Yes, it was a recent change. When I started doing this, LA County had PM photos for most of their UID cases on their website, regardless of how gruesome they were. I still have most of those pics saved.
Eventually, a state law was passed prohibiting authorities from publishing PM photos online. Many of the counties complied with the law, but some (e.g., San Bernardino) put them up for some cases anyway (e.g., Cherry Doe). Orange County has been complying with the law, with the exception of the 1968 Huntington Beach Jane Doe which they just released about a year ago.
Comparing the pm photo to her 11th grade school photo which is provided with the press release, I would not have recognized her. I probably would have recognized her if her freshman portrait had been posted, but not not her junior-year photo.
As I revised my reconstruction over the years since I first created it, I began to realize that her nose was broken in the pic and the pug nose was the result of her accident. I compensated for the pug nose. But I did not compensate enough.
But it is pretty clear that she had stopped taking care of her appearance. She no longer plucked her eyebrows, her hair was very dark and not blow dried, and she didn't wear make-up (unless it was washed off by the coroner).
Her PM photo compares much better to her Freshman portrait. As she matured into her late teens, her face lost the baby fat, but by the time of her death, she regained much of that pudginess in her face. But this photo compares much better to her PM photo, and to my reconstruction IMO. The eyes aren't perfect, but they very rarely are in postmortem facial reconstructions.
