ABC News, 13 December 2020:
Each year, around 38,000 people are reported missing.
Most are found quickly — perhaps they are visiting relatives, or seeking some solitude, or on a drug-induced bender.
But at any one time, there are around 2,600 Australians who remain stubbornly unfindable, leaving in their wake trails of grief and confusion.
Less well known are the 500 sets of anonymous bones languishing in police archives across the country…….
This year, a national DNA database has been launched in the hope it will be a game-changer.
The $4 million National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons has been established at the Australian Federal Police laboratories in Canberra.
Program director Jodie Ward says it will apply world-class forensic science techniques to the backlog of unsolved cases in a methodical way…..
Until now, DNA sampling has been patchy and, crucially, not coordinated across the states and territories.
That means human remains found in New South Wales in the 1990s could belong to a person reported missing across in Victoria in the 1980s, with DNA samples from the bones and remaining relatives never having been compared.
State and territory police are auditing their DNA archives and collecting samples from the relatives of historical missing persons where needed.
They will be submitted to Professor Ward’s team along with DNA or bone samples from unidentified remains…..
The Missing Persons Registry (MPR) was established in July 2019 and not only oversees every Missing Persons report in NSW, but also the unidentified bodies and human remains. Although the MPR is made up of a team of detectives and analysts, it does not usually investigate Missing Persons, instead it reviews each report and provides a supportive role to the police in the field.
In 2019 there were a total of 10,212 reported Missing Persons across NSW, averaging 28 missing people every day. Most people are located almost immediately however around 1% go on to become Long Term Missing Persons.
As of June 2020 there have been a total of 3,430 reports of Missing Persons, with 62 persons currently outstanding.
The MPR not only oversees the investigation of new reports but also historical Missing Persons dating back to 1945. There is currently 769 outstanding Long-Term Missing Persons across NSW however this number does vary slightly each day.
The National Missing Persons Co-ordination Centre database can be viewed at:
https://www.missingpersons.gov.au/view-all-profiles.
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