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NamUs and Doe Network Article |
Chicago - Cook County Medical Examiner launches new website to help ID their unidentified and unclaimed
- Story by Todd Matthews / March 9, 2013
There's mixed response to newly started websites. It makes the news and can certainly bring attention to the cause. Some officials are ready and willing to step forward and put forth the effort to maintain local sites as a supplement to the national database. Others already complain there are too many various websites already and are not willing to make multiple entries. Suggesting that it is best to focus on already existing websites.
About a decade ago Las Vegas / Clark County Coroner set up an online morgue which also drew much attention and controversy.
Clark County has since disabled their site in favor of NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Others has taken similar step to simplify, avoid repetition and lower costs. Kentucky State Medical Examiner once had a website called Unidentified Remains, also later folded into NamUs.
NamUs is not just a website, it is a true database containing records that can be used to make an identification. There have been a number of visual associations made by the loved ones of the deceased. But the bulk of NamUs identifications come from the science and medical records. And of course NamUs also manages records for the missing and unclaimed persons. Automated cross matching constantly running behind the scenes to suggest potential identifications in comparison. A tool unique to NamUs.
With an estimated 40,000 unidentified nationwide, there's a great need for more awareness to what truly is a mass disaster. Bodies found that remain unidentified, seemingly few and far between, eventually add up to a large quantity. Distance and time obscured the reality of the issue as it became a national tragedy.
Cook County Medical Examiner and Cook County Sheriff have a successful partnership with NamUs. If a state or county have the resources to operate a local website supplemental to the national database, it would certainly enhance exposure.
*Volunteer operated DoeNetwork remains one of the oldest, largest and geographically encompassing websites. A book scheduled for release soon, The Skeleton Crew by Deborah Halber, chronicles the stories of amateur sleuths who use the Internet to match the missing and unidentified.
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