I have to disagree, FLEK has some very unique characteristics. For what its worth Ive been quietly following this thread for many many months and have seen tons of pictures and none have jumped out at me. There have been some peoples features that FLEK seems to resemble but never have I actually seen FLEK's unique features first resembled in someone else when looking at pictures. The resemblence is absouletly remarkable. Call it hunch or whatever but those two people resemble eachother too much not to be related.
Some sort of relation or closeness to the family would make her receipt of BST's birth certificate more plausible. That she had access to family documents and other information seems much more likely than a total absence of vetting by the records officials in Kern County, California.
Presently, to receive an authorized birth cert in California you have to be one of the following. I assume the requirements were similar in 1988:
- The registrant or a parent or legal guardian of the registrant.
- A party entitled to receive the record as a result of a court order, or an attorney or a licensed adoption agency seeking the birth record in order to comply with the requirements of Section 3140 or 7603 of the Family Code.
- A member of a law enforcement agency or a representative of another governmental agency, as provided by law, who is conducting official business.
- A child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner of the registrant.
- An attorney representing the registrant or the registrant's estate, or any person or agency empowered by statute or appointed by a court to act on behalf of the registrant or the registrant's estate.
All that was needed was a notarized affidafit or sworn statement that one was an "authorized person". Perhaps the SSA investigator should canvas Notaries in King and Pierce counties to check their files from the late 80's. It's a long shot but maybe worth trying.