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What Every Missing Person Investigator Must Know; Missing persons Investigator Primer
Topic Started: Mar 20 2010, 10:36 PM (844 Views)
braveheart
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A Guide to
Missing Persons Investigation
From the
End-User’s Point of View

David Van Norman
Deputy Coroner Investigator
Missing Persons/ UID Coordinator
Coroner Division
Sheriff’s Department
San Bernardino County, CA
January 2009

INTRODUCTION
The epidemic of missing persons in the United States is the scourge of a modern
society. In the age of the internet, supercomputers, connectivity, and CSI, how
can there be over 110,000 people whose locations are unknown in the United
States?

In that same society how can there be an estimated 40,000 unidentified dead
throughout the US? If we accept the premise that the majority, if not all, of these
unidentified deceased were reported missing somewhere, we must ask why
haven’t these cases (the unidentified and the missing) been linked together?
Where is the missing link between them?

It is not my intention to lecture investigators in conducting the search for a
missing person; this is not my sphere of expertise. It is, however, my intention to
share with the professional investigator my perspective as the end-user of your
investigative product. What I describe here is the result of my training and
experience. I have attended the US Department of Justice, National Institute of
Justice (NIJ) Missing Person Regional Training (West) seminar, and assisted the
California Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Missing Person
Investigation Guidelines revision 2006 as a subject matter expert. I was invited
to the Forensic Science Training Workshop for Identification hosted by the
Center for Human Identification, Fort Worth, TX. I have investigated over 6,000
deaths and have identified countless unidentified deceased.

The fact is that the vast majority of missing person cases resolve themselves by
the return of the missing person, through no intervention by law enforcement.
This fact is both a blessing and a curse, for it leaves many misguided personnel
to invest little or no time into the basics of the investigative process, counting on
the missing person’s return. This has had, and will continue to have, dire
consequences for the true at-risk missing person cases and the missing person’s
family.

As a death investigator in a large county (at 20,000 square miles, San
Bernardino County is one of the largest county organization in the world -
outranking 9 states in size), with an estimated 2 million residents (San
Bernardino ranks over 15 states in population), I coordinate the investigation of
nearly 100 unidentified person cases per year. Like missing person cases, the
vast majority of these cases are identified within hours or days. However, that
still leaves an average of five cases per year that are not identified and may not
be identified for months, or years, if ever. Currently, approximately 250
unidentified cases are under active investigation going back to 1937.

How are those approximately 95% cases identified? Forget what you saw on last
night’s episode of CSI! There are primarily only three scientifically-acceptable
ways to identify someone who is either unwilling or unable to identify themselves:
fingerprints, dental records, and DNA. The vast majority, well over 90%, are
identified by fingerprints.

But, we are not always so lucky. The kinds of cases that have not been identified
run the gamut from shooting victims brought to the emergency room, a decomposed
body found in an open field, or mummified bodies found on a hillside. By
far, though, the most common and challenging unidentified cases are those that
were found months or years after death in the desert (which makes up about
90% of the county), as fragmentary skeletal remains scattered over hundreds of
yards.

Fingerprints, dental records, and DNA! These are the critical minimum records
that must be submitted into law enforcement’s searchable databases. These are
the missing links.
Shockingly, missing persons records across the United States include these
identifiers at the following rates:
• Fingerprints – Less than 1%
• Dental Records – About 4%
• DNA – Much less than 1%

No wonder there are 40,000 unidentified persons!

ATTITUDES
When someone is reported missing the family has every right to expect that
some massive law enforcement investigative machine trundles into action; police
fan out in all directions, and the search is on for the missing person – just like on
TV! But, you and I know that for the vast majority of missing persons cases nothing
can be further from the truth!

In the real world missing-person detectives are overwhelmed by the shear volume
of missing persons cases (in my jurisdiction, San Bernardino County, California,
10,000 persons are reported missing every year!), not to mention the plethora
of other investigative duties to which most detectives are assigned, including
investigating rapes, assaults, burglaries, etc. Most detectives receive no
special training in missing persons investigation, which is unfortunate in light of
the fact that the missing person assignment is like no other type of law enforcement
duty – requiring an entirely different kind of focus and skill set.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for certain attitudes of the past to be passed
down from training officers to the rank and file, who will eventually become missing
persons investigators or detectives. Not every investigator views assignment
to missing persons with enthusiasm; many seem to believe they have drawn the
short straw in police duties.

