CA CA - Diane Dye, 13, San Jose, 30 July 1979

[Lavender Moon]

I haven't found any articles or any information although I have searched daily for a long time. The only thing new that I have found are the two age-progressions; one a photo used by the Charley Project and by Doe Network and the other a drawing put out by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Dept. Both closely resemble the woman that I believe to be Diane Dye.

 

[Odyssey]

What a long time has passed since I or anyone else has posted here. To me, the marijuana leaf charm is significant to this case. Usually those who wear such jewelry are smokers of the herb. In the 70's, offering to share a joint was an offering of friendship. It was very common for strangers to bond over a smoke. Sadly, predators would use pot to lure native girls Into their clutches. That is what happened to me . I believe that the same men that abducted me were also responsible for Diane's disappearance. I believe the wife if one of the men was also involved. I am certain, however, that Diane is alive and very likely living in California, if not in Santa Clara County then probably in Southern California .

I am so sorry to hear you were abducted, Lavendermoon. Were you in the San Jose area? The person that you are thinking resembles Diane, did you see her recently, or back in the 70's? Was this a random abduction or are you thinking someone she might have known?

Welcome to Websleuths and to Diane's thread.

 

[Lavender Moon]

T hank you for the welcome,Odyssey. Yes, I was in the San Jose area. It was 1973 when I survived the abduction. No, I have never seen Diane Dye except in photographs. In 2002, I discovered the identities of the two "men" who assaulted me when I found a photograph of them ( I am blessed with a very good memory; I remember their faces as if they were in front of me as I am writing this post). I don't think that I can legally say where I found the photo because to do so would violate the confidentiality of an innocent third party who also appeared in the photo.
After discovering the photo I became obsessed with research on missing girls and women in California. I also tried to find out as much as I could about these two"men". One day while I was daydreaming, I suddenly realized that a relative of theirs( I forgot to mention that these two monsters are brothers) looks exactly like Diane Dye. I reported this to the Missing Persons Unit of San Jose Police Dept. The man I spoke to sounded very interested , agreeing with me about the resemblance. He asked for my contact info but I've yet to hear from him or anyone else. I made that phone call on May 6, 2010. I have no doubt at all that this woman is Diane Dye. All the contours of her face are the same, the cowlicks are the same, the facial expressions are the same. In one photo it looks as if she may be wearing the necklace that can be seen in Diane Dye's "missing" poster. I have seen a number of the woman's photos. I began to notice something peculiar about her ears, her left ear in particular. When I enlarged the image I was shocked to see what is most surely a cauliflower ear. At some time she must have received a series of beatings. I don't know why SJ LE haven't communicated with me.
Thank you so much for responding to my post, Odyssey. I believe that one or both of my abductors tricked her into going with them.

 

[Odyssey]

Thank you so much for posting this. I completely understand and respect your need to be careful what you post. Please only post what you are comfortable with.

I am a little confused on the timeline as it relates to the person you think might be Diane, though. The photos you have seen of her, would these be recent photos showing her as an adult, or would they be from around the time she went missing?

The reason I'm asking this, is because you mentioned her as a 'relative' of these two brothers. I know for an absolute fact that none of her actual relatives had anything to do with this, so I'm trying to figure out if you mean that she might still be with them and 'acting' as one of their relatives?

Unfortunately SJPD has never shown much interest in this case. It was only when an unidentified girl nicknamed Princess Doe was found in New Jersey that this case was really investigated. New Jersey's LE came to San Jose and worked on Diane's case because they were trying to solve their own unidentified remains case. They were pretty sure Princess Doe was Diane, although she later turned out not to be.

Would you be able to tell me if the abductors took you out of the San Jose area at any time? Do you know if the abductors lived in Santa Clara County at the time?

I really appreciate your help!

