Candace Lynn Starr

Candace Lynn Starr was born April 26, 1959, in the San Fernando Valley, Calif., to George and Marilyn Starr. She was the fourth of six children.

Candace Lynn Starr was abducted from her home in Granada Hills, Calif., in September 1975. Three months later on Dec. 12, 1975, her life was taken from her by force at a gas station in Gallup, N.M.

She spent the next 34 years buried at the Hillcrest Cemetery in Gallup, N.M., as a Jane Doe in an unmarked grave. Due to modern technology of mitochondrial DNA comparison on June 4, 2009, she was given her name back and her family was notified of her location.

Candace did not have time to accomplish much in her short life, however, she was a sweet and gentle child who was in the process of evolving into a lovely young woman. She loved her basset hound, the Pacific Ocean, seashells, music and her mother’s fried chicken. She will be remembered for her expressive hazel eyes, beautiful natural curly, auburn-colored hair, silly looking webbed toes and her gentle soul.

At the time of her death in 1975, she was survived by her parents, George and Marilyn Starr; a maternal grandmother, Nan B. Weckler; and five siblings, Pamela, David, Richard, Shari and Stefanie; as well as several other aunts, uncles and cousins. At the time of her June 4, 2009, identification, she is survived by four siblings, a brother, David Starr of Nevada; and three sisters, Shari Starr of Oregon, Stefanie Barrett of Colorado, and Pamela Mulligan of Sandpoint, Idaho.

All those long, hard, toll-taking years of worrying, wondering and waiting have come to an end! Her surviving siblings now know what happened to their precious sister, they know where she has been for 34 years and they have made arrangements that her final resting place will be at Forest Lawn in Glendale, Calif., near both of her parents and her brother.

Memorial donations can be made to the Candace Lynn Starr Memorial Fund account at Wells Fargo Bank. The donations will go to repaying the New Mexico Crime Victims Reparation Commission for their help in returning Candace’s remains to her home state and for a future family memorial service.