That lack of enthusiasm permeates their work – even more so if the investigator
has absorbed some old-timer’s attitude. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve
been told by an investigator: “The kid ran away! She left of her own accord. It’s
not like she was kidnapped!” My response to these officers is that unless the investigator
thinks that the 16 year old runaway girl ran off to Las Vegas and is upstairs
at the Hilton enjoying bon-bons in the penthouse suite, where do they think
she is? She is far more likely to be living on the street, without parental supervision,
exposed to every scum-sucking ba***rd trolling like sharks for little girls just
like her! You’ll have to excuse me if I consider her to be at risk.

Another common attitude I encounter is “there is no evidence of foul play.” This
is a somewhat stupid observation. Of course there isn’t any evidence of foul
play, the person is missing! Frequently, there isn’t evidence of anything! If you
were called to the scene of a decomposed body of a man in a field would you assume
that since you don’t see any injuries that he died of natural causes? If you
responded to a scene in which a man is slumped in a chair, clutching a gun in his
right hand, with a gunshot wound to the right side of his head, would you assume
suicide? If so, you may neglect to ask whether the decedent is right or left
handed, or fail to verify that the gunshot wound is a contact injury, rather than
fired from four feet away! My rule of thumb as a death investigator is that
EVERY death is a homicide, until I can prove otherwise.

Homicide is my hypothesis unless evidence is collected that supports an alternative
hypothesis. I guarantee that if a family member of yours were to die under
any circumstances but the most benign, you will want the death investigator assigned
to the case to have that attitude – rather than “assume” that nothing suspicious
has happened. Likewise, should a family member of yours ever go missing,
wouldn’t you rather their investigator not assume that they left of their own
accord because “there is no evidence of foul play”?

The fact is if you prepare your investigation as though it could be the worst-case
scenario, then you will be ready for any eventuality.

Here is a sobering thought. Had the missing person investigator done his or her
job, the unidentified person would have been identified. Had the unidentified
person been identified, a suspect may have been developed. Had the suspect
been developed and arrested, how many other victims would have been saved?
Still not convinced? Then here is the “Liability” argument. Think of the issue this
way: Missing persons is becoming a hot-button topic, and represents a tremendous
liability to a department that does not seriously address or employ the
proper investigative attention. There will be more lawsuits in the future, and
agencies that are in a budget crisis today can’t afford to be hit with a million dollar
payout for sloppy or incompetent handling of a missing person case. After all,
who’d have thought a hot cup of McDonald’s coffee would be worth $2.7 million?
It was to one jury. Missing persons is a wave of the future. If history is a
steamroller, I’d rather be driving it, than obstinately standing in front of it!

So, it all comes down to this: That missing person under investigation by your
agency is on this planet somewhere. Regardless of whether they are actively
hiding from us, or returned to their families two weeks after they were reported
missing and are ignorant of our search for them, or they are being held against
their will by a madman and need our help, or they are dead in my morgue - if the
missing person should be found, and they are unwilling or unable to identify
themselves, what have you done to ensure that they will be identified? They may
be unwilling due to psychological derangement or they are simply hiding from us.
They may be unable, due to incapacity (they are senile and can’t remember their
name or unconscious from a blow to the head), or they may be dead. Your missing
person may be any one of over 100 boxes of fragmented bones on shelves in
my anthropology room, or indeed anywhere across the country! Your missing
person may be any of over 100 unidentified bodies buried in San Bernardino’s
cemeteries. Your professional responsibility is to put into play those items that
will allow your missing person to be detected when they cross law enforcement’s
radar – in whatever way!

Investigators will frequently tell me “Well, if they’re dead – that’s your job.” That
is correct – it is my job to obtain identifiers from the dead body (typically fingerprints,
dental records, DNA, skeletal X-rays, photographs, etc.) for comparison
with identifiers that YOU obtained for the missing person. If an “investigator” really
believes that their responsibility ends at taking the report with the missing
person’s height and weight, with extra credit for a postage stamp sized photograph
taken from four blocks away, and maybe create the NCIC record, then that
investigator is at best ignorant (which is curable with education) or at worst incompetent.

TEAMWORK - ALONG THE CONTINUUM

Imagine if you will, that the missing person case is a continuum, with the missing
person's disappearance at one end and the unidentified person at the other;
resolution rests in the center of the continuum. You, as the missing person investigator,
start at the disappearance and work forward into the unknown,
searching for resolution. For my part, I begin with the discovery of the body and
work backward, also into the unknown, also seeking resolution. However close
we get to resolution, there are gaps in the continuum that can only be bridged by
the identifier records, the “missing links" between the missing person case and its
corresponding unidentified person case. Our investigative products, consisting of
the identifier records (fingerprints, dental records, DNA), are the links that we
must develop to bridge the gap. Everything else we may do in our investigation,
physical descriptions, photographs, cell phone tracking - merely brings us toward
each other. But, only the identifier records will actually connect these cases and
achieve resolution.

