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A Seattle Post-Intelligencer special report on how police here and around the nation fumble missing-person reports, originally published in 10 parts.
Thursday, February 27, 2003 Part 10: Lack of a DNA database hampers the police It happens all the time, but only on television: DNA gleaned from an anonymous corpse is fed into high-powered computers that churn through thousands of records and instantly spit out a name. In reality, experts know a far different truth: DNA used as a tool for linking the reported missing to the unidentified dead remains a dramatic exception. DNA is generally now used only on a case-by-case basis -- or during confined events of mass catastrophe -- when trying to match reported missing people and the unnamed dead. Of the 165 identification cases documented by Washington's Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit from 1985 through mid-2001, only four sets of remains were identified though DNA. Dental records and fingerprints account for nearly all of the remaining cases. The reason is simple: There is no widely used Washington state or national DNA database -- at least not yet. Experts say there should be. "This technology is all available," said Gerald Nance, investigator for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va. The FBI established a missing-person DNA database in 2001, but the program is still in its infancy. It now holds records for about 100 unidentified-body cases from across the nation, said Dr. John E. B. Stewart, program manager. As the system now works, generally only "high probability" cases are submitted for analysis -- cases in which local authorities already have winnowed down likely matches between the unidentified and the missing, Stewart said. A widespread "cold hit" system in which missing and unidentified cases are routinely submitted into the system blindly -- and then a match turns up -- is not yet a reality, Stewart said. Unlike established mandates that require local police to collect dental and medical information for missing people, there is no nationwide requirement -- and few statewide ones -- for DNA collection in such cases. Analysis of DNA has revolutionized criminal investigation. Recent high-profile cases have shown how computer and genetics wizardry have combined to resolve some of the most notorious of unsolved cases. The 10-year-old killing of Mia Zapata is a case in point: The rape and murder of the 27-year-old singer stymied Seattle police investigators for a decade, but the case broke wide open last month. Saliva swabbed 10 years ago from her body had been tested and entered into the National DNA Indexing System for comparison with DNA collected from violent offenders nationwide. When DNA from a convicted felon in Florida was added to the national database, the computer made a match, allegedly linking Jesus Mezquia to Zapata's death. The same technology and computer system could be used to help connect reported missing persons to unidentified-dead cases, but there's a reluctance to do so, experts say. "No one has much of a problem with . . . collecting the DNA of criminals," Nance said. "But doing it for missing persons is another story. There's kind of a Big Brother factor at work here." More than three years ago, Congress passed legislation to enhance the FBI's initiative to collect and store DNA -- the Combined DNA Indexing System, or CODIS. The law called for widespread collection of DNA samples from violent criminals at the state level, and provided financial and FBI technical help for local and state DNA systems. Nearly all 50 states now operate such databases and require violent criminals to submit DNA information, and each state feeds its data to a national system. The law also provided $2 million in start-up funds to establish a missing-person DNA database as part of CODIS, Stewart said. Although there now is legal authority to expand the system to help link missing persons to unidentified dead, few police, coroners and medical examiners are required to collect DNA for such cases. Authorities are now generally required only to seek dental or medical X-rays, but do so in only about 4 percent of all missing-person cases nationwide. Recognizing the potential to solve cases, some police agencies in Washington have started collecting DNA in some missing-person cases. During the investigation of serial murders of prostitutes in Spokane during the late 1990s, detectives began accepting DNA samples submitted by relatives who made missing-person reports. Jim Hansen, a former Spokane County detective turned investigator with the state's Homicide Investigation and Tracking System, said the Spokane investigators quickly realized the value of taking DNA samples from victims' hairbrushes, toothbrushes and even blood from family members. "One of the positive things that came out of the Yates case (Robert Yates, convicted of murder) and Green River is (that police are) thinking in terms of DNA when they have a legitimate missing-person case," Hansen said. "This has never really been done before in missing-person investigations." Tacoma police Lt. Tom Strickland said officers in his department sometimes collect DNA in high-profile cases such as the 1999 disappearance of toddler Teekah Lewis, who vanished from a bowling alley. DNA from Teekah's relatives helped rule out a match to a child's body found in Kansas City in 2001. But such comparisons are generally done only if there are other factors that indicate a possible match. Teekah fit the general age and racial characteristics of the girl found in Kansas City. Bill Haglund, a former King County chief forensics investigator who worked the Green River case, envisions DNA collection one day becoming a routine procedure when missing-person reports are accepted. "DNA would be a lot more efficient than tracking down dental records," Haglund said. "You could get this information on the front end, if a family volunteers to provide it." Money is the major obstacle. Dr. Barry Logan, bureau director of the Washington State Patrol's Forensics Laboratory Services, said until recent changes to state law, using Washington's DNA database for missing- and unidentified-person cases wasn't an option. It's now allowed under law, but the data hasn't been incorporated into the state's DNA system, he said. "We haven't been approached to set up the system for missing-person cases," Logan said. "Inevitably, some people who are in the missing- and unidentified-persons database are probably violent-crime victims. This would seem to be a useful tool in solving some of those cases." State crime labs now have a backlog of about 600 cases awaiting DNA tests related to unsolved crimes or needed for pending court cases, Logan said. Another 15,000 cases involving offender DNA samples still need to be processed and entered into the CODIS system, he said, adding that each month that caseload grows by 3,000 to 5,000 new cases. While each CODIS case costs about $70 to $80 to process, Logan said, processing DNA for missing-person cases is more complex and would cost $250 to $500 per case. "It seems a sensible thing to do," Logan said. "But there would be a significant impact with the costs." There have been creative solutions in coming up with the money. California, one of the first states to implement a missing-person DNA database, also has been a leader in finding ways to pay for the new system: It increased costs of all death certificates by $2. The state also requires police to ask for and collect DNA information if relatives volunteer it. Coroners also now must collect DNA samples from unidentified corpses, said Jeannine Willie, California's missing-person DNA program administrator. But advocates of a widespread national system say privacy concerns will always complicate the issue. "You're not going to find a lot of people getting warm and fuzzy about some requirement to create a database with your DNA in it," Nance said. "But if there was a voluntary program for DNA collection, it could work -- especially for people who've ever had a family member go missing. They would jump at it." INSIDE SEATTLEPI.COM
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