Technology helps NCMEC identify child missing since 1852!!
News & Events NEWS RELEASE Monday Sept. 24, 2007 Contact: NCMEC Communications Department (703) 837-6111 media@ncmec.org TECHNOLOGY USED BY THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN HELPS IDENTIFY CHILD MISSING SINCE 1852 ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A computerized facial reconstruction created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) was recently used to help identify a mystery youth who died in 1852. It is a one of several modern-day technologies that are used by NCMEC’s Cold Case Unit to identify the remains of long-term missing children from around the United States. The Smithsonian Institution, which frequently works with NCMEC to identify the remains of unidentified missing children from modern times, contacted the center to help determine the identity of William T. White, whose body was found in an iron coffin by construction workers digging beneath a gas line in Washington, D.C. in 2005. NCMEC created a facial reconstruction of White, who was about 15 when he died 155 years ago. The youth was identified last week. NCMEC’s Cold Case Unit is a real-life version of the units profiled in TV shows “Cold Case” and “NCIS,” which air on CBS. In fact, the director of the NCMEC Cold Case Unit, Gerald Nance, was with the real NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigation Service) from 1973 until his retirement in 1998 as assistant director. The character played by actor Mark Harmon on “NCIS” (Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs) is modeled on a composite of Nance and other NCIS special agents. Since it was established in 2001, NCMEC’s Cold Case Unit has handled cases involving children who have been missing since as far back as 1947 and as recently as 2001. The unit has helped recover 12 missing children who were alive and 327 who had died. The work of the unit has contributed to convictions in six cases of men who abducted and later killed children. Nearly 200 cold case investigations are currently in progress. About 100 of the identifications of deceased children resulted from computerized facial reconstructions, which are generated by forensic artists who create computerized images of skulls and then carefully layer facial features on top of each skull until they have a picture closely approximating what the person looked like when alive. The artists also add hair in a style and color the person might have had. “Every parent of a child who is missing wants above all to see the child returned safely, but the parents want to know what happened even if the tragic news is that their child has died,” said NCMEC President and CEO Ernie Allen. “We want all parents of missing children to know that as long as their children are missing we will never forget about them, we will continue looking for them, and we’ve achieved remarkable success in finding and identifying children who’ve been missing for many years.” The NCMEC Cold Case Unit routinely works with law enforcement and medical examiners throughout the United States to find missing children and to identify bodies of unknown children. Most of the cases the unit deals with involve children reported missing in the 1970s and 1980s. The oldest case involves a mother and three children bludgeoned to death in 1964 and found in 1968. “We get as much information as we can about every case, examining police files if we can gain access, talking to people who knew the missing child,” Nance said. “Since I started working with NCIS more than 30 years ago, the advances in forensics technology have been dramatic. We used to rely on old-fashioned detective work, but now we can analyze DNA, do computerized facial reconstructions, and rely on technology that was science fiction not too long ago.” About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® NCMEC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 500,000 leads. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 133,000 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 115,700 children. For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its Web site at www.missingkids.com. ### http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=3406