It could be that they have a partial DNA profile but not a full karyotype. Or they *do* have a full profile and know that this child was female, but this info hasn't been publicly released yet.
Tricky, yes, but if, for example, Dulce, who was five when she disappeared, had one adult tooth, or had a filling in a baby tooth, and our little Winnie Doe had a full set of baby teeth, or no fillings/cavities, it would be an easy ruleout.
I'll add that I lost both my front top teeth at the same time around age six, so it's definitely possible for a child to have 'distinctive' teeth.
Yeah, I think it's a good name because it's gender neutral. Winnie the Pooh was male, and Winnie is also short for Winifred, a girl's name. So, it doesn't matter what gender Winnie Doe turns out to be, because the name will still fit.
Karyotype is just an image of chromosomes to rule out things like trisomy/monosomy and obvious structural abnormalities (not trying to be nit-picky just clarifying that karyotype is not what any laboratory uses to compare samples for matches)
I work in a cytogenetics lab. We do a lot of chromosomal testing on babies where the sex is unclear using karyotypes to determine if they're XX or XY (or XXY, X0, etc.). It would be done purely for sex determination, not for coparing against another DNA sample. I'm not sure if that's usually how sex determination is done on unidentified remains, though. That's just what I'm used to since that's what's used to determine sex in the field I work in
OH, my apologies, I completely misinterpreted your initial comment.I work in a cytogenetics lab. We do a lot of chromosomal testing on babies where the sex is unclear using karyotypes to determine if they're XX or XY (or XXY, X0, etc.). It would be done purely for sex determination, not for coparing against another DNA sample. I'm not sure if that's usually how sex determination is done on unidentified remains, though. That's just what I'm used to since that's what's used to determine sex in the field I work in
Could be possible they know the sex but are withholding it from the public bc of the sensitivity of the investigation?
www.missingkids.org
It's possible, I suppose, but I don't know why the gender of a child would be such a crucial piece of information to withhold. I can understand why the cause of death and certain circumstances would be withheld, to screen legitimate tips from time wasters, but gender? It's often one of the only things we know besides a height and age range for a Doe.
Yup. What a weird thing to withhold. OMG this child is a boy or a girl?! What sensitive info! Sarcasm obviously. I think they actually don’t know. It’s harder to tell on a prepubescent child.
Maybe bc they're already circling in on a particular identity and want to avoid speculation/finger-pointing by specifying if its a boy or a girl.
