Hi, this is my first post here on the board. I have looked at the specific thread for a few years now as a lurker and decided to join because I wanted to make a suggestion for Coldcaseman.
Lyle's ethnicity to me looks to be of some sort of Native ancestry. The lowest blood content to be federally recognized is 1/8 to register with a federally recognized tribe. I dont know if you have explored this route yet, although I have read in the past forum messages that several posters have suggested it. My aunt and uncle were members of the Ojibwe in Minnesota. They were beneficiaies of individual indian money accounts, which are regulated and administered by the government. The federal government is preparing to settle a major lawsuit now for the misappropriation of these funds. Not all Native Americans receive these funds, the legislation has been amended several times, in 1934 and in 1994. But, if you are of Native Ancestry and your family members were beneficiaries at some point and they died and their assests were probated, there is a good chance perhaps he was a beneficiary of some form of these monies.
If he was indeed from Idaho, there are only four federally recognized tribes in that state versus 29 in Washington State. When an IIM Account has been inactive for 5 years, the account is turned over by the tribe to the Office of the Special Trustee (OST) at the Federal Department of the Interior (DOI), which manages these accounts. Their job is to find these beneficiaries to give them their money, OR to find their decendants to probate the accounts to them. They do a very poor job of this, hence the lawsuit that is getting ready to be settled.
I aided in probating my Aunt and Uncles accounts. They had been deceased for many years. However, their last names were so unusual, not to mention the OST has the vitals information in their files, that if any employee at OST had entered it into the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), they would have found that they both had died years ago.
If it is possible for you to work with either the Tribes or the OST, I would encourage it. They might be able to provide you with lists that were inactive that were turned in by September 30, 2006 from a specific Tribe, for the time frame of his suicide. September 30 is the processing date for accounts that are 5 years inactive yearly. If you could run the names through the SSDI, you could narrow your search by ruling out the deceased, you could then narrow your search again by looking for males 20 to 30 year olds who have not claimed their accounts. It would give you some names and new leads to follow up on.
The other possiblity is that if he had an account, and it's still active, someone is using his benefits illegally, and perhaps that's why no one has reported him missing.
If any of you have Native American ancestry and want to search through the names list at the DOI, the link is as follows:
www.doi.gov/ost
It is a free search, I think if you google it though, there are some online places that charge a fee, which is wrong.
If you want to search for a name in the social security death index, then go to
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ and click on the Social Security Death Index. This is also a free search, and it is updated frequently.
I hope that this helps in some form. I would really like Lyle Stevik to have a real name someday.
