Elaine Faye Lehtinen

• Missing Since 06/15/1976
• Missing From Napa, California
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 04/05/1945 (80)
• Age 31 years old
• Height and Weight 5'0, 110 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Lehtinen has moles on her left breast and on the side of her neck. She wears prescription eyeglasses.

Details of Disappearance

Letinen was last seen gardening in front of her residence in the 1500 block of Parkwood Street Napa, California at 9:00 p.m. on June 15, 1976. She didn't show up for work the next day at the naval base on Mare Island in Vallejo, California, where she was an officer, and has never been heard from again.

A neighbor reported seeing a small dark blue sports car with a hatchback pull into Lehtinen's driveway while Lehtinen was standing in her front yard on the night of her disappearance. The neighbor saw a person get out of the vehicle and walk to the front door of the hosue, but it was too dark to see if the person was a man or a woman. No one noticed whether Lehtinen got into the car. After only about a minute or less, the car backed out of the driveway and drove away.

Around 3:00 a.m., another neighbor who lived across the street from Lehtinen got up to use the bathroom. The neighbor's dog began barking and growling, and she heard a sound like someone moving past the trash cans outside, rattling them. She didn't look outside, though, and the dog stopped barking, and she went back to bed.

The next morning, after Lehtinen didn't show up for work at 7:00 a.m. like usual, her supervisor got concerned and called her one of her neighbors who also worked for the Navy. At 8:30 a.m., this neighbor went to Lehtinen's house and knocked on the door but no one answered. When he walked around the house he found a window in the back slightly open; it was the only window that wasn't shut and locked. He climbed in through the window and discovered Lehtinen was missing.

The house was in neat and orderly condition, other than some groceries on the kitchen table that hadn't been put away and some dirty dishes in the sink. The front door was locked and bolted, the sliding glass door and the garage were also locked, and there was no note. Lehtinen's Navy uniform was laid out as if she'd been getting ready to go to work. Her clothes, luggage, car, bicycle, keys, purse and identification were also left behind. The only possible indication of a struggle was an empty coffee cup, lying on its side under the dining room table.

The neighbor notified the Navy of what he found, and later that morning the Navy contacted the local police to report Lehtinen missing.

There was no indication she Lehtinen suicidal at the time of her disappearance, and she wasn't having any financial problems or personal problems that might have made her want to leave on her own. Her career in the Navy was going well; she had enlisted at age eighteen and was a warrant officer attached to the combat systems technical school at Mare Island, with clearance to view classified and top secret documents.

She was known as a very intelligent, organized and reliable person and spoke several languages. She occasionally dated but didn't have a steady boyfriend, and although she sometimes went out to a nighclub and drank alcohol, she never became intoxicated. Two months prior to Lehtinen's disappearance, her mother died by suicide, leaving her a small inheritance. Her only other living relative was an aunt in Minnesota.

The Navy initially listed Lehtinen as a deserter, then eventually they reclassified her as deceased. She was declared legally dead in 1986. Foul play is suspected in her case, which remains unsolved.