DeKalb DA announces aid for families of missing persons, DNA collection on May 17

What you need to bring to the free event

DECATUR, GA—DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston and DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office Director Beoncia Loveless invite the public to attend a Missing Persons & DNA Event on Saturday, May 17, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., in the Cochran Building at Legacy Park, 500 S. Columbia Drive, Decatur. 

Families and friends of missing persons are invited to attend the event to share information about their loved ones, open or add to missing person’s reports, and donate DNA samples that may assist with identification efforts.  The event is also open to members of the public who wish to learn more about the work of the DeKalb County Cold Case Task Force.

Personnel from the DeKalb County Police Department and the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office will take new reports or add to existing reports. The case information will be entered into national law enforcement and missing persons databases (NCIC and NamUs). Family members may also donate DNA for uploading to law enforcement (CODIS) and genealogy databases.

Those who believe a loved one may be missing and would like to file a missing person’s report at the event are asked to bring the following items, if possible.  These documents will be scanned and returned. 

• Photos of missing loved ones
• Photos of their tattoos (if applicable)
• Original police reports (if possible)
• Medical documentation or missing person’s ID documents
• For families wishing to submit DNA samples, if possible, please bring two family members from two different branches of your family tree (mother’s and father’s side) for the most robust CODIS search.

For more information and to register for the event, visit https://bit.ly/ColdCaseEvents. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged. 

Free Genealogy Kits

The DeKalb County Cold Case Task Force will have a limited number of complimentary genealogy kits at the event for those interested in learning more about their family history.  While encouraged, there is no requirement for those who use the free kits to share their DNA profiles with law-enforcement accessible databases.  

Free Information Sessions

• Identity Unknown: How Genealogy Databases Can Solve Cases

o   Presenter: Jeremy Lipford, Genetic Genealogist

o   11 a.m.

• Portrait of a Missing Person: Forensic Art and How You Can Help

o   Kelly Lawson, GBI Forensic Artist

o   11:30 a.m.

DeKalb County Cold Case Grant Funding

The Missing Persons & DNA Event is an extension of the work of the DeKalb County Cold Case Task Force, a coalition consisting of staff from the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the DeKalb County Police Department. The task force is actively working on the identification of the remains of more than a dozen individuals in DeKalb County.

Information and sketches of several unidentified individuals are available on the Task Force’s website (https://bit.ly/DeKalbColdCase) and the Medical Examiner’s Office will have case information available at the event. 

In October 2022, the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office was awarded a three-year Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program grant in the amount of $496,045.00 to identify the remains of 27 individuals found in DeKalb County. The funding, provided by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), is intended for use in improving the reporting, transportation, processing, and identification of missing persons and unidentified human remains.

The DeKalb County Cold Case Task Force is using these funds to catalog, report, test, identify and return to families the unidentified remains of the individuals. To date, some remains have been housed at the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office. Others were buried and have been exhumed to begin the process of identification.

Please contact the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Tip Line at 404- 371-2444 if you believe you may have information on a cold case in DeKalb County. Callers may remain anonymous.