INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT Science and Technology
Missing Persons Database
First name
Middle name
Last name
Date last seen
Age last seen
Age now
Sex
Avis
Beatrice
Mooney
Sep 1, 1961
33 years old
87 years old
Female
O
n any given day, as many as
100,000 people in the U.S.
are listed as missing. For their
family and friends, they are much
more than a statistic: They are
people who deserve the benefit
of all existing resources available to help find them and bring
closure to their lives. This large
statistic is what missing persons
experts call America’s “silent mass
disaster” over time.
Today, technology is being used
in a new way, with an improved
approach to information storage
and retrieval that is being managed right here in North Texas.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize that Fort Worth, Texas, is
essentially the epicenter for identifying missing and unidentified
persons. This is literally a one-stop
shop for agencies and families
who are trying to resolve missing
and unidentified cases,” said B.J.
Spamer, director of training and
analysis for NamUs.
The
to
Power sing
Mis
Solve ons
Pers
Cases
38
www.ntc-dfw.org
FALL/WINTER 2015
Researchers give names to the nameless.
FOUND
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons – NamUs – database
is a free, nationwide centralized
repository and the only program
accessible to all with case management, forensic and analytical
resources to solve cases. The database is part of the NamUs initiative, launched by the U.S. Department of Justice in July 2007
in response to law enforcement,
families, medical examiners and
more who needed a solution to
the growing problem of the missing and unidentified.
Now managed and administered
by the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort
Worth, under the direction of National Institute of Justice through
a cooperative agreement, professionals in North Texas are helping
to make a difference for families
of missing persons nationwide.
Spamer and her team, numbering 20 full-time experts, administer the database and provide
important training and education
to meet the goals of the NamUs
program.
The team at UNT is part of a cadre
of professionals who are bringing
the NamUs promise to reality. The
fact is that missing persons and
unidentified human remains cases are a monumental challenge to
local and state law enforcement
agencies. The workload for these
agencies is staggering: More than
40,000 sets of human remains
that cannot be identified through
conventional means are held in
the evidence rooms of medical examiners throughout the country.
Across jurisdictions and state lines,
and found in dozens of different
databases, are the clues to the
truth behind these mystery cases.
And now, with the help of this
next-generation solution, housed
and administered in North Texas,
there is a new way to put technology to work.
“We provide forensics resources,
personnel and investigative support,” said Spamer. “When an
agency has a case they put into
the system, they are assigned a
regional system administrator. We
provide primary support to investigative agencies. They will look
at the info, find other biometrics,
provide support in getting family DNA collected, obtain dental
records, have fingerprint experts
collect fingerprints and more.
“We do find a lot of missing persons alive and well,” she added.
NamUs not only allows law enforcement, coroners and families
to access information that may
help solve cases – it also provides
a way for volunteers to join in the
search. Accessible online via the
website www.namus.gov, the site
invites anyone to use their time
to help in solving cases. While
certain information may be limited to law enforcement agencies,