Identified! MN - Lilydale, Miss River, UncFem 25-30, 805UFMN, blue shorts, Jun'76 - Roberta Seyfert

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Susikatze said:
Absolutely tragic. An apparently severely mentally ill father with some kind of religious syndrome that led to him and 2 sons being killed. Immigration issues were not the cause but triggered. Terrible fate. I wonder what happened to Roberta and her mom after that incident? Die the mom remarry? Was Roberta with her mom or put in foster care or with a relative (not unusual in the 50s for children of single parents). I wish we could learn more about her life.

Precious soul, rest in peace
you are loved and reunited with your family.
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the immigration checkpoint is about almost an hour north of the border, i dont think there was any immigration issue just that fear of authroity.
 
cvaldez1975 said:
the immigration checkpoint is about almost an hour north of the border, i dont think there was any immigration issue just that fear of authroity.
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From the article it looked like the father had some fear of police deporting him (if i understand correctly, he was American with extended family in America... no reason to fear border control), part of the apparent mental illness he apparently suffered from. He apparently was a self proclaimed christian "missionary" with odd dreams of founding his own mission in the US or missionizing people in the "Holy Land".
Tragic story from all angles. He needed help, his family needed help... but back then there was none.
 
The photo of Roberta is from the DNA Doe Project website.
I live 5 mins from where her body was found so this has been a case that I've looked a lot at over the years. I'm very happy that she was finally identified, however I am incredibly frustrated at the lack of information about Roberta. While her life clearly had a very rough start with her father and two brothers being killed when she was just 4 years old; there is nothing other than those articles from 1958 that gives proof that she even existed before her body was discovered. I've done hours of geneology work and while I have learned a lot about her family, I still know nothing about her.
Her mother, Arline Seyfert was orginally from Minnesota and from what I can tell she moved back to Minnesota after her husband Charles and their two son's died. Which would make sense that she moved back here with her mother and her body was later found in Lilydale. However, she falls off the face of the earth between 1958-1976. I can't find her or any variation of her name in any yearbook, including her mothers maiden name.
The DDP website says that she was born in 1954 in Tucson, AZ; unfortunately Arizona doesn't make their birth certificates searchable until 75 years later. I've hit a dead end, so if anyone has any suggestions please lmk!!
 
lkluna11 said:
The photo of Roberta is from the DNA Doe Project website.
I live 5 mins from where her body was found so this has been a case that I've looked a lot at over the years. I'm very happy that she was finally identified, however I am incredibly frustrated at the lack of information about Roberta. While her life clearly had a very rough start with her father and two brothers being killed when she was just 4 years old; there is nothing other than those articles from 1958 that gives proof that she even existed before her body was discovered. I've done hours of geneology work and while I have learned a lot about her family, I still know nothing about her.
Her mother, Arline Seyfert was orginally from Minnesota and from what I can tell she moved back to Minnesota after her husband Charles and their two son's died. Which would make sense that she moved back here with her mother and her body was later found in Lilydale. However, she falls off the face of the earth between 1958-1976. I can't find her or any variation of her name in any yearbook, including her mothers maiden name.
The DDP website says that she was born in 1954 in Tucson, AZ; unfortunately Arizona doesn't make their birth certificates searchable until 75 years later. I've hit a dead end, so if anyone has any suggestions please lmk!!
Click to expand...
What about photos in high school alumni websites?
 
DNA researchers ID woman's remains in 46-year-old cold case - Bring Me The News
roberta-seyfert.jpg

''Investigators used a DNA sample previously taken from the remains, which was then processed to create a DNA profile that was uploaded to GEDmatch, a public database. And genealogists with the nonprofit in June 2021 began analyzing genetic matches to the sample.

The nonprofit found distant cousins who were the closest DNA matches, which investigators used to trace Lilydale Jane Doe's paternal line back to early 18th century Luxembourg, finding a common ancestor who had immigrated to the United States in the mid-1840s. ''

''DNA Doe Project is working on three other cases in Minnesota:
  • Ramsey County Jane Doe, whose remains were recovered from the Mississippi River in St. Paul in 1977
  • Rock County John Doe, whose skeletal remains were found in a culvert in 1981
  • Freeborn County John Doe, whose remains were found off Interstate 90 in 2015''
 
victoriarobinson642 said:
View attachment 318089
Admixture update - looks like she was white.
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That is very interesting. Often see those types of admixtures in poorer quality, degraded samples. Usually there is like 5% Eastern Med and 5% West Asian...often a bit a Siberian, NA and East Asian and South Asian...too (usually like 1% or so)

Glad they were able to ID her.
 
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It's interesting to read more about Roberta. Her cousin obviously doesn't know or remember the exact circumstances when Roberta stopped being in contact with her mother and family, or the exact circumstances surrounding her disapearence. If Roberta was living by herself or even with a room mate or something her mother may not have known anything was amiss until awhile later wheh she expected to hear from her, but didn't. Or possibly (and likely) Roberta's mother knew more about her disapearence than the cousin did, but since her mother is long dead, that information has been lost to time. That information (possibly where she was last seen and more about who she knew or what was going on in her life) wouldn't solve the case perhaps, but it would be very useful as a starting point to determine how she ended up in the river.

But if only her mother or possibly friends etc that are now deceased or unaware of her identification knew or know this information then we may never know, which is unfortunate. Her extended family obviously doesn't know and her only immediate family was her mother.
 
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