Five years after he essentially chased his daughter away, Charles Embrey offered every possession he owned at public auction in 1957 to finance a fruitless search for her.

Embrey, a farmer who had struggled to keep his family clothed and pay the rent, and his wife, Addie, spent their golden years sleeping on a mattress in the back of an old van as they crisscrossed California looking for their lost daughter.

"They traveled in that thing until their money ran out and they got old," said Mildred Garner, one of the Embreys' other daughters. "He always thought ... she would get into the rodeos or something and they might find her, but they never did."

They died without finding any answers.

Half a century after she disappeared, Twylia May Embrey's surviving siblings are still searching for her. But faced with the possibility that she died brutally, her family now hopes the mystery hasn't been solved.

A year after Twylia May left, the naked body of an unknown woman was found at the edge of Boulder Creek. She had been beaten, tossed down an embankment and left to die.

After reopening the case of "Boulder Jane Doe" a year ago, sheriff's investigators saw similarities with Twylia May's case and took DNA samples two weeks ago from her family. The results could come any day.

Twylia May's profile matches Jane Doe's in many ways. She was heading west and could very well have been in Boulder.

She also has many of the same physical characteristics as Jane Doe. Still, there are differences. Jane Doe had a scar from an appendectomy, and Twylia May's family doesn't remember her having had such a procedure.

Twylia May isn't the authorities' only lead in the case.

Detective Steve Ainsworth of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office says investigators are still looking into about a dozen other tips from across the country.

But after so many years of searching, Garner, 84, wonders whether she will soon know why her sister never called. Such a gruesome death wouldn't give her much comfort.

"If she died like she did out there, somebody brutally beat her and left her to die," Garner said Monday.

"I hope it isn't her because I don't want to think that she laid there," she added.

In the years since Boulder's Jane Doe was discovered by hikers in 1954, her story has gone from a community tragedy to a cold-case murder mystery involving the latest in forensic technology.

Investigators exhumed her remains a year ago and rebuilt her skull after time and earth had smashed it. A renowned sculptor then crafted a face based on her bone structure.

While Boulder's faceless mystery is filled with intrigue for hobbyists, there are families who have been missing a loved one for the better part of a lifetime. And if the family isn't the Embreys, it's someone else.

Twylia May grew up as one of eight children in the open prairie outside Maywood - a hamlet of about 100, anchored by a grain elevator. She was sharp, generous and headstrong.

"She had a mind that was real quick," said Eva Schmitz, 97, who lived adjacent to the Maywood schoolhouse. "And she'd give you the clothes off her back. ... But if she had made up her mind to do something, you'd have to beat it out of her."

In 1952, when her father slapped her for wrecking the family's only car, she decided it was time to leave - for good.

Garner remembers her telling their mother, "You'll never see me again."

Twylia May graduated from high school that year and moved up the road to North Platte.

Jennifer Kitt, Twylia May's great-niece, said that from there the family has been able to piece things together from friends and co-workers.

She worked at the Little Lemon Cafe and mused about heading for California.

The last confirmed sighting was in 1953. She and an unknown man got into a yellow Cadillac with Nevada plates and bull horns mounted on the hood.

"I don't know why in the world she hasn't called us if she is alive," Garner said. "I'm sure if she's alive she's got kids and grandkids. But why hasn't she called?"

Kitt has picked up the trail where her family left off. She had been trying to track down Social Security records when she saw news articles about Jane Doe's case being reopened last year.

Kitt is the one who contacted Boulder historian Silvia Pettem, who hosts a website on Jane Doe. Scientists ruled out Twylia May as Jane Doe early this year based on her picture and Jane Doe's skull. But the forensic sculptor, Frank Bender, argued to the contrary, prompting the DNA tests.

"It's a little bit more emotional to a family than people who are disconnected," Kitt said. "When you get a phone call saying somebody is coming to get DNA, it makes you wonder."

After years of searching, Garner said she had given up until Kitt picked up the search. Now, she admits that at least once she has spent an afternoon waiting by the phone, convinced Twylia May was going to call.

Kitt, Garner and the surviving family want answers, but they are hoping against the Jane Doe connection. They want to find Twylia May alive.

"Jennifer says if we find her, she's going to take me to see her," Garner said.

"The next day," promised Kitt. "The very next day."

Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.