By james art An elderly Scottsdale woman whose strangled body was found in Pinal County 36 years ago has finally been identified.
Thanks to the DNA Doe Project, the woman has been identified as Evelyn “Dotty” Lees, age 88 or 89, according to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office.
Lees’ body was found on June 28, 1988, in a remote area along State Route 79 just south of US 60.
“There was evidence to suggest that the woman was likely a victim of homicide by strangulation. The woman is believed to have died in the previous year and was buried in a secret grave,” the PCSO said on Thursday in a press release.
Using the resources available at the time, detectives were unable to identify the body and the case was dropped.
Earlier this year, the DNA Doe Project approached PCSO to help identify Lees’ body through private DNA labs and genetic genealogists, “something that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive for our agency,” PCSO said.
“Ms. Lees, who lived in Scottsdale at the time of her death, was never reported missing and has no death certificate on file. Investigative leads were identified; however, these individuals are also now deceased,” the PCSO release continued. “This investigation has revealed that this may be a case of pension fraud as there is evidence to suggest that investigative leads continued to collect Ms Lees’ benefits almost 10 years after her death.”
Lees’ living relatives have been located and notified, the PCSO said.
“For an elderly grandmother to be the victim of a violent crime and then go unidentified for 36 years is a tragedy,” Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb said in the release. “We are grateful to the DNA Doe Project, its donors and Dr. Bruce Anderson of the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office, who all helped this woman have some peace in death.”
The DNA Doe Project is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation founded in 2017 to identify John and Jane Doe using research genetic genealogy, the organization’s website states.