Mystery couple murdered in South Carolina, 1976 - #6

[Sweetluv]

I also agree with this theory!

 

[Sweetluv]

Young, attractive, well groomed couple....murdered execution style and BOTH unidentified for 40 years...
My thoughts, he prob did not grow up wealthy. Sounds like he needed a lot of dental work due not having it earlier on. Maybe his (lifestyle) now allowed him to have it. Seems like appearance was key. Groomed, jewelry, and her outfit including the pink wedged sandles sounds cute and hip for lack of a better word. Drug running sounds logical. Maybe it was a family thing, a reason why no one has come forward.

 

[Ozoner]

Young, attractive, well groomed couple....murdered execution style and BOTH unidentified for 40 years...
My thoughts, he prob did not grow up wealthy. Sounds like he needed a lot of dental work due not having it earlier on. Maybe his (lifestyle) now allowed him to have it. Seems like appearance was key. Groomed, jewelry, and her outfit including the pink wedged sandles sounds cute and hip for lack of a better word. Drug running sounds logical. Maybe it was a family thing, a reason why no one has come forward.

I think he needed dental work because of a motorcycle accident. That would fit with the claims that the couple was seen with a motorcycle. (He had an auto racing T-shirt on, so he may have been into extreme or high-adrenaline sports in general, in which case many kinds of accidents would be plausible.)
The drug-running theory is possible, but there's really no evidence for it, whereas one could say that the lack of a vehicle is evidence of carjacking.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

Their mode of transportation, if it could be confirmed (old Quebec license plate found in local junk yard or something) could potentially be the key to cracking this case wide open...

I was watching funny videos on YouTube and this one popped up - Lebanese-Canadian man, raised in Quebec:

[video=youtube;Ae913QSPsAk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae913QSPsAk[/video]

 

[Sherwood Park]

Their mode of transportation, if it could be confirmed (old Quebec license plate found in local junk yard or something) could potentially be the key to cracking this case wide open...

I was watching funny videos on YouTube and this one popped up - Lebanese-Canadian man, raised in Quebec:

[video=youtube;Ae913QSPsAk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae913QSPsAk[/video]

Yes, a cute video. Regarding Lebanese-Quebecers, there are plenty. It's not uncommon, same with those of Moroccan and Algerian decent.

 

[TooCurious]

The first 2 pics were taken as they were being registered to get married. If we assume they are in front of a window that starts from the floor up or even a foot off the floor and the paynes are 12x12, it sure looks like he would be 6'1 and she would be about 5'5

 

[Ozoner]

View attachment 130028 View attachment 130029
View attachment 130030 View attachment 130031

The first 2 pics were taken as they were being registered to get married. If we assume they are in front of a window that starts from the floor up or even a foot off the floor and the paynes are 12x12, it sure looks like he would be 6'1 and she would be about 5'5

Those morgue photos are post-embalming. It would be more useful to post side-by-sides with crime scene photos.

 

[Cryptic]

Some drug dealers, especially the small-town variety, are unfortunately addicts themselves. These dealers tend not to do well running their, err, "business" because they are always getting high on their supply, which doesn't leave much "product" to sell. That's when robberies occur.

Well said.

If drugs were involved, my guess is that it would have to have a high dollar value. Running say, marijuana back to Canada on a motorcycle would not be profitable. Cocaine, on the other hand, is a different story.

Thus, perhaps (as you implied): Couple are fashionable drug runners, but not really users. The couple are not big time smugglers, but are looking to a make small end commerical level purchase to run back to Canada. They drift into Charleston, perhaps after hearing rumors that commercial quantities of cocaine are available there.

After asking around, they then meet precisely the kind of local drug dealer that you describe. The fact that they are not local and could well be carrying a relatively large amount of cash on them makes them an easy target for a "rip off" robbery.

 

[TooCurious]

Those morgue photos are post-embalming. It would be more useful to post side-by-sides with crime scene photos.

Haven't seen a good crime scene photo of John Doe to compare, do you have one? I did find this comparison though


All I have seen is this 1

 

[Sweetluv]

Who is this couple and what is the story surrounding their disappearance?

 

[Triss]

They are Maria Marta Vasquez and her husband, Cesar Lugones. They were arrested in 1976 in Argentina during the Dirty War and disappeared under suspicious circumstances. It is believed Maria Marta was pregnant by the time she was arrested. This couple was discussed here before, personally I don't think they are the mystery couple because the circumstances don't match and there are no moles on Maria Marta's face that are so prominent on Jane's face. I agree that both couples look very similar and that makes me wonder if our Does were south American.

 

[Sweetluv]

Thank you Triss.
I can see a resemblance between the females but, I don't think they are our couple.

 

[Ozoner]

Haven't seen a good crime scene photo of John Doe to compare, do you have one? I did find this comparison though

All I have seen is this 1

The ones you posted are among the ones I've seen before; I guess they're not all that clear. I believe I've seen some full-body versions as well (which make Jacques look extremely thin).

