Palynologists, or pollen experts, now have the ability to compare microscopic pollen samples to determine where the material originated. Among other things, they have identified pollen grains trapped in illegal drug shipments to help federal authorities against drug traffickers.

The victim found in New York was believed to be 13 to 19 years old when she was shot, pulled into a cornfield, shot again, and stripped of any identification. A farmer discovered her body in November 1979 while checking his fields off Route 20 in Caledonia, N.Y., about 20 miles south of Rochester.

The woman was described as 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing about 120 pounds with brown eyes and brown frosted hair. She also had a bikini tan line and was wearing a red nylon-lined wind breaker made by Auto Sports Inc.

Authorities have received hundreds of tips and tracked more than 10,000 leads across the U.S., Europe, Mexico and elsewhere. But no arrests have been made.

John York, the first investigator on the scene in 1979 who is now the Livingston County sheriff, reopened the case and believes the new discovery might yield clues to help solve the case.

Dougherty said the body was recently exhumed to pull DNA evidence and send the information to a new national database. That’s when the pollen was discovered thanks to a forensic study by Texas A&M University, he said.

Soon after the pollen discovery, authorities contacted Rich Lewis, a detective with the cold case unit of the Albuquerque Police Department. Lewis visited American Indian jewelers who told him that, according to photos, the jewelry found on the woman was likely replicas of Native American turquoise and silver jewelry.

“So this stuff could have been purchased anywhere, even made from a kit,” said Lewis. “Or it could have been made by hippies in northern New Mexico, which was very common at the time. We just don’t know.”

Still, Lewis said investigators have an obligation to re-examine the case, especially because of the new evidence that points to the Southwest.

Lewis said he doesn’t believe the woman was homeless or forgotten based on the new evidence.

“She was somebody who had a life,” he said. “And someone is missing her.”

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When his masked opponent in a red cape appears, the crowd erupts into cheers.

Lucha libre — or “free wrestling” in Spanish — is a brand of Mexican wrestling that dates to the 1930s. The sport came north to the United States, along with Mexican immigrants, and over the years spawned clubs in some larger U.S. cities with large Latino communities.

More recently, as the sport’s promoters target growing Mexican immigrant and Mexican-American markets, they and their wrestlers’ fictional personas have begun to adopt a more overtly political storyline revolving around immigration. It’s a move akin to what U.S. wrestling promoters did in the 1980s and 1990s, when they took on race and the Cold War, but with one key twist — now, the American is the bad guy.

One lucha libre promotion is leading the charge away from the slapstick and simple storylines with a tour in U.S. cities with sizable Latino populations, including events in Reno, Nev., and San Jose, Calif., this week. It’s using the recent events in Arizona as a backdrop while pitting popular masked Mexican wrestlers against American “bad guys.”

“It’s something that we’ve been building in our TV shows and we’ve gotten a lot of positive reaction to it,” said Steve Ship, CEO of Lucha Libre USA, which this week is launching a “Masked Warriors” tour that will also stop in Phoenix, Los Angeles and Houston. “So we are bringing it right to our audience.”

SB1070, signed by Gov. Brewer in 2010, requires all immigrants in Arizona to obtain or carry immigration registration papers and requires police, while enforcing other laws, to question people’s immigration status if there is a reasonable suspicion they’re in the country illegally. The law is being challenged by the federal government and has sparked protests and boycotts against Arizona by Latino advocates around the country.

On shows that have aired on Spanish-language stations and MTV2, RJ Brewer — whose real name is John Stagikas and works as a real estate agent in Massachusetts — advocates for deportations and calls on Americans to support laws that target illegal immigrants.

“This is different than any other program I’ve been involved with because usually I have to work really hard to get the audience to hate me,” Stagikas said in an interview with The Associated Press. “With this, I just walk in with the Arizona flag and the audience boos before I even say a word.”

Popular Mexican luchador and immigrant hero known as Blue Demon, Jr., who is RJ Brewer’s main opponent, said he enjoys the role as the hero and getting people to rally against a “big mouth” like RJ Brewer. He thinks the rivalry will draw more needed attention to the immigration debate.

“I represent the Latino people. We are human beings,” said the wrestler, who wears a mask and whose name is not publicly known, from his Mexico City home. “I support the immigrant people no matter what country they come from.”

Lucha Libre USA is pushing the immigrant storyline as its main draw on websites, social media, on Spanish-language television and through YouTube videos. Just how many new fans the tactic will draw isn’t yet known. So far, ticket sales range from 3,000 to 6,000 at venues on the upcoming tour, according to Ship.

