Evansville Courier & Press | March 25, 2016
Lula Ann Gillespie-Miller thought she was too young to be a mother. So the 28-year-old gave custody of her children to her parents and disappeared.
After a decades-long search that included an exhumed body and an intense search through missing persons record, Gillespie-Miller has been found -- and she could be reunited with her family via telephone this holiday weekend.
Gillespie-Miller, originally from Laurel, Indiana, was found in living in south Texas under an alias.
She left Indiana in 1974, shortly after giving birth to her third child, according to a news release from Indiana State Police. With the exception of a letter postmarked from Richmond, Indiana, in 1975, the family hadn't heard from her since.
ISP Detective Sgt. Scott Jarvis took the case in January 2014, after the Doe Network, a website that assists families with missing person's investigations, contacted state police at the Pendleton Post.
Jarvis combed through Richmond Police Department records, and discovered the case of an unidentified dead woman found in 1975. The woman was buried in an unmarked grave in Richmond, and after Jarvis obtained a search warrant, authorities exhumed the body to collect DNA.
Jarvis garnered DNA from Gillespie-Miller's daughter, Tammy Miller, for comparison, but no match was found.
He then latched onto the trail of a woman who had lived in Tennessee in the '80s before moving to Texas. That trail eventually led him to small town in the southern part portion of the state.
Texas Rangers spoke to the woman. She wished to remain anonymous in her new identity, but admitted to authorities that she was Gillespie-Miller, now 69 years old.
Despite her wish for continued anonymity, she allowed authorities to pass along contact information to her daughter. The two hope to speak this Easter weekend.
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