 

[Lavender Moon]

Thank you, Odyssey for your kindness and understanding. The photos I have seen are online and are of an adult woman that I believe to be Diane Dye. I haven't found any from 1979 except of course the photos from her "missing" poster and also the photos posted here by Mr. Ringgold. The photos I have viewed are from 1994, 2002, 2004, and. circa 2014. She seems to be well integrated into this family. Diane seems to be much loved and deeply missed by her true family. The two "men" I have been pointing to are rapists. They can't possibly be relatives ; I agree . Diane is beautiful. They did not take me away from the S .J. area. I have never been sure they actually resided in San Jose. (The assaults occurred in Campbell; at least I think so. It may have been SanJose. In 2006, I reported the assaults to Detective Duncan of the Campbell Police Dept. Those familiar with the area will know that San Jose and Campbell overlap and intertwine. ) One of them did not appear to know San Jose very well. I know that in the 70'they had ties to Alameda, Cupertino, and Santa Rosa. I am so glad you are interested in this. SJPD ...not so much (?).

 

[Odyssey]

Yes, I am familiar with San Jose so I know what you mean about that Bascom/Camden area in particular where you have no idea what city you're even in.

So are you thinking that she may have been abducted by these men and brainwashed, and possibly still with them voluntarily at this point?

I am pretty sure I know where she was headed when she left home that day, and who she was planning to see there. She would have needed a ride, as this location was in the Coyote area between San Jose and Morgan Hill. I think it is possible that someone offered her a ride and she never got there, but I also think it's very possible that she did get there and met with harm there.

Do you know if this person you are thinking of is using the name Diane? (You can just give me a yes or no, I don't expect you to name names)

Again I really appreciate you coming here to talk about this, and I'm sure Diane's family does as well.

 

[Richard]

Have you contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children? They would certainly be interested and might be able to help.

LINK:

http://www.missingkids.com/home

 

[Lavender Moon]

I am so very pleased to be here and would have been here sooner had I not been so technologically challenged. I finally have a smart phone and a computer that was manufactured in this century. Yes, I do believe Diane may have an undergone some form of brainwashing. The woman I am thinking of does not use the name "Diane". She does not live with these two men but I know from my online research that she spent time with them on Christmas of 2002. Her maiden name was the same as their last names. She spends time with the ex-wife of one of the men. There are two separate birth dates for the woman that I believe to be Diane Dye. One is for December 1969 in Alameda, Calif. That's from ancestry.com IIRC. The other source has her birth date in 1973 in Connecticut. Both sources list the same set of parents; the man who abducted me and the woman who was at that time his wife. I'm so sorry if this is getting complicated.
I hope no one minds if I backtrack a bit now; I hope you will bear with me. Here on, I shall refer to The abductors
as "Chris: " and "Jon" because those are the fictitious. names they gave me. I was lured into a townhouse by Chris. Jon was already there. Also present were
another and a woman. Now, I was not yet aware that I was soon to be harmed. Chris and Jon introduced the other man to me. The name was a French name and I remembered it because it sounded like a surname and because the man looked French to me; I.e. he had Gallic-looking nose. The significance of this man's name is that it is the married name of the woman I am thinking of. Anyway, this man with the French-sounding name left the townhouse shortly thereafter,I think perhaps to go to a night shift job( it was about 10 p.m. and he displayed that sort of rushed energy people seem to have as they're leaving for work). Before he left, he went upstairs and subsequently I heard a woman exclaiming something, just a brief loud vocalization of a woman Chris looked up at the ceiling and said ,"-------'s girlfriend", referring to the man with the French name. I never saw that woman but unless she was passed out from drugs and/ or alcohol, she had to have been aware of my presence later because I screamed.





.

 

[Odyssey]

I am going to need to go through my notes tomorrow and try to compare the timeline I have with some of this.

There really is one person that Diane knew that pretty much everyone thinks is responsible for her disappearance. He was 18 at the time Diane went missing, so he was only 12 at the time of your incident, so he could not have been one of your abductors. A lot of things point to this guy, but there is a good chance that he was incarcerated when Diane went missing. I have been struggling to pinpoint an exact date that he was arrested but I know it was some time between 7/25 and 8/13 and he wasn't released until November. Diane went missing on 7/30. (Diane might not have known he had been arrested, though, and still might have attempted to go see him).

