Last year alone, there were 48,000 missing persons reports filed in Texas. An event in Dallas-Fort Worth is trying to help families figure out where their missing loved one went — no matter how old the case is.
Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties, along with police and community organizations, have teamed up for Missing in North Texas Day, a one-day event where people file a missing persons report and provide DNA samples — all with the goal of figuring out what happened to their loved one.
Missing in North Texas Day
June 29, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church
2020 NW 21st St. in Fort Worth
Daniela Martinez is coordinating the event on behalf of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. The event is being held at a church, she said, because people often feel uncomfortable stepping into a police station or medical examiner’s office.
"It will be more an informal way for them to be able to do what they need to do to find their missing loved one," Martinez said.
Here’s the process:
- Dallas and Fort Worth police will be there to accept missing persons reports, if one doesn’t already exist.
- People can then enter or update their loved one’s information into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), a federal database.
- Attendees can also give a voluntary DNA sample, to check for family matches among unidentified people.
After all that, people can meet representatives from outside organizations like Thaw the Cold Cases, which organizes awareness marches in downtown Fort Worth, and receive counseling.
Organizers are asking people to bring their photo ID, photos of the missing person with identifying features, identifying documents like medical and dental records and X-rays, as well as two biological relatives of the missing person, if possible.
The goal is to create a place where everyone is comfortable looking for help, said Christian Crowder, chief of human identification for the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“Maybe your status is undocumented, or if you have warrants or something, none of that matters in this space,” Crowder said. “The law enforcement that's going to be there – they're not going to be checking people. It's a very safe space for families to come.”
Missing in North Texas Day is modeled after an annual event in the Houston area that’s called Missing in Southeast Texas Day.
Over the past decade, that event has helped put names to 20 previously unidentified bodies and reunited nine living people with their families, said Mel Turnquist, who heads the Texas Center for the Missing. The Center organizes the event.
Turnquist encouraged anyone who’s looking for a loved one to go to Saturday’s event in Fort Worth, regardless of how much time has passed since the person disappeared.
“For those who think their missing loved one has been missing for way too long, last year's event resolved a 47-year-old case through DNA submission,” she said.
And for those who disappeared recently, the idea that there’s a 24-hour waiting period to report a person missing is a myth, she said.
Saturday’s event is also an opportunity for authorities to provide information and build trust with people who are looking for a missing loved one, Martinez said.
"I don't know if some families are going to be willing to give DNA this year, but maybe, [with] all this information, they will go home and think about it, and then they'll come back,” she said.
Missing in North Texas Day has a special focus on the Latino community. The local consulates of Mexico, Peru and Guatemala are involved in the event. The planned panel discussions will include live translation services in Spanish.
Consulates, not medical examiner’s offices, are often a person’s first stop when a loved one goes missing, Martinez said. Consulates can also help with repatriation services – getting people back to their home countries after death.
Christian Zlolniski, a UT Arlington anthropology professor and former head of the university’s Center for Mexican American Studies, also helped plan Missing in North Texas Day.
He first learned about the topic when a former student conducted a study of people who die or go missing crossing the border into the United States. The U.S.-Mexico border is the world’s deadliest land migration route, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.
“There is nothing that we can do about the people who have died,” Zlolniski said. “But if we can help to provide a sense of closure to their families, that's part of what we are trying to accomplish."
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on X @MirandaRSuarez.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
