WA WA - Seattle, WhtFem 30-50, 159UFWA, alias 'Mary Anderson', copper IUD, breast surgery scars, Oct'96

[othram]

Advanced DNA testing suggests her biogeographical origins trace back to Eastern Iran or Afghanistan, possibly with a Persian background:

Who is "Mary Anderson" (1996)?

King County Medical Examiner's Office Teams with Othram to Solve the Mystery of "Mary Anderson"

dnasolves.com

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Advanced DNA testing suggests her biogeographical origins trace back to Eastern Iran or Afghanistan, possibly with a Persian background:

Who is "Mary Anderson" (1996)?

King County Medical Examiner's Office Teams with Othram to Solve the Mystery of "Mary Anderson"

dnasolves.com

No wonder y'all have hit a wall! I can't imagine there are too many people of with background in consumer DNA databases.

 

[fridaybaker]

I wonder how common it is to die by cyanide poisoning these days. I can't seem to find much information on it, but my understanding is that it can be a painful death. Wouldn't there by better ways to do the deed if one wishes to commit suicide?
I thought cyanide was often used for cases where one could possibly be tortured, such as by spies, due to it's almost immediate effect.
Again, you don't often hear of people committing suicide by cyanide poisoning. Hmmm...

 

[fridaybaker]

And, I'm sure this has been mentioned before, buy why the contradicting ideas here: Suicide note states she has no family, but there is obvious effort to conceal her identity. If she has no family, why conceal her identity?

Methinks there is more to this story.

 

[othram]

No wonder y'all have hit a wall! I can't imagine there are too many people of with background in consumer DNA databases.

Public support can crack this case! Contributing your DNA profile helps and sharing the update helps, in case someone, somewhere knows something.

 

[sasha17]

I wonder how common it is to die by cyanide poisoning these days. I can't seem to find much information on it, but my understanding is that it can be a painful death. Wouldn't there by better ways to do the deed if one wishes to commit suicide?
I thought cyanide was often used for cases where one could possibly be tortured, such as by spies, due to it's almost immediate effect.
Again, you don't often hear of people committing suicide by cyanide poisoning. Hmmm...

It's very strange. Somewhere further up this thread, someone described how cyanide poisoning usually involves vomiting, seizures, and other symptoms before death. But the photos of Mary just looks like she quietly fell asleep.

 

[Warwick1991]

It is possible that she was an Iranian exile. In 1979, pivotal events in Iran resulted in a huge wave of people fleeing to other countries, including the US. Events of that time included the overthrow of the Shah, the founding of the Ayatollah's Islamic Republic, and the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran along with its staff.

The new regime in Iran conducted mass executions of people associated with the Shah, and persecuted religious minorities including the Bahai, Jews and Zoroastrians. Women were executed for unwillingness to wear the chador. Members of these groups fled, along with many middle class and upper class people. Ethnic minorities in Iran also fled, including Russians and other groups who lived in Iran.

Perhaps there is a political component to this death. Iran has been murdering political opponents and former officials abroad since the beginning of the Islamic Republic, but this still reads as a suicide.

The mystery is heightened.....

 

[madamx]

And, I'm sure this has been mentioned before, buy why the contradicting ideas here: Suicide note states she has no family, but there is obvious effort to conceal her identity. If she has no family, why conceal her identity?

Methinks there is more to this story.

Or maybe if she did have family it was not immediate or she was estranged from her family, so no one is looking for her. But then again why hide identity?

 

[Warwick1991]

Advanced DNA testing suggests her biogeographical origins trace back to Eastern Iran or Afghanistan, possibly with a Persian background:

Who is "Mary Anderson" (1996)?

King County Medical Examiner's Office Teams with Othram to Solve the Mystery of "Mary Anderson"

dnasolves.com

I have a cousin with a DNA profile that includes Eastern Iran and Persia. She is Jewish, and some of her ancestors came from areas of the former Russian Empire with ethnic and linguistic similarities to Persia.

 

[Springrain]

No wonder y'all have hit a wall! I can't imagine there are too many people of with background in consumer DNA databases.

JMO This news makes me wonder if this is a forensic genealogy case complicated once again by adoption. Maybe she got adopted from overseas?

