Elaina just told me that Tena is on her way home to them. They just sent her a tracking number.
I'm going to share Elaina's story here because I forget that people without Facebook may not be able to see it. This will also help the general public that may be interested but can't see it either.
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Tena Marie's son Jarred has a partner named Elaina that did a lot to find Tena. If it was not for all that she did, Shotgun Jane would not be identified right now because the system failed Tena big time. Elaina deserves a LOT of credit for all that she did.
I feel that Elaina's hard work should be recognized. Advocates do not advocate for Does for credit but it sure feels good when our contribution is recognized, especially when some of us have 5 or 10 years of work trying to help them get home to their loved ones. Families of missing who advocate for their missing loved one should also be recognized.
If Tena's fingerprints were entered into the database, she could have been identified years ago. Shotgun Janes case should have been one of the cases submitted to DNA Doe Project when they first started announcing identifications. It breaks my heart that she was never submitted, especially since it wouldn't cost her LE or ME any money because DDP fund raise.
The last step in Jarred being reunited with his mom was to get Tena's remains cremated. Elaina told me she's sent them the money to have it done, so hopefully it won't be long before they have her. Elaina told me that she received a tracking number, Tena is on her way home.
Below is Elaina's story on how she was able to get Tena matched to our Shotgun Jane. Elaina really kicked *advertiser censored* with all that she did to try to find Tena. If it wasn't for her, the sheriff's office never would have made the connection.
Hopefully sharing Elaina's story will help other families with missing loved ones to do things like DNA with Ancestry DNA and 23 and me, uploading to the free databases My Heritage, FTDNA and GEDmatch. You never know how many teens that ran away or some that were kidnapped may have had kids in captivity that do their DNA with one of the companies to find out their ethnicities.
Families have to advocate for their loved one. Law enforcement do not have time to devote to missing cases, especially old cases.
Thank you Elaina for sticking it out for four years to find Tena. Unfortunately, yours and Jarred's daughter will not know her grandmother, but I'm sure she will appreciate all that her mom did to find her grandmother.
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Tena Marie Gattrell DOB 06/18/1960
I began my search for Jarred’s biological parents nearly 4 years ago. I knew he was born in Sacramento County and his birthday. Jarred knew he was adopted but nothing more. I had an amazing search angel that helped me narrow down who his biological mother was through a distant match on his Ancestry DNA. We learned his birth name as well through the California Birth Index. Jarred was born as Troy Lee Gattrell on March 18th, 1985.
It was time to make contact with a family member as we weren't quite sure where the relationship was between said person. Immediately, I was told that his biological mothers name was Tena Marie Gattrell born 06/18/1960. The family knew that she was pregnant and that the baby was given up for adoption. She had 3 surviving brothers. We made a trip to San Diego and met Tena's two brothers and learned a lot about the family. The stories of their childhood began to surface. These weren't happy stories, these were awful stories that I wish we never had to hear. The stories were all from over 30 years ago when she was only a child. We heard she was gorgeous with long black hair and perfect teeth. We headed back home and I had a few more details that I thought might help locate her. A search of her name yielded nothing, how is that possible? I began to think that she may not be the person we thought and maybe we were chasing the wrong person. I heard a story involving a terrible accident in which her little brother was killed when she was 10 years old while they lived in Pleasant Hill, Ca. I went to Pleasant Hill and found a news article on a microfilm from her little brother's obituary that mentioned her name, this is how I knew she existed.
During this time I filed for non identifying birth information from Sacramento County. I already knew who she was but it helped me a bit more. It informed me that she was mentally ill and that she did NOT want to relinquish Jarred for adoption. This was hard to hear knowing that he was taken because she deemed unfit to parent. We stayed in contact with Tena’s brothers and I met the last one at Avenal State Prison. I got a good description from him but no one had a picture that he knew of. They all knew few details about her whereabouts for the last 30 years. They hadn’t seen her in over 30 years! Lots of questions arose. “Did you look for her?” "Why didn't anyone ever report her missing?" We got back home to Sacramento and it was back to the drawing board. We hired private investigators, we joined a ton of Facebook groups, and even tried to report her missing.
On September 9th, 2019, we went to the Sacramento Police Department at Kinney Station and filed a missing persons report. We got a phone call before we even made it home that the missing persons report would be cancelled. Jarred even wrote on the report that he believed his mother was a Jane Doe. I still have no idea why this was cancelled and probably never will. This didn’t sit well with me. Jarred talked to law enforcement in San Diego and was turned away as well. No matter where we turned, we were turned away.
