Bravo, Othram, fantastic job!
Cold Case: Woman's remains identified after 36 years
Monday, May 10th 2021
MISSOULA, Mont. — After 36 years, the Missoula County Sheriff's Office has identified the remains previously known as "Christy Crystal Creek" as Janet Lee Lucas, a 23-year-old woman from Spokane, Washington.
The following information was sent out by Missoula County Sheriff's Office:
It is with both great pride and sadness that Missoula County Sheriff’s Office announces that after 36 years, we can now give a name to the unidentified remains previously known as “Christy Crystal Creek.” Her name is Janet Lee Lucas. She was a 23 year old woman from Spokane, Washington.
On September 9, 1985, a bear hunter came across skeletonized remains near Crystal Creek. After a thorough investigation, those remains could not be identified and became known as Christy Crystal Creek. Despite decades of work with forensic anthropologists and a forensic odonatologist, and hours of research scouring missing persons databases here and in Canada, her identity remained a mystery.
Earlier this year, with financial assistance from Montana Department of Justice’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative ( program, our Cold Case Unit partnered with Othram labs who conducted advanced DNA analysis which enabled us to initiate a forensic genetic genealogy investigation similar to the work the team did in the Siobhan McGuinness case. After weeks of intense genealogy research, we were able to identify DNA relatives and family trees which led us to the Janet s family in Spokane.
After conducting numerous interviews and confirming our conclusions with additional DNA testing of relatives, we are now able to conclusively identify Christy Crystal Creek as Janet L. Lucas.
Janet was born in October 1960. She grew up in California and Washington and had seven brothers and sisters. Janet also had a son who was five years old when she went missing. He has spent much of his adult life searching for Janet. We cannot rest on our success of having finally identified Janet.
We must now seek justice for Janet stated Detective Captain Dave Conway. After speaking with her family and friends it was determined that she was last seen in the summer of 1983 in Sandpoint, Idaho. “Our focus has changed from “who is Christy Crystal Creek?” to “what happened to Janet Luc as? This is now a cold case homicide investigation and we need your help stated Conway.
No records have been found showing Janet living in, or spending time in Montana, so we are sharing her picture taken in 1979, in hopes of finding anyone who may have known or seen Janet in Missoula in the summer of 1983 and into 1984.
The Cold Case Unit and others in the Sheriff’s Office are scrutinizing all available information, including new information provided by family members. Due to the close proximity to where Janet’s remains were found and the remains of Debbie Deer Creek, the Cold Case Unit is reviewing evidence and reports from the Wayne Nance case file to identify any possible link between Nance and Janet.
“I’d like to thank the Cold Case Unit, University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, Montana Regional Program for continually updating Janet’s profile, the Montana DOJ SAKI program, Montana DOJ Forensic Science Division, the FBI Forensic Genet ic Genealogy program, Othram DNA laboratory and Janet’s family. It truly was a team effort that required the assistance andcooperation of a number of agencies and people to bring some closure to the Lucas family” stated Sheriff T.J. McDermott. “Our thoug hts and prayers are with Janet’s family during this difficult time.”
Missoula County Sheriff’s Office with concurrence from the County Attorney’s O ffice is working through the process of returning Janet’s remains to her family.
Missoula County Sheriff’s Office and the Cold Case Unit also recognizes the immense value of those who have taken the time to upload DNA profiles and family trees to the commercial websites GEDMatch and FamilyTree DNA. Thi s crowd sourced genetic and ancestry data has been made available to law enforcement and allowed the Cold Case Unit with assistance from multiple agencies, to successfully resolve this case and the Siobhan McGuinness case. We highly encourage everyone toupload your DNA profile to those sites Yo ur DNA could help solve other cold cases or unidentified remains cases in Missoula County and across the country.
The following statement was released by the family of Janet Lee Lucas:
After decades of missing Janet, our family is broken hearted to learn that she was tragically taken, unidentified and spent a large amount of years alone. However, she never spent one moment without being loved. Janet had a contagious smile, warm personality and wore her heart on her sleeve.
Janet had been missed dearly, searched for but most importantly never forgotten. Janet was loved by everyone. Not only was she a mother, she was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend and now a grandmother to 4 beautiful children.
We are grateful to finally be able to bring her home to us, as well as bring Janet the peace and rest she so deserves.
While after 38 years, our family finally has some answers. We also realize there are questions that we may never have the answers to. We would like to thank the Missoula Sheriffs Department for their decades of pursuit to bring justice to Janet, Marta Timmons who devoted years of her career looking for answers and resolution for Janet, Dianna Parker for volunteering her time to consult and answer all our questions, and lastly we would like to thank the family that submitted their ancestry and DNA that finally brought Janet home.
While this case has been in the hearts of the community just as long as it has been in our hearts, due to the sensitive nature and deep emotions involved we also ask that the public respect our families privacy as we put our beloved Janet to rest.
https://nbcmontana.com/amp/news/loc...-case-womans-remain-identified-after-36-years