Information on active missing person cases are available on the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC); however, that's only accessible to law enforcement officials.
Maureen Reintjes is the Kansas Victim Advocate for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). It's a database that provides information about people reported missing but is not connected to NCIC.
Reintjes said she knows the feeling of not knowing where a loved one went. "If you've ever had a child go missing for like two seconds, like in a grocery store, that horrible fear you have right then, that fear stays with you the entire time a loved one is missing."
NamUs, Reintjes said, hopes to open up communication between all agencies so assistance can be provided to families of missing loved ones.
"In this country we can't count our missing. A lot of times reports aren't taken. They may be taken but not entered into the NCIC. There are just a whole lot of variances, we don't have correct numbers," Reintjes explained.
Even when a child or adult leaves on their own, she doesn't call them a "runaway" because that doesn't mean they are safe. "We're slowly getting it out of everybody's vocabulary including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children."
Lawmakers have tried to pass "Billy's Law" nationally which would provide public access to the FBI's database of missing people. So far, it's failed to pass four times.
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Shannon Halligan can be reached at shannon.halligan@kshb.com.
