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Indiana State Police Detective Sgt. Scott Jarvis(Photo: Provided by Indiana State Police)
A Laurel, Ind., woman missing for more than 40 years was found living in a small south Texas town under a different name, police said.
Lula Ann Gillespie-Miller, then 28,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>left her home in 1974 after giving birth to her third child, a release from the Indiana State Police said. She felt she was too young to be a mother and gave her parents custody of her children.
The last time her family heard from her was the following year, when they received a letter from their daughter postmarked in Richmond, Ind.
In 2014,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>State Police Detective Sgt.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Scott Jarvis took on the missing persons case after learning about it from a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>website that assists families with those types of investigations, the release said.
Jarvis, who is based at the Pendleton post, has utilized modern methods to solve other cold cases. He told the Richmond<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Palladium-Item in 2014 that he previously found a missing Connersville woman and a missing Brookville man alive, but more often, such searches result in no answer.
During his investigation, Jarvis learned<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Richmond Police Department Records Division had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a case of a deceased unidentified female<span style="color: Red;">*</span>found in 1975. The woman's body was dug up in December 2014.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jarvis planned to match DNA from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Gillespie-Miller’s biological daughter with that of the unidentified woman.
But while he was awaiting test results, he was led in a different direction.
He began to investigate the trail of a woman with similarities to Gillespie-Miller, the release said, who had lived in Tennessee in the 1980s, then later in Texas.
A Laurel, Ind., woman missing for more than 40 years was found living in a small south Texas town under a different name, police said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: The Indianapolis Star/WFAA)
On Thursday,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jarvis called Texas Rangers in the area and had them go to the woman’s home, the release said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The woman<span style="color: Red;">*</span>admitted that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>her name is actually Lula Gillespie-Miller, now 69, and that she is originally from Laurel.
"The daughters I'm in touch with are excited. They were 2 or 3 years old when their mom left," Jarvis told the Palladium-Item. "They're excited about the possibility of finding her for closure, but they don't have their hopes up. It's still just a possibility right now."
A Laurel, Ind., woman missing for more than 40 years was found living in a small south Texas town under a different name, police said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Screenshot)
Since<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Gillespie-Miller did not commit a crime, police said, she has the right to remain anonymous. She also gave the Texas Rangers no<span style="color: Red;">*</span>explanation as to why she left her life in Indiana behind and disappeared.
Gillespie-Miller did allow Jarvis to give her contact information to one of her daughters, who<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hopes to talk<span style="color: Red;">*</span>with the mother she has never known this Easter weekend, police said.
Follow @michaeladams317<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on Twitter.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
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