, tribal police, or they did not. Crime among Native people is woefully under reported, and back then, it was probably much worse. To reach out to Law Enforcement would have put you under their radar, or drew unnecessary attention to yourself. If the family did contact local LE, Law Enforcement might have not given it the seriousness it deserved, given that Ida was an "Indian". This was the 1950s. Racist attitudes were tolerated and promulgated. Native people kept to themselves for the most part. The local law enforcement may have looked into her disappearance by simply calling her employer and asking them a few questions. Or they might have done a thorough investigation and got no where. It's hard to know without reading her case file.
IMHO, at
some point, a family member or loved one offered a DNA sample to LE. I suspect it was in 2016. The NamUS case was created July 7, 2016. According to the NamUs profile, the date Ida was reported to the Investigating Agency was
April 26, 2016. I assume this is when her case was turned over to the Cold Case squad, and not the date she was reported missing. But then I don't know that either. All speculation and theory at this point.
