Law enforcement agents gathered more than 40 DNA swabs Saturday during the first large-scale event to help locate missing persons in the state.
More than 60 officers volunteered for the Never Forgotten - Arkansas Takes Action event at Arkansas State Police headquarters in Little Rock.
The event was designed to update files and collect evidence from families around the state who have missing relatives, said Cindy Murphy, communications director for the state attorney general’s office.
Along with the state police, the event was sponsoredby the attorney general’s office, the Arkansas Crime Information Center, the state Crime Laboratory, the National Unidentified and Missing Persons System, the Arkansas Sheriff’s Association and the Arkansas Chiefs of Police Association.
There are more than 450 active missing-person cases in Arkansas and about 80 sets of unidentified remains, according to the National Crime Information Center.
Kermit Channell, executive director of the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock, originally pitched the idea for Saturday’s event after a woman from Fort Smith approached him for help in finding her brother, whohad been missing for several years.
“It occurred to me that I didn’t know anything about finding missing persons,” Channell said. “This is the first step in really being proactive.”
There is often a lot of procedural confusion in searching for missing persons, Channell said, and the event was designed to help rectify that confusion, as well as collect new evidence, DNA samples and update records.
Channell said he met families who drove more than 100 miles to attend Saturday’s event. Since this was the first event of its kind in the state, it will be evaluated and improved upon in the future, he said.
Similar events might be held in other areas of the state to serve more people, Channell said.
Families were asked to offer up as much information about their missing relatives as possible, including photographs and dental records. Police also asked multiple family members to come and have DNA samples taken.
Novela and Eual Kirk of McRae in White County were among those who contributed cheek swabs Saturday. They wore yellow ribbon pins next to small photos of their son,Douglas Kirk, who disappeared 17 years ago.
“We feel that it keeps the case alive, and helps to make people aware and keep looking,” Novela Kirk said. “You never forget. In time, it may get easier, but in other ways, it gets harder.”
The National Missing andUnidentified Persons System, which operates independently of the Arkansas Crime Information Center database used by law enforcement agencies in the state, collects information about missing persons nationwide. The data collected during Saturday’s event could help match missing persons to cases or remains in other states.
There were 85,820 active missing-person cases across the nation at the end of 2010, according to a National CrimeInvestigation Center report.
“I hear the word ‘closure,’ and sometimes as a parent I wonder if there is such a thing. I hope that there is,” Channell said. “I have four kids, and I know when they were small and you turn around and they wander off, there’s that initial shock. I can’t imagine living with that shock.
“We want those families to know that we haven’t forgotten about them and we’re doing our due diligence to help them.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13 on 08/12/2012