Tag Archives | law

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

The Justice Department has unveiled a computer database that will help families locate the bodies of lost loved ones.  Families, law enforcement agencies, medical examiners and coroners, victim advocates, and the general public are encouraged to register their missing loved ones with The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), the first national repository for missing persons and unidentified decedent records.

Read more about NamUs in the article below by CBS’ Erin Moriarty called “Justice Dept. Service Is Designed To Help Relatives Find Missing Loved Ones”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/16/earlyshow/main4804584.shtml

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Help Establish National Protocol for Missing and Unidentified Person Cases

Believe or not, in the US,  there is no National Protocol for law enforcement to follow in missing person cases. If we did, we probably wouldn’t have so many unidentified persons and the likelihood of finding missing people would be much improved. Not only that but police would be forced to follow the same guidelines throughout the country. In my opinion,  we should be treating every missing person case as a homicide until we learn otherwise. Unfortunately, law enforcement agencies don’t always do the right thing and often times families are forced to deal with bureaucracy and red tape. Many fail to submit fingerprints, dental records, or DNA for the missing person. This can be prevented.


Read about and vote for National Protocol in Missing and Unidentified Person Cases submitted by Kelly Jolkowski (President and Founder of Project Jason) on Change.org. The legislation provides law enforcement with a check list of information to acquire from the family of the missing person, databases and other resources to utilize, such as DNA analysis, and the new NamUs. Coroners and medical examiners are given procedures to report the unidentified deceased, and enter all available identifiers into national databases, such as fingerprints, dental records, and DNA analysis.   The text of the legislation can be found here:  http://www.projectjason.org/downloads/ModelLegislation2008Revision.pdf

This idea is currently in 4th Place in Criminal Justice  and needs 67 more votes to make it into the second round!

As Advocate for missing mother and friend, Lilly Aramburo, who vent missing from Miami, FL 6/1/07, I support this legislation wholeheartedly and thank everyone involved, including all who support it by voting and blogging about it and sharing it across the internet. Thank you!! I know what it’s like to fight every step of the way with detectives and law enforcement to get anything done. Every body knows how critical the first 24-48 hours are in solving a missing persons case, but in Lilly’s case, nothing was done because the detective assigned to her case was on vacation! Needless to say, Lilly’s case went cold fast. And the person/people who took her life, remain free with the ability to prey on someone else’s loved one.

This is just our experience. Countless families are forced to suffer needless injustice, red tape and even racism at the hands of law enforcement . I believe it can be prevented by this legislation and many cases could be solved. We must take action now.

Please add your voice and support missing & unidentified persons and their families in the US.

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