DOE NETWORK COMBS DATABASES FOR MATCHING MISSING PERSONS -
OLD CASES GET PRIORITY ON NATIONAL WEB SITE DRIVEN BY VOLUNTEERS

Modesto Bee, The (CA) - June 20, 2004
Author: MIKE CONWAY, BEE STAFF WRITER

The Doe Network is small organization with a big goal: find 2,650 missing people listed on its Web site and put names on the 840 unidentified victims.

The group is working with the Modesto Police Department in trying to solve one of the city's missing person's cases.

"They have sent us tips on a person matching one of our missing," said Christy Beffa, a community service officer in the missing persons unit.

Beffa didn't want to release too much information on the case, explaining, "I don't want to get a family's hopes up in case it doesn't work out."

The city has six missing people on the Doe Network Web site, but there are three other cases not included, Beffa said.

The network doesn't take on a case unless it's 9 years old, said Annie Keller, area coordinator for the group.

"The older missing-persons cases tend to be the most neglected ones," Keller said. "They need the publicity more than more recent missing-persons cases."

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

The group's 400 volunteers comb police databases and try to match victims and bodies. The network has forensic artists who volunteer their time reconstructing what the victim might look like alive so that the drawing can be posted on the Web site.

The network got its first 10 volunteers in March 2001 and by December of that year it solved its first case. The organization claims to have solved 17 cases and assisted in solving four others.

In April, a volunteer reading a report connected the woman's surgical scars to those on an unidentified body found in 1996. Dental records confirmed the match.

A New York teenager who ran away from home in 1976 was identified in 2003 through the Doe Network .

"Any organization trying to help locate people is a bonus for us," Beffa said.

Solving these cases has gone high-tech, and California has created a database using the DNA of family members of the missing. If an unidentified person or body turns up, the DNA can be tested quickly to see if it matches anyone on the list.

All of Modesto's missing persons are in the DNA database, but Beffa believes groups such as the Doe Network still can provide a service.

"This is an aid to us because they are a resource out there that is checking the databases," said Beffa. "They are checking to link the unidentified with the active missing persons cases."

COLD CASES

The closed cases listed by the Doe Network include hundreds of volunteer hours, Keller said. "I spend time every day on the Doe Network ," she said. "If not contacting police, it's looking for potential matches or following up on potential cases."

The Web site has an extensive list of cases, some dating back to 1910.

"We're trying to get the public aware of unidentified victims, to let them know the large number of them out there, that they need to be solved," Keller said.

Valley law enforcement agencies haven't had much contact with the network, but they aren't going to dismiss the efforts.

"It sounds like a good thing to have," said Turlock detective Dave Raines.

The Doe Network is at www.doenetwork.org .

Bee staff writer Mike Conway can be reached at 381-0208 or mconway@modbee.com.