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HSC forensic crime laboratory to assist in national crisis of missing American Indian women

By Diane Smith The disappearance of hundreds of Native American women and girls has challenged law enforcement nationwide. Now, experts hope to find solutions with help from the Center for Human Identification at HSC in Fort Worth and Montana State University Billings. The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth and MSU…
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NamUs victims unit helps bring closure to a family with a missing loved one

By Diane Smith Clark Edward Wilson was case number 16-20100 until one chilly February morning. Wilson died in 2016 of heart disease and emphysema. At that time, he was an unidentified person so Dallas County buried him at Southland Memorial Park Cemetery in Grand Prairie. His marker was placed near the burial sites of other…
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NamUs creates division to aid victims’ families

By Jan Jarvis When a loved one goes missing, families face unimaginable challenges, from coping with the disappearance to finding the person is deceased and then navigating the complex process of bringing them home. To help families navigate the trauma related to a loved one’s disappearance, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs,…
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CHI helps eliminate sexual assault evidence backlog

By Jan Jarvis By the time Lavinia Masters’ rape kit was tested, more than 20 years had passed since she was assaulted. By then, the statute of limitations for the crime had expired. Through the work of the UNT Center for Human Identification, such scenarios are becoming fewer and are expected to be reduced even…
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A better cold-case database

By Jeff Carlton   A UNT Health Science Center team has upgraded and enhanced a national database for cold cases involving missing people and unidentified remains to offer more powerful investigative tools for criminal justice agencies and families searching for their loved ones. Called NamUs 2.0, the improved website: allows users access to all cases…
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A last chance for families with missing loved ones

By Jeff Carlton   The databases of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) contain files on more than 1,000 active missing person cases in Texas and about 14,000 nationwide – each one a tragedy for the families involved. “I’m not sure we can help a family find closure,” said BJ Spamer, director of…
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A bloody mystery of Bonnie and Clyde

By Jeff Carlton She wore eyeglasses — the kind one wears to see better, not dark ones for glare or disguise. They were silver rimmed, and fell from her shot-torn face as her limp form was lowered from the car onto a funeral truck. The glasses were thickly splotched with blood, the blood of a killer’s girl…
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What happened to Francine Frost?

By Jeff Carlton   On the night of Feb. 16, 1981, Francine Frost went grocery shopping in Tulsa, Okla., and was never seen again. Other than her car keys, found dangling from her car door in the grocery store parking lot of a Skaggs Alpha Beta, there was no trace of this 44-year-old nurse, wife…
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Helping families find missing loved ones

By Jeff Carlton   On the night of Feb. 16, 1981, Francine Frost went grocery shopping in Tulsa, Okla., and was never seen again. Other than her car keys, found dangling from her car door in the grocery store parking lot of a Skaggs Alpha Beta, there was no trace of this 44-year-old nurse, wife…