Indentifying Missing Persons and Unidentified Decedents
Databases to ID the Missing
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons Initiative, NamUs, is the first national online repository for missing persons and unidentified dead cases. Learn more on NamUs.gov.
Watch a 6-minute video: NamUs Behind the Scenes: How It Works, Why It Matters
If you ask most Americans about a mass disaster, they're likely to think of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, or the Southeast Asian tsunami. Very few people—including law enforcement officials—would think of the number of missing persons and unidentified human remains in our Nation as a crisis. It is, however, what experts call "a mass disaster over time." [1]
Families of missing persons who are presumed dead face tremendous emotional turmoil when they are unable to learn about the fates of their loved ones. Despite tremendous scientific advancements, DNA technology is not routinely used in missing persons cases.
The partner agencies of the DNA Initiative are working to help ensure that DNA forensic technology is used to its full potential to identify missing persons by providing:
Notes
[1] Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains: The Nation's Silent Mass Disaster, NIJ Journal No. 256, January 2007
