Information on a National Registry of unidentifed remains

These are an article and an editorial I found regarding a national database of unidentified remains in the US. Something we don't have. Please read, and if so moved- please let your legislators know about your feelings on this matter.
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Missing-person experts estimate that the bodies of 40,000 to 50,000 unidentified men, women and children have been found by police during the past 50 years. These John, Jane and Baby Does were sent to local coroners and medical examiners for examination and then anonymously buried or cremated.

Slightly more than half are suspected murder victims.

But in what one expert calls "a silent crisis," the vast majority of unidentified bodies go unreported to state or federal authorities, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of confidential FBI records.

Few states or local governments require that Doe cases be reported to any outside agency, and most coroners lack authority -- or even the necessary computer links -- to report directly to the FBI, the study found.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/nation_and_world/article/0,1426,MCA_454_4145991,00.html

bugmenot: falken@dod.gov
joshua

Scripps Howard News Service's Thomas Hargrove reports that there is a potential solution: a central, computerized national register of unidentified bodies that's open to public use. But because of legislative inaction and red tape, the United States doesn't have one.

"As a result," writes Hargrove, "homicide detectives are increasingly overwhelmed with growing backlogs of cold cases."
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/pj_editorials/article/0,2546,TCP_1125_4140754,00.html

bugmenot: youareso@foolish.com
idiots

These are an article and an editorial I found regarding a national database of unidentified remains in the US. Something we don't have. Please read, and if so moved- please let your legislators know about your feelings on this matter.
==============================================
Missing-person experts estimate that the bodies of 40,000 to 50,000 unidentified men, women and children have been found by police during the past 50 years. These John, Jane and Baby Does were sent to local coroners and medical examiners for examination and then anonymously buried or cremated.

Slightly more than half are suspected murder victims.

But in what one expert calls "a silent crisis," the vast majority of unidentified bodies go unreported to state or federal authorities, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of confidential FBI records.

Few states or local governments require that Doe cases be reported to any outside agency, and most coroners lack authority -- or even the necessary computer links -- to report directly to the FBI, the study found.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/nation_and_world/article/0,1426,MCA_454_4145991,00.html

bugmenot: falken@dod.gov
joshua

Scripps Howard News Service's Thomas Hargrove reports that there is a potential solution: a central, computerized national register of unidentified bodies that's open to public use. But because of legislative inaction and red tape, the United States doesn't have one.

"As a result," writes Hargrove, "homicide detectives are increasingly overwhelmed with growing backlogs of cold cases."
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/pj_editorials/article/0,2546,TCP_1125_4140754,00.html

bugmenot: youareso@foolish.com
idiots

There was a story on our local news a year or so ago about the skeletal remains of a girl of appx. 13 that were found in a rural E. TN county. The remains were at the University in their forensic sciences dept. She was unidentified and I believe that they estimated her being deceased for 10 years or so. I wish I knew how to go about getting more information as to what they know about her so I could attempt to find an id match.

I just find it hard to believe that a child can go missing and no one wonders enough to inquire what happened to them.

A national registry would be wonderful.



JMHO

tennessee said:

There was a story on our local news a year or so ago about the skeletal remains of a girl of appx. 13 that were found in a rural E. TN county. The remains were at the University in their forensic sciences dept. She was unidentified and I believe that they estimated her being deceased for 10 years or so. I wish I knew how to go about getting more information as to what they know about her so I could attempt to find an id match.

I just find it hard to believe that a child can go missing and no one wonders enough to inquire what happened to them.

A national registry would be wonderful.



JMHO

Click to expand...

They are starting to put some info on these old remains on the web now.
Suggestions of places to look are the county sheriff's dept webpage, if the coroner's dept has a webpage, and look for a state missing person's website- sometimes they are on there. Also, check to see if she was listed in Doe Network, I think you can go by state there. Do you remember the county it was in, the year she was found in or anything?

But in what one expert calls "a silent crisis," the vast majority of unidentified bodies go unreported to state or federal authorities, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of confidential FBI records.

Few states or local governments require that Doe cases be reported to any outside agency, and most coroners lack authority -- or even the necessary computer links -- to report directly to the FBI, the study found.

As a result, homicide detectives increasingly are overwhelmed with growing backlogs of cold cases involving nameless victims. And thousands of anxious families will wonder for generations what became of their lost loved ones.

Retired FBI executive Bill Hagmaier, now executive director of the International Homicide Investigators Association, said the failure to report tens of thousands of Doe cases to a national clearinghouse is contributing to the rising percentage of unsolved murder cases. In 2003, the latest year for which records are available, only 62 percent of homicides were resolved, a 30-year low.

"We keep records on cars. We keep them on guns. But we don't keep records on unidentified people," Hagmaier said. "It's a national tragedy and a silent crisis."

Scripps Howard obtained FBI National Crime Information Center computer files to study how often Doe cases go unreported. Federal officials refused to provide this information, but other agencies with access to NCIC records released files summarizing the number of Doe cases as of July 31, 2005.

FBI records show 5,729 active Doe cases, only an eighth of what experts believe the actual number should be. Also, 42 percent of all unidentified bodies came from California, even though that state has only 12 percent of the nation's population.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/nation_and_world/article/0,1426,MCA_454_4145991,00.html

Editorial: FBI, police should mine databases to find serial killers

By doggedly combing through state and federal computer files and aggressively filing state Freedom of Information Act requests with local police departments, Scripps Howard News Service (SHNS) reporter Thomas Hargrove created a database of 185,000 unsolved murders committed since 1980. Crime experts say it is the most complete accounting of homicide victims ever assembled in the United States.

A search of that database turned up alarming clusters of unsolved killings of women across the nation that strongly suggest the work of serial killers. The SHNS study focused on communities where police failed to solve at least three-quarters of murders of women of similar age killed by similar methods. The reason for singling out women in the study is that they represent 70 percent of all known serial murder victims.

The search turned up 161 clusters in which 1,247 murdered women met the criteria.

The results prompted authorities in Indiana and Ohio to launch new investigations into suspected serial killings and Nevada police to acknowledge that they are hunting a likely serial killer who targeted up to seven women, most of them prostitutes, and scattered their dismembered remains across three states. Phoenix police reviewed 11 murders flagged by the study but found no evidence of serial murder. The city, however, is building its own database of 1,900 unsolved murders committed since 1990 to search for possible serial involvement.

Read more: http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/local_news/special_reports/Copy_of_Editorial-FBI-police-should-mine-databases-to-find-serial-killers_31624476#ixzz1jFjbbkw8


Link to national homicide database:

http://www.scrippsnews.com/projects/serial-killers