Volunteers Driving DNA Technology

The main thing the volunteer orgs and advocates can do now to help the cause is to make a major push for DNA entry into CODIS. Too often the lost have already been found -- just waiting on a DNA hit that will never happen without proper sample submission.

It is essential to have two or more family reference samples to take full advantage of CODIS searching. The search ability is greatly enhanced by multiple samples.

http://www.untfsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/June-2010-FSU-Bulletin1.pdf

DNA sample testing is free and there is absolutely no excuse NOT to push to make it happen.

The volunteer sector can have a HUGE impact on driving the samples. It's not enough to have a sample collected and stuffed in a drawer to compare with a possible match. The sample needs to be working in the system instead of waiting in reaction.

This is probably the single most important thing we can do to effect the overall ability to identify the dead and return them to their family.