OJJDP and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) have launched the Children’s Justice Project, a 2-year effort spearheaded by OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan to accelerate the identification of children and youth who have been found deceased but never identified. The National Institute of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) reports that an estimated 1,000 children and youth remain unidentified and, thus, their cases are unresolved.
OJJDP’s recent commitment of nearly $2 million in funding has secured the essential resources to carry out the Children’s Justice Project. The OJJDP-NCMEC project provides financial resources to apply forensic genetic genealogy and other technology to appropriate pending cases involving children and youth.
“The promise of the Children’s Justice Project is that we can identify children and youth, return them to their loved ones and communities, and give them back their names,” Administrator Ryan says. “NCMEC has been a tireless advocate for children for 40 years, recovering children safely and reuniting them with their families, as well as working to identify children and youth whose remains have been found. This project increases their capacity and ability to use technology to help identify more children.”
“We’ll never give up on looking for answers for these children.”
—John Bischoff, Vice President of NCMEC’s Missing Children Division
NCMEC has worked for 15 years with federal, local, state, and Tribal agencies on cases involving unidentified children. In that time, nearly 200 cases have been resolved; NCMEC contributed to approximately 40 percent of the identifications. Recent advances in DNA technology and the emergence of forensic or investigative genetic genealogy—along with the increased availability of private forensic DNA labs—offer NCMEC an opportunity to significantly speed the pace of its work, says John Bischoff, Vice President of NCMEC’s Missing Children Division. “With the Children’s Justice Project, NCMEC is doing what it was designed to do by serving as a national clearinghouse for helping children,” he says.
Some of the unresolved cases date back to the 1970s and early 1980s, before the use of DNA in forensics. Today, very small samples can yield DNA evidence, Dr. Bischoff says. Investigators use other techniques as well, including fingerprints and dental features, facial reconstruction, forensic anthropology, and pollen and soil analysis. Genetic genealogy has been "a game changer," Dr. Bischoff says. The technique involves comparing DNA evidence to millions of samples submitted by customers of DNA testing sites—often to learn about their ancestry. When investigators find relatives sharing DNA, a genealogist searches the family tree for a missing relative.
“The Children’s Justice Project will help bring answers to families and communities who have suffered unimaginable loss,” Administrator Ryan says. “OJJDP is proud to fund and participate in this project.”
Resources:
Visit NCMEC’s Help ID Me Facebook page to view facial reconstructions and read information on active cases. A 2021 NCMEC report explains how the remains of 236 children were identified.