CA CA - Lillian Rochelle Holmes, 21, Pasadena, 22 March 1984

alllads

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Have searched and can't find a thread for her.

holmes_lillian.jpg

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3193dfca.html

Lillian Rochelle Holmes
Case Classification: Involuntary Missing
Missing Since: March 22, 1984
Location Last Seen: Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California

Physical Description
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.

Date of Birth: January 23, 1963
Age at Time of Disappearance: 21 yrs old
Race: African American (very light complexion - both parents self-identify as African American but the whole family has light complexion)
Gender: Female
Height at Time of Disappearance: 5'2 to 5'3
Weight at Time of Disappearance: 110 - 125 lbs
Hair Color: Brown (family says light to medium brown)
Eye Color: Green (family says light eyes with Gray/Green/Hazel tones)
Alias(s) / Nickname(s): Lily

Distinguishing Marks/Features: Dark mole on neck under chin (as seen in some of photos).

Dentals: Available (Charting)
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Available
Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Lillian may have been wearing pants borrowed from a family member. Other clothing thought to be worn that day was a red blouse and a black skirt.

Jewelry: Unknown

Additional Personal Items: May have been carrying a blue dress with her which she had intended to wear at work.


Circumstances of Disappearance
21 year old Lillian Rochelle Holmes went missing in Pasadena California on 3/22/1984. Lillian was last seen (by a family member) when she left her Pasadena home early in the morning on her way to start a new temp job at a nearby shopping mall which was located in Arcadia, CA. Lillian did not drive so she intended to take the bus to the job. A witness claimed to have seen Lillian boarding a bus at the bus stop nearest to her home. Lillian was never seen or heard from again. It is believed that Lillian never made it to the new job at the mall but it is unknown where exactly she vanished along her journey between her home and the mall.

_______________________________
Here she is on Charley Project: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/holmes_lillian.html, where it's mentioned that the mall was Santa Anita Mall, and the job at Robinsons.

On NamUS:https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/show/14475

----

I've also found a blog entry http://deaniepeters-missingangels.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/lillian-rochelle-holmes-missing-28.html, which mentions that the bus stop she may have been seen at was between Lake Avenue and Rio Grande Street, and is described as the closest stop to her home. However, she is supposed to have been seen there at 12 or 1pm. She was last seen leaving home at 6:30, so what would she have been doing for nearly 6 hours before getting on the bus right near home?
 
I am not sure where that blogger gets the 6:30 time. First of all, I don't see that reported, although I may have missed it.

It seems unlikely IMHO. Most department stores don't open until 9 or 10. Even if she was to come in early she wouldn't have come in 2 hours early. I used to work retail and they wouldn't have product demonstrators come in usually until the store opened.

The only thing I can think of is she was going to go early on the bus and then meet up for breakfast with someone by the mall. A coworker? A boss?
 
I think the 6:30 was mentioned on the Charley Project page, and on NamUs. I've had a look and these days the bus journey would take closer to 30ish minutes, and since it was her first day she may have needed to come in early for some kind of training? But how early? Probably not earlier than 8. But I agree, the timing does seem a bit weird all around. I'm a bit dubious about the bus sighting, since the timing makes no sense - then again if her father accepted it maybe she wasn't supposed to be at the job until later afternoon. But then why leave home so early?
 
The only remotely possible match I have been able to come up with in California is this one:

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/7445
http://www.yolocountysheriff.com/pdf/Coroner's Unidentified Case 5473-126-1984.pdf
http://doenetwork.org/hot/hotcase134.html

The fact that there was no facial reconstuction done makes this difficult, but there's a dental chart and it says x-rays exist for Lillian. DNA is available for the UID, and Lillian's DNA says "Samples submitted - Tests not complete"

The Doenetwork summary for this UID doesn't seem brilliant though - they say estimated death June 1984, but the Sheriff website says "6 weeks to 4 months prior to date found" (body was found 2nd of August 1984). Doenetwork says eye colour was Brown, nowhere else says Brown though, everywhere else says unknown (probably due to decomposition).

Can anyone else have a look and see if this is worth submitting? It's the other end of California, but Lillian's not listed as a rule-out.
 
The only thing that gives me pause is that the UID had "long kinky" hair- and I can't tell Lillian's hair length but it doesn't look kinky to me. Obviously that is very little to go on.
I suppose it couldn't hurt to submit- but I think they would just wait until Lillian's DNA is finished up to see what happens.
 
The height matches up as well as the age range, I agree that it wouldn't hurt to submit it.
 
Yeah, the hair gave me pause as well, as her hair doesn't look kinky. Maybe it was from the elements? Maybe she had styled it differently that day? I did read in one of the descriptions that she usually wore her hair long or shoulder length, so that's something. Since there is dental for both Lillian and the UID, I think I'll submit in case they can rule out on dental before DNA.
 
I've submitted as a possible match, just asked really if they've been compared before. Have heard back that someone is looking into it, so will update when/if I get any news!
 
Here's another picture, it says it's from 1979/1980:
NAT_14475_7.jpg


I've found her in the John Muir High School Yearbook for 1981, when she graduated. Unfortunately there are no yearbooks on Classmates for the other years she would have been at the school, but here's the photo:

2ed2wbl.jpg



The only other photo I could find of her from the yearbook is from the French Club, but unfortunately it's tiny and blurry, so not worth posting here unfortunately...
 
I was surprised to see how many Lillian Holmes are out there via facebook. I wonder if she ran away with a boyfriend. I wish we had more info about her life.
 
Yeah, I wish there was ANY info out there. There is absolutely nothing. Maybe she's alive and well out there somewhere, I certainly hope so, maybe the family thought the same and that's why there's so little out there. I really wonder about the details about the job - what time was she supposed to start that day? That sort of thing.
 
I've found her pictures in the 1978 and 1979 Yearbooks for Pasadena High School, but no new info from those. I guess she changed schools for her two last years of school.

I tried to have a look for a birth listing for her, just to have a place of birth to work with if I was going to look if she had died since under a different name, but I can't find ANY listing for a Lily Holmes, Lillian Holmes, Rochelle Holmes, any possibly permutation of her name born on the right date. Bit weird!
 
No word from LE yet, hopefully at least an acknowledgement next week?
 
Okay, have heard back from LE. The Detective said that Lillian and the potential match are being compared with dental and DNA, no definitive conclusion yet. Will update if I hear anything more!
 
Thanks for your hard work allads. If it isn't a match, maybe the detective can give you a list of people they have already looked at.
 
Even if it's not a match I hope that it sparks them to look at Lillian's case a bit more, or keep it in mind for other potential matches.
 
Still can't find any record of her being born or really anything. Did she have siblings? How old were they? Are her parents still alive? All we know is that her father was named Kenneth, which isn't much. It seems that she almost certainly wasn't born in California, or if she was then something about her name was different enough to make it difficult to find. Is it possible that Kenneth was her stepfather and she was born under a different surname? Very frustrating!

Have emailed the John Muir High School alumni association asking if they could ask around her former classmates if anyone remembers anything at all about her that might be relevant in any way.
 
Small update: on NamUS for DNA it now says Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete

So hopefully some news soon?
 

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