I am realistic. I know that some of my cases can never be identified, because
there is currently no means to link them with a missing person. They were found
as skeletal remains, so there are no fingerprints. No maxilla or mandible was
found, so there is no dental information. No skull was found, so there is no way
to compare head X-rays of the frontal sinus structure. The DNA has degraded to
a point that no STR or mtDNA profile can be developed. Using the technology
currently available to me, we are at a dead end. Likewise, there are missing person
cases that can never be solved. They may be victims of homicide so thoroughly
accomplished that the body will never be found, and the perpetrator, possibly
dead, will never reveal the secret.

These scenarios exist. But, they are surprisingly rare! The vast majority of both
missing and unidentified person cases are solvable, provided that each side of
the investigative team does their job. Very much like a baseball team, the missing
person investigator is the pitcher and the unidentified person investigator is
the catcher – the two most critical members of the team. If both are at the top of
their game, they will have a good season. If either one or both are less than
competent, the whole team loses!

WHAT EVERY INVESTIGATOR MUST DO

Your job is to erect Velcro walls in cyberspace consisting of the identifier records,
submitted to the appropriate law enforcement databases such that these records
will “stick to” the identifier record I obtained from the unidentified person, whether
they were alive or dead. Some will look at these suggestions (although I think
they should be required by law!) and believe that they are simple and basic.
Please contact me. YOU are one in a hundred! Believe me, I am in direct contact
with hundreds of agencies and this is not happening.

NCIC

First and foremost, the missing person must IMMEDIATELY be entered into
NCIC (the National Crime Information Center). Be assured that NOTHING happens
without this step! Sure, you may get lucky by putting out a poster, or sticking
the missing person onto your website – provided your missing person is
found locally. But, it is here, within the FBI’s database, that the missing person
can begin to be matched with unidentified persons from across the country. If
the missing person were last seen in Boston on March 23rd, and skeletal remains
are found in the desert on May 30th, how will anyone ever connect the two
cases together? NCIC will do that!

The missing person’s basic description MUST be accurately entered into the
NCIC Missing Person database. For my part, I will enter the unidentified person’s
information into the NCIC Unidentified Person database. If we assume that
the unidentified deceased person found in my county (or anywhere) will eventually
be missed by friends or family, and either will, or already has been, reported
missing somewhere, this is where the matches take place. The NCIC computer
will begin comparing these records together and will generate a teletype message,
which will be sent to your agency AND my agency.

I receive over 2,000 such “hits” a year from NCIC (and a small percentage from
other sources). I follow-up on every one of these matches by sending an email
message to the investigating agency and providing them with the available
means to rule out or confirm the match. For example, if a body were found soon
after it was dumped by the side of the freeway, I would likely report that I have
fingerprints, dental records, and DNA available to compare. Sadly, I hear back
from only about 10%. Of the agencies that do respond, I am typically told that no
one ever bothered to obtain identifier records of any kind - period. There is no
assurance that they will get right on it and contact the family to research identifiers,
nothing that one would expect from a paid professional. I am stunned by
this. This is their job, and it really isn’t that hard.

A small percentage respond to provide me with the phone number for the missing
person’s dentist. The fact is, I have a job, and I already did it! I could do their
job, too, but then I’m going to want their paycheck for doing it! Let me spell it out:
It is YOUR job as a missing person investigator. I did mine when I crawled into
the grave and dug the body out of the ground; I endured hours of the smell of decomposition
to roll fingerprints, take digital dental X-rays, and cut out the femur
for DNA. I spent additional hours filling out forms to submit these to the appropriate
databases. Each body is processed so that every means of identification
is available to everyone. So, I did my job.
What is surprising is that when my Sheriff Records (teletype) received the NCIC
“hit,” that means that the same message was sent to the missing person investigation
agency. Therefore, the missing person investigator should be contacting
me at the same time I am contacting them. And yet, they rarely do. Why is that?

Only approximately 3% of the 2,000 messages we send out will result in information
that allows us to either rule out a match, or confirm identification. This sucks!
But, there isn’t any better system in town, so I will continue to do it! The NCIC
record is still the best chance for cases to match.

The NCIC record is just the beginning. The next step is to build a contact base.
WIDEN THE CONTACT BASE

Frequently when I contact the missing person investigator for one of the yearsold
cases that NCIC has matched with one of San Bernardino’s unidentified person
cases, I am told that the agency has lost contact with the family, and so cannot
obtain identifier records. The problem was that far too many missing person
reports were written by officers who just fill in the blanks. There is one blank for
the RP, so you get one name. There is one blank for an RP address, so you get
one address. There is one blank for the RP phone, so you get one phone number.
We are near the end of the first decade of the 21st century! Names, addresses
and phones CHANGE! People move! Who knew?

