Last week Twylia's sister Mildred Garner, her great-niece Jennifer Kitt and historian Silvia Pettem of Boulder, Colo., sifted through old photographs and papers from Twylia's past.

Twylia May disappeared in 1953 from North Platte.

After 51 years, not one member of the family has heard from Twylia.

Pettem learned about Twylia when Kitt followed up on Boulder's mysterious Jane Doe, a young woman found brutally murdered near Boulder in 1954. Pettem worked to reopen Jane Doe's case.

After articles about Jane Doe appeared in The Telegraph, Kitt contacted Pettem, wondering if Jane Doe could be Twylia.

If the forensic comparisons between Twylia's picture and Jane Doe's skull are accurate, Jane Doe is still Jane Doe, not Twylia.

Pettem has now become just as curious about Twylia's mystery.

"I'm too intrigued to give up, even though she's not Jane Doe," Pettem said.

Through correspondence by e-mail and conversations on the telephone, Kitt and Pettem have begun a quest to find Twylia. After months of sharing facts about Twylia, Pettem decided it was time to meet Kitt and Twylia's sisters.

On Wednesday, Pettem and her husband Ed arrived in North Platte.

"I started with Jane Doe," Pettem said. "Now we've really got two stories. After all of the correspondence, I've become emotionally involved. I'm just as interested in finding Twylia."

Twylia was born to Charles and Iva "Addie" Embrey in 1934, the second to the last of eight children. They lived on a farm near Maywood.

After a fight with her father, Twylia moved into Maywood to finish high school.

Around June 1952, Twylia left Maywood for North Platte, where she worked at the North Platte Cafe for owners Chin Wing or his son Platte Wing.

Kitt is still trying to find out where Twylia lived while she worked in North Platte. She believes she may have lived with the Hirschfeld family.

After the first story "Is Twylia Jane Doe?" ran in The Telegraph Jan. 9, Kitt received a few tips, including one from an old beau of Twylia's. He said he saw Twylia get into a yellow convertible Cadillac or Pontiac with longhorns on the grill. The car had Nevada plates. The former beau said that was the last time he ever saw Twylia.

Another name that came up in connection with Twylia's was Bill Wederski, a Nebraska resident now deceased, whose ties to Twylia remain unclear.

Pettem said she tracked down Platte Wing in Arizona, and wrote him a letter asking what he remembered about Twylia.

"I always send a self-addressed, stamped envelope along," Pettem said.

The group sifted through the family photographs and research they have collected.
Pettem and Kitt questioned Garner, hoping to turn up another lead.

After a short drive down Highway 83, the group went to see Twylia's sister, Margaret Danbom, in Maywood.

Danbom said she doesn't remember much about the time when Twylia disappeared.
After a brief conversation, the group decided to visit Twylia's parents' gravesite in the Maywood Cemetery.

Standing over the stones marking the final resting place of Twylia's parents, who spent their remaining years after her disappearance searching for their daughter, Pettem said both lost women haunt her.

"I have a gut feeling that Jane Doe's background was similar to Twylia's," Pettem said. "I can't interview Jane Doe's family. Meeting Twylia's family is the closest thing I can do to find out who Jane Doe was."

Kitt and Pettem believe that only through research and the media will they ever find out what happened to either Twylia or Jane Doe.

At present the Jane Doe investigation has stalled as they wait for a facial reconstruction to be finished.

Anyone with information about Twylia May Embrey can contact Jennifer Kitt. Her address is 106 N. Elm, North Platte, NE. 69101. Her phone number is 534-7198 and her e-mail address is kjckitt@hotmail.com.