Crisis spurs FBI to enlist intelligence resources to create a master database of missing Native Americans
‘We can’t leave this to chance’
Crisis spurs FBI to enlist intelligence resources to create a master database of missing Native Americans
Posted: Wednesday, April 13, 2001
Associated Press
SALISBURY, Md. — The search for the remains of missing Navajo woman Juana Tovar has driven the FBI deep into the West. Officials are combing every available source of information, including the phone books, newspapers, business reports, the computerized databases of the nation’s banks and credit bureaus, crime tips, and even death records. They are seeking help from experts in human identification and DNA testing.
No one knew the story would be that complicated until a retired FBI agent offered to help. And the man — a former FBI agent, a college professor, a lawyer and an attorney who once served as Solicitor General of the United States — has a mission unlike any he has ever undertaken: to create a database, a repository of information, a master record of possible Native American victims.
“I’ve never worked in this area before,” says retired FBI agent Donald Thomas. “I’ve never had a case like this before.”
He wants to use clues from a case against a Native American suspect and to collect all publicly available information about missing or unidentified Native Americans in any part of the country. The goal is to create a database that contains information about all victims — complete with photographs, witness reports, birth dates, social security numbers, criminal records and more.
“It’s not just the story and the identification and what we believe to be the cause of death,” Thomas says. “What I’m hoping to accomplish in this case is to create a data base that can be used by law enforcement when there are reports of missing Native Americans — especially in areas that are remote.”
If all goes well, the database will be used nationwide.
The FBI has been building a database of missing people for years. It has a database of missing people who were found — and has had the database for 10
