National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons

National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons

National Missing Person and Victim System

  • An estimated 38,000 people are reported missing each year in Australia.
  • The National Missing Person and Victim System (NMPVS) is a web-based application centrally hosted by our agency to manage ante-mortem and post-mortem data of a person or human remains.
  • The NMPVS helps police identify missing persons by enabling them to search data on long-term missing persons, unidentified human remains and for disaster victim identification.
  • The NMPVS provides supporting technology for two separate services: NMPVS—Disaster Victim Identification and NMPVS—Missing Person and Unidentified Bodies.
  • The NMPVS (DVI) is accessible to all Australian police agencies, New Zealand (NZ) Police and authorised forensic specialists within each police jurisdictions. This service allows a rapid, easy and standardised exchange of identification information between the states, territories and countries involved.
  • In 2017–18 more than 1,000 entries were added bringing the total number of records to 2,962.

Missing Person and Unidentified Bodies (MPUB) database

  • The Missing Person and Unidentified Bodies (MPUB) database and forms are used in day-to-day work with missing persons and unidentified bodies.
  • Missing person information that can be entered includes: last known to be alive, missing from, last seen at/in, possible whereabouts and possible motive for disappearance.
  • The NMPVS MPUB is accessible to all Australian police agencies and authorised forensic specialists within each police jurisdiction.
  • The NMPVS MPUB is used to manage ante-mortem and post-mortem data of long-term missing persons and unidentified human remains.
  • NMPVS has a searchable dental database which complements the National Criminal Investigation DNA Database (NCIDD) and the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS).

National Crime Investigation DNA Database

  • The National Crime Investigation DNA Database (NCIDD) is already in place and helps solve crimes by linking DNA profiles from crime scenes with persons of interest, and excluding innocent people.
  • In 2018 the NCIDD Integrated Forensic Analysis (NCIDD-IFA) was deployed to enable kinship matching, familial searching and advanced direct matching.
  • In 2017–18 29,340 crime scenes to crime scene links were identified, more than 120,000 profiles were added to the database and 89,628 crime scene to person links were identified.

There are an estimated 500 sets of unidentified human remains across Australia, and the National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons aims to give answers to families and police investigating cold cases who have spent years searching for answers.

The NCIDD includes 1.22 million DNA profiles from samples collected by Australian police from crime scenes, convicted offenders, suspects, and items belonging to missing persons and unknown deceased persons.

DNA information relating to missing persons and unidentified bodies is stored on the NCIDD.

Unidentified remains are managed by the state and territory authorities in a range of facilities. DNA profiles may also be collected from consenting biological relatives to use their DNA profile in an effort to facilitate the formal identification of an unidentified body.

The aim of these databases is to share information nationally to law enforcement agencies and accredited laboratories.

DNA profiles are entered onto the database by authorised law enforcement partners using samples collected from crime scenes, convicted offenders, suspects, items belonging to missing persons and unknown deceased persons.

The NMPVS was first developed in 2015 to provide a national database for DVI and Missing Persons identification. We are unable to provide specific examples of individual cases. We recommend contacting the relevant state and territory police agencies.