What is interesting though, is that Ted Ringgold called the SJPD, I want to say in 2011 but it could have been 2010, to try to find out what was happening with Diane's case. The detective he spoke to was evasive and kept telling him he could not discuss the case and said something along the lines of that they weren't actively investigating it. At some point during that conversation, Ted asked if Diane was alive and didn't want to be found, and the detective gave some kind of vague answer like "You might say that". I am sketchy on the details, I will need to go back through my notes/emails to be sure of how and when that transpired. At the time Ted thought he was just trying to get him off the phone. I did not believe either that the PD really felt she was alive.

But Diane's mother gave a DNA sample before she passed away so obviously they didn't know she was alive then, or they would not have incurred the expense of processing DNA. DNA has not been around all that long so this had to be some time in the 2000's.

So I'm wondering if the detective's comment had something to do with your tip that you gave them in 2010.

 

[Lavender Moon]

I am baffled by LE's attitude. When I talked to the man in missing persons, he seemed very interested . He said, "I'm going to get working on this right away."

 

[Odyssey]

Forgive me for quoting myself, but I've just submitted a PM

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/6298

Not a lot of info on the UID, but she was found in Applegate, CA which is about 5 minutes from Weimar.

Oddly, the UID profile says there was insufficient DNA to create a profile, and dentals are unavailable, but there are 2 ruleouts. I wonder what method they're using.

Oops never updated this. This was found not to be a match.

 

[Ted Ringgold]

There have been a few stories, publicized on Doe and Charley Project where people have left their old life, "gone missing" and continued to live with new identities. Some of them have died at ripe old ages, never having contacted their families. I hope that Diane is one of those people and that she'll contact her family at some point.

I joined her FB page and have had an interest in her case for almost 10 years, since I joined Doe. The answers are out there somewhere.

Hi, speaking for the Dye family we all hope you are right. This nightmare ruined our lives. If she is still alive and of her own free will I can't believe she would allow us to suffer like this for so many years. I don't see why she couldn't just get a message to us and let us know she is ok and simply does not want to be found. Diane was a very gentle, sweet, loving, and happy go lucky girl back then. I know she was devastated by Bill and Pat's divorce. But neither I nor her brother Dean really knew this. I lived there in their house for years off and on and was there the night she ran away. I was the only person there and she told me she was going to. That was the first time I new she was that upset over it. Dean seemed to love it, all the freedom. I thought it was great too because their mom Pat worked all the time at the winery and my stepdad abused me so I just lived with Dean and Diane. I used to go back home in the daytime and steal food from my parents so we could eat. Patricia sadly was not home and worked a lot, and sometimes food was getting low. We did not blame her. Diane seemed fine. She kept it inside. We thought she was happy about the split. She got to stay up late, smoke weed with us, (which is shameful of us to have ever given in and let her. But we were stupid pot smoking teens, what did we know?) The past is the past. All I know is we love Diane so much and we just want to know if she is still alive. That is all we want. If she is alive and she by some chance sees this.....

DIANE WE LOVE YOU! ALL WE CAN SAY IS WE LOVE YOU SO SO VERY MUCH! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, IF YOU DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE US OR TALK TO US AGAIN THAT IS OK. WE JUST WANT TO KNOW IF YOU ARE STILL ALIVE AND HOPEFULLY HAPPY. LET US KNOW AT LEAST THAT AND WE'LL ACCEPT THAT. WE ARE NOT ANGRY AT YOU AT ALL. AND WE ARE FULLY WILLING TO ACCEPT YOU HAVE MOVED ON COMPLETELY. IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER LIFE NOW WE ACCEPT THAT AND WE WILL NEVER TRY TO FIND YOU EVER IF THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT. PLEASE GIVE US THAT RAY OF HOPE AND HELP US FIND PEACE. A CHANCE TO HEAL. JUST LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE OK. IT WOULD MEAN SO MUCH TO US TO KNOW YOU ARE STILL ALIVE.

