Dolores Valadez

[justins5256]

Just watched this tonight. I had seen it before. I felt really sad for this woman who seemingly has no past.

Unfortunately, there seem to be so many avenues this could go with regard to the identity of her parents.

I did some searching and surprisingly found no discussions about this case.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I'll post more tomorrow.

[DarkDante]

Originally Posted by justins5256

Just watched this tonight. I had seen it before. I felt really sad for this woman who seemingly has no past.

Unfortunately, there seem to be so many avenues this could go with regard to the identity of her parents.

I did some searching and surprisingly found no discussions about this case.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I'll post more tomorrow.

I always found it somewhat upsetting how her family seemed to willfully withhold information from her in regards to her origins. Sad.

[1990 UM fan]

Never heard of her. What was her case about?

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by 1990 UM fan

Never heard of her. What was her case about?

Her story aired during the 88-89 season. Dolores was in her late thirties or early forties at the time.

Basically, she was desperate to find any information about her natural parents. She was raised in a largely Hispanic populated area of California in the fifties. Dolores' stepmother was an older woman named Maria who had a reputation as being a healer and shaman in the community. Maria told Dolores that she had been abandoned on Maria's doorstep as an infant. However, Dolores never believed the story. Maria eventually passed away and Dolores began searching for her real parents.

She was able to find a record of her baptism. The baptism record indicated she had God parents. She did not recognize their names. An investigator interviewed on the segment said it wasn't uncommon in situations where a child was born out of wedlock for the God parents to actually be the biological parents as listed in the records.

Dolores also found some hospital records for a procedure she had done as a child. The hospital records listed Maria as her aunt and her mother as another woman named "Esther" who was supposedly deceased. She thought it possible that Esther could have been an alias for another family member. Perhaps this person gave Dolores to Maria. Apparently, this wasn't uncommon in large Mexican families with lots of siblings if someone was unable to care for another child. Such matters were never discussed once the exchange took place.

Dolores also followed up on a rumor that a local woman and long time family friend was her mother. Dolores talked to the woman and she completely denied being her mother. Dolores closely resembled this woman's other daughters.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of the segment was an interview with Dolores' adopted brother. Apparently he told Dolores when they were children that he knew the truth. He was interviewed for the segment and claimed he "didn't remember" and didn't know anything.

A lot of circumstantial evidence, but nothing to indicate which of the above theories is more likely to be correct. Just from watching the segment, one gets the impression there are family members who know the truth but they were unwilling to talk about it for whatever reason. Truly a shame if it is true.

[TheCars1986]

BUMP

I think the most likely explanation is probably correct. Maria was actually her aunt and her birth mother gave her up because she could not raise her. Don't see any reason as to why the family friend wouldn't come clean if she was in fact Dolores's mother, and I don't see any logical reason as to why Dolores's brother would willingly hide the information from her.

[unsolved88]

I posted this case on Reddit last year and somebody raised the possibility that Dolores may have been the product of incest and that's why there was such secrecy. Not a bad theory IMO. I'd love to know if Dolores ever found out who she was and where she came from.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by unsolved88

I posted this case on Reddit last year and somebody raised the possibility that Dolores may have been the product of incest and that's why there was such secrecy. Not a bad theory IMO. I'd love to know if Dolores ever found out who she was and where she came from.

The incest angle would not shock me at all. That would explain all of the secrecy over the years.

[Hot Jock]

I usually just skim through Lost Love segments (or skip them altogether) but I watched this one in its entirety while compiling the episode guide because I'd never seen it before. At least I can't remember ever seeing it before but I'm pretty sure I did during the original run but I was just a kid back then. Anyway, I couldn't help but feel terrible for her. It's a shame that nothing ever came of her appearing on UM.

[bluejazz87]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

The incest angle would not shock me at all. That would explain all of the secrecy over the years.

If that's the case I may not want to know my true heritage. That would be hard to deal with.

[unsolved243]

A user on reddit did some searching on Ancestry about this case and found some interesting information. Dolores's stepmother Maria was married to a man named Agapito and the couple had several children. One child was a teenager at the time of Dolores's birth. Her name? Esther. Of course, this is the name listed as Dolores's mother on a hospital form. According to Ancestry, Esther was around 16 or 17 when Dolores was born. The reddit user theorized that Esther gave birth to Dolores out of wedlock and had her mother Maria raise the baby.

Reddit Thread link

I think this theory makes sense, especially since Maria was so secretive about Dolores's past and appeared to resent her. It also makes me wonder if Dolores ever tried to do Ancestry or some sort of DNA testing to determine if she was related to Maria. I think Dolores's case is definitely solvable (if she and/or some of her biological relatives are still alive).

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by unsolved243

A user on reddit did some searching on Ancestry about this case and found some interesting information. Dolores's stepmother Maria was married to a man named Agapito and the couple had several children. One child was a teenager at the time of Dolores's birth. Her name? Esther. Of course, this is the name listed as Dolores's mother on a hospital form. According to Ancestry, Esther was around 16 or 17 when Dolores was born. The reddit user theorized that Esther gave birth to Dolores out of wedlock and had her mother Maria raise the baby.

Reddit Thread link

I think this theory makes sense, especially since Maria was so secretive about Dolores's past and appeared to resent her. It also makes me wonder if Dolores ever tried to do Ancestry or some sort of DNA testing to determine if she was related to Maria. I think Dolores's case is definitely solvable (if she and/or some of her biological relatives are still alive).

Out of all the theories, I think this makes the most sense.

My only question is how close was the daughter Esther to Maria and the family after this? Assuming she was close, the theory seems overly simplistic and it’s amazing Dolores wouldn’t know or have connected those dots long before now.

[unsolved243]

Originally Posted by justins5256

Out of all the theories, I think this makes the most sense.

My only question is how close was the daughter Esther to Maria and the family after this? Assuming she was close, the theory seems overly simplistic and it’s amazing Dolores wouldn’t know or have connected those dots long before now.

That's a good point; I don't know if Esther was close to Maria or not. However, Dolores apparently never mentioned her so it's possible that she was not close to Maria. Furthermore, it's possible that Esther could have moved away after she gave birth to Dolores and cut off contact with Maria and the rest of the family.

Either way, I think if Dolores did a DNA test with a genealogy website, she would most likely be able to find the truth about her past.

[SeraphAnubis]

I agree this is the most plausible explanation but it does not rule put the possibility of incest. Esther could have been a victim of incest by a brother or her father.