That is one of the many things I wondered about. Was Argentina in the habit of doing expensive dental work on political prisoners before they shot them? And allowing women care of their eyelashes was a very gallant deed by their captors. It is possible but I doubt it. The whole political prisoner thing is very interesting but I can't draw a dotted line from arrested to prisoner to shooting pool at a KOA in SC to shot and dead by the side of a dark road. Remember that if "Jock" and the decedent were the same person, he would have had to be in the US the year before the murders, gone BACK to South America to be arrested in March 1976, and returned to the US to be shot and dumped that fall. I think that "Jock" may be another person, or Cesar is not the decedent. Or both. :banghead: They certainly do look like the couple Cesar and Maria, at least he does. You know, I think we use visual appearance wrongly on Websleuths, it should be used to rule out, not confirm.
I also read that it is believed that his dental work was probably not done in the US, which would support the foreign origins. I had not heard about the manicure. Well, he had some money or came from a country with good medical/dental care. Cuba maybe? Costa Rica?
I guess the only reasonable conclusion is that he had money to spend on such things. Poor people don't get manicures and have good dental work.
I like isotope analysis when you have nothing else. Check its use in the case of Caledonia Jane Doe, they have not found an identity yet but it is believed that she grew up in the San Diego area. We could find out where the Sumter County Does were early in their lives and the hair would tell us their recent movements. A country of origin would be most helpful in this case, as no one in the US is missing them.
How can we get the local coroner to do these tests?
The Argentine military did have a recuperation program to clean up the appearance of captives before they were executed. They were informed by the disastrous global reaction to Pinochet's abuses of 1973 and sought to conceal the appearance of torture. That is one reason Pinochet is a household name here, but few people know Argentina was responsible for perhaps 7x as many disappearances (22,000 vs. 3,000).
As far as the eyelashes---wouldn't she have naturally long eyelashes, with or without upkeep?
The KOA story is interesting. It might or might not apply. Also, a T-shirt is just a T-shirt. He might or might not have been at that event. It was reported in federal testimony that Batalion 601 actually was operating out of a thrift store in Southern Florida. That would give them access to clothing, jewelry, guns, whatever.
Argentine death squads have been known to dress their captives in different clothes before execution, sometimes placing the wrong IDs on them.
At the same time, it is certainly possible the Lugones couple was in the United States in 1975 as well.
Isotope analysis would be useful, but apparently we're still waiting on DNA results from 2007.
I am surprised you don't think Jane Doe looks like María Marta. I have two pro forensic artists who call the likeness "stunning." Not to mention several Websleuths.
I have seen similar likenesses here that turned out to be the wrong person. But a pair of them, together? Seems unlikely. And I haven't seen any information that proves this couldn't be the Argentines.
I do believe the human-rights groups etc. are operating on the idea that María Marta gave birth at ESMA in December 1976. But consider the source: Adolfo Scilingo, a complete flake who later recanted his testimony and said he was never even at that prison.
In short, the pair exactly matches the physical appearance of the Lugones couple, the m.o. exactly matches the work of the death squads, and the Operation Condor--Cuban exile--local mercenary methodology has already been proven in other cases in Europe and even the USA (Letelier).