 

[Ted Ringgold]

What a long time has passed since I or anyone else has posted here. To me, the marijuana leaf charm is significant to this case. Usually those who wear such jewelry are smokers of the herb. In the 70's, offering to share a joint was an offering of friendship. It was very common for strangers to bond over a smoke. Sadly, predators would use pot to lure native girls Into their clutches. That is what happened to me . I believe that the same men that abducted me were also responsible for Diane's disappearance. I believe the wife if one of the men was also involved. I am certain, however, that Diane is alive and very likely living in California, if not in Santa Clara County then probably in Southern California .

I gave that necklace to her. She made a friendship bracelet for me in return. I wore it permanently after she ran away until it wasted away and fell off in 1986. She did smoke pot with us sometimes, but for the most part we would not let her partake with us except once in awhile. We were very foolish to have let her do it at all. But hey we were about 16 years old. We were still stupid kids too. I had the impression she did not like weed that much. Sometimes though she just seemed to like the whole stoner look, bell bottom jeans. She had brown cords that were bell bottoms she wore all the time. I can hardly remember her wearing regular jeans for that matter

 

[Ted Ringgold]

I am so very pleased to be here and would have been here sooner had I not been so technologically challenged. I finally have a smart phone and a computer that was manufactured in this century. Yes, I do believe Diane may have an undergone some form of brainwashing. The woman I am thinking of does not use the name "Diane". She does not live with these two men but I know from my online research that she spent time with them on Christmas of 2002. Her maiden name was the same as their last names. She spends time with the ex-wife of one of the men. There are two separate birth dates for the woman that I believe to be Diane Dye. One is for December 1969 in Alameda, Calif. That's from ancestry.com IIRC. The other source has her birth date in 1973 in Connecticut. Both sources list the same set of parents; the man who abducted me and the woman who was at that time his wife. I'm so sorry if this is getting complicated.
I hope no one minds if I backtrack a bit now; I hope you will bear with me. Here on, I shall refer to The abductors
as "Chris: " and "Jon" because those are the fictitious. names they gave me. I was lured into a townhouse by Chris. Jon was already there. Also present were
another and a woman. Now, I was not yet aware that I was soon to be harmed. Chris and Jon introduced the other man to me. The name was a French name and I remembered it because it sounded like a surname and because the man looked French to me; I.e. he had Gallic-looking nose. The significance of this man's name is that it is the married name of the woman I am thinking of. Anyway, this man with the French-sounding name left the townhouse shortly thereafter,I think perhaps to go to a night shift job( it was about 10 p.m. and he displayed that sort of rushed energy people seem to have as they're leaving for work). Before he left, he went upstairs and subsequently I heard a woman exclaiming something, just a brief loud vocalization of a woman Chris looked up at the ceiling and said ,"-------'s girlfriend", referring to the man with the French name. I never saw that woman but unless she was passed out from drugs and/ or alcohol, she had to have been aware of my presence later because I screamed.





.

Hi Lavender Moon

Your story is incredibly scary and shocking to me. I mean what happened to you is mind blowing. As you probably can imagine this hits home for me heavily. We've been searching for Diane for many years, or at least to discover what happened to her. In that time I've been contacted before by people who saw someone they thought was Diane and it never came to anything. You seem pretty certain, and being these men you believe did this to you were connected to another female that may look like Diane is something I am very interested in. You said the image(s) are on a web site? Then that is public domain. I wholly understand the ramifications of sharing an image of someone especially if you are unsure if it really is Diane. But if you want to know for sure then when you are ready just please by all means share it with Odyssey. Odyssey is our current lead investigator on this matter and a dear friend to us. And odyssey has been the one that has been there for us more than anyone else this past 5 years, and has uncovered so much new information. We owe this friend so much and we will never be able to repay it. Anyway once odyssey has seen the material, I will leave it to odyssey's discretion from there. If Odyssey feels it could be, I'm sure Odyssey will forward it to me and I can view it. I will know if it really is Diane. I lived with her for years. I don't care how old she is, I'll know right away if the person in that image is her. I've had to announce that her father and brother both wanted just try to let this go and find a way to live their lives again. They gave up long ago in fact. I understand, but I couldn't. This destroyed our lives and our hearts. You can't imagine what it has been like for us. Diane's mother died never knowing what happened to her. We all spent the better part of a decade believing that Diane was Princess Doe, only to have all those wounds reopened yet again many years later when the DNA results came in.


