Daughter celebrates Mother found 50 years later, Alive!

Surrey woman missing for 50 years found alive in Yukon

A woman who went missing from her Surrey, B.C., home more than 50 years ago has been found alive in Yukon. But more than five decades since her September 1961 disappearance, Johnson has now been found alive in the Yukon.

Evans, who was only 7 or 8 at the time her mother vanished, told the Surrey Leader that she thought her mother was dead.

“I’m still walking around in shock,” she told the newspaper. “I thought she was dead because there’s been no contact. Nothing.”

She has since learned she has four new-found half-siblings – three brothers and a sister. Her only other brother, Daniel, passed away in his teens.

“I have a lot of questions,” she said. “And they’re all ‘Whys?’”

Royal Canadian Mounted Police highlighted Johnson’s cold case last month and Evans purchased ads in a newspaper in northern B.C.

She also started some research on the Internet.

“We received a phone call from a woman in the Yukon who called and claimed that she had seen the picture of the missing person in the free newspapers and said the missing person we were looking for was actually her mother,” Cpl. Bert Paquet, spokesman for Surrey RCMP, told the Canadian Broadcasting Company. “The stars aligned, the timing was perfect.”

Police confirmed that Lucy Johnson, who is now aged 77, has another family in the Yukon.

Her husband died in the late 1990s. He was initially considered a suspect because he did not inform police that she was missing until May 14, 1965.

But when the backyard dig turned up no evidence, the case went cold for almost 52 years.

RCMP officers also compared DNA samples with those from unidentified human remains held by the BC Coroner’s Service.

Although she has missed out on many years with her mom, Evans said she does not bear a grudge towards Johnson, who is of First Nations descent.

“I just hope I can be part of her life,” Evans, who is saving up for a visit, told the paper. “I’ll just give her a big hug and hope the words come easy.”

Police say Lucy Johnson was last seen by a neighbour in September 1961 in the 10300 block of 145A Street in Surrey, a city of about 500,000 that’s part of metro Vancouver.

During the initial police investigation, her husband at the time, Marvin Johnson, was considered a suspect, in part because he didn’t tell police she was missing until 1965.

Police excavated his yard looking for clues into her disappearance, but found nothing. Marvin Johnson died in the late 1990s.

In June, Johnson’s disappearance was highlighted by Surrey RCMP as a cold case — part of their “missing of the month” series.

Her daughter, Linda, also took out advertisements in a newspaper in northern B.C., because her mother was originally from Alaska.

Soon afterward, Linda discovered her mother, now 77 years old, has been living in Yukon and has another family.

“The original daughter of Lucy Johnson, who went above and beyond to promote and try to generate tips all over B.C., actually somehow connected with a stepsister, who she did not know she had at the time,” said Cpl. Bert Paquet, spokesman for Surrey RCMP.

“We received a phone call from a woman in the Yukon who called and claimed that she had seen the picture of the missing person in the free newspapers and said the missing person we were looking for was actually her mother,” he said.

“The stars aligned, the timing was perfect.”

Paquet says the experience has been emotional for both families, who have asked for privacy during this time.

Related links:

How to help solve a cold case
Cases on the Highway of Tears
Original Surrey RCMP Report – Missing Persons

Thanks to MSN.COM and inserts by By Henry Austin, NBC News contributor.