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The New York State Missing Persons Clearinghouse is researching state supported missing person long-term cold case programs. If your state has a panel, team or other type of program, please post information about the program in terms of how it was developed, its makeup/structure and how it functions.
Cindy Neff, Program Manager, NYS Missing Persons Clearinghouse
[email protected] | 518-485-7594From Joni Turnpin, CJIN Administrative Support Specialist, Montana Department of Justice:
Unfortunately we do not have a dedicated missing person cold case unit set up in our Division of Criminal Investigations unit for the MTDOJ at this time. Presently each local law enforcement agency that is in charge of a missing person case has their own version of a cold case unit. Montana DOJ’s DCI unit is brought in upon request from the local agencies if they need assistance with a case.
The Houston Regional Amber Alert System does not have a formal program so much as some standard practices that include:
1) Quarterly meetings of a long-term missing family support group that meets quarterly and participates in activities for Texas Missing Person Day, Houston Missing Person Day, Missing in Harris County Day and National Missing Children’s Day. 2) We also highlight long-term missing cases on our web page and social media platforms and send out cards and special notifications, typically on the anniversary of the missing date and/or on the missing persons birthday. 3) And, finally, we work with our local Crime-Stoppers sometimes to highlight long-term cases to try to drive in more leads and tips.Posted on behalf of Sergeant Terry L. Styf, West Fargo, ND, Police Department:
The West Fargo PD does not currently have a Long-Term Missing/Cold Case program. However we are interested in hearing about others’ programs and efforts here as well, as our Special Investigations Sergeant is considering options for this type of program currently.
At present, The Georgia Bureau of Investigation does not have a Long Term Missing and/or Cold Case Unit. The Bureau does quarterly reviews on all open cases such as death investigations but this is done by Regional Field Office Agents within their AOR (area of responsibility). We have discussed forming such a Unit but manpower limitations have not allowed for a Unit to be formed at this time.
Rhode Island does not have a Long Term Missing and/or Cold Case Unit.
I would also be interested in any information/details you obtain for future reference.The Arkansas State Police do not have a long term missing/cold case unit. Some of the larger municipal agencies have a cold case unit manned primarily with retired detectives working on a part time basis…
MAJ Mark Hollingsworth
Arkansas State PoliceAlaska does not currently have a cold case unit that deals with unsolved homicides and generally does not have anything to do with missing persons cases.
Posted on behalf of Michael Giddens, Special Agent Supervisor, Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement:
FDLE is part of a joint initiative through its Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse (MEPIC) and the Medical Examiners Commission (MEC). The purpose of this initiative is to gather resources and methods to identify the unidentified deceased persons and bring renewed attention to the growing number unidentified persons in Florida. Information on this initiative can be found at https://www.fdle.state.fl.us/MCICSearch/UnidentifiedProgram.asp and may offer assistance and other points of contact for your inquiry.
We do not have a program at our agency. We do work some cold case cases but do not have an actual program. I talked to our XO. He said as far as he knows only Unified PD and Salt Lake City PD have actual programs.
Posted on behalf of Captain Michael Turner, Missouri AMBER Alert Coordinator, Missouri State Highway Patrol:
Missouri does have a Missing Persons Unit within the State Highway Patrol. More information on this unit can be found at https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/MSHPWeb/PatrolDivisions/DDCC/Units/MissingPersonsJuvenileUnit/index.html and may offer assistance and other points of contact for your inquiry.
Posted on behalf of Megan Eschleman, Program Manager, Investigative Services Program, Missing and Unidentified Persons Section, Violent Crime Investigative Support Section:
While we do not have a Long-Term Missing Program currently, we are also interested on receiving information from/about similar programs from the other partners.
In Washington State a Cold Case Working Group was recently put together in late 2017. To date we have had 3 meetings with out last meeting devoted entirely to a case study presentation of a long term missing child (no body homicide). The group was put together initially by Detective Lindsey Wade from the Tacoma Police Department with invitations to multiple agency detectives known to have worked cold cases, the state forensic anthropologist, my office (State Clearinghouse/State Missing Unidentified Persons Unit), prosecutors, State Crime Lab and the state Attorney Generals Office. To date we have about 25 members of the group. The goal is to meet every other month and conduct case reviews and make recommendations for follow up. We’ve also identified various gaps in reporting, DNA issues, felony offender tracking etc. I’m happy to provide any further information upon request with the caveat that we are SUPER new and still working out how we will be moving forward.
