Remains identified as those of LV woman

Karen Zekan

Monday, Oct. 19, 1998 | 11:24 a.m.

The nationwide manhunt for former Alaska state trooper and survivalist John Patrick Addis intensified today now that laboratory results prove the skeletal remains found last week in a remote stretch of Arizona desert are those of Las Vegan Joann Albanese, reported missing three years ago by her two young daughters.

A forensic specialist confirmed through known dental records that the remains found by a hunter Oct. 16 were those of Albanese, who was last seen with Addis, authorities said.

"This lady would have never been out there," said Deputy District Attorney Abbi Silver.

She is the prosecutor in the case who presented evidence to the grand jury that came back with a July 31 indictment charging Addis with Albanese's kidnapping and murder -- unusual in that they had a murder suspect but no body.

Addis, as of this morning, remained at large.

Albanese had been reported missing from her home in the 8900 block of Coast Walk Circle, near Fort Apache and Desert Inn Road in the Lakes, the afternoon of Aug. 20, 1995.

Albanese's 1993 Honda Accord was found three days after she disappeared outside Prescott, Ariz. in a remote area known as Little Hell's Canyon. Police feared the woman had met with foul play, but it would be more than three years before her skeletal remains would be discovered just a mile from where her car was found.

Albanese, who was 39 when she disappeared, was believed then to have been with a fitness trainer she had met five months before she disappeared who went by the name John Edwards.

Investigators immediately became concerned when they learned that the man passing himself off as John Edwards was merely using the identification of the real John Edwards, who lived in Cape Coral, Fla.

Authorities determined the man Albanese was last seen alive with was in fact John Patrick Addis, a former Alaska state trooper and certified instructor in crime scene and death investigations, a skilled marksman, survivalist, pilot and adept at manufacturing false identification.

Addis was considered a fugitive at the time Albanese disappeared, having violated parole in Alaska after a 1987 conviction on parental abduction charges.

Albanese's 16-year-old daughter contacted police after having returned from a weekend with her 9-year-old sister at their father's home. When Albanese failed to come home, the girls' father came back to get them and a missing person's report was filed.

Reporter Bill Gang contributed to this story.