Hello, have been reading this case for a while, but only was able to get my account approved.
There had been a bunch of speculation about FLEK's sex. I thought I would bring up some stuff from the live chat with Velling.
http://embed.scribblelive.com/Embed/v5.aspx?Id=132085&Page=1
FLEK did not have any scars or tattoos. A lot of people have commented about the mark on her forhead in one of the pictures. I never gave this much credit, but some have talked about it being a scar. I think if it were it would have been remarked upon. Also, just today I was watching someone get interviewed on TV and the lighting showed the exact same marking on their forehead.
Regarding questions about FLEKs sex, I think we can conclude she was female. For one thing, she had a baby. I dont know how much more conclusive you can be. But beyond that, in the livechat Velling states, Regarding DNA: The FBI Laboratorys Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) has a Missing Persons DNA reference profile from missing persons. We checked our DNA against those files without success. I also posted the DNA on Ancestry.com under Doe family.
eeleAN
Short Tandem Repeat (STR) Profiles are the most discriminating of the three DNA profiles.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are passed to MALE and FEMALE children, but only from the mother.
All females sharing the same maternal lineage will share the same mtDNA profile.
STR and mtDNA profiles have been developed for the samples were submitted.
The DNA profile obtained from this sample is consistent with a female contributor.
Jane Doe DNA lab results use SNP markers in her mtDNA and autosomal DNA.
STR profiles dont tell you much other than if two people are closely related or the same person. STR profiles, for example, would not answer the Marfan question. You would need to sequence the fibrillin 1 gene for that. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I dont think you can tell sex (or any other physical characteristics) from STR profiles because it is looking at non-coding regions of DNA.