(a.) Bumping this thread, obv.
(b.) I don't know whether my school experiences were different or not, but I was enrolled in a regular Catholic grade school by the time I was four years old. I was in pre-kinder then and my school days were as long while in pre-k and kinder as they were for the "grades" there (1st - 8th): 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. We also played educational games, were read to, and encouraged to do these coloring worksheets in class. (FYI, I could read and understand at a 6th grade level in pre-k, but I still sat and listened when the teacher read to us in class.) So we were definitely NOT in preschool when we were in pre-k.
Anyway, I bring this up because it was probable that this little girl had a similar educational background and was NOT enrolled in preschool as a four-year-old but enrolled in a similarly educational pre-k setting, so this was her school picture. She was probably especially proud to be posing for it because she was finally in school with the "big kids", which is probably why she was smiling so broadly. Now, I was four in 1983 so I'm just guessing on the outfit here, but it looks to me like one from the mid '70s, maybe 1974 - 1975. Now if this person were at the uppermost range age-wise as determined by the forensic people, he would've been 70 in 1980, giving a birth year of 1910. If this child were 4 in 1974 - 1975, she would have been born anywhere from 1970 - 1971, meaning the deceased would've been 60 - 61 years old at the time of her birth. It would be perfectly reasonable to deduce, then, that this child was the man's granddaughter.
Now looking back toward the Pam & Dwight (and I'm convinced it's "Pam & Dwight" instead of "Pam T. Dwight", since it was brought up earlier in the thread that the person who wrote this letter indicated the "and" by using a plus symbol. From the other contents of the letter, I can see why people are saying that Pam is the man's daughter and Dwight her husband. Pam and Dwight will also most probably be the little girl's parents. Now, the age range for the couple could've been anywhere from mid-20s in 1980 (if we're considering the man at the lower end of the age range) to about 40 in 1980. There's no certainty here since the age ranges are so wild. If you were to apply my own immediate family to this situation, where they all started having children in their thirties (e.g. Grandma was 34 when she gave birth to Mom and 67 when I was born, and I'm 32 and I still haven't given birth yet), it could be very logical that Pam gave birth to this daughter at 30 and would've been 40 in 1980, and her own dad could've also been 30 when his daughter was born, which would've set the man's age at death at 70 years old, and the granddaughter's age in 1980 as 10 (thus dating the photo back to 1974).
Also, if you were to look at the little girl's outfit and the way she's presented in this photo, it looks like she would've come from a more middle-class upbringing, or a blue collar upbringing with a stable, steady income from the parents. The way this income stability can be effected is if she were to have older parents, or parents who were at least 28 years old each, since traditionally younger parents would have less stable incomes and wouldn't be able to provide as well for their children. So we're looking at a Pam who was at least 37 years old in 1980 (if her daughter was 4 in 1975), and if her father was no younger than 23 at the time she was born (because I'm imagining the daughter was raised in a fairly stable household), that would place his age in 1980 as being at least 60, which is a pretty reasonable age to be if you're going to be a 9-year-old's grandfather in 1980. Meaning, I would ignore every potential on the lower end of the age range and place the emphasis at the uppermost decade range-wise.
Now, as far as how the granddaughter got dark reddish brown hair while her grandpa had blond/gray hair, one must consider that blond hair is a recessive trait that is most evident when at least two of one's grandparents have blond hair, so it's likely that the man's wife or ex-wife had brown or reddish brown hair, the daughter had light to medium brown hair, and the son-in-law had brown hair. So we may be looking for a couple or former couple (Pam & Dwight) who are in their late 60s - early 70s today, who are probably gray-haired now but who both had fully brown hair as recently as ca. 2000. Their daughter, who'll be 41 - 42 today, will probably have medium brown hair with red highlights that'll be highlighted by the sun. She probably has children of her own. One of them probably has a photo of themselves from when they were 4 or 5 when they looked just like their mom did in this photograph.
Now, it may take awhile -- maybe a decade or so -- but that person's going to be sifting through the Internet and land on this picture of their mom and think, "Hey, I looked like that when I was her age." They will probably compare their own childhood photo to this one and be compelled by the eerie resemblance, and think about how their mom came from Florida, possibly/probably Panama City. They will then ask their mom if they have any childhood photos of themselves and their mom will probably drag out a series of photos, one of which will include this very photo. Point is, this person's identity will probably be found, but only when this little girl's grown child[ren] land on this profile, put two and two together, and reunite their mother with her long-lost grandfather. Oh, and I don't believe this person would've ever been reported missing. I feel very strongly that this is a case of a father long estranged from the rest of his family (possibly divorced a long time ago from the family matriarch) and living an itinerant lifestyle, working sporadically and living in rented accomodations when he worked and living outside and scavenging or begging when he didn't. Perhaps the womam wrote the letter and sent the photograph back when she still wanted a relationship with her father, but stopped writing letters and sending photos when her affections waned. The little girl probably only ever had sporadic exposure to her grandfather and doesn't remember much about him.
God, I'm sorry for writing a little novella here. It's just -- this case has grabbed me by the you-know-whats and I'm really, really hoping the man's identity can eventually be found.
