CA CA - Questa Burns, 48, San Bernardino, 1969

(No photo available)

NamUs: https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/2980

Questa has always lived in LA County/Riverside/San Bernardino Co. area. The family had not seen or heard from her since 1969.

She is described as a white female, about 5'4", med build, 120 lbs, brown eyes and black hair.

Click to expand...

EDIT: Sorry in advance for the really long post. ;^;

OG had to start this thread for me since I don't think i have thread-starting privileges yet. Initially I found her case by accident the other day when googling for information about a different case. The link I gleaned most of the info from is here:
https://whereaboutsstillunknown.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/questa-burns/

Questa Leone Burns, aka Questa Fraetis, aka Questa Pitts (mum's maiden name), aka Jackie (nickname). The circumstances described on the wordpress post are that she was born in Southgate, CA (Los Angeles County), worked and lived with her family in Riverside County, CA in 1940, and remained there for the bulk of her life, excluding when she married Thomas Barrows Burns Sr. (1924-1980) in St. Paul, MN in 1946.

Between her marriage and when she disappeared, she had 3 sons, and apparently the marriage deteriorated enough to where her husband began cheating on her with her best friend, committed her, and took the kids and moved to Washington state.

The bulk of the information comes from family (the missing persons' report was filed by a niece of hers) but there really doesn't seem to be much to go on. One of the comments on the blog posting (from the niece) mentioned she was committed to "Patton on Eastern Morning"--a google search led me to Patton State Hospital in San Bernadino County. It's a bit vague on when she was last seen; according to the comment the niece was told off the record by a nurse there when Questa left, but the only dates that were given were when she was checked in and that it was "late 1960's", so I'm unsure if 1969 is when she was last seen by people or last seen by her family (kids). She was only in there for 6 months according to the niece, so either she got out in 1969 or 1970.

A very positive turn in this case, and what initially made me think of turning it over to WS, is that in 2002 a member of her family spoke to Social Security and found out that Questa was alive, or at least assumed that way since there was no death listed. They couldn't give her any more information than that due to privacy laws, and there was no recent activity, but it's still a really good lead. Might not be hard to track with an Ancestry account or something.

I followed a link to an Angelfire family tree page about the Burns' family. Questa's mother's name was Edith M. Pitts Fraetis Bradford. Questa had a brother, Elden "Red" Fraetis, but he was believed to have died in the 50's. Her 3 children were Thomas Barrows Burns Jr. (b. 1947), John Elden Burns Sr. (b. 1953), and James William Burns (b. 1959). All were still alive at the time of that page's writing (Apr. 2003 is the latest date I can find), and the niece made contact with the writer of the page in an attempt to contact the sons.

Her family is thinking she stayed in the triangular area of Los Angeles County, San Bernadido County, and Riverside County. They also think she may have remarried, but no one's been able to find any record of a divorce from Burns. Burns never married the girlfriend, either, which may be why she kept his name. The physical descriptions of her are that she was rather short (5' 4", 120 lbs), with black hair and brown eyes. Given the maiden name (Fraetis), it's safe to assume she was of Portuguese (Caucasian) descent. It may also be a logical step to think she was Catholic, which may explain the lack of divorce. (That's just my opinion, though.)

She'd be 94 now, if she's still alive. Her sons went back to the apartment several years later looking for her, and were informed that she went there looking for her family, but they were gone. Makes me think they'd like to see their mother again.

EDITEDIT: Forgot to post the link to the Angelfire page. Here ya go.
http://www.angelfire.com/nf/burnscharles/morePA.html

According to Ancestry.com, Questa was born October 29, 1921.

Her brother was Elden Maurice Fraetis, who was born March 28, 1923 and died December 18, 1958.

Apparently Questa, as Questa L. Burns, lived in Hastings, Nebraska in 1950. This was 19 years before she was last seen.

According to the 1940 Census, when Questa was 18, she was a beauty operator (Hair stylist??) and was working. At that time, she lived on Mission Blvd. in West Riverside, California. She's listed with just mom, Elden and herself, no dad. BTW, Mom's (Edith) birth place is listed at South Dakota. Edith is also listed as Edythe M Fraetis on some entries into Ancestry. Edith's date of birth is listed as -22 Dec 1886.

That's all I've found thus far. I hope it helps.

Wow, thanks! I haven't been on WS in a few months and decided to check the cases I'm subscribed to. Wonder if I should contact the webmaster, or if it's been too long. :0

Questa is a pretty unusual name, so I quickly Googled it -- ironically, it's Latin for "seeking".

Well, she WAS seeking her sons.....jeez, that just made it sadder. :[

Bumping for Questa, now missing 51 years...

Bumping for Questa

I wish we had a picture of her.