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Olympia — Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued the following statement today after Congress approved a $500,000 budget request to fund genetic genealogy research and DNA testing of the entire backlog of unidentified remains in Washington. .
Currently, 163 unidentified bodies are awaiting further examination in Washington. The new funding will supplement existing state and federal DNA testing resources. As a result, families waiting for information about their loved ones will not have to endure unnecessary delays, and cases will be resolved more quickly.
The Attorney General’s Office and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Peoples Task Force advocated for funding to clear the backlog. A special committee convened by the Attorney General in 2021 announced: report In December 2023, it asked Congress to provide the necessary funds to eliminate the backlog. Her DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy of individuals’ remains is a proven strategy for identifying missing Indigenous peoples and bringing closure to their families.
“Timely DNA testing could bring some closure and help solve more cold cases,” Ferguson said. “Families should not put up with unnecessary delays when seeking answers for their missing loved ones. We are grateful to them as they continue to fight to ensure the missing and murdered Indigenous people crisis receives the attention and resources it deserves.”
In December 2023, the task force released the following report: Latest report And recommendations. The recommendation, which calls for funding to clear unidentified remains, is based on the experience of task force member Patricia Whitefoot, who waited 14 years for the partial remains of her sister Daisy Mae Heath to be found. tested and identified. Much of that delay was due to lack of funding. Ultimately, the Attorney General’s Office worked with the Yakima County Coroner to provide the necessary funding.
“I am pleased that the Washington State Attorney General’s Office listened to the family in order to determine the status of the unidentified body,” Whitefoot said in a statement. “Ever since my sister Daisy Heath went missing for more than 30 years, I have been thinking about these bodies every time our family has received an inquiry regarding unidentified bodies. realized that he needed to motivate himself and work with the task force to push for the necessary solutions regarding the site. For too long, our family had wondered about my sister’s situation. .”
The 2024 budget provides new funding for the Washington State Patrol and provides financial assistance to local governments for the examination of all unidentified remains. Funding will be available for initial DNA testing. If DNA testing fails to identify the person, funds will be paid for a forensic genetic genealogy investigation.
Forensic genetic genealogy helps law enforcement solve cold cases by combining DNA testing and genealogy research using publicly available ancestry data.
Cost is a major barrier for law enforcement agencies looking to use DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy testing to identify human remains. DNA testing of an individual’s remains costs about $2,500 and forensic genetic genealogy research costs about $8,000, but costs can vary.
The state crime lab conducts DNA testing for local police departments.attorney general’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative provides grants for that purpose as well as forensic genetic genealogy testing at private laboratories. These grants helped solve multiple cases.More information on those cases can be found here here. DNA testing of some unidentified remains is also available for free through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), which has experienced significant delays in recent years. It can take up to 18 months for authorities to receive results, and in some cases, the remains may be ineligible for federal programs.
Attorney-General’s Select Committee on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Peoples
The budget request began with the following recommendations: Special Committee on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Peoples, which Mr. Ferguson convened in 2021 using the framework adopted by Congress. The 23-member task force is part of a province-wide, coordinated response to the emergency crisis of Indigenous people who are missing, victims of homicide, or have experienced other types of violence. Many national leaders working on this crisis serve on the task force.
As a result of the work of the Special Committee, several bills requested by the Attorney General were passed.
In 2022, the Washington State Patrol launched a statewide alert system to help identify and search for missing Indigenous women and people.of The bill was requested by Ferguson And it was sponsored by Rep. Debra Lekanoff (D-Anacortes), a member of the task force. This is the first warning system of its kind in the nation.
In 2023, at the recommendation of the Select Committee and at the request of Attorney General Ferguson, Congress established the Cold Case Unit to focus on solving missing and murdered Indigenous women and peoples. Rep. Lekanov and another task force member, Sen. Manka Dhingra (D-Redmond), supported the bill.unit Hiring Principal Researcher Brian George in November 2023 There are currently four additional investigators and one additional victim advocate.
In addition to recommending funding for genetic genealogy testing, the task force’s 2023 report also recommends best practices for law enforcement, coroners, and medical examiners tasked with collecting demographic data on Native Americans. It also recommended the formation of state working groups to develop practices. Racial misclassification in missing indigenous people cases is a major systemic barrier to understanding the full scope of the crisis.
Additionally, the task force recommended that the U.S. Department of Justice create a national Missing Indigenous Peoples Alert System similar to the one launched in Washington in 2022.
Background to the disappearance and murder of indigenous peoples
American Indian and Alaska Native women and people experience violence at much higher rates than other populations. The National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that homicide is the sixth leading cause of death for Indigenous women and girls and the third leading cause of death for Indigenous men. A recent federal study found that in some jurisdictions, Native American women are murdered at a rate 10 times the national average.
Data from the Attorney General’s Office’s Homicide Investigation Tracking System shows Indigenous victims make up 5% of unsolved cases across the state, but make up less than 2% of the population. The actual disparity may be even greater due to reporting practices, racial misclassification, data collection, and jurisdictional issues.
federal government Bureau of Indian Affairs It estimates there are approximately 4,200 unsolved cases of missing or murdered indigenous people.a 2018 report Researchers at the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle found that Washington state has the second-highest number of infections in the country.
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