Darla Lee Miller -- Missing Since 1996

Details from NamUs**: "Last seen summer of 1996 after an argument with her young son on the phone."
Missing Person: Darla Lee Miller
Last-contact date: June 1, 1996
The area where the MP was last seen: Westland, Michigan

Link to government source: NamUs #MP58324

VITAL DETAILS

Ethnicity: White
Sex: Female
Age at time of disappearance: 33 years old
Birthdate: November 13th, 1962 

Married: December 15th, 1979 (divorced about 10 years later) to P. Miller
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Scar: None known
Height/weight: 5-foot-2 and 130 pounds
BMI*: Darla Lee Miller was in the normal range for BMI.

• Please, Google-search BMI if you aren't familiar with the phrase. I think it's an important tool to be aware of when working on missing person cases.

Darla Lee Miller was last heard from on June 1, 1996, when she was 33 years of age. She has now been missing for 25 years as of the original publication date of this blog post. At the time of this publication, the missing person would be 58 years old.

When I look over the case information, I do see a slight contradiction in the information. According to the NamUs description, she was last seen in the summer of 1996. However, her last-seen date is June 1st, 1996. Technically, June 1st would still be in the spring, in fact, that's not even getting too technical as the start of June is a full three weeks before the start of summer.

Often, when the date of someone's disappearance isn't known, NamUs will just enter the first of the month that they disappeared. It's not really clear from the NamUs account when this individual was last seen.

Also, at the time of her disappearance, she evidently had a "young son." When I plugged Darla Lee Miller into Ancestry's index of public records, I was able to find some addresses for her. However, none of the addresses had date ranges associated with them. Furthermore, some of the addresses were associated with the area that she was last seen in. These were likely addresses that she used before she disappeared. I was sure I was looking at the right Darla Lee Miller because of birthdate matches in the records. 

A good research angle on this case is just to find out if her son is now an adult and see what he can contribute to the details of this case. That could be done by searching her former addresses to see if her son's name appears anywhere. I think, I was able to find a brother, however, I wasn't able to find a way to contact him online. I've kept addresses and names in my notes and may look further.

Please, take a moment to share this on social media using hashtags relevant to the missing person's area. Also, please include the website hashtag #MPCSL.

Author: Shane Lambert

All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

Shane Lambert is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of February 2021.

Website hashtag: #MPCSL

*For BMI values, I use the UPPER or HIGHER ranges that are given for height and weight.
**Text might be paraphrased. If taken verbatim, then grammar or spelling errors are not necessarily corrected from original sources.
Disclaimer: Whenever possible, government sources are preferred for getting the details of a missing person's case. However, any source that the article writer deems reputable may be used.