Identified! OR - Sandy, WhtFem, 50-80, UP9499, edentulous in life, Aug 21, 1981 - Illya "Ella" Wilkins

[homecooked]

Don't think she has a thread.

Namus #UP9499
Unidentified Female

Date Body Found: August 21, 1981
Estimated Year of Death: 1975-1976
Estimated PMI: 1 year
Location: Oak Grove, Oregon
Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
Age: 50-80
Height: Cannot estimate
Weight: Cannot estimate
Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Unknown
Condition of Remains: One or more limbs not recovered. One or both hands not recovered. Not recognizable - Partial skeletal parts only.

Circumstances: An apparent female skull with no teeth (indicating the individual was edentulous in life) was found by tree counters on their property located on the west side of Langensand Road in Sandy.

Investigators: Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, (503) 785-5000
Agency Case Number 76-855

No comparisons listed on Namus.

Not much to go off. Unsure if DNA is available either.

 

[LotsaLatte]

@homecooked Oak Grove and Sandy are two different places. I think the location should be Sandy in the post?

 

[homecooked]

@homecooked Oak Grove and Sandy are two different places. I think the location should be Sandy in the post?

Ah yup, I had the wrong link for a second and meant to type Sandy. Thank you for letting me know!

 

[iulia]

From her Doe Network page:

Dentals: Not available. Edentulous.
Fingerprints: Not available.
DNA: Available.

Circumstances of Discovery

Tree counters found the victim's skull on their property located on the west side of Langensand Road in Sandy.

The location was close to a nursing home where an elderly woman named Illya Wilkins (D.O.B. 7/30/1887) had wandered away in 1976.

 

[iulia]

The NamUs page for this lady has been removed.

 

[heartanium]

Good to hear. Curious if it was Illya Wilkins?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The remains of a woman who went missing in 1976 have finally been identified through the use of advanced DNA profiling.

On August 26, 1976, an elderly woman named Illya Wilkins went missing from “Baunach’s Home for the Aged” along Langensand Road in Sandy. Ms. Wilkins had memory issues at the time she went missing, according to Oregon State Police.

A thorough search was conducted but Wilkins was never found.

Years later, private property owners counting trees outside of Sandy in Clackamas County discovered bones and part of a human skull on August 21, 1981.

Illya Wilkins circa 1956.

Dr. Nici Vance of Oregon State University’s Forensic Anthropology Department re-analyzed the bones in 2010 and sent a sample from the skull to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, which put the unidentified profile into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System - NamUs. The sample was processed, and a forensic DNA profile was created for comparison. Unfortunately, no genetic links to lost people or family reference standards were found in the CODIS database.

The course of the case shifted in July 2022 when an additional bone sample was sent to Othram Inc., a private DNA lab that specializes in advanced forensic DNA testing.

When the results were matched to DNA profiles from various family lineages, it was clear that the remains belonged to Ms. Illya “Ella” Wilkins.

Missing person detectives from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office then contacted Illya Wilkins’ grandchild, who still resides in Oregon, and took a DNA sample for confirmatory testing. The analysis found that the remains of the unnamed female were genetically linked to the grandson of Illya “Ella” Wilkins, born July 30, 1887.

Missing Oregon woman’s remains identified after more than 40 years

The remains of a woman who went missing in 1976 have finally been identified through the use of advanced DNA profiling.

www.kptv.com

 

[heartanium]

Wonderful that Mrs. Wilkins finally got her name back! I'll always be blown away by the DNA/genetic advances we are seeing in our lifetimes.

 

[othram]

DNASOLVES: After 42 years, Clackamas County Doe (1981) is identified.

 

[heartanium]

If I have the right records, Illya "Ella" Poindexter Wilkins was born in Cherokee, AR on June 30, 1887 to John Washington Poindexter and Mary Ann May Poindexter. Her father passed away in 1937 and her mother passed away in 1960.

Their find a graves are here:

John Washington Poindexter (1858-1937) - Find a...

Born on 23 Jan 1858. Died on 26 May 1937. Buried in Cherokee City, Arkansas, USA.

www.findagrave.com

Mary Ann May Poindexter (1869-1960) - Find a...

Born on 27 Aug 1869. Died on 8 Nov 1960. Buried in Cherokee City, Arkansas, USA.

www.findagrave.com

She had two sisters, both now deceased, who are buried in the same family plot.

She married Francis Earl Wilkins in 1906 at age 19. Sometime during WWI he was drafted. He passed away almost two decades before she did in 1953. She had two sons, one which died young and another who lived until 2007. Not sure where they are buried, but hoping that Ella get re-buried with her family members.

 

[othram]

Wonderful that Mrs. Wilkins finally got her name back! I'll always be blown away by the DNA/genetic advances we are seeing in our lifetimes.

