Skull Found In NorCal Identified As A Missing Mother

NAPA VALLEY, CA — The skull of a mother missing for more than two decades was found behind a canal miles from her Napa home and identified using advanced DNA technology and database.

Investigators announced today that the skull belonged to Louise Silva Lee, who left her home in Napa sometime around 2003 and was never seen or heard from again, according to the Shasta County Coroner’s Office.

A decade later, on March 11, 2013, a clean-up crew working near a canal in Redding found a human skull, according to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.

Forensic anthropologists collected her remains, some clothing and several personal items. Her DNA was catalogued in databases and a description added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

No one ever reported her missing, although her family had hired a private investigator.

Eventually, Othram Inc., a lab specializing in forensic genetic genealogy, was able to create a DNA profile that was added to the FamilyTreeDNA database. The Shasta County Coroner partnered with a Othram in 2023.

The results pointed to Velma Lee, a woman who had never been reported missing and did not appear in any missing persons databases, according to the sheriff's office.

The remains of two other people had been found in the same area during roughly the same time, according to DNASolves, a group that works with law enforcement to aid human identification investigations.

On July 23, 2025, investigators found Lee’s half-sisters and a niece, who provided names of Lee’s biological children.

Two days later, a detective from the Redding Police Department contacted her son.

He said that the family had hired a private investigator to search for his missing mother. The family assumed she had passed way when the last evidence of her being alive ended was 2004.

They declared her to be legally deceased.

Her son was shocked to hear that his mother’s body might have been found in Redding, according to the sheriff's office.

He provided police with an oral swab for a direct DNA comparison. Othram confirmed the match.

On September 15, Othram issued a report officially identifying the decedent as Velma Louise Silva Lee of Napa, California. She was born in 1936, according to DNASolves.

Her family is working with Shasta County coroner to finally lay her to rest.

“Every person is entitled to their name and identity. Restoring a name to the unidentified is a matter of dignity, justice, and human rights," the sheriff's office said in a statement. "This identification not only brings long-awaited answers to Velma’s family but also reaffirms the commitment of our local and interstate forensic and investigative professionals to ensuring that no one remains nameless.”

The sheriff's office did not report the cause of her death.