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Trenton,
NJ – The New Jersey State Police has
launched a DNA identification project for
long-term missing and unidentified deceased
persons that supports the implementation
of the state’s new Patricia’s
Law, which sets new guidelines for police
to follow in missing persons’ cases,
including collecting DNA material and entering
it into a national database.
The
State Police project is designed to serve
as a national model and is supported by
a National Institute of Justice grant that
funds a program at the University of North
Texas Center for Human Identification, which
runs DNA analysis for the program. The project,
nationally known as the President’s
DNA Initiative: Advancing Justice through
DNA Technology, was launched to solve long-term
missing and unidentified deceased persons
investigations. The State Police Missing
Persons Unit is the lead agency for the
DNA identification project.
Patricia’s Law was signed into law
by Gov. Jon S. Corzine in January. The Governor
presided at a ceremonial bill signing today
in Bogota to draw attention to the new legislation.
Primary sponsors of Patricia’s Law
were State Sen. Loretta Weinberg and Assembly
members Valerie Vainieri Huttle, Joan Voss
and Linda Greenstein. The law was named
after Patricia Marie Viola, who disappeared
from her Bogota neighborhood more than seven
years ago.
The State Police long-term missing and unidentified
deceased persons DNA identification project
has established detailed best practices
protocols and investigative guidelines for
law enforcement to follow when handling
reports of missing persons or unidentified
deceased human remains. Patricia’s
Law demands that all reports of missing
persons shall be immediately investigated
without delay.
The
guidelines details a category of “high
risk’’ missing persons, which
includes children, people in need of medical
attention, and mentally impaired persons.
DNA
material collected from personal items of
the missing person (like clothing, toothbrushes
or hairbrushes) and DNA from family members
is entered into a national DNA Index system
known as CODIS for the Combined DNA Index
System.
There are approximately 19,000 missing persons
reported in NJ each year and entered into
the National Crime Information Center (NCIC)
computerized database. Approximately 1,500
long-term missing persons, or people missing
for more than 30 days, are reported annually.
In addition, there are 272 active unidentified
deceased cases.
The State Police Missing Persons Unit coordinates
with county prosecutors and distributes
DNA collection kits and lists of all long-term
missing person cases to county coordinators
for dissemination to local law police departments.
The project also coordinates unidentified
deceased cases with the state, regional,
and county medical examiner offices.
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