Hi Cindy. PA State Police has a Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit (CIA) which handles both homicide and missing person cases (thought to be suspicious or criminal in nature), many of them cold cases. This unit was developed in 1988 under the model of the FBI’s Behavioral Assessment Unit. There is one full-time and at least one part-time unit member in each of our Troops across the state who investigate these case, as well as three full time administrative unit members who are based in PSP headquarters (two enlisted and one civilian behavior analyst) The administrative unit members are tasked with the AMBER Alert program, Missing Endangered Person Alert program, as well as the State Missing Person Clearinghouse duties, in addition to overseeing the CIA field members and assisting in those cases. Our department has found that having the behavioral analysis component of our unit involved in the child abduction investigations and long term missing cases is extremely helpful. I would be happy to discuss our unit’s model and activities in further detail if you would like. My email address is [email protected].
New Mexico currently doesn’t have a Long-Term Missing/Cold Case program but we are interested in hearing what programs and efforts other agencies are doing as well.
Hi Cindy. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Missing Endangered Person Information Clearinghouse (MEPIC) conducts long-term missing (LTM) case reviews. The LTM case is any case where the person is missing for an extended amount of time and all leads have been exhausted. Most of these cases are opened at the request of the law enforcement agency of jurisdiction. Our analysts conduct database checks on these LTM cases on a regular basis throughout the year. If further investigative needs are required, many of our inspectors or agents will assist with those cases.
The other part of our program involves the Unidentified Deceased Initiative, which I am a part of. We partner with our Florida Medical Examiners and law enforcement partners to identify the unidentified deceased. We have over 840 unidentified deceased in Florida. We look at all unidentified cases to include homicides, suicides, accidental deaths and natural deaths. As part of the program, we review unidentified cases and identify areas/gaps where these cases could benefit from forensic resources, such as exhumations, DNA analysis, forensic odontology, fingerprint submissions to state and federal fingerprint databases and facial reconstruction and composites. We also provide analytical resources, such as running potential names and aliases, conducting searches for tattoos, searching against various missing persons databases and running any other investigative leads available. While this program has been in existence for a while, we did not focus much of our efforts until November 2016 when we allotted two full-time positions to the program, a sworn inspector and an analyst. To date, we have identified 13 individuals through this program. While many of these individuals have been missing for years, a large majority of them were never documented as missing. We also assist with locating information on next of kin and assisting with obtaining DNA reference samples, if necessary. Once an identification is made, further assistance can be provided by our regional offices on the cold case homicides, if requested by the law enforcement agency. If you have any questions about how we run our program, please feel free to contact me: [email protected]
Posted on behalf of Kay Vazquez, Puerto Rico Clearinghouse for Missing Children:
Our clearinghouse doesn’t have a “program“ for long term missing persons. We currently have 12 long term cases, the oldest being from 1974 and the latest from 2015. When the investigations stalls or goes cold, the case sometimes gets inactive. But is doesn’t mean we don’t corroborate new tips provided by the public and/or review the case and see if we “missed” or did not complete a task. One of the last steps we do is collect DNA from family members and create a yellow notice to send out to other INTERPOL member countries. The last, has surprisingly provided leads that we can check on.
North Dakota does not have a long term missing person program. North Dakota BCI would get the case and review it periodically.
The NH CCU was formed in 2009 utilizing grant funding to establish a team comprised of investigators and a unit prosecutor. The NHCCU consists of two full-time NH state troopers, a part-time investigator (from the Attorney General’s Office), and a full-time prosecutor (Assistant AG). The unit is tasked is with investigating 130+ unsolved homicides, suspicious deaths, and long term missing persons. The original grant funds expired in 2013. At that time, the operating costs of the unit were rolled into the state’s general budget.
Also, more details as to the unit’s start up can be found in the 2010 CCU annual report at:
https://www.doj.nh.gov/criminal/cold-case/documents/2011-status-report.pdf
Please let me know if I can answer any more questions. Sara Hennessey
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