Patricia Lee Otto has been missing for more than four decades, last seen in Lewiston, Idaho on August 31, 1976. Her daughter, Suzanne Timms, has been investigating her mom's disappearance since her adulthood.

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On August 31, 1976, around 11:00 pm, Patricia picked up her daughters from their grandmother’s house and headed home. According to her husband, Ralph Otto, Patricia walked out and took nothing with her, leaving her car and her two daughters.

Patricia’s daughter Suzanne recalls seeing her father hit her mother, and seeing him “pick her up and put his hands around her neck” before carrying her out of sight. This was the last time Suzanne ever saw her mother. Patricia was reported missing to the Lewiston Police the next day by Patricia’s sister after Ralph dropped the kids off at her home, saying he was going out to look for her. 

Two years later, hunters hiking near Finley Creek in Oregon near Elgin (Union County), came across the skeletal remains of a body and reported it to the Union County Sheriff's Office. This was August 27, 1978. 
 

The Finley Creek Jane Doe was wearing red polyester pants and a white blouse, similar to what Patricia was reported to be wearing when she went missing. However, the Finley Creek Jane Doe case in Oregon was labeled as a murder case, and thrown out and closed in 1990 when no cause of death or identity was confirmed. The body was cremated by the State of Oregon, and the clothing she was wearing was destroyed.

When Patricia’s daughter Suzanne Timms came across a forensic drawing of the Finley Creek Jane Doe done by Redgrave Research Forensic Services she was convinced it was her mother, and has been working with various agencies to verify her identity. Below is a side-by-side comparison of the two (Suzanne and Finley Creek Jane Doe).