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Grieving
family members, coroners, medical examiners and law
enforcement agencies across the nation will soon have
access to a powerful new tool that will help them search
for information about missing loved ones.
The
Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced the
launch of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons
Initiative (NamUs), which is designed to provide
officials and the general public with the ability to
search the records of missing persons and unidentified
human remains in order to solve cases.
DOJ
held a media event in
Washington
,
D.C.
, to demonstrate a new database for matching
unidentified remains and missing persons information.
Clark
County Coroner P. Michael Murphy, who has spent the past
five years serving on various national committees in an
effort to bring NamUs to fruition, is thrilled with this
initiative.
"When
I accepted the post of
Clark
County
coroner in 2002, our office had a total of 182 John and
Jane Doe cases. Immediately, I began to work with staff
to create the Cold Case Unit task force to bring
resolution to as many families as possible by positively
identifying their loved ones," said Murphy.
"To date, we have identified 29 people as a result
of the task force."
The
Cold Case Unit is comprised of two components. The
first is the county’s Web site, www.accessclarkcounty.com,
which offers a numbers of services. Among other
things, people can look at photographs of human remains,
jewelry, clothing, tattoos, etc., which may help them to
recognize a victim and assist the coroner with making a
positive identification.
A
second aspect of the task force includes a group of
coroner investigators who consistently search cases and
work with law enforcement and the public, in hopes of
positively identifying a decedent and notifying next of
kin.
According
to DOJ, the NamUs initiative unites two programs and
their online, searchable databases: IdentifyUs.org and
Find-the-Missing.org. When fully operational,
NamUs will provide access nationally to clearing house
capabilities for reporting, locating and matching
missing persons records to unidentified remains records.
It
will use matching formulas that continuously search for
similarities between missing persons and unidentified
persons records. Individuals will be able to
search the NamUs database using characteristics such as
demographics, anthropologic assessments, dental
information and distinct body features.
"It's
estimated that there are approximately 40,000 cases of
unidentified decedents in the
United States
," said Murphy. "The county's grassroots
approach has not only led to the identification of
dozens of people, but it has also inspired other
agencies in places such as
Atlanta
and
Canada
to create their own Web sites. And now, with the
creation of NamUs, I expect that offices and
organizations throughout the nation will be able to
rapidly solve more cases. The goal is to bring as
much resolution to as many families as possible."
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