Web site helps find the missing

Erie Times-News (PA) - January 25, 2008
Author: STEVEN M. SWEENEY ; steven.sweeney@timesnews.com

Missing people and unidentified bodies by the thousands are listed in a worldwide database known as the Doe Network.

Doe, from John or Jane Doe, the pseudonyms given to unidentified people, catalogs people throughout the world who have been missing for more than nine years, or who have been found but unidentified for at least two years.

Nancy Monahan, the Doe Network's Pennsylvania director, said that so far, the organization has helped identify 42 people.

"I'm the liaison between the network and law enforcement and medical examiners' offices," Monahan said.

Monahan said police agencies and families of missing people can submit a person for the Web site and visitors to the Web site, and network members will take things from there. Anyone who believes they recognize some aspect of a submission can notify the Web site, and network members investigate the claim.

Once a possible match is found for a body or an identity, Doe Network members present their findings to an independent board to judge the evidence and whether it is credible enough to submit to authorities for further investigation.

"We don't want to send any junk to law enforcement. The panel either says 'Submit it' or 'Reject it''" she said.

For more information on the Doe Network, visit www.doenetwork.org. For a listing of Jane and John Does from Pennsylvania, visit www.pennsylvaniamissing.com.

STEVEN SWEENEY can be reached at 870-1675 or by e-mail.