Hundreds of families across the state, live each day with the pain of not knowing where their missing family members are.
Currently in New South Wales there are more than 700 missing people and approximately 330 unidentified bodies.
But now, with the use of modern technology, detectives are establishing new ways to assist historic missing persons cases.
In February, the NSW Police Force will launch a family relations DNA collection pilot program on the state’s Mid North Coast.
It comes after extensive review of long-term missing persons cases showed a lack of direct or familial DNA profiles for a significant number of investigations.
According to State Crime Commander Darren Bennett, the collection of DNA samples is a fundamental function of missing persons, unidentified bodies and human remains investigations.
“In a joint-agency project between the NSW Police Force and forensic and scientific experts from NSW Health Pathology on the Human Skeletal Remains Initiative (HSRI) – Direct DNA profiles for all unidentified bodies and human remains on hand have been developed.
“The objective now is to collect familial DNA from the relatives of missing persons across the country to facilitate further inquiries and in the hopes of matching these samples, locate loved ones and provide answers to families,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Bennett said.
The program will be tested on the coast first with two pop-up centres at Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie to capture samples and other data required for upload to the National Missing Persons Victim System database.
David Elliott, Minister for Police and Emergency Services is hopeful that more families will find the answers they have been looking for.
“I would encourage anyone who is looking for answers after the disappearance of a family member to come forward and potentially find closure,” Mr Elliott said.
Familial DNA samples are provided via buccal swab and are only compared against missing persons databases in Australia.
