Then it all came down to a stroke of a key, and a stroke of luck.

The news ended a mystery of five decades that haunted Embrey's family. Embrey never knew the family she left behind was searching for her.

This week, it was revealed that Embrey had lived in Massachusetts since leaving North Platte in 1953 and changing her name. She died on March 30.

All her family knew was that she vanished.

The second youngest of eight children, Embrey had threatened to run away from home after a disagreement with her father. She moved to North Platte after graduating from Maywood High School in 1952.

Her parents, Charles and Adeline, searched for her, her brother, Jim, would wander through cemeteries while on vacations. Her sister Mildred hired private investigators.

Twylia's great-niece, Jennifer Kitt of York, has been actively looking for Embrey for two years, hoping to solve the mystery of her disappearance and reunite Twylia with her three remaining siblings, Mildred, Margie and Dorothy.

Kitt's search brought her in contact with two women who were just as determined to solve Twylia's mystery: Silvia Pettem and Micki Lavigne. The three have never been in the same room together, but through the Internet, phone calls, and persistence, formed a bond that led to finding Twylia.

It began with "Boulder Jane Doe.''
In 1954, the body of a young woman was discovered at the bottom of an embankment by two hikers near Boulder Falls, north of Boulder. The body was a Caucasian female, estimated to be 17 to 20 years old. Her death was attributed to shock and exposure, due to multiple fractures and abrasions. The woman's identity was never discovered, and the case was unsolved. She was buried in a private grave marked "Jane Doe April 1954, age about 20."

Pettem, a Boulder historian, became interested in the case and began a search for the woman's identity.

"Before I had a Web site set up, I had posted a query on a genealogy site about Boulder Jane Doe on a message board," Pettem said.

Lavigne of Woodbridge, Va., responded.

A self-described "amateur investigator," Lavigne started helping Pettem in the search for Jane Doe's identity.

In December 2004, the Associated Press ran two articles on the Boulder mystery. Kitt and her grandmother, Mildred Garner of Wellfleet, read the articles, headlined "City works to discover Jane Doe's real identity," and "50 years later, she's still a mystery" in The Telegraph.

Kitt contacted Pettem, wondering if Jane Doe could possibly be Garner's missing sister, Twylia May.

"After Jennifer contacted me, I called Micki and told her we have a possible Jane Doe," Pettem said. "After we determined that Jane Doe wasn't Twylia, Micki and I agreed to keep looking for Twylia."

Reached at her home in Woodbridge, Lavigne said checking databases on the Internet every day had become a habit.

"When Silvia told me about a woman in Nebraska who was missing, my instinct was that she was alive and I could find her," Lavinge said. "I've been doing this for a year and a half. It is just part of my day."

Tuesday night, Lavigne discovered the on-line obituary of a woman from the East Coast whose birthday matched Embrey's.

"I could not believe my eyes," Lavigne said. "The past few days have been unbelievable because I have been so emotionally involved."

Lavigne was hesitant to contact Kitt at first, having been frustrated by false leads before.
"I have been wrong before," Lavigne said. "I have talked to hundreds of possible Twylias in the past year and a half. I thought at one point I had actually talked to the real Twylia Embrey."

At her husband's urging, Lavigne called Kitt and suggested she check out the obituary.

After seeing the information, Kitt contacted Detective Steve Ainsworth of the Boulder County (Colo.) Sheriff's Office.

Ainsworth, who handles cold cases for the department, had opened a case file on Embrey after Boulder Jane Doe's DNA did not match members of Embrey's family.

"With the open case file, the DNA could be entered in the national data bank," Ainsworth said.

Ainsworth contacted the Massachusetts funeral home that had listed the obituary Lavinge found.

"They confirmed for me that a woman listed as a dear friend was the person who had given them the information and was the executor of the estate," Ainsworth said. "I contacted her, and she confirmed that Twylia had told her of her life in Nebraska."

Pettem said, "Boulder Jane Doe was the catalyst for bringing the three of us together. If it wasn't for Jane Doe, Twylia would have never been found."

Kitt said Boulder Jane Doe would always be a part of her family now.

"Jane Doe may not have a name, but she gave our family closure," Kitt said. "Some young woman had to lay out there in the cold, naked and alone before we could get answers to our missing person."

When Boulder Jane Doe was buried by the Boulder community in 1954, an unknown mourner sent a spray of gladiolas to the funeral.

When Kitt visited the gravesite 54 years later, still thinking the spot marked the resting place of her great-aunt, she purchased gladiolas and placed them next to the stone.

"As soon as I heard about Twylia, I called a florist in York," Pettem said. "I had them deliver gladiolas for Jennifer (Kitt) and Twylia from me and Boulder Jane Doe."