Thank you for using the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and for wanting to help bring resolution to those families who are still searching for their loved ones.
NamUs is only as strong as the cases within it and those who use it.
How Can You Help?
Be Responsible
You can be active for the cause of missing and unidentified persons in a number of ways. The most important is this: If you have information about a missing or unidentified person, immediately report the information to the local law enforcement agency.
Do not put yourself in a potentially dangerous situation. Investigation of missing and unidentified persons should be left to the proper authorities. Putting yourself in a potentially hazardous situation can complicate matters further.
Raise Awareness
- Visit our news room for important media updates.
- Reach out to your local officials and law enforcement to make sure they are aware of and are using the NamUs databases for missing persons cases. NamUs offers free tools to law enforcement agencies and missing persons clearinghouses.
- Encourage family members of the missing to visit the missing persons web site and database where they can create a case file and communicate with law enforcement.
- Encourage your state medical examiner or coroner to enter all of the unidentified remains from your city or state into the NamUs Unidentified Decedent Database. Additional forensic services may be available to assist medical examiners and coroners at no cost to their agency.
- Register to be a public user for the missing persons and unidentified persons databases. The public is very important to resolving cases. We never know where that critical piece of information will come from that may lead to the resolution of a missing or unidentified person case. Registered public users cannot view law enforcement sensitive data, but they can search, review and track cases. If you are alerted to new information regarding a case, this is the route for submitting new information on existing case files. Register for:
- NamUs Missing Persons: https://www.findthemissing.org/users/new_confirm
- NamUs Unidentified Persons: https://identifyus.org/users/new_confirm
Be a Volunteer
NamUs is currently accepting volunteers for the forensic services section. If you are a Board Certified Anthropologist or a Board Certified Odontologist, and you would like to donate your time to assisting agencies that do not have access to such forensic services, contact us at: J.Todd.Matthews@unthsc.edu
There are currently no volunteer opportunities with NamUs for the general public.
Volunteer opportunities may be available with other well known organizations and groups that offer assistance to law enforcement.
Options for the general public include:
- www.NCMEC.org
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) was established in 1984. Its mission is to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation; help find missing children; and assist victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation, their families and the professionals who serve them.
- www.DoeNetwork.org
The Doe Network is a volunteer organization devoted to assisting law enforcement in solving cold cases concerning unexplained disappearances and unidentified victims from North America, Australia and Europe.
- www.ProjectEDAN.us
Project EDAN (Everyone Deserves A Name) is a site established for forensic artists that donate their time and work to make facial reconstructions for law enforcement agencies that do not have access to or funding for a qualified forensic artist.
- http://onemissinglink.org
One Missing Link, Inc. is a not-for-profit service organization designed to work in conjunction with National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Its purpose is to provide a link between families of the missing and existing systems in a cooperative effort to reunite the missing and their families. In addition, the agency is dedicated to providing valid information regarding missing adults, children, parental abductions, stranger abductions, runaway and/or throwaway youth and stalking victims.
For information about legislation pending in congress, visit: http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.03695: