Shani Ann Estes (NamUs MP#1204) vs. UP#5963

By: Shane Lambert

Shani Ann Estes has been missing since 2005, that much is clear. However, there is some contradictory information out there from governmental sources as to the date she was last seen. NamUs (she's MP#1204) says she was last seen on November 24th, 2005. The State of California's Department of Justice's website says she was last seen on December 7th, 2005. Regardless, there's reason to consider her as a match to UP#5963.

Shani, according to CharleyProject's profile for her, had an argument with her husband on November 24th, 2005 and then disappeared. The suggestion at that website is that the husband is not a suspect and that Shani left on her own accord.

On the night of January 10th, 2006 a woman known as UP#5963 was found deceased in a burned-out apartment in San Francisco. The distance between where Shani was last seen and this apartment is about 290 miles in the same state of California. 

The time elapsed between the date of the fire and when Shani was last seen depends on what date we go by. We are looking at just over a month if we go by December 7th, 2005 or a month and a half if we go by November 24th, 2005. Regardless, there's no reason to rule one other out yet as possible matches.

UP#5963 is described as not recognizable because of burns suffered in the apartment fire. Accordingly, all physical descriptions have to be taken with a grain of salt.

But the dead individual is listed as a female that was white and that matches Shani. The heights between Shani and the decedent are just 1 inch off and that makes them a match from that point of view because heights are often estimated.

The age of the deceased UP could not really be estimated but she was considered to be an adult. The weight between Shani and the decedent appears to be well off, a full 40 pounds. Furthermore, the eye color is off between the two.

But what's interesting about UP#5963, someone who had brown eyes according to NamUs, was that she was ruled-out against MP#490, a person who had blue eyes. The basis for the rule out may have been a scar: UP#5963 had a scar on her lower-right abdomen and the MP had a scar as well.

That the Unidentified Person with brown eyes was compared to a missing person with blue eyes suggests that the authorities aren't confident in one of the two's eye colors. That may have something to do with the fact that the UP was burned to death. Can you accurately get eye color from charred remains?

MP#490, the rule-out of the UP, went missing in June of 1996 in Arizona. That's far away from San Francisco and the time factor is large, nearly a full decade. If MP#490 can be looked at as a possible match to UP#5963 then surely Shani can.

Shani was much closer to UP#5963 in terms of time and space. Furthermore, Shani may have had a scar right where the Unidentified Person had one. Shani is described as having a "surgical scar" from a c-section, a scar that would be on her abdomen and possibly her lower-right abdomen according to some pictures I googled of c-section scars. The UP had a scar on the lower-right abdomen -- perhaps from the same c-section?

These two are worth a look at despite the mismatching eye color in my opinion. If they aren't one and the same then at least they should be listed as rule outs of one another to prevent future work on the possible match.