It is essential that the investigator develop a wide contact base. When I assist
the Sheriff Department with any of its nearly 10,000 missing person cases per
year, usually because a police officer advised the family to “contact the hospitals
and the coroner,” the first thing I do is get an email address from whoever contacted
me. I then email that person a document I created for families that explains
all the things the friends and family can do to facilitate a successful conclusion
for their missing person. I call this my “Family Tasks” message; it assigns
tasks that are most suitably completed by the family (more on this later).
This document also contains a “DNA sources list,” which describes the usefulness
and simplicity of DNA testing in the missing person case, and requests a list
of any and all possible DNA donors. I ask for parents names (first, middle, last),
dates of birth, addresses, home phone numbers, cell phone numbers, email addresses.

That way, in four years, or ten years, or whenever - if no one can find
the parents, this list will still have an email address for the missing person’s 3rd
cousin (the only one in the family who had a steady job and hadn’t moved four
times) – and we’re back in contact!

PHOTOGRAPHS

Statistically one in six missing persons comes home as a result of these photos
on posters in websites, a large percentage seen by the missing person themselves.
Photos are also the “hook” that gets the public involved in a case – and
that can be a good thing. But, DO NOT rely on photographs as an “identifier record.”

In the strictest sense, they are of little use to me. That mug-shot may be
probable cause to stop a suspect, but that officer must next confirm the identity
with fingerprints, or by some other means. No competent investigator will swear
in a court of law that a photograph matches a decedent – there are far too many
post-mortem changes, and too many people appear similar.
Photographs of most use to a forensic investigator (like me) will be highresolution
facial photos showing the person smiling so that the teeth are visible.

A good forensic odontologist can compare this to the teeth in a skull found in the
desert. Talking videos are excellent for this. Various views of the teeth, upper
and lower, can be captured and compared to remains. Profile views, particularly
showing the ears, can be compared to at least rule out by ear structure differences.

Do not ask for just one photograph. Ask the family to collect EVERY photograph
they can find, as well as every family video that may show the missing person.
It’s 2009! Have the family scan the photographs (16 bit color, at 300dpi – higher
resolution on just the teeth) and email them to you (so you will have their email).
The varied photos should be digitally scanned for subsequent distribution. Let’s
face it, if you get only the 16 year old missing girl’s high school year-book photo,
and she has run away to Las Vegas (to turn tricks at the Bellagio), she will probably
look different. The more photos you have, the more likely one will be recognizable
to the public.

POSTERS

You may recall that I noted that many people return home as a result of a photograph.

Assign the family the task of creating and distributing a missing person
poster. Computers are everywhere. Even if not one family member has a computer,
there are friends, libraries, organizations, etc. Creating a missing person
poster with Microsoft Windows is as easy as creating an email message

CELL PHONES

For God’s sake, obtain the cell phone number of the phone that the missing person
has! I don’t know what percentage of the population has cell phones nowadays,
but it seems huge! Many of these phones may be tracked using the service
towers that the cell phone “pings” off of to maintain its connection. This information
can narrow the search to a city, or to a few blocks in a city – an area
for the family to search or to paste up some posters perhaps. If the cell phone is
tracked pinging off towers through the state, and then the missing person’s body
is found in a field back in town, that cell phone may be leading you to the murderer.

MYSPACE and SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES

How many teenagers or young adults are not wired into a social networking website?
Myspace, Facebook, Craig’s List – there are thousands. Have the family
find out which ones and then send a request to the website manager to monitor
activity. Myspace is one of the best for its assistance to law enforcement.

Depending
on the connections, some technology wizards can find out what IP address
the user is at. Even if you don’t know how to use this information, collect it!
Someone else may be able to.

FAMILY TASKS

I assign a lot of tasks to the family. This has the net effect of giving the family
something useful to do, rather than just sitting around bad-mouthing you for not
doing enough; but it will also endow the family with “ownership” in the search for
the missing person (rather than sitting on their duffs expecting that “the great law
enforcement machine” [that’s you!] will do everything that the television shows
imply that it should). It also has the effect of reducing your liability. Families may
complain that “law enforcement isn’t doing enough to find Little Jimmy,” but how
loud can they complain when they did NOTHING that you asked them to do?

Some of the tasks I assign to the family are as follows:

- Family members list – For DNA, but also people that the missing person
may stay with
- Poster creation and distribution
- Dentist information – To order dental records (or provide a signed release)
- Family Doctor information
- Hospital information – Medical X-rays or biological samples
- Employer information – Co-workers may have been contacted
- Photographs and Videos – Collect, scan, email
- Fingerprint records – Military service? Arrests? Employment? Where?
- Etc.

