Every Day You Wait . . . Is One Day Longer

by Todd Matthews, Guest Contributor

If you have a missing loved one, not knowing what you can do about it is a huge challenge. Dealing with the situation on the usual day-to-day basis is overwhelming in itself. But not knowing what you can do to make sure all paths are being followed is another issue.

One thing you can do is to make sure your missing persons data is being properly reviewed.

Of course, the information contained in the missing person's NCIC case file is considered for law enforcement only. But rather than the usual phone call to the detective in charge of your missing loved one, maybe you can do some fact checking.

Normally the call consists of asking if there's any new info in regards to the investigation of the missing person. (More often than not, nothing has changed.) But since you may not have any idea of what is listed in the NCIC report, this might be a good time to do some fact checking. Ask the detective to confirm physical characteristics, height, weight, etc.

Do they have dental info listed? If not, do you have the dental info that you need to get to them for inclusion into the file? This is an extremely valuable piece of information! Have here been any DNA family reference samples taken? Mitochondrial and nuclear? Can you confirm the DNA has been included in the CODIS, the national DNA database?

Dates are important as well. There is no database in existence that is immune to human error. Why not double-check the dates involved such as date last seen and date of birth?. For example, numbers such as Social Security numbers are easy to mix up. Are there any birthmarks, tattoos, or other distinguishing characteristics that weren't noted? Do you have a photo that might be of value?

A simple-fact check review can't hurt anything, and might change everything. You are not asking for investigative information. You are asking to verify the very data you helped to provide. During the course of this conversation, it is a good time to ask your law enforcement contact to register as a NamUs user.

Now is the time when you yourself can get the ball rolling by entering your own loved one into NamUs. By doing this, a great deal of conversation in regards to your loved one's case begins.

I have seen simple human errors resolved in this manner. Some are minor and do not make an immediate difference, but they still affect the future. Some errors are fairly important and can have an immediate impact on resolution or on how the case is processed internally.

Once your loved one's case is in NamUs, you can work to help make sure all the gaps are filled with accurate information. The only thing worse that a lack of data is inaccurate data. Consider the tiniest details.

More resources:
http://missingpiecesshow.homestead.com/MissingPiecesEpisode74Archive.html

Todd Matthews' calling to be a voice for missing and unidentified persons began when he solved the identity of the "Tent Girl," Barbara Hackman-Taylor, after a ten-year journey that ended in 1998. He is also Media Director for the Doe Network, a consultant to Emmy-award winning producer Dick Wolf ("Law & Order"), and on the Advisory Panel for the U. S. Department of Justice NamUS (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) database project. Todd also hosts a weekly radio show that publicizes unidentified and missing persons cases. A documentary featuring our guest contributor's work was recently broadcast on the BBC. A second documentary about his life is in post-production.

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Mystery Man - Todd Matthews

by Todd Matthews

There are 100,000 missing people and more than 7,000 unidentified bodies listed with the FBI-NCIC. I came to care deeply about one of them, a Jane Doe that led to my dedicating my life's work to the mission of reconnecting families with their missing. This endeavor led to my being one of the founding members of The Doe Network- International Center for Unidentified and Missing Persons, and Project EDAN. (EDAN facial reconstruction composite of Todd Matthews pictured above.)

Unidentified, But Not Forgotten

It all started for me with the Jane Doe nicknamed the "Tent Girl," an unidentified body found in a canvas tent wrapper dumped along the side of the road in Kentucky in 1968. Nearly twenty years would pass before I learned of Tent Girl. In fact, I wasn't even born until two years after her remains were discovered. I would learn of her through my wife Lori. Her father had found the body. Tent Girl was murdered.

Why could I not forget Tent Girl, a woman whom I had never known? I think it had something to do with my own family. Unlike my wife, who has many siblings, I only have one surviving brother, Mark. He and I still bear the mental scars of the passing of our younger brother Greg and sister Sue Ann. They died as infants, but never left our hearts and minds. That's how Lori and I came to feel about Tent Girl, as we built our own family.

Mark and I visited the cemetery where our siblings were buried. Tent Girl made me sad because she had no known family to visit her grave. So whenever Lori and I went to Kentucky, we visited Tent Girl's grave. In a way, we made her part of our family.

But I had a longing to connect her with her own family. I searched area libraries and newspapers to comb through hard-copy archives, searching both for stories about the Tent Girl. This went on for a decade. At times I felt I was going nowhere, but I was learning.

Criminology in a Technical Age

The advent of the Internet changed the face of research, making it easier, more affordable, and realistic. Distance was no longer an obstacle. Naturally, investigators also benefited from instant access to people with information.

The Yahoo-based "Cold Cases" group was one of the first of these such "virtual" gathering places, which led to the formation of others, such as the Doe Network. Over the past decade, an increasing number of Web sites devoted to particular cases of missing persons have been created. One of the first was my own for the Tent Girl. (The earliest page still exists, though crude by today's standards.)

Message boards dedicated to other subjects came to be used to post information about missing persons and lost loved ones.

Finally a Breakthrough

It was a night like a thousand nights before, the evening I found what I was looking for at last. I had discovered a message board with a posting by a woman looking for her sister last seen in Lexington, Kentucky. The description very closely matched the description etched onto the Tent Girl's headstone. The feeling in my heart was greater than anything concrete I was reading on the screen. I knew I had found them--the family of the Tent Girl.

An exhumation and DNA revealed Tent Girl was 24-year-old Barbara Taylor, a wife and mother who would have been a grandmother by that time.

Lasting Impact

Connecting Barbara with her family was a profound and fulfilling moment of my life. Tent Girl had a deep impact on others as well. In 1968, long before I knew of the case, the discovery of her remains had led to the establishment of the Kentucky State Medical Examiner's Office. Then three decades later, in 1998, her identification led to the creation of a state-based Web site by the Kentucky Medical Examiners office: UnidentifiedRemains.net.

Case files are in a constant state of review and are cross-referenced by researchers, law enforcement, and the public. The Doe Network alone has helped bring closure to more than forty cases of missing or unidentified people. That network continues to gather data on thousands of other similar cases to help keep them in the public eye.

Techni-Criminologists

Often people involved in using the Internet to help solve crimes are called "amateur sleuths." I prefer terms like "advocate" and "volunteer." The volunteer effort has progressed and has taken the shape of an actual science. Those of us who seek the technology of the Internet and other computerized resources to resolve cold cases have found a niche that truly deserves a name. I like the term "Technology Criminology."

Hundreds of e-mails a day from people searching for their missing loved ones are sent to advocates willing to help. This is a new age where the ordinary man can step up and make a difference. It doesn't matter your sex, age, race, or physical disability. When you think about it, we are all one big family.

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