NV NV - Donnis Redman, 14, & Michael Griffin, 18, Las Vegas, 1 March 1958

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Several possibilities for finding out more info on Michael James Griffin: find the names of high schools in the hometown and contact them to request the name of their director of the alumni association. If the person on the phone at the school seems cooperative, they might even check records for you when they have time. Also, the school library usually keeps copies of old yearbooks which could be checked for the years of about 1954-58 when he would have been a student. A message left for the school librarian could get them interested enough to check this out for you. This might produce a photo, or even the name of a sibling who could be contacted. Many alumni groups now have Facebook pages and a request for information on this person could be posted on there, just in case a former classmate might see it and respond. Beyond that, churches in the area could be checked for Baptismal records, etc. They may or may not allow this information to be given out, but an explanation for why you are seeking the information might convince them to help. Just a few thoughts, these things may have already been done, but just in case......
 
raeann said:
Several possibilities for finding out more info on Michael James Griffin: find the names of high schools in the hometown and contact them to request the name of their director of the alumni association.

Also, the school library usually keeps copies of old yearbooks which could be checked for the years of about 1954-58 when he would have been a student. ......
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That is a great idea there. Another possibility to consider is getting the names of junior high schools or middle schools in the hometown and looking at those old yearbooks as well.
 
talelights said:
You would do better with the missing cold case investigator at the sheriff's office in Flagstaff!
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Do you know where I can find an email for the cold case investigator talelights? I'm willing to write them to see if there is any info. TIA!
 
The info on Little Miss X states that she had Mexican or Indian ancestry. Do we know whether Donnis Redman had any Mexican or Indian ancestry? She definitely doesn't look like it, but an anthropologist might be able to tell things from the skull that you wouldn't notice in looking at the live person. For instance, my family has a lot of Cherokee Indian ancestry but you'd never know it by looking at us.
 
Bumping, Bumping.... Anything new on the exhumations? The article was over a year ago.
I couldn't find anything new, but then again I'm not the greatest researcher out there.
Seemed like such an amazing lead.
 
iconoclast said:
Private Eye Dot Com lists a "Michael James Griffin" who has lived in Las Vegas at some point, but mostly in Michigan. As to his family and associates (which is notoriously unreliable on PR), the closest to Donnis is a "Diana J. Griffin."
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I'm going to ask around with my mother, her maiden name was Grffin and she and her family are from Michigan. I will try to find out if there is a Michael somewhere out there that may have been my grandfather's cousin or something (I know my grandfather had no brothers named Michael).
 
Curious case. I think the age difference is troubling and also odd is the fact that Michael's family didn't seem concerned. Did any local papers from San Pedro mention this case?
 
scriptgirl said:
Curious case. I think the age difference is troubling and also odd is the fact that Michael's family didn't seem concerned. Did any local papers from San Pedro mention this case?
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IN the 1950's, it was not that odd for a 14 yr old to be 'dating' an 18 yr old boy. I know it seems weird to us, but in the 30's and 40's, girls often married at age 14 or age 15. It was not that unusual. And they married boys that were at least 18 or 19, who had jobs or were in the service. So it was still somewhat normal in the 50's, although it was beginning to be out of favor.
 
momtolil said:
Thats so great. I wonder what happened to prompt them
to finally list him. I've never even seen a picture of Michael let alone any other information. This is good news. Maybe it means they are moving forward with the search.
I still want to know about the exhumation Though.
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It has been a long time in coming to have Micheal listed on any missing person page. It seems since he was 18 or 19 at the time he went missing, he was considered an adult, and law enforcement did not list routinely list "adults" that leave home as "missing". I think the family had no choice, not that they stopped looking for him.

Donnis, on the other hand, was 14 a minor, her mother had a relative in law enforcement that was able to get Donnie listed as a missing.

But it is because of the combined work of the Coconio Sheriff's office and the Flagstaff Police, who's work on cold case files, as well as the national data base, NamUs, that has made a difference.

As far as the exhumation, if I understand it correctly, that has to do with a box of remains found in the attic of a funeral home by a new owner. Opening the box for examination would be called "exhumation" and needed a court order. I believe they are in the testing phase now.

Now to get Little Miss X listed.
 
Ambercat said:
This is [I believe] Miss X's listing in NamUs. IMO, she does not sound like Donnis Redman, but I could be wrong.

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9859
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I honestly don't think Little Miss X is Donnis Redman either. I think she has a better chance of being Connie Smith, though I have doubts about that unless Connie had Native American ancestry. Indentify Us mentions several indications of Native American ancestry, including "shovelling" on the remaining tooth, which is normally an indication of Native American or sometimes (I believe) Asian descent.

The age range for this UID is 11-14 which I feel is too low to be Donnis Redman as she looked at least her age in her photo, plus if she was so undeveloped in stature for her remains to appear to possibly be those of an 11-year-old, I would have serious doubts that she would have been dating an 18-year-old young man. If her skeletal features were that undeveloped then I am assuming her physical appearance would have been as well. Normally after puberty the sex of remains can usually (though not always) be determined by the pelvis. So if the coroner believed this UID could have been as young as 11, I would think she had not yet developed a more womanly figure and probably would not have been mature enough to have attracted the attention of a young man of 18, much less have inspired him to elope with her.
 
After reading about Donna on The Charley Project and this board, is it possible that after the two eloped to Vegas, that they just took off on their own to start their life together? They could have easily ditched the car, and then got another one. There is so little information, it's really hard to say what happened. But I would think if it was foul play, we would have more info available to us.
 
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