NYC Missing Persons Day was held in the Bronx on Dec. 6, marking the first time the annual event was held outside of Manhattan since its launch in 2014.
According to information from NamUS, a public database of missing persons, as many as 600,000 people in the U.S. are reported missing each year. At the same time, more than 11,000 sets of unidentified human remains are held in offices throughout the country just waiting to be matched up.
Currently in New York City, there is not a standout trend in the number of people going missing, said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham, but the event aims to bring closure to at least some who have been waiting, sometimes for decades.
“We are in the business of providing answers to families,” Graham told the Bronx Times. “People can live with the facts. They have a hard time living with uncertainty.”
The Dec. 6 event invited people with a loved one who has been missing for more than 60 days to come to the Bronx Family Service Center at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), located on East 161st Street, to meet with scientists and investigators. The attendees also received support and were able to update authorities about an ongoing case.
OCME is the agency responsible for investigating all deaths in New York City that are considered unusual or suspicious, whether by accident, suicide, violence or medical reasons when the person was seemingly healthy.
The office completes an intake process and asks many questions about the missing person — where and when they were last seen, their last known address, whether or not they had ever been fingerprinted for a job or incarceration reasons and physical characteristics that set them apart from others.
Relatives of the missing person can complete a DNA swab that is uploaded into a national public database called NamUS, which helps forensic investigators make matches among missing persons cases. NamUS currently shows 62 missing people from Bronx County since 2018, 108 from New York County (Manhattan) since 2018, 69 from Queens since 2017 and 111 from Kings County (Brooklyn) since 2017.
OCME said their office uses NamUS, plus many other scientific and archival tools, to help families find a match. Even small details about the missing person’s clothing or dental work can lead to answers.
“You never know what is going to be the link in those cases,” said one of the staffers. “It’s a big team effort.”
Working at OCME brings some unusual stories. Carl Gajewski, a supervisor in the DNA unit, spoke of one family from out of state whose missing son was in New York. The family came to OCME, and the NYPD missing persons unit was able to locate a citation very recently issued to the son. NYPD pulled up bodycam footage, and as it turned out, the son was held at a local precinct — where the family reconnected with him.
Most families who come to OCME are not fortunate enough to find their loved one alive, but the office works collaboratively with the FBI, Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and even international consulates to help at least give them some answers.
While NYPD is the frontline of missing persons reporting, OCME is well-equipped and working around-the-clock to support New Yorkers searching for a missing loved one, said Assistant Director Mark Desire.
“Till we find the person, we never stop,” he told the Bronx Times.
Desire said the one-day event and subsequent media coverage will likely lead to more people calling and visiting OCME — which New Yorkers can do anytime year-round.
“You don’t have to wait. We work on this every day,” he said.
The Bronx Family Services Center is located at 260 East 161st St., 4th floor. Meetings can be scheduled with the Identification Unit at (212) 447-2030, and more information is available on the OCME website.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