“It sounds like clever piece of theater,” said Tatcho Mindiola, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of the Houston. “It may have the effect of solidifying that sense of community (among Latinos) since most can identify with what’s going on Arizona. But I don’t think it will result with rallies in the streets.”

Mindiola said focusing on the immigration debate is smart since the issues dominate coverage on Spanish-language media and resonate with many U.S.-born Latinos.

To be sure, politics and professional wrestling often have mixed. Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer, a newsletter that follows professional wrestling, said during U.S. foreign affairs flaps, the “foreign menace,” whether it was the Iron Sheik during the Iran hostage crisis or Russian bad guy Nikolai Volkoff during the Cold War, always played roles in giving hero stars a heel everyone could hate.

And in the 1980s, the popular Junkyard Dog, played by the late Sylvester Ritter, who was black, helped break down racial conflicts by acting as the ultimate good guy in southern states where racial tensions were still present.

Even in smaller lucha libre promotions in Tijuana, Mexico, and south Texas border towns, promoters used American border patrol heels to fight masked good guys to build rivalries, Meltzer said. But usually those storylines remained simple since the smaller promotions didn’t have big television contracts to develop conflicts and characters. Typically, rivalries were based on well-known characters shifting allegiances, wrestlers making fun of each other’s body types, or they were simply based on personality differences.

With Lucha Libre USA, the character of RJ Brewer has been built around promotional videos in which he openly shows disdain for anything “foreign.” In one video, Stagikas is shown “patrolling” the Arizona-Mexico border after his mom tipped him off that some Mexican luchadores were about to cross over illegally.

Blue Demon, Jr., is shown as the protector of immigrants and a wrestler who is fighting for a larger cause.

Still, Meltzer said Lucha Libre USA was taking a big swing by booking large venues in major markets, especially because pro wrestling overall is suffering due to the economy.

“I don’t know how they are going to do it,” said Meltzer. “Lucha libre is even having a hard time in Mexico.”

Ship said it’s a risk he’s willing to take. He said he has no problem rolling the dice at putting together the multicity tour packed with lights, fireworks and high tech effects because that market hasn’t been tapped.

“The Hispanic market is a growing market that few are going after,” said Ship, referring to the growing U.S. Latino population. “In many cases, we are seeing multigenerational families coming out to cheer for their luchadores. So, I think we’ll be expanding in the future.”

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Wiens will not resemble “either what he used to be or the donor,” but something in between, said Pomahac (POE’-ma-hawk). “The tissues are really molded on a new person.”

The transplant was not able to restore Wiens’ sight, and some nerves were so badly damaged from his injury that he likely will have only partial sensation on his left cheek and left forehead, the surgeon said.

Wiens has been able to talk to his family on the phone, said his grandfather, Del Peterson, who attended the news conference in Boston.

“When I first saw him after the injury, I had no idea what was to follow,” Peterson said. “But he is determined to get well, and to move on with his life, to do something with his life.”

He said Wiens hopes to become an advocate for facial donations, and thanked the donor family, saying, “You will forever remain in our hearts and our prayers and we are grateful for your selflessness.”

The surgery was paid for by the Defense Department; the hospital has a $3.4 million grant from the military for transplant research.

The new federal health care law helped make the operation possible, by allowing Wiens to get insurance coverage for the expensive drugs he will need lifelong to prevent rejection of his new face.

Wiens had no insurance when he was injured; Medicaid covered about two dozen surgeries until his disability payments put him over the income limit. The new law allowed him to qualify for coverage under his father’s plan for the drugs until he turns 26 in May. Then he’ll be eligible to receive Medicare, which covers the disabled as well as those over 65.

In an Associated Press story and a YouTube video last fall, Wiens spoke poignantly about why he wanted a transplant and how he wanted to smile again and feel kisses from his 3-year-old daughter. Face transplants give horribly disfigured people hope of a new option “rather than looking in the mirror and hating what they see,” he said.

This was the second face transplant the Boston hospital has performed; the previous one was in April 2009 — the partial replacement of the face of a man who suffered traumatic facial injuries from a freak accident.

One of the two people on the hospital’s waiting list for a face transplant is Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman who was mauled and blinded by a friend’s 200-pound chimpanzee in 2009. The animal ripped off Nash’s hands, nose, lips and eyelids. She’s also waiting for a hands transplant.

The world’s first face transplant, also a partial, was done in France in 2005 on a woman mauled by her dog. Doctors in Spain performed the first full face transplant last March for a farmer who was unable to breathe or eat on his own after accidentally shooting himself in the face.

Marchione reported from Milwaukee