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DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)

Office of Justice Programs (OJP) / Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Federal Medicolegal Death Investigation Interagency Working Group (MDI-IWG) Resource Page

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established this Federal Medicolegal Death Investigation (MDI) Interagency Working Group (MDI-IWG) to coordinate Federal initiatives to strengthen the MDI system and support death investigation services practiced by medical examiner and coroner offices (ME/Cs) across the United States. The MDI-IWG...

The Crisis of Cold Cases

Cold Case Guide

The murder of Alfred L. Barnes, an employee of Bethlehem Steel, happened on October 18, 1968, in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Someone shot Mr. Barnes three times in the head, dumped him in a desolate pasture and stole his late-model Thunderbird.

Some 42 years later, the crime remained unsolved. Then, in August 2010, the victim's nephew, Richard Barnes, contacted police and asked them to try again...

SMART Forges Partnerships to Manage Sex Offenders

people
Opening speakers at the 2019 National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability included (from left) Theresa Faris, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes; John R. Lausch Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Dawn Doran, acting SMART Office Director; Stacie B. Harris, National Coordinator for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, Department of Justice; and John F. Clark, President/CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

On July 27, 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh entered a Florida department store with his mother. He was abducted by a stranger, and his remains were found two weeks later. The tragedy of the young boy's murder—a brutal crime that was never brought to trial—shocked the nation. His devastated family and supporters channeled their grief and anger in a positive way―to protect other children from sexual...

Finding the Missing in Indian Country

Juanita Adams
Juanita Adams

It seems prescient that Juanita Adams' Lakota name, Omani Wi, means "woman on the longest walk." Because her last journey took 30 years—until she reached her final resting place with her family, in South Dakota's Badlands on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

A member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, Juanita was 19 years old when she left Pine Ridge in 1978 to join the American Indian...