I searched and searched and often felt defeated. I networked with lots of Private Investigators and had lots of people that helped run her name and birth date in hopes one person would find something. We still couldn’t find anything! I finally found a couple mental health records out of San Diego. They didn’t help much. I also found a record out of Sacramento for an Agreement to Reimburse and Grant of Lien This was dated June 17th, 1985. The address it gave was to a board and care home is Galt, California. This would be where she was staying after she gave birth to Jarred. She was from San Diego but gave birth in Sacramento. We now had a broad search area to start looking throughout California, we had no reason to believe she would leave California. The non identifying birth information that we received from Sacramento County did mention that his father was a truck driver that his mother met in Southern California.
I uploaded Jarred’s raw DNA from Ancestry DNA into GEDmatch with kit #YG8971917. On July 25th, 2019, I emailed the Doe Project in hopes they would give me some insight on how the DNA pulled from the Does would compare to Jarred’s. On August 10th, 2019 I wrote to Mike Case with the Department of Justice. I was asking him about a Doe Case in Sacramento, no response. On Saturday August 10th, 2019 I wrote someone from the Doe Network referring to the same case. I got a response and “Sarah” began to point me in the right direction. She suggested I report Tena missing and reaching out to NamUs. I made an account and tried to get her onto NamUs.
On September 3rd, 2019, I reached out to Sacramento Sheriffs and tried to obtain a booking photo as I heard she was arrested in Sacramento. I received an email back stating that they “do not provide booking photos”. I began to feel like I was never going to find her or even see a picture of her.
February 2021, we were still coming up empty handed. I had it in my mind that she was either a Jane Doe or she was killed and someone disposed of her. I had this crazy idea, if she is a Jane Doe maybe I can write to the Coroner's office and see if they may have an unidentified person that may match Tena’s description. Well, California has 58 counties. I started in Southern California and I set out to write every Coroner's Office in California. I knew I had to get someone's attention. I mentioned in my emails that we had tried to file her missing but it was cancelled. I began receiving emails back with nothing turning up, no one there by her description. On February 25th, 2021, I wrote to Missing Persons at Department of Justice, this is where things finally started to move in the right direction.
On March 2nd, 2021 I received an email from Deputy Paige Kneeland with the Sacramento Sheriff's Department. She mentioned in her emails that she received an email from The California Department of Justice. I talked to her via phone and by March 8th, 2021, she had already updated Tena’s NamUs profile! We met with Deputy Kneeland on March 16th and things started to get moving. She collected Jarred’s DNA reference and pulled Tena’s fingerprint card.(I knew she had been arrested at one time) Paige was also able to get Tena’s fingerprints entered into the FBI’s system. Paige was also able to get Tena's brother's DNA profile from him voluntarily from Avenal State Prison. This woman was making things happen! Our hopes were high, we knew it would take a while for Jarred's DNA profile to be uploaded but remained hopeful that we were on the right path.
July 2021, I was still on the search for a picture of her, just one. Friends and family had nothing. Yearbooks didn't even have anything as she was absent on picture day. NOBODY had a picture of her. I knew he father was remarried when she was a child and that she had a step mother at one point. I reached out to Tena's ex step mother and Jarred and I were on the road again to Southern California. She welcomed us with open arms and told us how sweet of a child Tena was. Then came the horror stories of abuse from her father. We visited for a few hours and began going tubs of pictures. I saw a picture that caught my eye, it was sweet, innocent face with a sweet smile. I held up the picture and asked, "who is this?" The woman replied, "Thats' Tena". She was only 10 years old but we finally had a sweet, innocent face to go with all the horror stories of her childhood. It wasn’t much but we were so happy to finally have a face to go with the name.
August 2021, I finally received the phone call from Paige I had been longing for. (She called me because I had informed her that Jarred was recently in a very bad motorcycle accident and was in a coma. I didn't want her to find something and call his phone.) Paige informed me that Tena had finally been identified as a Jane Doe in Tennessee via fingerprints. Fingerprints that have been on file for over 30 years in Sacramento. Jarred has a brain injury and I had to inform him of the news, I was afraid he wasn't going to process everything correctly. Deputy Kneeland took the time to listen to all of the information I had and not just push me to the side. She reached out and always responded to me even if I sent her the same cases a few times on accident. She is an amazing woman and I appreciate everything she has done for us. Paige has continued to reach out and provide resources for us even after her job is done. She has gone above and beyond and we are forever thankful.
Elaina Herrera
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