THE IDENTIFIERS

Up until now, we have been discussing some of the basic steps that can be taken
at the time a person goes missing, what I refer to as the “Acute Phase” (the period
from disappearance to about the first 96 hours), and the “Transitional Phase
(from about 96 hours to 1 month). These steps are all designed to put the investigator
in the best position to be prepared in the event that the missing person
case enters the “Long-Term Phase” in which the subject is still missing a month
or more. If a month has gone by without any contact from the missing person the
highest probability is that the missing person is actively hiding from family (and
us), or is unable to return. It is prudent to start to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

The goal of the professional investigator in the Long-Term Phase should be
guided by the principle of “casting the widest net”; putting into play those tools, in
the form of the identifiers, to detect the missing person when they cross law enforcement’s
radar – whether they are alive or not. We must erect “Velcro Walls”
in cyberspace; walls created from the missing persons identifier records, which
will “stick” to the corresponding identifier records for an unidentified person ANYWHERE
in the United States (or beyond).

DO NOT ASSUME that “identifiers are on file.” Too many such assumptions are
wrong! Verify that the identifier is not only available, but has been entered into
the appropriate, searchable database. A missing person’s fingerprints or dental
records won’t do anybody any good if they are locked in a file cabinet in your office!

They must be broadcasting nationwide!

FINGERPRINTS

This is the primary law enforcement tool – the most common method of identification.

Fingerprints are easily found, quickly compared, and the process is inexpensive.
On average, fingerprint identifications are accomplished in minutes to
hours. At least 95% of all identifications are made by fingerprints. The missing
person’s fingerprints may be located via a wide variety of sources, including (but
not limited to): arrests, employment and background applications, military service,
and even through check-cashing facilities and social services. Some agencies
will lift latent prints from the missing person’s room! If the missing person in
California had ever applied for a driver’s license or identification card, a right
thumbprint is available to law enforcement at the California Department of Motor
Vehicles. The fingerprints (yes, even the single thumbprint) should be “registered”
(not just “run”) into Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS -
State) AND the Integrated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS - FBI). Many
investigators are under the impression that only criminal fingerprint records may
be “registered” into AFIS. The fact is that AFIS is a database to be used for law
enforcement purposes, and this is one of its purposes!

IAFIS has a much more enlightened and progressive attitude. Fingerprints can
be submitted by mail (after submission to AFIS) to the FBI, CJIS Division, in
Clarksburg, WV, or by FAX. IAFIS is broken into regions across the United
States, each with a regional coordinator (information available on-line at
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/iafis.htm). Fingerprints can be mailed directly to FBI
CJIS Division, DOCSPEC Unit, 1000 Custer Hollow Road, Clarksburg, WV
26306.

Family members can assist the missing person investigator by locating any possible
fingerprints sources, and assisting in getting these submitted.

It is critical that the fingerprint record (AFIS and IAFIS) be referenced by tracking
number in the NCIC record. Such a comment may be stated as follows: “FINGERPRINTS
ON FILE WITH SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SHERIFF CAL-ID
(909-890-5000) CAL-ID #9999999.” Such a comment will allow me, should this
case be matched against one of my unidentified person cases, to go directly to
the fingerprint record for comparison, rather than waste hours trying to contact
the agency to find out if there are fingerprints.

DENTAL RECORDS

Dental records are the second most common form of identifier. They are ubiquitous.

When giving presentations to crowded rooms, I ask how people may have
NEVER been to the dentist. Out of 100 attendees, I may get one or two who
raise their hands. How, then, can you explain why only an average of 4% of
missing person cases have dental records on file?

Dental identification takes longer than fingerprints – days to weeks. A forensic
dentist has to be scheduled to come in and examine the body (no, we don’t pay
the dentist to sit around the office waiting for an unidentified body to be found.

The dentist has a practice, and we have to make an appointment like everybody
else!). Dental identification is also more expensive; the forensic dentist went to
school for years and years to learn what he or she knows, and to testify in court
as an expert in the field. Someone’s going to have to pay for that. Any wonder
we ask for fingerprints first?

NOTE: Dental records are perishable! They MUST be obtained as soon as possible!
For example, California dental and medical providers are only required to
maintain these records for 7 years. Some jurisdictions can destroy records in as
few as two years (and that is if the laws are being complied with). This sounds
like a long time, unless you consider that the missing person may have not seen
a dentist for five years, disappeared two years ago, and may not be found for another
ten years. Lock down records NOW! Order copies – leave original records
with dental or medical providers and instruct the dental or medical provider
to “freeze” the file forever (or at least until the missing person is found). Once
obtained, these records must be mailed (or scanned and emailed) to your state
missing persons clearinghouse.

