`Missnikita's Parlor' Has Many Web Visitors
The first e-mail came from a man in Minneapolis who had just discovered that he, too, has a sister he never knew about.
The next well wisher, from Northern California, sent a succinct missive: "Welcome back."
And then came the note from a Whidbey Islander who seemed more impressed with Jane Dee's Web design skills than her sudden celebrity.
"You have a very nice site," wrote "LMT," a visitor to Dee's site on the World Wide Web. ". . . . When you get over the fame - could you give me some pointers?"
Dee's computer savvy was on display yesterday to numerous visitors to her Web site, one day after King County Police announced that the mother of four in Sitka, Alaska, was actually Jody Roberts, the former Tacoma newspaper reporter who vanished in 1985.
In her new life, Dee has worked as a waitress, postal worker and, most recently, as a Web-page designer for her business, Pongo Computerworks.
Her personal site (http://puffin.ptialaska.net/pongo/parlor/), "MissNikita's Parlor," features a cartoonish woman clad in a dainty Victorian dress and apron, hoisting a tea platter and inviting visitors to "Tea Time" for chats and e-mail.
Dee's site also connects to her Web design business (http://www.pongo.com) and provides links for - among other things - computer-software downloads, Warner Brothers' home page and an Alaskan Photo Gallery.
Another area of her site, titled "The Pilot's Logbook," automatically posts Dee's e-mail onto an electronic bulletin board. It was this page that played host yesterday to messages.
Some came from the friends and associates who knew her as Jody Roberts, trying to jog her memory via modem.
Others came from people drawn to her story from news reports.
Brad Onstad, of Minneapolis, said he could relate to what Dee apparently is going through, because he recently found out that he has a sister he previously was unaware of.
"Since her discovery, my life has been wonderful," Onstad wrote. ". . . . I just hope your story ends as happily as mine did."