AZ AZ - Ida Mae Lee, 25, Grand Canyon National Park, 1956

[Laughing]

Ugh, sorry, didn't mean for that to post three times!!

The Double-Post Gremlin got you but good!

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[Boredathome]

The five children thing is the biggest hitch for me-- the female body changes so much after giving birth that I'd think they'd be able to tell, even from just bones. But then if Ida Mae was really so tiny when she disappeared, then maybe? The UID was in possession of a bra sized 34C, which seems large for someone with that frame, but maybe not if they were/ had recently been lactating... I'm not clear on how young Ida Mae's youngest was.

The gold necklace doesn't strike me as wildly implausible, though it also doesn't strike me as being quite right.

 

[StrangeOne]

I wish we could learn more about Ida and her family life within the Nation. Knowing which clan she belongs to would be helpful. A poster above mentioned Mary Begay. Did the two know each other? What about that Inn Mary was last seen at? Was Ida ever there? The odds that she was is pretty good. Someone also mentioned the fact that Ida Mae Lee is a common name for that area. The Navajo Nation tends to use the same names a lot.

 

[Ciriii57]

Is it possible the missing year is off by a year?
It sounds very much like the Ida Mae and her husband separated and she remained with the kids. They were found abandoned in a small building on the rim of the canyon, presumably somewhere close to where she was working? Could she have been living here? Could it be that Ida disappeared in 1955 and that's why the kids had been abandoned, because something had happened to their mother?
The statement that the children's parents couldn't be found makes no sense, Ida was literally working somewhere nearby!?

 

[Vresia]

I wish we could learn more about Ida and her family life within the Nation. Knowing which clan she belongs to would be helpful. A poster above mentioned Mary Begay. Did the two know each other? What about that Inn Mary was last seen at? Was Ida ever there? The odds that she was is pretty good. Someone also mentioned the fact that Ida Mae Lee is a common name for that area. The Navajo Nation tends to use the same names a lot.

According to the article linked below,
"Ida Mae Lee (surname alternatively listed as “Costello”), a 25-year-old Navajo woman from the To’aheedliinii Clan, disappeared in the 1950's. She was last seen working at a Harvey Hotel in Coconino County, Arizona, most likely at the El Tovar Lodge where her husband, Preston Lee Monongye (surname alternatively spelled “Monongya” and also known as “Preston James Lee”), worked as a cook."
"Ida and Preston met on a Hopi Reservation in Polacca in the 1940’s and were married on September 26, 1950. Preston was born to a Mexican father and a Californian Mission Indian mother, but was raised by a Hopi man named David Monongye(a) in the village of Hotevilla. Ida’s clanspeople reportedly shunned her for marrying outside of the community, so when the two were wed they moved to the Grand Canyon area."

It seems very likely that the missing year was really 1955 and NOT 1956.

Cold Case: Ida Mae Lee

Missing from 1955.

web.archive.org

NOTE: the link is unstable- try copying the text into a word file to read the article

 

[SBMonsterFighter]

According to the article linked below,
"Ida Mae Lee (surname alternatively listed as “Costello”), a 25-year-old Navajo woman from the To’aheedliinii Clan, disappeared in the 1950's. She was last seen working at a Harvey Hotel in Coconino County, Arizona, most likely at the El Tovar Lodge where her husband, Preston Lee Monongye (surname alternatively spelled “Monongya” and also known as “Preston James Lee”), worked as a cook."
"Ida and Preston met on a Hopi Reservation in Polacca in the 1940’s and were married on September 26, 1950. Preston was born to a Mexican father and a Californian Mission Indian mother, but was raised by a Hopi man named David Monongye(a) in the village of Hotevilla. Ida’s clanspeople reportedly shunned her for marrying outside of the community, so when the two were wed they moved to the Grand Canyon area."

It seems very likely that the missing year was really 1955 and NOT 1956.

Cold Case: Ida Mae Lee

Missing from 1955.

web.archive.org

NOTE: the link is unstable- try copying the text into a word file to read the article

This is a good find.

 

[Quoththeraven]

Seeing Ida Mae Lee living…maybe



I found this nearly full length photograph of her on NAMUS. It's a black and white photo, so why is there a pink triangle in the background?

I colorized that photo online. It doesn't look like it provides any new clues. The NAMUS photo does appear to have been cropped from its original photo. And the pink turned gray.

 

[Quoththeraven]

This is a good find.

According to the article linked below,
"Ida Mae Lee (surname alternatively listed as “Costello”), a 25-year-old Navajo woman from the To’aheedliinii Clan, disappeared in the 1950's. She was last seen working at a Harvey Hotel in Coconino County, Arizona, most likely at the El Tovar Lodge where her husband, Preston Lee Monongye (surname alternatively spelled “Monongya” and also known as “Preston James Lee”), worked as a cook."
"Ida and Preston met on a Hopi Reservation in Polacca in the 1940’s and were married on September 26, 1950. Preston was born to a Mexican father and a Californian Mission Indian mother, but was raised by a Hopi man named David Monongye(a) in the village of Hotevilla. Ida’s clanspeople reportedly shunned her for marrying outside of the community, so when the two were wed they moved to the Grand Canyon area."

It seems very likely that the missing year was really 1955 and NOT 1956.

Cold Case: Ida Mae Lee

Missing from 1955.

web.archive.org

NOTE: the link is unstable- try copying the text into a word file to read the article

Preston was born on September 6, 1927, in Los Angeles, California. He was adopted at age 7 by Nora Nasnimba Monongye and David Monongya. Also, Ancestry.com shows Preston used his Preston James Lee name for voting, so that's probably his legal birth name before he was adopted. Their marriage certificate shows their legal names at marriage. Source: Ancestry.com.

According to The Albuquerque Tribune, Mon, Dec 14, 1981 ·Page 29, Preston Monongye and his wife, Cecilia, were involved in a shooting at the Pow Wow Club in Albuquerque, NM. They were victims. A suspect was shot by a policeman.

 

[Quoththeraven]

In the 2016 book by Rory O'Neill Schmitt, Navajo and Hopi Art in Arizona: Continuing Traditions, it mentions at the beginning of chapter 4, titled Jesse Monongya, that in or around 2001, human remains were found in a shallow grave at the Grand Canyon and Jesse believes these could have belonged to his mother.

I wonder if the remains were ever identified?

Navajo and Hopi Art in Arizona

Arizona's Navajo and Hopi cultures span multiple generations, and their descendants continue to honor customs from thousands of years ago. Contemporary artists like Hopi katsina doll carver Manuel Chavarria and Navajo weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas use traditional crafts and techniques to...

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