Identified! CA - Fontana, WhtFem 662UFCA, 25-35, hit by car, Aug'85 - Marguerite O'Brien

[JusticeWillBeServed]

A very nice and detailed story:

"A Family Match:
After 30 years, DNA solves mystery of missing woman"

http://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/a-family-match/article_0efa2584-bac9-58ac-9273-84f11c8e81c0.html

Websleuths is mentioned on page four.

 

[Roselvr]

I do wonder if the accident happened while running late to meet up with her sister. </3

Never Forget Me post Cherry Doe identified

In 1985, Marguerite called her sister Maryann, who lived in California, and asked to be picked up at a nearby truck stop. Maryann drove to the truck stop and waited, but Marguerite never showed up. When Maryann returned home, there was a message on her phone from Marguerite saying she was running late. Maryanne went back to the truck stop, but Marguerite never arrived.

Jane Doe No. 1385

On Aug. 3, 1985, a car struck and killed a woman who was trying to cross Valley Boulevard in Fontana, Calif., a city 50 miles east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County. Her purse included scraps of papers with various names and addresses, but no identification.

The detective who investigated the case removed two round turquoise earrings from the victim&#8217;s body and placed them in a plastic bag along with the other items. She was listed as Jane Doe No. 1385 and buried in an unmarked grave in Samaritan Park, a three-acre plot of land in a county cemetery where unidentified remains have been buried since 1908.

The Jane Doe Network posted Jane Doe No. 1385&#8217;s deceased photo soon after her death. At some point, a volunteer made a composite sketch of her. A Facebook page called Never Forget Me nicknamed her &#8220;Cherry Doe,&#8221; because she died near Cherry Avenue.

One person posted her information on websleuths.com, writing, &#8220;she pulled on my heart strings so I would love some help.&#8221;

In 2001, the California Senate passed Bill No. 297 asking counties to apply modern DNA analysis to decades-old cold cases. In 2005, San Bernardino County launched the San Bernardino County Unidentified Missing Persons Project, becoming maybe the first county in the United States to exhume the remains of missing unidentified persons in order to collect their DNA.

Bob Hunter, the San Bernardino County&#8217;s deputy coroner investigator, said the process is too expensive for most counties to undertake. But San Bernardino partners with the Institute of Field Research to have their archaeology and anthropology students exhume the remains as part of their training.

 

[EileenMary]

Well, when Marguerite called my sister Maryann, she was in the LA area and it was earlier in the year, where Maryann lives.
We actually asked the reporter to highlight the Doe Network, Webslueths, and NamUs and to provide web address, etc. but it didn't end up that way. At least they mentioned NamUs and WebSlueths. Maybe another family will read about it and look into it.
I may write a letter to the editor and include that information - is there anything specific that you would like me to say?
Eileen

I do wonder if the accident happened while running late to meet up with her sister. </3

Never Forget Me post Cherry Doe identified

 

[Roselvr]

Well, when Marguerite called my sister Maryann, she was in the LA area and it was earlier in the year, where Maryann lives.
We actually asked the reporter to highlight the Doe Network, Webslueths, and NamUs and to provide web address, etc. but it didn't end up that way. At least they mentioned NamUs and WebSlueths. Maybe another family will read about it and look into it.
I may write a letter to the editor and include that information - is there anything specific that you would like me to say?
Eileen

I thought the article was very well written. It's a shame they didn't give the URL's for NamUs; but it's easy to google to get it. What I would have liked mentioned was that anyone with a missing loved one can make an account on NamUs to enter their missing loved one. Before entering the MP; they should get the missing person's report; either by contacting LE where the MP went missing or by going to their own police station to make one. If for some reason they can not get the MP report (some LE refuse to take it) they can enter the MP into NamUs without one. NamUs is the only site that I know of that will allow you to enter the MP without a police report. If there is no report; the NamUs case manager will run a search to make sure the person is missing. When they are satisfied, the NamUs case manager will reach out to the police department where the MP was last seen to ask for assistance to get one. If they are not successful in getting one; the MP profile will not go online for the public to see; but they will still want relatives for a DNA sample by asking for assistance from LE where the relative is located.

Want to add this info here in case someone comes here from your article. For those that can not get an MP report; there are groups of people trying to make it a law that all missing & unidentified persons get added to the NamUs database. We need these people to help us make it into a law by joining the FB group as well as the FB page for the state the person went missing from.

Federal Help Find the Missing Act (Billy's Law) FB group; here is a post that gives all of the links to state FB pages.

Every year tens of thousands of Americans go missing, never to be seen by their loved ones again. At the same time, there are also an estimated 40,000 sets of unidentified human remains that are being held or disposed of across the country. Sadly, because of gaps in the nation’s missing persons systems, missing persons and unidentified remains are rarely matched. The Help Find the Missing Act (Billy’s Law) is an effort to fix these problems and bring closure to the loved ones of the missing.

This legislation is named after Billy Smolinski of Waterbury, Connecticut who went missing on August 24, 2004 at the age of 31. Billy’s family knows all too well the systemic challenges in trying to find the missing. They quickly learned that while federal law mandates law enforcement report missing children, there are no such requirements for adults – or unidentified bodies. Compounding this problem is the fact that local law enforcement agencies, medical examiners, and coroners, often don’t have the resources or training to voluntarily report these cases. Finally, even when missing adults and remains are reported, the wide-range of unconnected federal, state, local, and non-profit databases to help match the missing with unidentified bodies, makes finding a match an often insurmountable challenge.

