WALLA WALLA — Suzanne Timms was looking at a Facebook page that lists missing persons when she thought she saw someone familiar — herself.

“I said, ‘Why am I there? I’m not a missing person,’” the Walla Walla woman said.

A moment later Timms became convinced that the picture, which she first saw in July, was not of herself but of her mother, Patty Otto, who has been missing since Sept. 1, 1976. What Timms saw was not a photograph but an image created in May by a forensic artist in Massachusetts, Anthony Redgrave, the operator of Redgrave Research Forensic Services. Redgrave was assisting a local group trying to identify a woman found in a shallow grave 10 miles northwest of Elgin in August 1978.

The group is led by Melinda Jederberg of La Grande.

Timms’ mother, a Lewiston, Idaho, resident whom Suzanne Timms last saw when she was 3 years old, may have been the person discovered in that shallow grave, which was near Finley Creek.

She has since become known as the Finley Creek Jane Doe. Timms said the mystery involving the woman’s identify is solved in her mind.

“I am certain she is my mother,” she said.

Re-creating the face of what Timms believes is that of her mother took some creativity on Redgrave’s part. Redgrave had no actual skull to work with, just the digital copies of the photos the Oregon State medical examiner took of the remains after hunters found her.

Timms is sure of Finley Creek Jane Doe’s identity not only because of the forensic image but also the red pants and white blouse a medical examiner’s report photo shows she was wearing.

“That was exactly what my mom had on the last time I saw her,” Timms said.

A Sept. 8, 1976, story in the Lewiston-Morning Tribune also said that Otto was wearing red pants and a white blouse before she disappeared from Lewiston.

Other similarities include the light brown or blond hair the article described, the same color Timms’ mom had. Size is another common characteristic. Finley Creek Jane Doe’s estimated height was 5 feet, 2 inches to 5 feet, 4 inches, the same height as Timms’ mother.

Timms now wants to get DNA to verify that Finley Creek Jane Doe is her mother, which might prove challenging — Timms said Finley Creek Jane Doe was cremated in 1990 because her case had been closed by the state.

Still, Timms is not giving up hope. She knows precisely where Finley Creek Jane Doe was found because her father-in-law, then a child, was with the two hunters, including his father, when they found her in 1978. He has taken Timms to the precise site and they have searched the area for human bone fragments, but none have been found.

She hopes to return later with dogs trained to pick up the scent of human bones. Timms also hopes to be aided by someone trained in the science of scatter analysis who might be able to determine how the bones were spread out.

Another avenue that may be pursued involves attempting to get what are believed to be the ashes of Finley Creek Jane Doe.

It is not known for certain where the ashes of Finley Creek Jane Doe are because they were never returned to La Grande after being sent to Walla Walla to be cremated, Timms said. However, Timms believes her ashes may be those at a mortuary in Walla Walla in a box marked miscellaneous. She said that a Canadian company will be attempting to get DNA from the cremains in the box.

If the ashes are determined to be those of her mother, it would be an amazing irony for Timms, a registered nurse who has lived in Walla Walla since 1999.

“I have been searching for my mom for years and I may have been next to her all of this time,” she said. ”She may have been sitting right here waiting for me to pick her up.”

Those who are assisting Timms in her effort to prove that Finley Creek Jane Doe is indeed her mother include Tom Saleen, a retired Lewiston, Idaho, police officer. Saleen helped lead the effort to find Timms’ mother after she was reported missing on Sept. 1, 1976.

“He has been amazing,” Timms said.

Saleen said that he put more hours on the Patty Otto case than any other during his career.

“I never had a case that had so many leads that led nowhere,” he said.

The retired law enforcement officer wants to help solve the case for the sake of Timms.

“The most important thing for me is to get resolution for Suzanne,” Saleen said.