For a list of missing person clearinghouses by state refer to the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children website: http://www.missingkids.com/
The NCIC record must be updated to describe the availability of dental X-rays
and charts, and the dental characteristics must be coded for entry into the NCIC
record. If your state clearinghouse does not know how to do this, contact the
NCIC directly and they will do it for you. A typical record would like something
like this:
DENTAL INFORMATION – DXR/Y - DENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
1X 32X
2MO 31DO
3M 30V
4V 29V
5V 28V
6V 27/
7/ 26/
8/ 25V
9V 24V
10V 23V
11V 22V
12V 21V
13V 20V
14O 19MODF
15DO 18O
16V 17X

These dental characteristics in the NCIC are critical for the quick comparisons to
rule-out matches by a trained unidentified person investigator by comparing
which of the missing person’s teeth have modifications (fillings or other dental
work) with the deceased person’s (or unidentified living person’s) teeth. For example,
if a missing person has a filling in tooth number 14, and the same tooth
for the unidentified person has never been modified – it is a rule out: teeth don’t
heal. These dental records (charts and X-rays) should also be entered into The
National Dental Image Repository (NDIR), which is available to law enforcement
through the FBI’s LEO network (Law Enforcement On-line). The NCIC record
should be modified to state the following: “DENTAL X-RAYS AND CHARTS
AVAILABLE ON NDIR.” The Unidentified Persons Investigator wouldn’t even
need to contact the missing person investigating agency to check for dental Xrays
directly, I can just go there and look!

A comment about NCIC access… Many investigators do not have direct access
to NCIC. That’s okay – someone at your agency does. Simply email the requests
to that person for update. Also, all state-level clearinghouses will have
access, and can help you update your cases. As a last resort, you can contact
NCIC directly (Google Search for “National Crime Information Center” and search
for contacts). They are a wonderful group of people and are willing to assist your
agency in encoding your case dental characteristics and adding comments.

DNA

The best source of a missing person’s DNA is from the missing person himself
(or herself) – referred to as a “direct” DNA sample. Missing persons leave their
DNA behind on toothbrushes, shaving razors, hairbrushes, finger and toenail
clippings (believe it or not, these are a great source of DNA! Who knew?), unwashed
clothing, hats, chewing gum, dental retainers, etc. Use your imagination.

The missing person’s family should be instructed to immediately start preserving
these items, as they are typically the first things discarded. Instruct the family to
secure these items into clean, dry envelopes, taped shut (DON’T LICK THE

ENVELOPE!

We want the missing person’s DNA uncontaminated), and properly
marked.

If these items were not left behind (and even if they were), “reference” DNA samples
should be obtained from blood relatives. The best “reference DNA” would
come from the missing person’s identical twin siblings (monozygotic twins). But,
identical twins are rare. Next are both biological parents. If one parent is not
available, then the available parent (hopefully the mother, because it is the mother
that passes down mtDNA) should be sampled, along with as many full siblings
as possible (to “fill in” the missing parent’s DNA).
The sampling procedure is simple; basically a q-tip is swabbed on the inside of
the subject’s mouth. No blood, no needles. But, the sample should not be submitted
to just any DNA lab. Since our goal is to have the missing person’s DNA
profile to be available for comparison to unidentified persons nationwide, the
samples must be entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS - FBI).

There are only a few DNA labs certified to complete a DNA profile and submit to
CODIS (a list of such labs are available on the CODIS website). California has
one: Department of Justice, Missing/Unidentified Persons DNA Program (DOJDNA).
They accept personal items (toothbrushes, etc.) and buccal swabs. If the
missing person was reported to a California law enforcement agency, then regardless
of where the missing person’s family member is located, the agency
should contact California DOJ and request that the free kits be mailed to the investigator.

If the missing person was reported to a law enforcement agency in a
state that does not have its own certified lab, then DNA samples may be submitted
to either the Federal Bureau of Investigation directly, or to the Center for Human
Identification at the University of North Texas (Phone: 800-763-3147 - Website:
www.hsc.unt.edu/departments/pathology_anatomy/dna/forensic.htm).

On average, it will take a period of months for a missing person’s DNA profile to
be developed and entered into CODIS. The NCIC record must be updated to
describe the availability of a DNA profile in CODIS, including any reference numbers.

LONG-TERM CASE MANAGEMENT

We have all inherited old cases handed down to us from our less competent colleagues.
There is nothing harder than following up on a case that was either
done half-assed or not at all. Managing a case that has gone years without activity
far too often means filing it away.
The fact is that working these long-term cases just isn’t as hard as it sounds. It is
a simple matter of laying the foundation with the basics we have already discussed.

