Carole Moore
Missing Persons Contributor
Officer.com
For those who’ve lost their ways home.
Ellen Leach is one of many volunteers who work with the Internet, law enforcement and families to match found and unidentified bodies to persons who have been reported missing. Her organization is called
Porchlight Missing and Unidentified. The Gulfport, Mississippi, resident claims three “solves†– not a bad record for someone who has no official connection to law enforcement.
In a
case spotlighted on the CBS news program, 48 Hours , Leach played a critical role in linking two cases: a skull found in a bucket of cement in Missouri and the disappearance of a missing father of two, Gregory May.
An avid Civil War collector and antiquities dealer, May vanished from his Iowa home without telling anyone he was leaving. After one of May’s friends was spotted selling off May’s collection, investigators made a case against the man, Doug DeBruin, for May’s murder. As DeBruin’s trial approached, police continued their efforts to find May’s body. Then, days before the case was to go to trial, Leach – who at the time was a cashier at Home Depot – connected the dots. She contacted investigators and, as she surmised, the skull turned out to be that of the missing man.
This isn’t the only time Leach’s dedication to looking for a link between recovered, unidentified remains and missing persons has paid off for law enforcement. And Leach’s match isn’t the only one made by cops, families or interested third parties.
More about this is in future posts. Here’s another missing person who needs to be brought home. Let's bring this missing child home:
http://www.pollyklaas.org/missing/kids/chioma-ezronesha-gray.html