This case had failed other methods and so it was definitely nice to finally close the case!

 

[Red Clover]

Illya "Ella" Wilkins was identified by comparison with a grandchild's DNA
4/4/2023, she had been missing since 8/26/1976. Her remains have been returned to her next of kin.

Human skull ID’d as elderly woman who disappeared in 1976, solves cold case

A partial human skull was identified on April 4, about 42 years since the remains were discovered on a private property outside of Sandy, Oregon. The DNA match closed the cold case of an elderly wo…

www.koin.com

According to Oregon State Police, “It was immediately noted that [Wilkins] had disappeared from ‘Baunach’s Home for the Aged’ off Langensand Road in Sandy, Oregon on August 26, 1976. Ms. Wilkins was known to have memory problems at the time of her disappearance…”

Oregon State Police

Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office (SMEO) assists Clackamas County Sheriff's Office in the identification of human skeletal remains discovered in 1981 On August 21, 1981, the remains of a...

www.facebook.com

 

[EmiliaRT007]

This case is so sad. Illya was 89. 89, y’all! I’m just wondering how they got 50-80 out of her skull. I think there’s some evidence she was in decent health. She’s a pretty woman, reminds me of my pra-babushka (great grandma) on my mom’s side who just turned 100. They look so similar! I guess it’s just that old woman look.

She looks damn good for 89. I’m not surprised it took them so long to identify her. I mean, when you find just a skull, it’s difficult to identify a lot of things. Eye, hair, build, height, weight, even gender! In fact a lot of skeletons that were found are listed as unknown sex. It’s just more difficult when you’re going off of this wide age estimate and the decedent is STILL older than the cap on the age estimate, which is 80. That’s already higher than the average life expectancy.

She was said to have memory loss, yes? Poor woman. Old age got to her and the memory loss lead to this. She just wandered off, not knowing what she got herself into until it was too late.

Rest easy, Ms. Illya Wilkins. I’m glad you have your name back and you can rest in peace.

 

[Red Clover]

This case is so sad. Illya was 89. 89, y’all! I’m just wondering how they got 50-80 out of her skull. I think there’s some evidence she was in decent health. She’s a pretty woman, reminds me of my pra-babushka (great grandma) on my mom’s side who just turned 100. They look so similar! I guess it’s just that old woman look.

She looks damn good for 89. I’m not surprised it took them so long to identify her. I mean, when you find just a skull, it’s difficult to identify a lot of things. Eye, hair, build, height, weight, even gender! In fact a lot of skeletons that were found are listed as unknown sex. It’s just more difficult when you’re going off of this wide age estimate and the decedent is STILL older than the cap on the age estimate, which is 80. That’s already higher than the average life expectancy.

She was said to have memory loss, yes? Poor woman. Old age got to her and the memory loss lead to this. She just wandered off, not knowing what she got herself into until it was too late.

Rest easy, Ms. Illya Wilkins. I’m glad you have your name back and you can rest in peace.

Her age struck me as well. Born in 1887 and went missing from a home for the aged in 1976. The articles have said she was found close to where she disappeared. I'm wondering how close? How hard did they look for her, where did she wander off to? Did she know the area before her memory loss? Sigh.

It happens more often than you'd think. In our area, I'm personally aware of at least two elder deaths due to memory loss/dementia/Alzheimer's wandering away, one from a memory care center, she had just been placed there and was not familiar with the area at all, she was later found quite aways away, and one man from his home, he lived along a creek and very familiar with his surroundings but was never located.

 

[Blurgle]

She probably had Alzheimer's Disease. Before 1977 it wasn't understood that the memory problems of old age were Alzheimer's; they thought Alzheimer's was a disease of young people that mimicked the 'normal' aging process.

More to the point of this case, there were no memory care facilities in 1976, and no one, at all, understood that wandering is a cardinal symptom of Alzheimer's. It doesn't matter if the person is at home or far from home; every Alzheimer's patient will wander if mobile enough and given the chance. Often Alzheimer's patients are put into memory care specifically because the family can't stop them from wandering away from home and into traffic or other dangerous situations.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

She probably had Alzheimer's Disease. Before 1977 it wasn't understood that the memory problems of old age were Alzheimer's; they thought Alzheimer's was a disease of young people that mimicked the 'normal' aging process.

More to the point of this case, there were no memory care facilities in 1976, and no one, at all, understood that wandering is a cardinal symptom of Alzheimer's. It doesn't matter if the person is at home or far from home; every Alzheimer's patient will wander if mobile enough and given the chance. Often Alzheimer's patients are put into memory care specifically because the family can't stop them from wandering away from home and into traffic or other dangerous situations.

I can see that being a possibility.