http://canyouidentifyme.org/WhatEveryMissingPersonInvestigatorMustKnow
“What Every Missing Person Investigator Must Know”
“What Every Missing Person Investigator Must Know”
A Guide to Missing Persons Investigation from the End-User’s Point of View
A Guide to Missing Persons Investigation from the End-User’s Point of View
By David Van Norman, Deputy Coroner Investigator
Former Unidentified-Missing Persons Coordinator
January 2009
Former Unidentified-Missing Persons Coordinator
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?
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%
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!
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 bastard 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 null 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.
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!
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 an 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 years-old 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?
Frequently when I contact the missing person investigator for one of the years-old 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.
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 that are of most use to a forensic investigator (like me) will be high-resolution 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
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.
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.
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?
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 at least 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.
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!
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 may people 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 records are the second most common form of identifier. They are ubiquitous. When giving presentations to crowded rooms, I ask how may people 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 the records NOW!
Order copies – leave original records with dental or medical providers and instruct the dental or medical provider to “freeze” the fileforever (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/missingkids/servlet/ServiceServlet?LanguageCo...). 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 X-rays 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 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 (DOJ-DNA). 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.
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 email 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 medicalproviders 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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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
Former Unidentified Persons Coordinator
Deputy Coroner Investigator
Former Unidentified Persons Coordinator
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