The Mystery of the Plastic Volunteer

     On Wednesday August 24th I was clearing a path behind the porta potty at Weyanoke Bird and Wildflower Sanctuary. When I pried a long thick root from the path my volunteer popped up with it. I wiped it off the best I could, only to discover that it was a Virginia Driver’s License. It was folded in half with one side being the license portion and the other side holding the photo. The license was embossed but illegible because of the dirt and the photo had disintegrated. I knew the license must have some age to it so I carried it home to see if I could clean it enough to read it. The mystery begins!

     Working with an old toothbrush and a water hose I revealed that a 16-year-old Norfolk girl had received this license on 4/14/1972. The license expired 3/31/1976 so this license ended up in those Norfolk woods somewhere in those four years, over 2½ miles from the home where the girl lived. The woods belonged to Norfolk & Western Railway at the time. The Audubon Society was not gifted the land until 1979. So, for between 46 and 50 years that license had been in those woods before I found it!

      When I got my license at age 16 it was my most prized possession. How did this girl get separated from hers license? Why was it there? Did she lose it? Was it taken from her? Was she in the woods because she wanted to be or was she a victim? Having watched too many CSI television shows over the years I began to wonder if I had uncovered a crime scene. I emailed my fellow NMG Weyanoke volunteers about my find. I gave them her name, her date of birth and her address (her SSN was also on the license!) hoping that perhaps one of them knew her or would want to help me find her. Would it even be possible to find the owner of a driver’s license that had been missing for 50 years? Is she still alive?

     Karen Wilson jumped at the challenge. Through real estate records Karen learned the father’s name and she was able to find his 2008 obituary. At that point the mystery deepened. The name listed on the license was not listed as a predeceased or as a surviving child! Karen found a couple of phone numbers that she followed up and both were dead ends. I tried to find the mystery girl, who would now be a 66-year- old woman, on Facebook and Google without any luck. The father’s obituary said that he was a lifelong member of Larchmont UMC. Karen asked a friend, who is also a member of the church, if he knew the family and he did not. We assumed that the girl attended Maury High School and probably graduated in 1974. I searched some on-line Maury alumni pages without any luck.  I made plans to post a notice on the Nextdoor App and for a drive to Doumar’s which has a bookcase full of local high school and college yearbooks. 

     I decided to try to contact one of the daughters listed in the 2008 obituary. She was a Norfolk resident in 2008 and if I could find her we might be able to clear up the mystery of her missing sister and the license.  I found her via Google and she is a Norfolk real estate agent. I wrote her a note introducing myself, telling her of my mysterious find and asking if she knew the girl on the license. SHE was the girl on the license!!! She was astounded that I found her license that had been missing for 50 years!! I was relieved that she was alive and well. We exchanged a few more emails and made plans to meet for lunch.

     On September 8th Karen and I met Betsy and her husband for lunch where we heard her side of the story. She had been at a boyfriend’s house on Spotswood Avenue when her car was broken into and her purse was stolen. She remembered being really mad and that she and her boyfriend searched around what was then known as Blue Bird Park for the missing purse. Her family never used her given name, the one on the license, always calling her by a nickname. That’s why neither the first or last name on the license was listed in the obituary.

     License returned to its owner, mystery solved and a happy ending! But wait; if her whole purse was taken why wasn’t it with the license that I found? Hmmm? Time for a shovel and/or a metal detector? When I signed up for the Norfolk Master Gardener classes I expected to learn a lot about gardening. I didn’t expect to learn how to be a crime solving detective!