WA WA - Seattle, WhtFem 30-50, 159UFWA, UP12916, alias 'Mary Anderson', copper IUD, breast surgery scars, Oct'96

[Mandala]

Persian communities in the US are incredibly close-knit, everyone-knows-everyone type situation. Has anyone tried posting in Iranian-American/Iranian immigrant Facebook groups? I don't even know what exactly to look for but I am sure that someone would somehow recognize her (especially if someone could make a Farsi and English flyer).

I don’t know of any FB groups, but this is a good idea. I’m hoping someone here might know of some to get this case out there.
If the Persian communities are close knit in the US it baffles me that no one came forward who recognised her. I also wonder what US state she lived in and for how long. Unless she was a recluse, she had to have had people she interacted with (like a doctor, people at the grocery store, chemist etc). Did she have a job? Family? Friends? What happened to this poor woman?

 

[MarziPanda]

I don’t know of any FB groups, but this is a good idea. I’m hoping someone here might know of some to get this case out there.
If the Persian communities are close knit in the US it baffles me that no one came forward who recognised her. I also wonder what US state she lived in and for how long. Unless she was a recluse, she had to have had people she interacted with (like a doctor, people at the grocery store, chemist etc). Did she have a job? Family? Friends? What happened to this poor woman?

I wonder if the initial assumption that she was white, plus the typically white American sounding false name, meant anyone who knew her and recognised the recon would have dismissed the idea that it could be her. Or possibly the recon just didn't reach anyone who knew her.

 

[Mandala]

I wonder if the initial assumption that she was white, plus the typically white American sounding false name, meant anyone who knew her and recognised the recon would have dismissed the idea that it could be her. Or possibly the recon just didn't reach anyone who knew her.

If they had used the real photo of her face and put it out in the media someone would have recognised her. IMO the recon looks nothing like her. It makes me wonder how much media this case actually got at the time. Probably not much, maybe just in the Seattle area. It needs to go US wide, to all states.

 

[parliamenth0l]

I don’t know of any FB groups, but this is a good idea. I’m hoping someone here might know of some to get this case out there.
If the Persian communities are close knit in the US it baffles me that no one came forward who recognised her. I also wonder what US state she lived in and for how long. Unless she was a recluse, she had to have had people she interacted with (like a doctor, people at the grocery store, chemist etc). Did she have a job? Family? Friends? What happened to this poor woman?

I am 100% certain it is for a few reasons:
#1 - the reconstruction looks nothing like her. Her postmortem photo is really SFW and I'm not sure why they couldn't have used that one.
#2 - she was said to just be white initially, no indication that she was Persian, I'm sure it didn't ring a bell to her family or people who knew her.
#3 - Seattle doesn't really have a Persian community, and she was likely from a different state, given the lengths she went to protect her identity. I never see unidentified decedents on the news from other cities/states, hardly even if they are in my city/state. I doubt this news was nationwide at the time.

Basically exactly what @Mandala and @MarziPanda said!

 

[parliamenth0l]

I am 100% certain it is for a few reasons:
#1 - the reconstruction looks nothing like her. Her postmortem photo is really SFW and I'm not sure why they couldn't have used that one.
#2 - she was said to just be white initially, no indication that she was Persian, I'm sure it didn't ring a bell to her family or people who knew her.
#3 - Seattle doesn't really have a Persian community, and she was likely from a different state, given the lengths she went to protect her identity. I never see unidentified decedents on the news from other cities/states, hardly even if they are in my city/state. I doubt this news was nationwide at the time.

Basically exactly what @Mandala and @MarziPanda said!

Iranian Americans - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"In 2004, about half of all Persian Americans were estimated to live in California."

"Roughly half of the nation's Iranians reside in the state of California alone. Other large communities include New York/New Jersey which have 9.1% of the U.S.'s Iranian population, followed by Washington, DC/Maryland/Virginia (8.3%) and Texas (6.7%)."

This data is from the 2000s, so not far off. Statistically speaking she is most likely to have been from CA or NY.

If she's Afghan (far less likely, smaller diaspora) then it's about the same in terms of dispersion: Afghan Americans - Wikipedia though the Wikipedia page indicates there exists a small Afghan American community in Seattle (4,700 in 2017-2021... nothing esp considering this was in the 90s). For some reason though I just don't think she's Afghan.

 

[Aurora90]

Iranian Americans - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"In 2004, about half of all Persian Americans were estimated to live in California."

"Roughly half of the nation's Iranians reside in the state of California alone. Other large communities include New York/New Jersey which have 9.1% of the U.S.'s Iranian population, followed by Washington, DC/Maryland/Virginia (8.3%) and Texas (6.7%)."

This data is from the 2000s, so not far off. Statistically speaking she is most likely to have been from CA or NY.

If she's Afghan (far less likely, smaller diaspora) then it's about the same in terms of dispersion: Afghan Americans - Wikipedia though the Wikipedia page indicates there exists a small Afghan American community in Seattle (4,700 in 2017-2021... nothing esp considering this was in the 90s). For some reason though I just don't think she's Afghan.

I was literally thinking she was from California like the Persian woman I initially thought this Doe was.

I still think she could be related to the Roxanna.

 

[Friday Fan]

I get the impression she was quiet and pretty much kept to herself. I wonder if she told a few friends that she was moving either across the country or back to Iran? This way, no one would look for her.

If she is Afghan, much harder to ID.

 

[Warwick1991]

I get the impression she was quiet and pretty much kept to herself. I wonder if she told a few friends that she was moving either across the country or back to Iran? This way, no one would look for her.

If she is Afghan, much harder to ID.

During the period of Soviet influence and prior to 1992, women in Afghanistan had substantial freedoms under the Marxist regime that later fell to the Taliban. Perhaps "Mary" was educated, and fled Afghanistan as the regime collapsed. She would likely have had few acquaintances in the US, and perhaps no family members here. I'd agree that she'd be very hard to ID.

Given a choice between an Iranian or Afghan identity for "Mary," I lean towards an Iranian identity.

 

[parliamenth0l]

I get the impression she was quiet and pretty much kept to herself. I wonder if she told a few friends that she was moving either across the country or back to Iran? This way, no one would look for her.

If she is Afghan, much harder to ID.

That’s a great theory. I get that impression too, for some reason.

 

[parliamenth0l]

During the period of Soviet influence and prior to 1992, women in Afghanistan had substantial freedoms under the Marxist regime that later fell to the Taliban. Perhaps "Mary" was educated, and fled Afghanistan as the regime collapsed. She would likely have had few acquaintances in the US, and perhaps no family members here. I'd agree that she'd be very hard to ID.

Given a choice between an Iranian or Afghan identity for "Mary," I lean towards an Iranian identity.

Very true, and the timeline would work too. I hope she’s Iranian just for identification’s sake, way more Iranian-Americans that could recognize her than Afghan-Americans.