Based on the morgue photos, the woman can be excluded based on the hairline: the Argentinian woman has a slight widow's peak that Jane Doe does not have.

 

[TooCurious]

They are Maria Marta Vasquez and her husband, Cesar Lugones. They were arrested in 1976 in Argentina during the Dirty War and disappeared under suspicious circumstances. It is believed Maria Marta was pregnant by the time she was arrested. This couple was discussed here before, personally I don't think they are the mystery couple because the circumstances don't match and there are no moles on Maria Marta's face that are so prominent on Jane's face. I agree that both couples look very similar and that makes me wonder if our Does were south American.

Actually the report was she got pregnant after she was taken and had a son. This was a report from only 1 person and has never been proven. I thought that the moles were very prominent also but then I thought they were a little too prominent. Could they have been highlighted to make them stand out more since the pic was in black and white? They do look similar IMO, heights match up, Jon Doe was very skinny with a small neck, so was Cesar. Looking at the morgue photos he looks like he wore glasses. The female in the composite and Mario are strikingly similar. The composite shows the lady with a small widow's peak as well. The prominence of the moles are a question though. The time frame matches up, the pair look really similar to the does and they have never been found. How they made here is another mystery but I think it would take dna to disprove or eliminate them as a possibility. Speaking dna, has a profile ever been done on them? see how dark they Are? 2 perfect round moles

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

Yeah, Maria had her baby in December 1976, months after this Jane Doe was found murdered

The picture gets more grim concerning the couple's fate (this excerpt from Wikipedia):
"María Marta and her husband were part of the Belén project group that carried out tasks of social, religious and political promotion in a parish in the shanty town of Flores, Buenos Aires. All were kidnapped in 1976 by the ESMA, where after being tortured they would have been taken on death flights." (Rough translation from Spanish)

One of the reasons I have not considered this Argentinian couple to be the Sumter Does is due to their likely method of execution. The ****s involved in Argentina's "dirty war" were apparently notorious for these death flights, in which people were blindfolded and put on a plane, then once airborne, shoved out the plane's doors into the sea below. They wanted no evidence of what they'd done to these people, many of whom were branded "subversive" and "enemies of the state" for the simple crime of doing humanitarian work in the slums. The fact that Maria was either an expectant or new mother would not have spared them from this psychopathic regime.

Both Maria and Cesar, like the Sumter Does, were from middle-class homes, and were attractive and well-dressed. Sadly, the comparison ends there.

 

[Bit of hope]

 

[Triss]

I hope the DNA Doe Project will look into this case. These people need their names back.

 

[T rex]

How bout this guy? Lost at sea in 1975 and presumed dead. You can find some much better pictures. I think his eyes are brown but there are a few pics that make me think possibly blue.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bas_Jan_Ader

 

[TooCurious]

Yeah, Maria had her baby in December 1976, months after this Jane Doe was found murdered

The picture gets more grim concerning the couple's fate (this excerpt from Wikipedia):
"María Marta and her husband were part of the Belén project group that carried out tasks of social, religious and political promotion in a parish in the shanty town of Flores, Buenos Aires. All were kidnapped in 1976 by the ESMA, where after being tortured they would have been taken on death flights." (Rough translation from Spanish)

One of the reasons I have not considered this Argentinian couple to be the Sumter Does is due to their likely method of execution. The ****s involved in Argentina's "dirty war" were apparently notorious for these death flights, in which people were blindfolded and put on a plane, then once airborne, shoved out the plane's doors into the sea below. They wanted no evidence of what they'd done to these people, many of whom were branded "subversive" and "enemies of the state" for the simple crime of doing humanitarian work in the slums. The fact that Maria was either an expectant or new mother would not have spared them from this psychopathic regime.

Both Maria and Cesar, like the Sumter Does, were from middle-class homes, and were attractive and well-dressed. Sadly, the comparison ends there.

Please provide source for Maria having her baby in December 1976. No family has ever confirmed this that I have read. This is all just info from one person as far as I have seen and he could very well have had ulterior motives.

I am not saying the Does are Maria and Cesar but I am saying there is not enough fact to discount them. How do 2 people this age get murdered and never get identified? How was no one not looking for either? DNA needs to discount these 2. There isn't a closers match to Jane Doe than Maria from what I have seen. Seriously, look at the composite sketch campared to the pic of Maria. That's pretty close. Also, why doesn't the composite make the moles as prominent as they were in the morgue pic?

 

[T rex]

Please provide source for Maria having her baby in December 1976. No family has ever confirmed this that I have read. This is all just info from one person as far as I have seen and he could very well have had ulterior motives.

I am not saying the Does are Maria and Cesar but I am saying there is not enough fact to discount them. How do 2 people this age get murdered and never get identified? How was no one not looking for either? DNA needs to discount these 2. There isn't a closers match to Jane Doe than Maria from what I have seen. Seriously, look at the composite sketch campared to the pic of Maria. That's pretty close. Also, why doesn't the composite make the moles as prominent as they were in the morgue pic?

You would think if a woman was being tortured that she would not complete a pregnancy but would probably have a miscarriage.