Oregon has third-highest rate of open missing person cases in U.S., study says

SALEM, Ore. — A recent study found Oregon has the third-highest rate of open missing person cases in the U.S.

The study uses information from a powerful, taxpayer-funded federal database called NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System,that's available for police and citizens.

But it turns out not all law enforcement agencies are required to use it, including ones in Oregon and Washington.

In 1987, a 21-year-old mom named Paula Davis went missing from Kansas City, Missouri. Soon after police in Ohio found her remains but could not identify her.

"So they had listed her as a Jane Doe," Davis's sister, Stephanie Clack, explains in a video produced by the National Institute of Justice.

She said for years her family suffered with no answers until 2009 when she checked a Justice Department website, NamUs.

"First I entered in the sex, the approximate age, what state she had went missing from and the year last known alive," Clack said. "The last case was Paula's and how I realized it was her was by the description of the tattoos that she had that I didn't think anybody else would have except for Paula."

NamUs, which helped find Davis, says there are currently 16,025 open missing person cases in the U.S. Of those, Todd Matthews, NamUs's communications director, told a KATU reporter 60 percent are men.

"It's harder to get news media to cover a missing male than it is a missing female," Matthews said. "They're not considered so much as a victim."

In Oregon, NaMus says there are currently 448 open missing person cases.

A study by the website VivintSource found Oregon ranks No. 3 on a list of states with the highest numbers of open missing person cases per 100,000 people.

Washington ranks No. 4.

Matthews said the top five states do not require law enforcement agencies to use NamUs. Only Tennessee, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Oklahoma, and New Mexico require agencies to use NamUs in missing person investigations.

"Anybody can enter a missing person in NaMus," Matthews explained, saying that some of the more private information people enter can only be viewed by law enforcement. "We have to validate it with an investigating agency, but there's nothing to prevent people from utilizing this database."

Lt. Steve Mitchell, an Oregon State Police spokesman, said troopers are required to enter missing person's cases into the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC). But that database can only be used by law enforcement.

Mitchell said OSP troopers are encouraged to enter information into NaMus and many do, but they're not required to do so.

"Our OSP website lists 1,081 current missing persons (MP). OSP's numbers include everyone entered into NCIC, which fluctuates when runaways are found and removed," Mitchell explained via email. "If a person persists in being missing for over 30 days, law enforcement is then compelled to obtain a DNA sample from biological relatives or from a direct source such as a toothbrush. DNA analysis for all MPs in Oregon is performed by the University of North Texas, who require OSP to enter our MPs into the NamUs system before they accept DNA for processing."

NamUs is managed by the University of North Texas Health Science Center.