Our Crowdfunding Groups
Thanks to your support, we reached our goal and have purchased a 3D Next Engine scanner. This enables us to help discover the identities and the stories of unidentified persons.
Though our crowdfunding campaign is complete, you can still support our work here: http://www.asufoundation.org/unidentifiedpersons
“Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals.” Gladstone
What is the problem / why is Unidentified Persons Project so Important?
Imagine having a loved one go missing. With over 25,000 law enforcement agencies across 50 states, it would be confusing and overwhelming to know where to search. There are over 40,000 unidentified decedents in the United States (since 1975) and over 1300 in Arizona alone. The Unidentified Persons Project will work with coroners’ offices and medical examiners’ offices around the country, where the remains are kept, to make 3D scans of the remains. This will encourage the reanalysis of the casework as well as making digital facial reconstructions possible. Afterwards, these reconstructions will then be published on local and national missing persons database. For more information on this process please visit: namus.gov
How is Unidentified Persons Project the solution?
Facial reconstructions via 3D imagery give life to unidentified persons and allow the families and the public to participate in solving these cases. A 3D scanner is necessary to gather the data to make the facial reconstructions. A desktop laser scanner will allow us travel to medical examiner’s offices to collect digital scans of unidentified persons and create 3D faces using the latest software. We plan to purchase a NextEngine 3D scanner, because of its high level of accuracy. This brand of scanner if currently used by other universities for similar purposes.
How has Unidentified Persons Project helped so far?
To date we have created digital images for several law enforcement agencies who have then uploaded them to the national database and published them in their local news outlets. These images combined with revisiting the stories of these forgotten persons has led to recognition by families and ultimately positive identification through scientific means.
Why Does Unidentified Persons Project need donor support?
The task of identifying unidentified decedents in the United States is left up to local and state governments. Often these are organizations are underfunded and have other issues to fund before funding missing and unidentified persons. The Unidentified Persons Project will aide these government agencies and help the public identify their missing loved one.
“It’s not [a] loss resolved through illness or an accident,” Lyall (family member) said of those who have yet to find their loved ones. “It’s unrelenting uncertainty.”
A gift of this amount represents the number of years our first case was missing. (Since 1984!)
A gift of this amount represents one dollar for each minute the scanner takes to create an image.
A gift of this amount represents the number of facial images created to date.
A gift of this amount represents the number of people that have been identified using the national database since 2009.
