Dear Senator XXXXX,
There is a very real and growing problem not only here in the state of Massachusetts, but nationwide.
Each year, families struggle with the agony of having to report a missing loved one. Far too often missing persons investigations grow cold, leaving many to cope with this "twilight loss"-never knowing if their loved one is alive or dead. Historically, the law enforcement community's ability to locate and ensure the safe return of those missing has been hampered by a significant inability to share resources and information when conducting investigations, and identifying remains.
In collaboration with experts representing State and local law enforcement, policymakers, forensic scientists, medical examiners and coroners, and crime victims, the U.S. Department of Justice has developed model State legislation. This model legislation seeks to address the national problems of missing persons and the identification of human remains. For cases involving missing persons, law enforcement's ability to locate and ensure a safe return must be improved. Law enforcement must be granted additional tools and this model legislation provides framework for improving law enforcement's response.
The aim of this legislation is to assist the States in the collection of critical information about missing persons, to prioritize high-risk missing persons cases, and ensure prompt dissemination of essential information to other law enforcement agencies as well as to the public. These steps can only increase the likelihood of a safe return. At the same time, this model legislation suggests an approach for collecting information during the missing persons reporting process that can later be used to help identify human remains.
Imagine the ability to collect and report information immediately to national and local databases that can be used to identify "John" or "Jane" Does. Specifically, the model legislation suggests a mechanism for improving death scene investigations, centralizing within the State the reporting of unidentified remains, ensuring the delivery of human remains to an entity that can conduct an appropriate examination, ensuring the timely reporting of identifying information to national databases, and maximizing available resources that can reduce the cost of identifications.
There are an estimated 40,000-50,000 unidentified deceased persons in the US at the present time. Many of these persons may be reported missing, but without the proposed legislation in place as law, this number will continue to grow. This leaves families of the missing without answers, sometimes for years, and unfortunately sometimes forever.
With more than 100,000+ missing persons cases open in the US, it is clear that we must place more importance upon actions taken that will decrease this number. We are, after all, not just talking about statistics, but about human beings. These individuals are loved and missed by their families. We need to take swift and firm action to put into place laws which will give the families hope and increase the number who are returned home.
On May 3rd, 1977, my cousin, Deborah Ann Quimby, disappeared from the community of Townsend, Mass on her way to her grandmother's house. 30 years, and several anonymous letters later, the town has run out of the money required to continue her search in Walker Pond...believed by law enforcement to be her final resting place. Her father recently passed away, relieved at the thought that he would be finally meeting her in Heaven and he would finally know what had happened to her. Think of thirty years of uncertainty-thirty years of keeping her bedroom spotless waiting for her to walk in the door.
You have the power to change this for other families now and in the future.
As my state representative, I ask you to strongly consider sponsoring this bill in the next legislative session.
I thank you.
Sincerely
Believe09