Professional Documents
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I
f you ask most Americans about a mass 40,000 sets of human remains that cannot
disaster, they’re likely to think of the be identified through conventional means
9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, are held in the evidence rooms of medical
Hurricane Katrina, or the Southeast Asian examiners throughout the country.1 But only
tsunami. Very few people—including law 6,000 of these cases—15 percent—have
enforcement officials—would think of the been entered into the FBI’s National Crime
number of missing persons and unidentified Information Center (NCIC) database.
human remains in our Nation as a crisis. It
is, however, what experts call “a mass Efforts to solve missing persons cases
disaster over time.” are further hindered because many cities
and counties continue to bury unidentified
The facts are sobering. On any given day, remains without attempting to collect DNA
there are as many as 100,000 active missing samples. And many labs that are willing to
persons cases in the United States. Every make the effort may not be equipped to
year, tens of thousands of people vanish perform DNA analysis of human remains,
under suspicious circumstances. Viewed especially when the samples are old or
over a 20-year period, the number of missing degraded.
persons can be estimated in the hundreds
of thousands. Compounding this problem is the fact that
many of the Nation’s 17,000 law enforcement
Due in part to sheer volume, missing persons agencies don’t know about their State’s
and unidentified human remains cases are missing persons clearinghouse or the four
NIJ Journal / Issue No. 256
Federal databases—NCIC, National Crime available to State and local law enforcement
Information Center; CODIS(mp), Combined officials to identify human remains and help
DNA Index System for Missing Persons; solve missing persons cases.
IAFIS, Integrated Automated Fingerprint
Identification System; and ViCAP, Violent NIJ’s plan is multifaceted. It includes
Criminal Apprehension Program—which programs aimed at:
can be invaluable tools in a missing person
investigation. (See sidebar above, “The ■ Training medical examiners, law enforce-
Federal Databases and What They Do.”) ment officers, and victims’ families on
Even in jurisdictions that are familiar with forensic DNA evidence.
the State and Federal databases, some ■ Providing free testing of unidentified
officials say they have neither the time
human remains and family reference
nor the resources to enter missing persons
samples.
and unidentified human remains data into
the systems. ■ Encouraging States—through proposed
model legislation—to collect DNA samples
Bridging the Gap before unidentified remains are disposed
of and to analyze degraded and old
To help State and local jurisdictions address biological samples.
the country’s “mass disaster over time,”
the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has ■ Making DNA reference sample collection
brought together some of the country’s top kits available, free of charge, to any
criminal justice and forensic science experts. jurisdiction in the country.
As part of the President’s multiyear initiative ■ Increasing law enforcement’s use of
to maximize the use of forensic DNA in solv- Federal databases to solve missing persons
ing crime, NIJ is making Federal resources and unidentified human remains cases.
NIJ Journal / Issue No. 256
No longer “CSI” Meets the Real World sent a femur from the Deer Creek remains
to the lab. There, scientists ran DNA tests
Many of the people who go missing in
does solving a the United States are victims of homicide.
on the bone fragments and uploaded
the profile into the CODIS(mp) database.
Although the conventional approach to locat-
missing persons or ing a missing person is to initiate a criminal
Meanwhile, in King County, Washington,
authorities working on an unrelated murder
investigation into the disappearance, in many
unidentified human cases, the investigation begins at a different
case came across Marci’s missing per-
sons file. Detectives tracked down Marci’s
point—when human remains are found.
remains case have mother, obtained a DNA sample from her,
and sent it to the CHI lab. When a database
This is where the Center for Human
to depend on Identification (CHI) steps in. Located at the
search indicated a potential match with the
remains of the victim in the Deer Creek
University of North Texas Health Science
a break in the Center, CHI is one of NIJ’s largest and most
case, officials sent DNA from Marci’s
brother and father to CHI for further tests.