Your goal is to lay this foundation in the most efficient and effective way,
maximizing your results while minimizing your effort!
I developed and advocate what I call the Missing Person Identifier Record Acquisition

Protocol – a simple method for managing missing persons cases:
STEPS OF PROCESSING

Step #1 – Take the missing person report, and enter the NCIC record (accurately).
Create a spreadsheet or database program to track your cases.
Microsoft’s Excel is easy to learn and use.

Step #2 – After approximately two weeks (not coincidentally, the time interval in
which the vast majority of missing persons return) contact is made with the family/
Reporting Party for updates on the missing person’s status (Returned? Rumors?
Sightings?). This contact can be made by a detective, support personnel,
or just about anyone. If the missing person has returned the case can be immediately
cleared. If not, then the family should be counseled about what steps
should be taken next, and what the family can do to assist. The contact list can
start to be developed at this time, obtaining additional contact numbers and address.
Get emails going. Discuss “identifiers” (fingerprints, dental or medical records,
DNA), including what the family can do to locate them and preserve them.

Step #3 – One Month: Re-contact the family/RP for updates. Submit subpoena
or email request for dental and medical providers for X-rays and charts to be
mailed to your State Missing Persons Clearinghouse, along with fingerprints (if
found). Ensure that the NCIC record is updated with dental characteristics and
CII #. On average, it only takes about ten minutes of your time to order fingerprints.
It only takes about 30 minutes to order dental records. This is a one-time
expenditure of time – with permanent results.

Step #4 – Two Months: Re-contact the family/RP for updates. Obtain missing
person DNA and reference DNA, and submit to Center for Human Identification,
University of North Texas (Phone: 800-763-3147 - Website:
www.hsc.unt.edu/departments/pathology_anatomy/dna/forensic.htm), or whatever
certified lab your agency uses. Ensure that the NCIC record is updated
with the DNA reference numbers. Obtaining DNA samples takes about an hour.

The longest part of this is filling out the submission form!

Step #5 – Enter the missing person’s information onto the NamUs website
(http://www.namus.gov/) at least. Additional submissions to other web-based organizations
(e.g. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, The National
Center for Missing Adults, The Doe Network, etc.) should be considered.
Step #6 – Re-Contact family/RP for updates approximately every 6 months. This
maintains contact with the family, allowing reports of the MP’s return (in the event
the family has forgotten to contact law enforcement. Work the matches.

Once these steps are completed, the Missing Persons Investigator can truly say
they have effectively and efficiently done everything possible and prudent to ensure
that if the missing person comes up on the radar somewhere, they will be
detected. And the total investment in time was less than two hours.
Should notifications be received from NCIC (teletypes) reporting possible
matches between missing persons and unidentified persons anywhere in the
world, the NCIC record will contain all information necessary to verify or rule out
a match, and you won’t have to use previous detective as an excuse.

NAMUS – MISSING PERSONS AND UDRS

And now there is NamUs! NamUs (the National Missing and Unidentified Persons
System - http://www.namus.gov/) began operations in early 2008. It is the
best idea to come along. NamUs is “the first national repository for missing persons
and unidentified decedent records.” Two searchable databases; one for
unidentified cases, the other for missing person cases. The power of the website
is that in addition to the standard photographs, the investigator can upload identifier
records. One-stop shopping for all your identification needs! This is the way
of the future!

The only weakness in the NamUs website is that the missing person’s name is
not currently available to be detected from an internet search engine, such as
Yahoo or Google. This is the technique I recommend for those cases for which
the reporting party or family cannot be found. If the missing person is entered
onto a website that is detectable by Google, then when the missing person, who
returned years ago but was never cleared from the system, runs their name in
Google or Yahoo (as almost everyone eventually does) it will result in their own
missing person page! That will likely result in the person calling to have you
clear their case!

