He isn’t missing…
Carole Moore
Missing Persons Contributor
Officer.com
“…he knows where he is.” Sound familiar? I know I heard that joke over and over when taking missing persons reports on adults. And most of the time, the missing person turned out to be a runaway or just someone who needed to put some time and distance between himself and his “real” life. But not always.
It’s the “not always” cases we’re going to talk about here. The child who disappears while walking home from school. The young mother who drops off the face of the earth. The college student or grandfather or construction worker who vanish, leaving behind a confused and deeply concerned family and a primary jurisdiction that hasn’t got the manpower to chase these cases unless there’s a clear indication of foul play right from the beginning.
I’m going to look at agency resources, local and national efforts to make missing persons investigations easier and developing technology. But not just for missing persons cases — we’ll also look at historic cases from the past as well as found, unidentified bodies. And here is where you come in.
Do you have a case you’d like to publicize? It can involve someone missing or found and not identified. Do you have a resource or technique that worked for you? Or an idea for something that could make the difference in these cases?
Send them to me. I’ll post them here. If there’s information on the web about this case, I’ll put up a link.
Maybe, together, we can bring someone home again.
Carol I was wondering why law enforcement doesnt reach out to different DNA databases for Unidentified persons. We know to make a match the missing person has to have been reported missing and entered into that database. Many of the cold case solved cases prove to be a missing person that was never reported missing so wouldnt be in a database for the UID to be compared to. Ancestry.com has a DNA project where a person can either order a DNA kit to submit or you can submit your own DNA values. It wont tell you who an unidentified person is but it may give a lead to what Family the person came from. I know people that have said they used it and found cousins they never knew existed. It might at least narrow the search field.
My grandfather Floyd Price has been missing for over 4 years now. He was living in Diamondhead, Ms. when he went missing on Feb. 4, 2004. The L.E. is too busy with other cases to even try to find him for my family. We need all the help we can get. Most of us live in Co. and cannot travel to Ms. to help look for him. I miss my grandfather very, very much and want him to be found. Can you please help us by talking to L.E down there or anything you can come up with that would help?
Thank You for your time.
Sincerely, Tammy Youngman
Anne,
I will have an expert answer that question very soon. It’s a good one.
Anne,
I can only speak for my own agency – the Houston Police Department. When a missing persons case goes unresolved for more than 30 days, the investigator contacts the reportee or complainant and advises them of their ability to submit a DNA sample for CODIS evaluation.
All we can do is try to get folks to provide a sample. We can not force the issue. We can take the sample, direst them to someone for collection, or have another law enforcement agency assist them if they are out of our jurisdiction. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the reportee or complainant does not submit. The case remains open of course, but when all leads have been exhausted, and without a DNA sample on file, the chances of a resolution are minimal.
My unit handles approximately 7500 cases per year. That’s missing adults, missing/runaway kids, and child custody cases. Almost all have a happy ending, but those that hang on, wear on the investigators as much as the family.
Ancestry.com, and others, are valuable tools to the missing persons investigator and are used frequently in conjunction with unidentified cases with medical examiner’s offices. However, many of those unidentified cases involve criminal acts. Because of the legal issues involved, CODIS is the best route to take for law enforcement. Now if we can just get a huge infusion of cash and resources for CODIS, so that the system could expand and return results in a timely manner, we would be in business. I’m not complaining. I remember life before CODIS, and know we are on the right track. I’m just impatient – One of my many character flaws I hope never changes.
Stuart Harris, Sergeant
Houston Police Department
Missing Persons Unit