exciting DNA projects. At CHI’s laboratory in
investigation Ft. Worth, State and local law enforcement On April 6, 2006—more than 21 years after
agencies can have nuclear and mitochondrial
because we now DNA (mtDNA) testing performed on skeletal
her body was unearthed from a shallow
grave—Marci Bachmann was “found.”4
remains and on missing persons’ family
have the design and direct reference samples.2 Experts at
CHI’s Laboratory for Forensic Anthropology,
and protocol of such as Harrell Gill-King, Ph.D., also perform
Solving Cold Cases
anthropological examinations on unidentified When George Adams, program manager
pure science. human remains to determine manner and for CHI, is asked about cold hits like
cause of death. All of this testing is free. the Marci Bachmann case—where the
DNA from unidentified remains matches
NIJ’s funding of this revolutionary project the DNA from reference samples that
means that every jurisdiction in the United have been sent to the lab without any
States has access to one of the few labora- apparent connection—he paraphrases
tories in the country that can search mtDNA Vernon Geberth from Practical Homicide
and short tandem repeat (STR)3 profiles in Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and
the CODIS(mp) database. Forensic Techniques. “Solving a cold case
like Marci’s is not a matter of chance or luck;
It also means that Dereck Bachmann can it is, quite simply, a matter of design and
finally stop looking for his sister. protocol.”
NIJ Journal / Issue No. 256
NIJ Journal / Issue No. 256
NIJ Journal / Issue No. 256
Law Enforcement Training ... and More NIJ has held two regional missing persons
In addition to funding CHI’s work, NIJ
administers a wide range of projects under training conferences, and by the end of 2006,
the President’s DNA Initiative. One major
effort involves the training of police officers; NIJ’s missing persons training reached
prosecutors, defense counsel, and judges;
forensic and medical specialists; victim professionals from all 50 States.
service providers; and corrections, probation,
and parole officers on the use of forensic
DNA evidence. To date, NIJ has held of Forensic DNA for Officers of the Court,
two regional missing persons training can be downloaded at www.dna.gov/
conferences, and by the end of 2006, training/otc. (See “Online DNA Training
NIJ’s missing persons training reached Targets Lawyers, Judges” on p.16.)
professionals from all 50 States. NIJ is ■ An electronic version of the FBI’s
also developing many types of electronic Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons
training tools—one recent release is data collection guide is available to law
Principles of Forensic DNA for Officers enforcement officials through the LEO
of the Court, an interactive, computer- Intranet at http://home.leo.gov/lesig/cjis/
based training program on the use of programs/ncic.
DNA evidence in the courtroom.
Notes
Other NIJ programs seek to eliminate the
backlog of biological samples in murder, 1. The Bureau of Justice Statistics is finalizing a
rape, and kidnapping cases in forensic comprehensive census of the Nation’s medical
laboratories across the country. Since 2004, examiners and coroners. This study—expected
NIJ has provided funding to State and local to be published in early 2007—will examine
data from 2,000 medical examiners and
agencies to reduce casework and convicted
coroners and focus on the issue of uniden-
offender backlogs. NIJ also supports the tified human remains.
development of tools and technology for
2. Nuclear DNA is the genetic material inherited
faster, less costly methods of DNA analysis, from both parents: half from the mother and
including ways to analyze smaller and more half from the father. It is found in the nucleus
degraded biological samples. of each cell and is unique to each individual
(except in cases of identical twins). Nuclear
And NIJ will continue to fund programs that DNA is a powerful identifier and has been
enhance the use of DNA to solve crimes, used for forensic purposes for decades.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)—which is
protect the innocent, and identify missing found in the mitochondria of a cell, outside
persons. the nucleus—is inherited solely from the
NCJ 216523 mother and is not unique. Everyone in the
same maternal line, for generations, will have
For More Information the same mtDNA. Its use as a forensic tool in
narrowing the pool of possible donors of a
■ For DNA sample testing kits and free
sample is a more recent development.
testing of DNA samples, contact the
3. Short tandem repeats (STRs) are short
Center for Human Identification at sequences of DNA nucleotides that are
1–800–763–3147, or visit www.hsc. repeated numerous times. An individual
unt.edu/departments/pathology_ genetic profile can be created by counting
anatomy/dna/forensic.htm. the number of repeats of the DNA sequence
at a specific location on a chromosome.
■ Information on improving the use of foren- This repeat number varies greatly between
sic DNA evidence throughout the Nation’s individuals.
criminal justice system can be found at 4. According to authorities in Missoula, Marci
www.dna.gov. Bachmann was murdered by Missoula serial
■ An online training program for prosecutors, killer Wayne Nance.
defense attorneys, and judges, Principles