SAMANTHA: A CASE HISTORY
In September 2005 a young girl was killed running across lanes of traffic of one of the busiest freeways on
the planet – Interstate 10 at the border to Los Angeles County. Although struck by several automobiles we
were able to estimate her age as between 15 and 20. We immediately ran her fingerprints through AFIS
and into IAFIS – no hits. We distributed her description, along with a great facial reconstruction done for
us by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The girl was designated “Jane Doe #17-05.”
We submitted her dental records to the state clearinghouse and biological samples for DNA profiling,
which was uploaded into CODIS. We had several media blitzes. And yet the days turned into weeks, and
the weeks turned into months. The matches rolled in, continuously. We received NCIC hits, a few law
enforcement contacts, and lots and lots of calls from families of missing girls – all were either ruled out or
the missing person investigators failed to respond to my contacts.
Then, in April 2007 a woman called me. She was the mother of a young girl named Samantha Bonnell, a
rebellious teenager from Alaska, who had left just before her 18th birthday to travel. She had taken up with
a boyfriend and they had ended up in southern California. And then she suddenly disappeared. Samantha’s
mother attempted to report her daughter missing to the Alaska State Police, and they finally accepted the
report – after SIX MONTHS! Samantha’s mother told me that she had seen Jane Doe’s NCMEC facial
reconstruction on The Doe Network. She had seen it months ago.
Now, I want you to think about this for a minute – even more so if you are a parent. Samantha’s mother
told he had resorted to sneaking downstairs at night to get online in order to search the internet for faces of
dead children looking for her daughter. She had to do this late at night because her family thought she was
going crazy. As she was telling me this I couldn’t imagine what that would take.
The mother told me that she had been trying to convince herself that the face on the website was NOT her
daughter. The hair was different, the eyes were different (THIS is why I typically do NOT rely on facial
reconstructions or photographs – the desperate will psychologically convince themselves to attend to the
differences). The mother had contacted the Alaska State Police and asked them to check this out for her.
But, after weeks of excuses and no responses, she finally just called me herself. Think again about what
that would take. Here is a mother who has no idea what has happened to her teenage daughter for 19
months. She is getting zero support from the professionals. She now has to call a Coroner Department to
find out if the face of a dead girl is her daughter’s!
I pulled up the NCIC record for Samantha. The first thing I noticed was that according to the NCIC record
Samantha was last seen (DLC) on March 6, 2006. That would rule out Jane Doe #17-05, because Jane had
died in September 2005. There was a brief silence after I told this to the mother. She then said “That can’t
be right!” A cold chill ran down my spine. But, we have a job to do.
Now we have to either confirm or rule out that Jane Doe and Samantha are the same person. Samantha’s
fingerprints had been submitted to Anchorage Police Department when she had been reported missing to
them over a year prior to her disappearance. Everyone “believed” that Samantha’s fingerprints were “on
file.” Everyone was wrong – Anchorage didn’t have any idea where those fingerprints were. The best
anyone could guess was that they had been purged when the original missing person report was cleared.
Good job Anchorage! Samantha’s mother had obtained and submitted dental records to the Alaska State
Police. I called ASP and asked for the dental records. No one had any idea where they were. Since no one
at ASP would help her, Samantha’s mother now had to go back to the dentist and obtain another copy. She
had these scanned and forwarded them to me by email, and I in-turn forwarded the dental X-rays by email
to this department’s forensic odontologist. By now I’m sure you know what is coming next. Jane Doe was
in fact Samantha Bonnell. Why then had we not received an NCIC match? Simple, the Alaska State Police
had, by unwritten practice, entered the date that they had finally deigned to take the report as the DLC (date
of last contact)! NCIC would NEVER have matched these case – in fact, it would have excluded them.
If this were your daughter, or a family member of yours, how satisfied would you be with the services
you had received; paid for by your taxes, and those of your neighbors?


CLEARING CASES

Investigators become frustrated with these long-term cases. I have heard that
some investigators have cleared cases because the missing runaway juvenile
has reached the age of emancipation, or because they can’t find or follow-up any
additional leads, and some because they can’t find family. Possibly the stupidest
reason I have heard for closing a missing person case is because it has been
concluded that the missing person is a murder victim, and so, no longer missing
– even though the body has never been found! No, I take that back – there is a
dumber reason: Some agencies clear a missing person case if they find that the
subject has a want of warrant. Their logic? “We are already looking for him?” My
response? “Not in my morgue you’re not!”

If your wanted person, who (let’s face it) is living a somewhat risky lifestyle on
the outside of the law, has been murdered by a gang in your city, and is dumped
in my desert – not to be found for months or years, how do you think we will identify
him when he is eventually found? Without the NCIC Missing Person record,
there will be no way!

There are only two appropriate reasons to clear a missing person case: The
missing person has been found alive or the missing person has been found
dead. If you clear a case don’t forget to clear it from NCIC as well as the agency
record system.

CONCLUSION

Your missing person is out there somewhere on this planet. The person may be
alive or dead, or somewhere in between. The responsibility to put into motion
whatever it takes to bring that person home – in whatever state or condition they
are in – is entirely yours.

It is not the responsibility of the guy who started the
case and didn’t finish it – it is yours. The tools are there, and the tasks are easily
accomplished.

David Van Norman
Deputy Coroner Investigator/Unidentified Persons Coordinator
San Bernardino County Sheriff Department - Coroner Division
175 S. Lena Rd., San Bernardino, CA 92415
Office: 909-387-2978
Desk: 909-388-0159
FAX: 909-387-2989
Email: dvannorman@sbcsd.org
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