'Missing in North Texas Day' Event Provides Lifeline for Families Searching for Loved Ones

Last year alone, 48,000 missing persons reports were filed in Texas. An event in Dallas-Fort Worth aims to help families find out where their missing loved one is — no matter how old the case.

Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties have joined forces with police and community organizations to Missing in North Texas Daya one-day event where people report missing persons and provide DNA samples, all with the aim of finding out what happened to their loved one.

Daniela Martinez is coordinating the event on behalf of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office. The event is being held in a church, she said, because people often feel uncomfortable walking into a police station or coroner's office.

“It will be a more informal way for them to do what they need to do to find their missing loved one,” Martinez said.

This is the process:

• Dallas and Fort Worth police will be on hand to accept missing person reports if they have not already been filed.
• People can then enter or update their loved ones' information in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), a federal database.
• Participants can also voluntarily provide a DNA sample to see if there are any matches between unknown individuals.

After all this, people can meet representatives from external organizations, such as Thaw the Cold Cases, who organizes awareness marches in downtown Fort Worth, and receive guidance.

Organizers are asking people to bring photo ID, photos of the missing person with identifying features, identifying documents such as medical and dental records and x-rays, and if possible, two biological relatives of the missing person.

The goal is to create a place where everyone feels comfortable seeking help, said Christian Crowder, chief of the human identification unit at the Tarrant County coroner's office.

“Maybe your status is undocumented, or you have a warrant or something, none of that matters in this space,” Crowder said. “The law enforcement that's going to be there — they're not going to be checking people. It's a very safe place for families to come.”

Missing in North Texas Day is based on an annual event in the Houston area that Missing in Southeast Texas Day.

Over the past decade, that event has helped name 20 previously unidentified bodies and reunite nine living people with their families, said Mel Turnquist, who heads the Texas Center for the MissingThe Center organizes the event.

Turnquist encourages anyone looking for a loved one to attend Saturday's event in Fort Worth, no matter how long it has been since the person went missing.

“For those who feel their loved one has been missing for far too long, last year's event solved a 47-year-old case through DNA submission,” she said.

And for those who have recently disappeared, the idea that there is a 24-hour waiting period to report a missing person is a myth, she said.

Saturday's event is also an opportunity for authorities to provide information and build trust with people searching for a missing loved one, Martinez said.

“I don't know if some families will be willing to give DNA this year, but maybe with all this information they will go home and think about it and come back to it,” she said.

Missing in North Texas Day focuses specifically on the Latino community. The local consulates of Mexico, Peru and Guatemala are involved in the event. The planned panel discussions will include live translation services in Spanish.

Consulates, not coroners’ offices, are often the first port of call for a person when a loved one goes missing, Martinez said. Consulates can also help with repatriation services — returning people to their home countries after they die.

Christian Zlolniski, professor of anthropology at UT Arlington and former president of the university Center for Mexican American Studiesalso helped organize Missing in North Texas Day.

He first learned about the subject when a former student was doing research on people who die or go missing while crossing the U.S. border. The U.S.-Mexico border is the border of the world deadliest land migration routeaccording to the United Nations International Organization for Migration.

“There’s nothing we can do for the people who have died,” Zlolniski said. “But if we can help give their families some sense of closure, that’s part of what we’re trying to do.”

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