Nampa resident Lillian Richey, 51, disappeared from her home in February 1964, just blocks from a construction site where workers were laying the foundation of what would eventually become the Nampa School District office.

Fifty-four years later, she has yet to be found. Nampa Police spent months investigating every lead following her disappearance, including dredging a local irrigation ditch. No leads provided any information leading police to Richey. In 1967, Richey’s son petitioned to have her declared dead.

Now, Nampa Police and students from the Boise State’s Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) are partnering with the Nampa School District to try to solve the case.

Detectives have decided to look into years of tips speculating Richey’s body could be at the district office site.

The SEG chapter is going to assist detectives in the case by going into the crawlspace beneath the district office and using ground-penetrating radar to look for anomalies in the soil underneath the concrete pad. Changes in soil stratigraphy could indicate a hole dug prior to the concrete being poured.

Geophysical techniques such as this are often used in forensic investigations.

Nampa Police will also bring cadaver dogs to try to locate a scent from the body. Though Richey has been missing for 54 years, a well-trained cadaver dog can sniff decomposition for decades after burial.

Dylan Mikesell, SEG chapter advisor, believes the ground-penetrating radar could produce some new evidence, but said “54 years of decomposition makes it harder to distinguish what was disturbed in the surrounding soil.”

The Nampa School District has agreed to cooperate with police on any next steps if evidence is found that could indicate a burial.