BAUXITE, Ark. — In box No. 984-99 lies set of bones, wrapped in brown butcher paper, of a man found in the woods in 1990. On a shelf next to him, a smaller box holds only a skull. No. 455-07 contains the remains of a woman, also found in the woods.
The dozens of cardboard boxes line the walls of a basement closet in the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory. Some are almost half a century old. Many of the hallways leading up to it are dark — an administrative decision to save money. Sheriffs from across the state drive the bones to Little Rock, sometimes doubling up with other counties and occasionally they mail them in. None of the boxes match. Forensic technician Chris Edwards recognizes each of them, but knows none of them.
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He’s hoping to change that.
Arkansas, which has a small fraction of the estimated 40,000 unidentified remains in the U.S., is set to become the third state in the nation to host an annual missing person’s day for adults. The goal is to try to get DNA samples from relatives of missing people to compare against remains, not just from Arkansas, but from across the U.S. Arkansas will cross-reference the samples against a national database.
“I think it will put Arkansas on the map, and I’m hoping other states will call us to say, ‘Hey how did you do that?'” Edwards said.
Arkansas has 106 unidentified persons and 165 missing persons, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. The vast majority, more than 100, of the missing persons do not have DNA records on file, Edwards said. Many of the adults went missing before it was standard practice for law enforcement to take DNA from family members, and they may not know it’s an option. After Arkansas’ event in August, families across the state could receive news of missing loved ones and investigators nationwide could clear cold cases.
Other families have already gone through the process.
After her son disappeared in 2007, Deborah Grant had to wait until 2011 to bury him.
Hec Grant, a stay-at-home dad, lived with his mother and daughter, in Bauxite, an aptly named mining town of 500 people 30 minutes southwest of Little Rock. He went to retrieve a DVD player from a former friend’s house, and never came home. Investigators won’t say how he died, but ruled the case a homicide after his body was found in the woods four years later.
“It was an ungodly amount of time, but in the same breath it was just like it was yesterday,” said Deborah Grant, whose son was 27 when he went missing. “I know exactly where I was standing when he hugged me bye knowing that he would only be gone two hours. I still remember what he was wearing.”
The family searched through woods, watched police crack open containers swept from the bottom of local ponds and waited while concrete cameras imaged under the foundations of new houses.
“There is a huge emptiness,” said Hec’s oldest sister, Amy Berg. “It keeps you from sleeping. Not knowing keeps you from fully healing and it makes you feel empty and scared and suspicious and unsafe yourself. Not knowing is seriously the worst part.”
Officials hope the event can help identify up to a third of the state’s unidentified remains.
Of Arkansas’ missing, 72 are women and 93 are men. Eleven were younger than 18 when they went missing. The oldest remain was unearthed in 1970 and the oldest missing persons case dates back to 1973.
The state police, state attorney general’s office and the state crime lab have planned Arkansas’ first missing person day for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Aug. 11 at the state police headquarters in Little Rock. Officials hope the event can help identify up to a third of the state’s unidentified remains.
“We need less boxes, you look at those boxes every single day and…” Edwards pauses. “We just need to have this event, we really do.”
Arkansas will be the third state, following New York and Michigan, to host an annual missing persons day for adults. There is a National Missing Children’s Day, May 25, but unlike children, adults can chose to go missing and states have been slower to adopt policies geared toward finding them.
Frustrations with police and lack of resources for missing adults are what caused Doug and Mary Lyall to create a missing persons day for adults in New York in 2001, the first of its kind.
“(Police) never listen to a family who says I know my child, I know my child would not go away and not leave some information,” said Mary Lyall. “I don’t care how old you are, you’re still someone’s child.”
The Lyall’s daughter, Suzanne, was 19 when she went missing in 1998. Her whereabouts are still unknown.
