arizona news
Has been updated: May 3, 2023 at 4:44 PM
(Facebook Photo/Madera County Sheriff’s Office)
PHOENIX (AP) — A human body buried in a California cemetery for decades and marked “Jane Doe” has been identified as a missing Navajo woman from northern Arizona. , officials said.
The Madera County Sheriff’s Office has not released the cause of Christine Lester’s death because it did not want to jeopardize the investigation, Phoenix television station KTVK reported Wednesday.
Officials at the sheriff’s office near Fresno said a woman’s body was found next to a local county road in 1987 but could not be identified at the time. Her remains were unearthed in 2020 and had a DNA profile earlier this year that authorities were able to match her to one of the Lester brothers.
Lester’s family received the remains on Monday. Her siblings are planning a march to escort the remains from Flagstaff to her Nation’s family cemetery in the Navajo on Friday. A memorial service will be held there. 36 years after the date she went missing, it takes place on a designated date to raise awareness about missing people and murderers. indigenous peoples around the world.
Lester, who was 24 at the time, told his family in May 1987 that he planned to hitchhike (a common practice in the Navajo Nation) from Indian Wells to the Flagstaff Mall to buy gifts for Mother’s Day. bottom. She doesn’t know if she made it there, her brother said.
“We always wanted her to come through that door and introduce us to her family,” brother Herbert Rockwell told KTVK.
Lester’s siblings said they cherished the happy memories they had with her when Lester was alive.
“I just want to say, ‘Welcome back, Christine, Shady, this means sister,'” Rockwell said.
