North Idahoan, Tennessee sister reunited after 65 years

Detective Dennis Stinebaugh of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office provides the following information:

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office is excited to have helped a family reunited this holiday season after being separated 65 YEARS!!

This past Sunday a Kootenai County employee was approached by a very thankful Jake Robison regarding his recently found sister, Millicent Smith, from Fayetteville, TN. Millicent was now here in Idaho to finally be with her brother after 65 years apart, which they both described as a real Christmas miracle.

Millicent had been searching for her brother for years. Her only clue was a book with her brother’s name written in it. What she didn’t realize, was that her brother’s name had been misspelled in the book. An Ancestry lead pointer her in the direction of North Idaho, but so many other people with that same last name lived in the area. With some more research, however, it was discovered that someone with a similar name to her brother’s could possibly be living in Hayden, ID.

Millicent called the Kootenai County Dispatch Center hoping to find her brother. Millicent spoke with Emergency Communications Officer (ECO) Staci Syth. ECO Syth told Millicent that she couldn’t provide her with an address of the person she was looking for, but that Millicent could request a Deputy deliver a message to the person she thought was her brother.

A short time later, Kootenai County Sheriff’s Deputy Chip Hanson was able to deliver the message from Millicent. Jake called the phone number provided and now a family is reunited after 65 years!

Millicent and Jake will, for the first time, be meeting in person ECO Staci Syth and Dep. C. Hanson this afternoon at 3:30pm. They will be meeting at the Emergency Operations Center to express their gratitude with ECO Syth and Dep. Hanson.

Thank you to ECO Staci Syth and Dep. Chip Hanson for your outstanding professionalism helping the citizens of Kootenai County.