NamUs In The News
ID'ing John Doe
There are new ways to determine identities of unknown dead victims
July 06, 2007
Tonight someone, somewhere is looking for a missing loved one.
There's a project that can help those people. It's called "Identify-US", and it helps identify bodies in missing persons cases. Local authorities hope it will help them crack a murder case.
We warn you that some of pictures you are about to see could be disturbing.
He was found on a cold February night seven years ago. Michael Firmin, Golden Harvest Food Bank: "It's really been a burden on my heart." Mike Firmin's burden began when a freezer alarm forced him to check on this compressor, in a remote and heavily wooded area behind Augusta's Golden Harvest Food Bank. Firmin: "...and I said hello are you alright? no answer, hello you alright?" Firmin was startled to discover the lifeless figure of a man lying face down, here in the darkness nearby.
He is now referred to as Richmond County's John Doe.
Grover Tuten, Richmond County Coroner, says, "It just bothers that here is someone that died, and no one knows it, that's just amazing." He had no ID on him, just a dollar in a pocket. He wore a gold, Caravelle watch... and had a single gunshot wound to the back of his head.
Tuten: "There's got to be someone, out there, who cares about this young man." He wore fashionable "FUBU" clothing and shoes. He was in his mid-20's.
But Richmond County Coroner, Grover Tuten, says traditional fingerprint checks, and missing persons databases have resulted in nothing but frustration. John Doe was eventually buried in this pauper's grave, but his story is not unique.
The latest federal figures suggest that there are about 6,000 active, unidentified cases nationwide, but if all the cases dating back to the 1980's were figured in, it's believed that that number could jump to about 40,000.
Fulton County's medical examiner is a key player in an effort to bring those cases to the web, so investigators can get some help in figuring out who they are. Dr. Randy Hazlick, Fulton County Medical Examiner: "This is a simple one-stop-shop-type of thing, where anybody can go right to it."
Right now, several states, like South Carolina, and Georgia, only list a fraction of their John and Jane Does on certain websites, open to anyone. Eventually, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's cases will join hundreds of others on Identify-US.Org
Dr. Hanzlick: "At least all the dead people are in one spot, regardless of what state they ended up in."
Identify-US.Org features an image of the person, if possible. It also allows folks to search, based on several factors. Dr. Hanzlick: "Such as tatoos, or piercings, distinctive jewelry, or hair color."
Family members will also be able to submit a DNA sample to help make a connection.
Dr. Hanzlick: "I think it's going to increase the number of cold hits, through DNA, and I think it's going to increase the number where, somebody's looking for somebody, and they actually find them outside of the DNA."
Grover Tuten: "I just can't imagine the parents of this man not knowing, just not knowing where their child's at. It would just drive me crazy."
Richmond County plans to eventually post details about John Doe, and another Jane Doe found earlier this year off of Lover's Lane. It's hoped they will, somehow be identified.
Firmin: "It'd be a blessing, absolutely nothing is worthy of a person being treated like that, and having their body dumped."
It would also be a fitting end for the one person that Mike Firmin never had a chance to help.
If you know anything that could help Richmond County investigators identify John Doe, give them a call at 706-821-1080.
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--------------- More NamUs In The News ---------------
New website will track unnamed dead
November 04, 2007
Even in the age of high-tech police work, medical examiners from coast to coast have a lot of old and new cases of unidentified remains.
Some of the dead were already cremated or buried anonymously. Others remain in morgues, waiting.
According to a 2004 study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Services, medical examiners and coroners reported that they handle about 4,400 unidentified remains in a typical year, of which about 1,000 were still unidentified after one year.
The U.S. Department of Justice in July launched a website that aims to be a better tool for authorities to identify those remains.
The first such national online repository, the site is www.NamUs.gov. It will have a database on unidentified dead and a database of missing people.
Several hundred unidentified dead are in the database now, and the agency hopes to have all the estimated 16,000 to 40,000 cases from around the country in the database by 2009, said Kevin Lothridge, executive director of the Florida-based National Forensic Science Technology Center.
Some cases are decades old.
Lothridge's group got a federal grant to carry out the program, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
"That was the power of this — that you'll have more people than just police looking at this," Lothridge said. "You'll have the public, medical examiners and coroners, using this one set of tools."
Todd Matthews, a Tennessee man who is on an advisory panel for this Department of Justice endeavor, said it should help speed up identification and solve cases.
Matthews has long argued for a centralized system like NamUs. He said police agencies put details of their unidentified dead in the National Crime Information Center, which only law enforcement can access. Because participation is voluntary on adult cases, Matthews said, the information on NCIC may account for only half of the actual cases.
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