Resources
Videos
- Bringing Hope to the Families of Missing and Unidentified Persons, Washington, DC, September 12, 2007
- Regional Missing Persons Training, Clearwater Beach, FL, September 19–21, 2005
DNA Testing of Unidentified Remains
The University of North Texas Health Science Center is coordinating with medical examiners' and coroners' offices, the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the National Center for Missing Adults, and law enforcement agencies to identify, collect, and perform DNA analysis on unidentified remains and reference samples.
For more information, contact the Center for Human Identification at 1-800-763-3147 or missingpersons@hsc.unt.edu.
DNA Reference Kits
The University of North Texas Health Science Center—funded by the National Institute of Justice—developed two standardized collection kits. One kit provides a safe, effective, noninvasive means for obtaining the appropriate family reference samples. A second kit provides for the collection, transportation, and storage of human remains samples. These kits were developed in conjunction with groups such as the FBI Laboratory, the National Association of Medical Examiners, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the National Center for Missing Adults.
For more information, contact the Center for Human Identification at 1-800-763-3147 or missingpersons@hsc.unt.edu.
The President's DNA Initiative—Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology
DNA technology is increasingly vital to ensuring accuracy and fairness in the criminal justice system. DNA can be used to identify criminals with incredible accuracy when biological evidence exists, and DNA can be used to clear suspects, exonerate persons mistakenly accused or convicted of crimes, and solve missing persons and unintified human remains cases.
To increase the use of DNA technology in the criminal justice system, the President announced a 5-year, more than $1 billion initiative to improve the use of DNA in the criminal justice system on March 11, 2003. The Initiative calls for increased funding, training, and assistance—to Federal, State, and local forensic labs; to police; to medical professionals; to victim service providers; and to prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges—to ensure that this technology reaches its full potential to solve crimes, protect the innocent, and identify missing persons. This Initiative—Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology—has the following goals:
- Eliminate the current backlog of unanalyzed DNA samples and biological evidence for the most serious violent offenses—rapes, murders, and kidnappings—and for convicted offender samples needing testing.
- Improve crime laboratories' capacities to analyze DNA samples in a timely fashion.
- Stimulate research and develop new DNA technologies and advances in all forensic sciences areas.
- Develop training and provide assistance about the collection and use of DNA evidence to a wide variety of criminal justice professionals.
- Provide access to appropriate postconviction DNA testing of crime scene evidence not tested at the time of trial.
- Ensure that DNA forensic technology is used to its full potential to solve missing persons cases and identify human remains.
- Protect the innocent.
The President's DNA Initiative will help ensure that DNA forensic technology is used to its full potential to identify missing persons by providing:
- Publications
- Analysis of Remains and Biological Samples
- Training and Assistance
- DNA Reference Kits
- Educational Materials for Families
- Research, Development, and Testing
- Funding for Crime Laboratories
DNA Projects Target Missing Persons Cases—Reprinted from The CJIS Link (Vol. 9, No. 3, October 2006), the newsletter of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division.