This may lead to yet another brick wall, and we've had hundreds of them. Then again maybe this is the moment we have been waiting for. To find Diane still alive. The brainwashing theory is the only one that would make any sense if she were still alive. I knew Diane's soul. She would not have ever gone all those years and made us think she was dead unless she was indeed brainwashed. She was not the kind of person that would do that to her own mother and father. And she loved her brother very much. If she is still alive then she had to have been brainwashed. Other wise she is no longer alive or was murdered. One way to know for sure, is the sooner I see the image(s) the sooner we can find out if this is Diane or not. If I am convinced this is genuinely Diane then and only then will I share this with Dean and her father. They have suffered enough with empty hope, and though your story is intense, it is among many we've had shared with us over the years, and there have been dozens of times people have contacted me believing they had found Diane. Most of the time these people stop responding and I never see any images, and I write those off as people sometimes want to help then realize maybe they were wrong after all.

I pray this really is Diane and that we can bring the good news to her father and brother. Thank you for sharing your story and for coming forward

 

[Odyssey]

I am baffled by LE's attitude. When I talked to the man in missing persons, he seemed very interested . He said, "I'm going to get working on this right away."

And that is exactly what is nagging at me. It's possible that when you called, they were still looking for her, but by the time Ted called, they no longer were because of your tip.

Not saying that's what happened, but it's a possibility and the timing is interesting.

 

[Richard]

It has been almost 10 years since I first posted Diane's case here on Websleuths. That was on the eve of the 26 year anniversary of her disappearance.

Hopefully there will be a resolution in the near future.

 

[Odyssey]

I'm going to request VI status on this case so I can explain some more things about all this. I'll be back once I've been verified.

 

[Lavender Moon]

Thank you for the suggestion, Richard. I called them a few minutes ago.

 

[Lavender Moon]

Hi, speaking for the Dye family we all hope you are right. This nightmare ruined our lives. If she is still alive and of her own free will I can't believe she would allow us to suffer like this for so many years. I don't see why she couldn't just get a message to us and let us know she is ok and simply does not want to be found. Diane was a very gentle, sweet, loving, and happy go lucky girl back then. I know she was devastated by Bill and Pat's divorce. But neither I nor her brother Dean really knew this. I lived there in their house for years off and on and was there the night she ran away. I was the only person there and she told me she was going to. That was the first time owI new she was that upset over it. Dean seemed to love it, all the freedom. I thought it was great too because their mom Pat worked all the time at the winery and my stepdad abused me so I just lived with Dean and Diane. I used to go back home in the daytime and steal food from my parents so we could eat. Patricia sadly was not home and worked a lot, and sometimes food was getting low. We did not blame her. Diane seemed fine. She kept it inside. We thought she was happy about the split. She got to stay up late, smoke weed with us, (which is shameful of us to have ever given in and let her. But we were stupid pot smoking teens, what did we know?) The past is the past. All I know is we love Diane so much and we just want to know if she is still alive. That is all we want. If she is alive and she by some chance sees this.....

DIANE WE LOVE YOU! ALL WE CAN SAY IS WE LOVE YOU SO SO VERY MUCH! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, IF YOU DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE US OR TALK TO US AGAIN THAT IS OK. WE JUST WANT TO KNOW IF YOU ARE STILL ALIVE AND HOPEFULLY HAPPY. LET US KNOW AT LEAST THAT AND WE'LL ACCEPT THAT. WE ARE NOT ANGRY AT YOU AT ALL. AND WE ARE FULLY WILLING TO ACCEPT YOU HAVE MOVED ON COMPLETELY. IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER LIFE NOW WE ACCEPT THAT AND WE WILL NEVER TRY TO FIND YOU EVER IF THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT. PLEASE GIVE US THAT RAY OF HOPE AND HELP US FIND PEACE. A CHANCE TO HEAL. JUST LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE OK. IT WOULD MEAN SO MUCH TO US TO KNOW YOU ARE STILL ALIVE.

