YUKON, British Columbia, July 19 (UPI) -- A woman who disappeared in British Columbia in 1961 and was presumed dead has been found alive, her family said.

Lucy Johnson, an Alaska native, disappeared in September 1961, but wasn't reported missing to Canadian police until May 1965, NBC News reported. Police treated the disappearance as a homicide, questioning Johnson's husband Marvin, and excavating their back yard in Surrey, British Columbia.


Now, more than 50 years after she left her husband and two children behind, Johnson has been found alive in Yukon, after the Royal Mounted Canadian Police highlighted her cold case last month and her daughter, Linda Evans, purchased ads in a newspaper.

"We received a phone call from a woman in the Yukon who called and claimed that she had seen the picture of the missing person in the free newspapers and said the missing person we were looking for was actually her mother," Cpl. Bert Paquet, spokesman for Surrey RCMP, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "The stars aligned, the timing was perfect."

Police confirmed they found Lucy Johnson, now 77, who has another family in Yukon with three sons and a daughter, the network reported Thursday.

"I'm still walking around in shock," said Evans, whose father and brother have both since died. "I thought she was dead because there's been no contact. Nothing.

"I have a lot of questions. And they're all 'Whys?'"