Can't Hurt Anything, Might Change Everything

If you have a missing loved on, not knowing what you can do is a huge challenge. Dealing with the situation on the usual day to day basis is overwhelming it itself. Not knowing what you can do to make sure all paths are being followed is another issue.

Something you can do is to make sure your missing persons data is be properly reviewed.

Of course the information contained in the NCIC case file is considered law enforcement only. But the family does indeed have the right to review the information.

So rather than the usual phone to the detective in charge of your missing loved one, maybe you can do some fact checking.

Normally the call consists of asking if there's any new info in regards to the investigation of the missing person. (More often than not, nothing has changed.)

But since you might not have any idea of what is listed in the NCIC report. This might be a good time to do some fact checking. Ask the detective to confirm physical characteristics, height weight etc.

Do they have dental info listed? If not, do you have the dental info that you need to get to them for inclusion into the file? This is an extremely valuable piece of information!

Have here been any DNA family reference sample taken? Mitochondrial and nuclear? Can you confirm the DNA has been included in the national DNA database?

Dates are important as well, there's no database in existence that is immune to human error. Why not double check the dates involved? Date last seen, date of birth.

Numbers are easy to mix up, social security numbers for another example.

Were there any birthmarks or tatoos that failed to be inluded? Do you have a photo that might be of value?

A simple fact check review can't hurt anything, and might change everything. You are not asking for investigative information, you are asking to verify the very data you helped to provide.

During the course of this conversation, this is a good time to ask your law enforcement contact to register as a www.NamUs.gov user.

Now is the time when you yourself can get the ball rolling by entering your own loved one into NamUs. www.FindTheMissing.org. By doing this a great deal of conversation in regards to your loved ones cases begins.

I have seen simple human errors be resolved in this manner. Some are minor and do not make an immediate difference, but they still effect the future. Some errors are fairly important and can have an immediate on resolution or how the case is processed internally.

Once your loved ones case is in NamUs you can work to help make sure all the gap are filled with accurate information. The only thing worse that a lack of data is inaccurate data. Consider the tiniest detail.