 

[othram]

I have a cousin with a DNA profile that includes Eastern Iran and Persia. She is Jewish, and some of her ancestors came from areas of the former Russian Empire with ethnic and linguistic similarities to Persia.

All interesting possibilities! We will need to identify closer relatives to know for sure!

 

[victoriarobinson642]

All interesting possibilities! We will need to identify closer relatives to know for sure!

Out of curiosity, are you able to share how close/distant relatives you've found?

 

[othram]

Out of curiosity, are you able to share how close/distant relatives you've found?

Unfortunately, too distant for genetic genealogy to be effective at this point. We will try to share another update soon. In the meantime, we are hoping these new details will surface tips or that more folks will upload their profiles as a potential distant relative.

 

[Bit of hope]

It's very strange. Somewhere further up this thread, someone described how cyanide poisoning usually involves vomiting, seizures, and other symptoms before death. But the photos of Mary just looks like she quietly fell asleep.

Hahaha, sorry, love your sub text.

Unfortunately, too distant for genetic genealogy to be effective at this point. We will try to share another update soon. In the meantime, we are hoping these new details will surface tips or that more folks will upload their profiles as a potential distant relative.

Would love to help and spread this around, but I don't know anybody with Eastern Iranian/Persian background, so I can't be much of use. Thank you for your great work! All of this is almost starting to be "normal", but to me all identifications, using DNA, are a miracle, every single time. I hope in the near future you can solve it. Lot's of good luck to you and the team.

 

[MarziPanda]

That is a surprise to me, but looking at the recon based on the post mortem picture, I can see more Persian features if I'm looking for them. The recons of her with the fuller face definitely look much more white European. She had a bible open in her room, so she could have been a Persian Christian? It seems most of the Christians in Iran are of Assyrian or Armenian descent, but there are also a fair number of converts from Islam. Apparently the Iranian revolution led some Iranians, both in Iran and abroad, to covert. She also may have had no religion and just thought the bible would be a nice touch.

I know a large number of Iranians fled because of the revolution, but there hasn't been any mention of her having an accent when she checked in. So either she was born in the US, moved to the US when still young, or she was good at faking an American accent. The revolution was 17 years before she died. If she was on the younger end of the age range, she would have been a teenager at that time. On the older end, she would have been in her early 30s at that time.

I wonder if picking a very white sounding name was a deliberate move to misdirect, or if her name was similar to that through adoption, marriage, religion ('Mary' might have been deliberate if she was a Persian Christian) or a combination.

 

[Caring1]

Mary would be a shortened translation of the Persian names Maryam, Mariam, Meriam or Miryam. Maybe the alias she used is not that far off. JMO

 

[summergirl1]

I have a cousin with a DNA profile that includes Eastern Iran and Persia. She is Jewish, and some of her ancestors came from areas of the former Russian Empire with ethnic and linguistic similarities to Persia.

That could very well be Mary's background too, in my opinion.

 

[fridaybaker]

I’m thinking that “Mary Anderson”, along with the Bible, are misdirects.

This woman seemed to take great pains to avoid having her identity revealed. Why? Again, if she had no family, as her note said, why the great pains at misdirection? Fake address, etc. Removal of dental plate?

 

[phantomstrider]

Or maybe if she did have family it was not immediate or she was estranged from her family, so no one is looking for her. But then again why hide identity?

I guess she might have been telling the truth when she said she had no close relatives in her suicide note but as others have said why conceal her identity then.

 

[Susikatze]

I have a cousin with a DNA profile that includes Eastern Iran and Persia. She is Jewish, and some of her ancestors came from areas of the former Russian Empire with ethnic and linguistic similarities to Persia.

It depends on the amount of percentage. Ashkenazi Jews dont usually have Persian DNA at all. Some Mizrahi Jews such as Bukharian and Persian Jews are identified as partially Persian by commercial databases because they just are not represented and thats who theyre closest to. They do usually have quite significant other admixes, too, though.

But lets go the most obvious route in this case, which is that Mary is simply of Iranian heritage, no Jewish connection. She may have indeed been an exiled Persian. There is a huge Persian community in L.A. Maybe someone has a missing relative there? Id ask for submission of samples there.