DNA data bank for missing persons needed, group says
CanWest News Service
Thu 13 Mar 2003
Byline: Jim Bronskill

OTTAWA - A national group that helps find lost children is calling on the government to create a new DNA data bank for missing persons, a tool that could identify human remains and provide peace of mind to relatives by putting cases to rest.
It's a grim reminder that while some abductees, like teenager Elizabeth Smart of Utah, are eventually found and returned to their families, others are not.
Smart was reunited with loved ones this week, nine months after allegedly being abducted at knifepoint by a drifter.
The Missing Children Society of Canada, which has several longstanding cases on its books, has added its voice to those who believe DNA-matching technology could provide closure to some families who fear the worst.
"It is difficult to grasp the depth of anguish and desperation felt by the searching families when a loved one has gone missing," the Calgary-based society says in a letter to the Justice Department. "These families live with the terror of the unknown every day, surviving only on hope, faith and scraps of information, until the fate of their child is discovered."
In 2000, the federal government set up a national data bank of DNA samples collected from people convicted of serious offences as well as materials left at crime scenes. There have been hundreds of matches useful to police investigations.
Justice officials across the country have proposed changes that could improve the data bank, prompting the Justice Department to issue a consultation paper last summer.
The Missing Children Society's October 2002 letter and the submissions of several members of the public who similarly urge the government to set up a missing persons data bank were among the briefs the department has just released to CanWest News under the Access to Information Act.
The society is a national charitable organization whose purpose is to assist police and families in the search for abducted and runaway children.
Ninety-eight per cent of the more than 4,000 missing children cases in which the society has been involved since 1986 have been successfully closed. Still, it has 25 unsolved cases.
"These are children who have simply vanished and have most probably met with foul play," the society's letter says.
Last year, there were 66,532 children reported missing in Canada, according to RCMP figures.
But the society insists the actual number of missing children, youths or adults in Canada is difficult to determine.
"What we do know is that we have hundreds of deceased persons, including children, who are lying in morgues across the country who have yet to be identified."
The society believes the addition of a missing persons DNA data bank will help end the nightmare for some of these families by allowing coroners to match DNA on a system, accessible to all jurisdictions, with that of unidentified deceased persons.
Once the missing person is identified, the data bank could also help police solve any potential crime through new leads and prosecute the offender, the society adds.
The government's consultation paper focuses on several issues related to the current data bank's scope and the type of offences covered, but not the concept of a missing persons bank.
The society suggests the addition of a missing persons DNA bank be considered when the legislation for the existing bank is reviewed in 2005.