Investigators identified Lois Ford after a 1983 Missing person case review linked her to records from a 1993 Ada County Coroner case. Dave Walls of the Custer County Sheriff's Office took over the work in 2025 and pulled together the documents that closed the decades-old mystery.
The identification gave Ford's children and grandchildren a name they had not had for years. Custer County sheriff's officials said, "The children and grandchildren of Lois Ford were able to reclaim their mother and grandma and give her name back to her."
Dave Walls and Tim Cooper
Walls searched missing persons databases in Idaho, Oregon and Nevada, then looked through hundreds of unidentified Jane Does and coroner's offices across the West. He also checked historical accident investigation archives tied to Ford's 1978 Ford Thunderbird, then found court records for an alias similar to Ford's name.
Handwriting analysis pointed to several historical documents seemingly signed by Ford. Custer County sheriff's officials said, "This basically showed proof of life in the Boise area in 1992." Walls then contacted the Ada County Sheriff's Office and Det. Tim Cooper, and Cooper found documentation of multiple contacts between Boise Police Department and Ford.
Ada County Coroner case
Walls and Cooper identified an Ada County Coroner case from 1993, where Ford had been interred under another alias. Coroner's investigators were unable to locate her next-of-kin at the time, and Walls later verified that the deceased in that case was Ford.
Ford had been last known to be living in Challis in 1983 before she vanished, but she was never officially reported as a missing person because of confusion between family members. Documents also showed she had been homeless at the time of her passing, and that mental illness was believed to have played a role in her death.
Lois Ford's family
Her surviving family members also identified her as Ford, bringing the case to a close after decades of uncertainty. The Custer County Sheriff's Office thanked Det. Cooper and Idaho State Police investigator Karl Noah for their help, and the records now give Ford's family a named answer after years of searching.
