Except wouldn't the wife's legal identity be tied to her birth date? If they got legit travel documents in her name the birth year would be way off. If they have to get fake ones I don't know that using his wife's name is any easier, may actually be riskier as she's a real person who is closely tied to TC and obviously not trying to cross the border or whatever? But I don't really know anything about identity theft or fake documents so I'm just speculating.
I was thinking along the same lines. Again, just speculating, but it would explain some of the puzzling responses,
if they had been led to believe this is actually the safer option. Just another way TC could manipulate this poor girl's tragic circumstances for his own benefit.