While I was in Poland I got an email from the brother of a missing woman. He explained that he lived in Australia, and he knew his sister had gone missing in California a number of years ago, and he was visiting California in June, and did I have any information about her disappearance?
I did not. But the information in his email provided an answer to something I’d wondered about in relation to her case.
The woman had an unusual appearance to me. She had very dark skin and sort of looked like she was black, but I didn’t think she actually was. She certainly didn’t look white. The California Department of Justice had her classified as “other Asian” but that didn’t mean much to me. I wondered if she might be a Pacific Islander, but CDOJ actually has a “Pacific Islander” classification and they hadn’t put her in it.
When the man said he was Australian, it suddenly hit me: this woman is almost certainly aboriginal — the very first on the Charley Project if I’m not mistaken. I checked out photos of aboriginal Australians and she looks very much like them.
So now what do I call her? Should I perhaps list her as “Pacific Islander” and explain she’s of aboriginal descent?
This particular detail could turn out to be very important if her body is found — there can’t be that many aboriginal Australian UIDs in North America.
The Charley Project Blog 