Lucille Hellen Lewis, also known by the nickname “Louie,” is listed in NamUs as Missing Person case MP23385 and in the Montana Department of Justice Missing Persons Database. Official state information identifies her as a White female, 53 years old at the time of last contact, 5 feet 2 inches tall, about 150 pounds, with blue eyes; the Montana record lists brown hair, while NamUs-related summaries list red/auburn hair. She wore eyeglasses.
The Montana Department of Justice lists her date of last contact as January 30, 2006, and identifies the investigating agency as the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Lucille was last associated with St. Ignatius, Montana, in Lake County. The case data provided for her NamUs record indicates that she was missing from tribal land, and the official Montana record continues to list her as a missing person. The information publicly available from official sources is brief and painful in its simplicity: Lucille Lewis has not been seen since January 2006.
According to The Charley Project, Lucille had moved from Newberg, Oregon, to St. Ignatius, Montana, in November 2005 to be with her boyfriend, Earl Dean Stipe, whom she reportedly met online in October 2005 after the end of a twenty-year marriage. The same source states that her loved ones in Oregon had been close to her and that, after she moved to Montana, they stopped hearing from her. Her sister reportedly tried repeatedly to reach her by cell phone without success, a silence that stood out sharply because Lucille had remained connected to family and friends before the move.
There is some discrepancy in public summaries about the precise last-seen date and location. The Montana Department of Justice and NamUs-linked information list January 30, 2006, with St. Ignatius, Montana, as the missing-from location. The Charley Project lists her as missing since January 31, 2006, from Missoula, Montana, based on Stipe’s reported statement that Lucille wanted to return to Oregon and that he last saw her when he dropped her off at Missoula International Airport. Because she never arrived in Oregon, her sister became alarmed and filed a missing-person report with Montana authorities.
The Charley Project reports that when investigators went to Stipe’s residence to question him about Lucille’s disappearance, they found more than a dozen firearms. Because Stipe was a convicted felon on probation, he was arrested, and he was later sentenced in 2007 for being a felon in possession of firearms. The same case summary states that later investigation found Stipe had forged Lucille’s name on checks and pawned some of her jewelry and belongings. These details are especially concerning because Lucille reportedly left behind the life she had built in Oregon, including long-term work as an underwriter at Oregon Mutual Insurance and close family relationships.
Stipe has been described by The Charley Project as a person of interest in Lucille’s disappearance, but the publicly available sources reviewed do not state that anyone has been charged in connection with causing her disappearance. The circumstances remain unresolved in public records. What remains clear is that Lucille was a real person with family, work, relationships, hopes, and people who noticed her absence quickly. Her case reflects not only an investigative mystery, but also the enduring grief of those who lost contact with her and have sought answers for many years.
Anyone with information about Lucille Hellen Lewis is directed by the Montana Department of Justice to contact local law enforcement, the Montana Missing Persons Clearinghouse at 406-444-2800, or the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, which the state lists as the investigating agency.Last Seen: Jan 30, 2006
