State law enforcement might be able to solve more missing persons’ cases. That’s after Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill into law. It will require law enforcement to enter missing persons’ cases into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System – or NamUs.
Michigan State Police Detective-Sergeant Sarah Krebs is with the department’s Missing Persons Coordination Unit.
She says this legislation is helpful because it’s a free database that anyone can access – not just law enforcement.
“Back in the 1980s you were seeing missing children on milk cartons," said Krebs. "That’s how you found out somebody was missing. That was how we distributed information like that. In today’s world with today’s technology we have the Internet. Why aren’t we using it?”
Krebs says NamUs is also easier to use, cross-references with unidentified bodies, and includes photographs of the missing or unidentified.