Anyone who is familiar with the name Todd Matthews knows this is a man who needs more than 24 hours in a day. Todd Matthews is the man who found out the identity of The Tent Girl, he is a huge part of the Doe Network and he also runs a radio show every tuesday called Missing Pieces.
The Green River Killer case in Seattle will pale in
comparison...once the facts come out in this case.
- Wayne Leng / www.MissingPeople.net
Federal Mandate v/s Moral Obligation
By: Todd Matthews
Missing & Unidentified Persons Submission into FBI-NCIC
My usual report, there are over 100,000 missing and over 6,000 unidentified bodies in the NCIC (National Crime Information Center)
Severely underused, the FBI - NCIC is thought to only have only 10 - 50% of the actual numbers of the missing and unidentified.
So many cases are NOT yet entered into the NCIC...if it were fully utilized to it's potential...imagine the results? Would it overwhelm the system? Would it make a difference? Would it spark improvement in the system? Would it prove a point? Would anyone care?
California has mandated the use of the FBI-NCIC databases for missing and unidentified persons. So the numbers generated by that state are of the highest percentage. That's good for the cases that fall within the state itself. But no matter how much is entered into the system by California, if the missing link is outside their state, and not in the system, it won't work. Only a true central system will be effective.
NamUs
Another attempt by the federal government offers new hope.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons Initiative, NamUs, was launched in July 2007. NamUs is the first national online repository for missing persons and unidentified dead cases.
I have had the honor to consult with officials on this project. I feel a great deal of promise for the future. To see the issues at long last recognized by the national government is a long time dream.
There were times I felt this day might never come. This day will not be tomorrow however. Though was launched in July of 2007, it will be phased in over the next two years.
When fully operational (2009), NamUs will provide a powerful tool for families, law enforcement agencies, medical examiners and coroners, victim advocates, and the general public. It will allow searches for matches between missing persons and unidentified human remains records. For more information on NamUs, check the web-site for updates. www.NamUs.gov
LIVINGSTON, Tenn.- More than 100 agencies have contacted Metro police about suspected serial killer Bruce Mendenhall.
The 56-year-old truck driver is charged with one homicide and a suspect in at least five others. A lot of people are looking at him in other cases including a group of volunteers who are not police detectives. One of the volunteers lives in Overton County. He and others help police on the Internet, looking at other unsolved homicides. But these cases are different. The victims are Jane and John Does. For Todd Mathews holding an unidentified skull is nothing new. In fact, he's been helping families and police try to identify Jane and John Does for nearly ten years. "It came from a need," Mathews said. He got involved nearly a dozen years ago when he started using the Internet to research the identity of human remains discovered by his father-in-law in Kentucky "Tent Girl". "I was just opened up to this whole world," Mathews said. "I had no idea that there were so many other Jane Does or John Does." The research and contacts with others created what is called the Doe Network. "There were state Web sites, local Web sites with missing persons, but nothing really central," Mathews said. It's a public website listing thousands of missing and unidentified persons throughout North America, Australia and Europe. "We have 21 unidentified bodies listed for Tennessee," Mathews said. Mathews has found a couple of Jane Doe cases in East Tennessee and Kentucky that are similar to the murders allegedly committed by Bruce Mendenhall. Police said Mendenhall has implicated himself in the killings of six prostitutes, but there could be others. There's a case in Campbell County. "She was stabbed and dumped along I-75 and she was thought to be have been a prostitute," Mathews said. The Doe Network shares information with police all over the world. For Mathews, it all started with the bones discovered by his father-in-law. It took awhile but he found the victim's name. "Ten years, it took a decade to identify her," Mathews said.
In it, during the spring of 1921, was buried the body of a young man found dead outside Georgetown, Kentucky.
Townspeople joined to buy a grave marker which reads
- Some Mother's Son -
His body was found on April 1st, 1921 and was buried on April 14th, 1921.
More than 80 years have passed since this boy was found. The most likely clues to his identity lie with the science of genealogy.
I have visited his grave now for almost 20 years. His stone so covered with moss that a clear image of the epitaph is impossible. I recently took and image of the grave, printed it out and touched up the lettering with a lead pencil so that it can be read.
Like the Tent Girl, my main reference to him was the 1969 issue of Master Detective. The article led me right to his final resting place, the only evidence that he ever existed.
His stone so covered with moss that a clear image of the epitaph is impossible. I recently took an image of the grave, printed it out and touched up the lettering with a lead pencil so that it can be read.
~Some Mother's Boy~
Townspeople joined to
Buy a grave marker
BBC Presents - Internet Sleuths
Tuesday 24 April, 11.00-11.30am BBC RADIO 4
....More than a thousand miles away in Tennessee, Todd Matthews searches the Internet for links between missing people and unidentified bodies. He is just one of a network of amateur sleuths trying to help the authorities solve these Cold Cases - not only across the States but elsewhere in the world. Todd regards himself as an advocate not only for all those unidentified victims but also for the 100,000 children and adults listed as missing in the States.
The catalyst for this was discovering his future father-in-law had found the body of a murdered girl in 1968. After hearing she had never been identified, Todd became obsessed with succeeding where the authorities had failed. He visited libraries and checked newspaper reports across the States, but it wasn't until he started using the Internet in the Nineties that he struck lucky. The victim's sister, in an attempt to find her missing relative, listed her description on a missing persons website and Todd made the match.
Internet Sleuths documents the work of a growing band of amateur detectives that crosses countries and continents in the virtual world of website leads and information.
The 56-year-old truck driver is charged with one homicide and a suspect in at least five others. A lot of people are looking at him in other cases including a group of volunteers who are not police detectives. One of the volunteers lives in Overton County. He and others help police on the Internet, looking at other unsolved homicides. But these cases are different. The victims are Jane and John Does. For Todd Mathews holding an unidentified skull is nothing new. In fact, he's been helping families and police try to identify Jane and John Does for nearly ten years. "It came from a need," Mathews said. He got involved nearly a dozen years ago when he started using the Internet to research the identity of human remains discovered by his father-in-law in Kentucky "Tent Girl". "I was just opened up to this whole world," Mathews said. "I had no idea that there were so many other Jane Does or John Does." The research and contacts with others created what is called the Doe Network. "There were state Web sites, local Web sites with missing persons, but nothing really central," Mathews said. It's a public website listing thousands of missing and unidentified persons throughout North America, Australia and Europe. "We have 21 unidentified bodies listed for Tennessee," Mathews said. Mathews has found a couple of Jane Doe cases in East Tennessee and Kentucky that are similar to the murders allegedly committed by Bruce Mendenhall. Police said Mendenhall has implicated himself in the killings of six prostitutes, but there could be others. There's a case in Campbell County. "She was stabbed and dumped along I-75 and she was thought to be have been a prostitute," Mathews said. The Doe Network shares information with police all over the world. For Mathews, it all started with the bones discovered by his father-in-law. It took awhile but he found the victim's name. "Ten years, it took a decade to identify her," Mathews said.