________________________________________________________

The Help Find the Missing Act builds upon recent efforts to address these issues by:

Authorizing, and therefore helping to ensure funding for, the National Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), which was created in July 2007 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide a missing persons/unidentified database that the public could access and contribute;

Connecting NamUs with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) in order to create more comprehensive missing persons and unidentified remains databases and streamlining the reporting process for local law enforcement;

Expanding current law by requiring missing children be reported to NamUs (they already must be reported to NCIC);


Creating an incentive grants program to help states, local law enforcement, and medical examiners and coroners report missing persons and unidentified remains to NCIC, NamUs, and the National DNA Index System (NDIS); and

Calling on the DOJ to issue guidelines and best practices on handling missing persons and unidentified remains cases in order to empower law enforcement, medical examiners and coroners to help find the missing

 

[Roselvr]

I added the article to NJ for the Federal Help Find the Missing Act - Billy's Law

Direct link to the post

 

[EileenMary]

I thought the article was very well written. It's a shame they didn't give the URL's for NamUs; but it's easy to google to get it. What I would have liked mentioned was that anyone with a missing loved one can make an account on NamUs to enter their missing loved one. Before entering the MP; they should get the missing person's report; either by contacting LE where the MP went missing or by going to their own police station to make one. If for some reason they can not get the MP report (some LE refuse to take it) they can enter the MP into NamUs without one. NamUs is the only site that I know of that will allow you to enter the MP without a police report. If there is no report; the NamUs case manager will run a search to make sure the person is missing. When they are satisfied, the NamUs case manager will reach out to the police department where the MP was last seen to ask for assistance to get one. If they are not successful in getting one; the MP profile will not go online for the public to see; but they will still want relatives for a DNA sample by asking for assistance from LE where the relative is located.

Want to add this info here in case someone comes here from your article. For those that can not get an MP report; there are groups of people trying to make it a law that all missing & unidentified persons get added to the NamUs database. We need these people to help us make it into a law by joining the FB group as well as the FB page for the state the person went missing from.

Federal Help Find the Missing Act (Billy's Law) FB group; here is a post that gives all of the links to state FB pages.

Every year tens of thousands of Americans go missing, never to be seen by their loved ones again. At the same time, there are also an estimated 40,000 sets of unidentified human remains that are being held or disposed of across the country. Sadly, because of gaps in the nation’s missing persons systems, missing persons and unidentified remains are rarely matched. The Help Find the Missing Act (Billy’s Law) is an effort to fix these problems and bring closure to the loved ones of the missing.

This legislation is named after Billy Smolinski of Waterbury, Connecticut who went missing on August 24, 2004 at the age of 31. Billy’s family knows all too well the systemic challenges in trying to find the missing. They quickly learned that while federal law mandates law enforcement report missing children, there are no such requirements for adults – or unidentified bodies. Compounding this problem is the fact that local law enforcement agencies, medical examiners, and coroners, often don’t have the resources or training to voluntarily report these cases. Finally, even when missing adults and remains are reported, the wide-range of unconnected federal, state, local, and non-profit databases to help match the missing with unidentified bodies, makes finding a match an often insurmountable challenge.

________________________________________________________

The Help Find the Missing Act builds upon recent efforts to address these issues by:

Authorizing, and therefore helping to ensure funding for, the National Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), which was created in July 2007 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide a missing persons/unidentified database that the public could access and contribute;

Connecting NamUs with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) in order to create more comprehensive missing persons and unidentified remains databases and streamlining the reporting process for local law enforcement;

Expanding current law by requiring missing children be reported to NamUs (they already must be reported to NCIC);


Creating an incentive grants program to help states, local law enforcement, and medical examiners and coroners report missing persons and unidentified remains to NCIC, NamUs, and the National DNA Index System (NDIS); and

Calling on the DOJ to issue guidelines and best practices on handling missing persons and unidentified remains cases in order to empower law enforcement, medical examiners and coroners to help find the missing

Thank you for this information. I am developing a letter to the editor as a follow up and will use your information for this letter.
Can you tell me what is an LE? You mention that a couple of times in the beginning of your post. I know whay MP is for ...
I have also been in touch with other media outlets with the hope that they too will share this information, and perhaps produce a piece for Chronicle and/or other magazine shows about Billy's Law and the lack of resources, awareness, legislation enforcing best practice, etc. relating to missing adults.
Eileen

 

[Roselvr]

Thank you for this information. I am developing a letter to the editor as a follow up and will use your information for this letter.
Can you tell me what is an LE? You mention that a couple of times in the beginning of your post. I know whay MP is for ...
I have also been in touch with other media outlets with the hope that they too will share this information, and perhaps produce a piece for Chronicle and/or other magazine shows about Billy's Law and the lack of resources, awareness, legislation enforcing best practice, etc. relating to missing adults.
Eileen

Sorry; my daughter is going to college 4 days a week; I have my grandson. LE is law enforcement. Will try to get back here later today. I appreciate anything you can do. I also shared your article to the Billy's Law FB group for page admins