Doe ID: Evelyn 'Dottie' Lees

DNA: ID

AbJack Entertainment

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.8 • 871 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode 141 Doe ID: Evelyn 'Dottie' Lees

On June 28,1988, the remains of a woman were found in a remote area of Pinal County, AZ along state Route 79 South of US 60. The body was found in a shallow grave, and appeared to have been placed there with care leading police to believe that someone close to her may have placed here there. She was determined to be an elderly woman and it appeared that she had been strangled to death. She has been there for about a year. Police were stumped as they didn't have any missing women that matched her description in the area. The case of this Jane Doe went cold until years later when genealogy finally provided answers. She was Evelyn "Dottie" Lees, a grandmother who was in her late 80's when she died. Investigators learned that Evelyn had never been reported missing, and for years following her death, benefit checks to her were being cashed. A background check revealed that Evelyn, who had spent her life in Utah, had moved to Arizona at the insistence of family. Since this family member, who Evelyn lived with at the time of her death was never reported missing, it has caused investigators to view them with suspicion. The only problem is, those family members that may have had answers, all died before Evelyn was identified. If they had any answers, they took them to the grave. This Jane Doe has her name back; it's Evelyn 'Dottie' Lees, and this is her story.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to DNAID.
0:03.1	Brought to you by Abject Entertainment.
0:05.3	Be sure to check out some of the other great true crime podcasts from this network,
0:09.7	including The Murder in My Family, Missing Persons, Scene of the Crime, Zodiac Speaking,
0:16.5	Beyond Bizarre True Crime, Citizen Detective, and Campus Killings.
0:22.0	All of these podcasts are available for you to binge on right now, wherever you listen to podcasts.
0:27.5	Subscribe where you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. The
0:40.3	The The
0:57.0	The On June 28, 1988, 1988, a water worker checking a water station in the desert south of Florence
1:29.5	Junction, Arizona, saw buzzards circling overhead nearby. He walked over to see what was
1:35.6	interesting them, and as he got closer, he smelled decomposition. Where the birds were focused,
1:41.4	a human bone was sticking straight up out of the ground.
1:49.7	The worker called the Pinal County Sheriff's Department. Deputies responded to the water station,
1:56.4	one quarter mile west of US 79, and the worker pointed out the exposed bone. The deputies noted that the bone appeared to be human. It was an upper right arm bone, the humorous, and it was nearly
2:02.0	skeletonized, devoid of most tissue. The lower arm bone and hand bones were scattered on the ground
2:07.6	nearby. The deputies were hesitant to try to remove the body for fear of damaging the bones and
2:13.9	disrupting a crime scene. So they called an expert they often consulted, Dr. Walter
2:18.9	Berkby, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona. A word about Dr. Berkby here. This is from the
2:26.0	Arizona Daily Star. Known as Dr. Death, quote, Berkby was a nationally recognized expert in human
2:32.9	identification and was called in to substantiate
2:35.9	locks of Beethoven's hair and look for signs of cannibalism on the exhumed bones of the notorious
2:41.6	Alfred Packer Party, end quote. Dr. Berkby was also an employee of the Pima County Medical Examiner,
	...

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