Hi, Ted. Diane is blessed to be so loved. I'm sorry to learn that you had an abusive stepfather. My mother's behavior behavior toward me was vile so I can commiserate. I include Diane in my prayers. She has such a sweet, lovely face. I can see that good and gentle light. Some evil person may have convinced her that noone wants her back, even though that is not true. I can't imagine that you caused Diane any harm by smoking pot with her.As you said, you were just a kid yourself.

 

[Ted Ringgold]

Hi, Ted. Diane is blessed to be so loved. I'm sorry to learn that you had an abusive stepfather. My mother's behavior behavior toward me was vile so I can commiserate. I include Diane in my prayers. She has such a sweet, lovely face. I can see that good and gentle light. Some evil person may have convinced her that noone wants her back, even though that is not true. I can't imagine that you caused Diane any harm by smoking pot with her.As you said, you were just a kid yourself.

Thank you for such kind words. About the pot smoking- We knew we should not have given into her. Patricia trusted us to keep her away from it. She told us if she asks tell her no. And if she found out we had given her any weed she was going to "tan both your hides". But you know what. We felt it was kind of silly for her to demand that of us while she openly allowed Dean to grow weed in the back yard. Yep that's right. He had several plants in plain view growing right there. She knew about it and simply let him do it. I'll be the first to admit she wasn't the most responsible mother, but we knew better and we let her do it anyway. Patricia was never home, and when she was she was with her boyfriend. She worked long hours at Almaden Vineyards, and then would show up once in awhile with groceries, give us some chores to do, get dressed then leave. Sometimes she'd sleep, then leave. We wouldn't see her again for days. I think that is why Diane ran away. No parental supervision after they moved out of the apartment and into the house. I know Patricia was a good woman, I liked her a lot, but I think she made the mistake of spending what little free time she had at her BF's house and hardly any with her children. I did not reside with them when they lived in the apartment. But I spent all my time there. She was home more often then. Once she got their father's house, all the sudden everything changed. I shouldn't really be talking like this. But sometimes though I don't think anyone blames her parents, it ultimately was Patricia never being home that seemed to hurt Diane. But then she could have called her dad and asked him if she could stay with him. I dunno maybe she did and I never knew. Anyway I'm sure Pat blamed her self for many years afterward. I loved her, she was a very kind woman and I am not speaking at all negative about her. Not pointing fingers, but I just think she should have been home more. Diane would never have run away had she been.

I don't know if Odyssey told you already, but the girl in the image is not Diane. I am certain. But thank you so much for caring and for bringing this to our attention. Because you simply never know. It could have easily been Diane. But then I am wondering who the girl in the image is. Some other girl who was kidnapped and brainwashed maybe? Is it possible she has loved ones who have spent decades trying to find her? Maybe we may never know what happened to Diane, but maybe we can help identify the girl in the image and maybe if she is missing help her surviving loved ones reconnect with her?

My step dad was a horrible human being. He was also a minister in the Church of Scientology. He was a hateful robot, who had no emotion and would not even allow me to get sick. If I was sick he'd tell me I was pretending and make me get out of bed no matter how sick I was and work outside. One time I remember him doing this when I had food poisoning. Made me shovel white rocks into the back of a flatbed at some quarry. When I got home he made me sit at the dinner table and eat. I was sweating heavily and felt like I was going to pass out. I vomited in my plate then passed out. I was sick for a week after that, so weak I could not get out of bed. My mother stood up to him and I got to heal. That is one example. He was a horrible man. My mother was a wonderful person, but she had no power when it came to him. She simply could not protect me most of the time from him. So of course I was more than happy to live with Dean and Diane. No stress, total freedom, we could do what ever we wanted. I was very happy being there. Plus Dean was my best friend, and still is to this very day.


And what about your story? Would you be willing to share more about what happened to you and of your captors?