Identified! FL - Monroe Co., WhtFem UP15704, 15-18, in Atlantic Ocean, 'K' earrings, Feb'92 - may be Kathia Rodriguez Leon

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NamUs UP 15704


https://identifyus.org/en/cases/15704


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Unidentified White Female

Found Febrary 12, 1992 in Monroe County, FL
Body Condition:
Not recognizable - Traumatic injuries
Probable year of death: 1992


Vital Statistics
Estimated age: 15-18
Approximate Height: 60 estimate
Approximate Weight: 120 estimate.
Hair Color: Black
Medium length
Eye Color: unknown

Scars and marks: Nothing
.

Clothing & Accessories

Clothing:
XX red-purple-blue geometric design (possibly flowers) white background, collar tee shirt with 2 buttons.
White with navy stripes, thin long sleeve sweater with 1 large button at waist.
Yellow color para-shoot type pants with 4 button or snap closures


Jewerly:
left ear piercing with yellow metal initial "K" .
Right ear piercing with yellow metal initial "K" and 2nd piercing is a yellow metal hoop type setting without stone.


Footwear: nothing


Accessories:
The ring is described as a wire love knot; pierced ears

Identifiers
Fingerprints: Fingerprint not available
Dentals: Dental information / charting is currently not
available
DNA: sample is currently not available

Case History:
Founding floating in Atlantic ocean by mangroves.
 
Interesting clothing and jewellery. Shame there is not a single identifier.

Sent from my Lenovo TAB S8-50F using Tapatalk
 
Few info of this case in internet; found only link of crime watchers forum; perhaps some more information you could get on earrings.
 
She certainly doesn't look very Caucasian. I think she is biracial, the least. The description of the earrings are a bit strange, also the K earring as presented in the recon if you look at the PM picture in Namus. It's clear that she has two earrings in one ear. Something what looks like a letter, could easily be a K and another hooplike earring with a tiny flower. Or is that just me?
 
This explains a lot more. Have you seen this child? JANE MARATHON DOE1992

On February 12, 1992, an unidentified female was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean near 75th Street in Marathon, Florida, Monroe County. The female may have originated from Cuba, and she may have been a victim of a plane crash. The female is estimated to have been 15-18 years old in 1992. She had medium length black hair and stood approximately 5’00” tall. She was found wearing a short-sleeve white shirt with an abstract floral design, a white and navy blue long-sleeve cardigan sweater, and yellow pants. Reconstructed images of these clothing items are featured above. The female had pierced ears and was found wearing a yellow gold stud earring of the letter “K”. She also wore a yellow metal claps earring on her upper right ear. The main image above is a facial reconstruction completed by a NCMEC Forensic Artist and depicts what she may have looked like in life.
 
There were quite a few fatal air crashes 1991 and before 12 February 1992 in Florida, according to this list. (scroll down to find 1991 and 1992) Is there somebody from Florida who can make any sense of this. For me it's quite hard to locate the crash sites without using Google maps to find all the places. I guess the plane, if this theory is correct, must have crashed somewhere between Cuba and the Florida Keys....

Maybe she fell from a plane trying to get to America, or fell out without parachute/lost parachute (what is a yellow parachute like pants? ) or thrown out without parachute....just mumbling...I don't know....
 
It is also possible she was one of the 1992 Cuban boat people arriving on shore in the area but was caught in rough surf. Perhaps she could not swim, a wave knocked her under or rip tide pulled her away. Most arrivals were immediately turned over to family back then. If there is DNA she could possibly be matched to a distance relative here in the US.

The fact that her clothes were recognizable leads me to believe she wasn’t in the water for long. If it was a plane crash, it seems the condition of the body from impact would be noted as a huge identifiable factor. The planes’ manifest should have her name if the plane was reported missing.

New Wave of Cubans Sails to Florida Illegally
 
It is also possible she was one of the 1992 Cuban boat people arriving on shore in the area but was caught in rough surf. Perhaps she could not swim, a wave knocked her under or rip tide pulled her away. Most arrivals were immediately turned over to family back then. If there is DNA she could possibly be matched to a distance relative here in the US.

The fact that her clothes were recognizable leads me to believe she wasn’t in the water for long. If it was a plane crash, it seems the condition of the body from impact would be noted as a huge identifiable factor. The planes’ manifest should have her name if the plane was reported missing.

New Wave of Cubans Sails to Florida Illegally

I thought the "exodus" from Cuba by raft/boat started in 1994, but sure people could have tried earlier to reach "the promised land". Maybe she fell overboard and a speedboat went over her body, causing the traumatic injuries.
 
I thought the "exodus" from Cuba by raft/boat started in 1994, but sure people could have tried earlier to reach "the promised land". Maybe she fell overboard and a speedboat went over her body, causing the traumatic injuries.
Yes I agree similar damage could be from a boat. Her body could have been just below the surface and not even noticed. The Mariel boat lift was 1980 but then in the early 1990s the smuggling business really boomed. The article from the Oct. 1992 NY Times (link above) speaks to the numbers in 1991 and monthly numbers for 1992. I really think DNA would solve this mystery. If she in the mangroves then was brought in from the tides, she had a US destination, thus a US connection.
 
There were quite a few fatal air crashes 1991 and before 12 February 1992 in Florida, according to this list. (scroll down to find 1991 and 1992) Is there somebody from Florida who can make any sense of this. For me it's quite hard to locate the crash sites without using Google maps to find all the places. I guess the plane, if this theory is correct, must have crashed somewhere between Cuba and the Florida Keys....

Maybe she fell from a plane trying to get to America, or fell out without parachute/lost parachute (what is a yellow parachute like pants? ) or thrown out without parachute....just mumbling...I don't know....

Parachute pants were popular in the US in the 1980's
Parachute pants are a style of trousers characterized by the use of nylon, especially ripstop nylon. In the original tight-fitting style of the early 1980s, "parachute" referred to the pants' nylon material, similar to a parachute's. Parachute pants became a fad in US culture in the 1980s as part of the increased popularity of breakdancing.

The clothing company Bugle Boy manufactured the pants in the early 1980s, although they were not the first company to manufacture parachute pants. The company Panno D'or claims that they invented them, though this may not be true. However, it is true that Bugle Boy was the company that made them, seemingly overnight, immensely popular. Bugle Boy parachute pants are identifiable as having the word "Countdown" on a small tag above the rear pocket's zipper.

Teenage boys were the main wearers of parachute pants. They typically cost $25-$30 a pair. During the height of their popularity, 1984-1985, boys wearing parachute pants became ubiquitous. Bugle Boy did make pants for girls and women, though they remained most popular with males. They went out of fashion almost as quickly as they arrived, with the fad lasting about two years. Their slim, fitted look was eventually overtaken by much looser, baggy-style pants. Parachute pants played a pivotal role in 1980s fashion.
 
Oooh, I had some fancy red parachute pants back in the day. They looked awesome with my rainbow belt. I'm wondering if they were trying to describe more of just loose pants (like harem pants but not as extreme) or if they are describing the fabric like that of parachute pants. Too bad we can't see the actual clothes. I'd love to check out the labels.
 
Some websites have ID’d her as 12-14 yo Kathia Rodriguez Leon, a victim of the Cuba exodus who was killed along with her family when their cropduster crashed after running out of fuel. Her parents’ bodies was apparently found near this Doe’s and that why they believed that it might be her, however they’re still looking for next of kins to confirm this.
 
If the port was in FL, I would expect a lot of publicity...I believe FL has a few ports, and a port in Mobile, AL....The other possibility is a port from one of the many islands...
 

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