When the Internet was still in its infancy, civilians started compiling details?where and when a body was discovered, scars or tattoos, items of clothing or jewelry?in homespun databases. Then organizations such as the Florida Unidentified Decedents Database and the National Unidentified and Missing Persons System (NamUs?yes, like ?Name us?) began to provide crowdsourced fodde, allowing volunteers to link a body in, say, Idaho to a person reported missing in California.
Although the problem of missing persons and unidentified human remains in this country has existed for a long time, significant progress has been made in recent years. In 2003, the DNA Initiative was launched. The Office of Justice Program’s (OJP) National Institute of Justice (NIJ) began funding major efforts to maximize the use of DNA technology in our criminal justice system. Much of NIJ’s work has focused on developing tools to investigate and solve the cases of missing persons and unidentified decedents.
The NamUs databases are just one element of a broader program to improve the Nation’s capacity to address these cases. For example, NIJ also funds free testing of unidentified human remains and provides family reference-sample kits, at no charge, to any jurisdiction in the country. Other efforts include training law enforcement officers, medical examiners, judges, and attorneys on forensic DNA evidence.
In the spring of 2005, NIJ assembled Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials, medical examiners and coroners, forensic scientists, key policymakers, and victim advocates and families from around the country for a national strategy meeting in Philadelphia. The meeting, called the ?Identifying the Missing Summit,? defined major challenges in investigating and solving missing persons and unidentified decedent cases. As a result of that summit, the Deputy Attorney General created the National Missing Persons Task Force and charged the U.S. Department of Justice with identifying every available tool?and creating others?to solve these cases. The National Missing Persons Task Force identified the need to improve access to database information by people who can help solve missing persons and unidentified decedent cases. NamUs was created to meet that need.
The NamUs reporting and searching system will improve the quantity and quality of?and access to?data on missing persons and unidentified human remains. Through NamUs, a diverse community of criminal justice professionals, medical examiners and coroners, victim advocates, families of missing persons, and the general public now can contribute to solving these cases.
How Big Is the Problem?
It has been estimated that there are approximately 40,000 unidentified human remains in the offices of the Nation’s medical examiners and coroners or were buried or cremated before being identified (see Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains: The Nation’s Silent Mass Disaster). In June 2007, OJP’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), confirmed that, in a typical year, medical examiners and coroners handle approximately 4,400 unidentified human decedent cases, 1,000 of which remain unidentified after one year. (See theMedical Examiners and Coroners’ Offices, 2004 for the full report.)
BJS further identified the need to improve record-retention policies. As of 2004, more than half (51 percent) of the Nation’s medical examiners’ offices had no policy for retaining records?such as x-rays, DNA, or fingerprints?on unidentified human decedents. BJS also noted, however, that more than 90 percent of offices servicing large jurisdictions did have such a policy.
To further investigate the extent of the problem?and viable solutions?NIJ assembled an expert panel of medical examiners and coroners. The expert panel found that the primary?and overwhelming?need was for a central reporting system for unidentified human remains.
As NIJ investigated the challenges of missing persons and unidentified decedent cases, another problem was more fully revealed: the reporting of missing persons cases. Cases of missing persons 18 years old and younger must be reported, but reporting adult missing persons cases is voluntary. Only a handful of States have laws that require law enforcement agencies to prepare missing person reports on adults. Overall, there is a low rate of reporting these cases through NCIC. One of the major goals of NamUs is to meet this challenge. For example, NamUs will work with State clearinghouses and the public to ensure that data is included in NamUs and other national-level databases.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) is a national centralized repository and resource center for missing persons and unidentified decedent records. NamUs is a free online system that can be searched by medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement officials and the general public from all over the country in hopes of resolving these cases.
The Missing Persons Databasecontains information about missing persons that can be entered by anyone; however before it appears as a case on NamUs, the information is verified. NamUs provides a user with a variety of resources, including the ability to print missing persons posters and receive free biometric collection and testing assistance. Other resources include links to state clearinghouses, medical examiner and coroner offices, law enforcement agencies, victim assistance groups and pertinent legislation.
The Unidentified Persons Database contains information entered by medical examiners and coroners. Unidentified persons are people who have died and whose bodies have not been identified. Anyone can search this database using characteristics such as sex, race, distinct body features and even dental information.
The newly added UnClaimed Persons database (UCP) contains information about deceased persons who have been identified by name, but for whom no next of kin or family member has been identified or located to claim the body for burial or other disposition. Only medical examiners and corners may enter cases in the UCP database. However, the database is searchable by the public using a missing person’s name and year of birth.
When a new missing persons or unidentified decedent case is entered into NamUs, the system automatically performs cross-matching comparisons between the databases, searching for matches or similarities between cases.
NamUs provides free DNA testing and other forensic services, such as anthropology and odontology assistance. NamUs’ Missing Persons Database and Unidentified Persons Database are now available in Spanish.
Sources: NamUS