Information Packet

Seeking Reintroduction of the Federal Help Find the Missing Act (Billy’s Law)

Presented by the Promoters of the Help Find the Missing Act (Billy’s Law) so as to strengthen

OUR National Missing and Unidentified Persons System

(NamUs.gov)

YOU can help the families of the missing get answers

quicker than ever before.

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Table of Contents

Scope of Proposed Legislation……………………………………………………….Page 3

Status of Proposed Legislation……………………………………………………….Page 4

Draft of the Proposed Legislation…………………………………………………….Page 5

Resource Links for Better Understanding…………………………………………...Page 26

State Facebook Pages for Promotion………………………………………………..Page 27

“Did You Know?” Items to Think About……………………………………………….Page 28

Contacts………………………………………………………………………………… Page 29

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Every year tens of thousands of Americans go missing, never to be seen by their loved ones again. At the same time, there are also an estimated 40,000 sets of unidentified human remains that are being held or disposed of across the country. Sadly, because of gaps in the nation’s missing persons systems, missing persons and unidentified remains are rarely matched. The Help Find the Missing Act (Billy’s Law) is an ef-fort to fix these problems and bring closure to the loved ones of the missing. This legislation is named after Billy Smolinski of Waterbury, Connecticut who went missing on August 24, 2004 at the age of 31. Billy’s family knows all too well the systemic challenges in trying to find the missing. They quickly learned that while federal law mandates law enforcement report missing children, there are no such requirements for adults – or unidentified bodies. Compounding this problem is the fact that local law enforcement agencies, medical examiners, and coroners, often don’t have the resources or training to vol-untarily report these cases. Finally, even when missing adults and remains are reported, the wide-range of unconnected federal, state, local, and non-profit databases to help match the missing with unidentified bodies, makes finding a match an often insurmountable challenge. The Help Find the Missing Act builds upon recent efforts to address these issues by: Authorizing, and therefore helping to ensure funding for, the National Missing Persons and Unidentified

Persons System (NamUs), which was created in July 2007 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pro-vide a missing persons/unidentified database that the public could access and contribute;

Connecting NamUs with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) in order to create more

comprehensive missing persons and unidentified remains databases and streamlining the reporting pro-cess for local law enforcement;

Expanding current law by requiring missing children be reported to NamUs (they already must be re-

ported to NCIC); Creating an incentive grants program to help states, local law enforcement, and medical examiners and

coroners report missing persons and unidentified remains to NCIC, NamUs, and the National DNA In-dex System (NDIS); and

Calling on the DOJ to issue guidelines and best practices on handling missing persons and unidentified

remains cases in order to empower law enforcement, medical examiners and coroners to help find the missing.

Scope of Proposed Legislation

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Status of Proposed Legislation

As of May 2014 this proposed federal legislation is waiting to be reintroduced.

To give this legislation it’s best chance at becoming federal law it needs to be reintroduced as a biparti-san bill.

A U.S. Republican Senator (Senators) are being sought to cosponsor this extraordinary legislation with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D) of Connecticut so that it can move forward.

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Draft of the Proposed Legislation

Draft of the proposed legislation may be found on pages 6-25

Draft of the legislation may also be downloaded at: http://www.reintjes.us/billys-law-draft-2014.pdf

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Resource Links for Better Understanding

National Missing and Unidentified

Persons System (NamUs)

Site:

http://www.namus.gov

Public Service Announcement:

NamUs: Making a Difference

http://namus.gov/video.htm

Three sides to NamUs:

1. Missing Persons Database: https://www.findthemissing.org/en

2. Unidentified Persons Database: https://identifyus.org/en

3. Unclaimed Persons Database: https://claimus.org/

Help Find the Missing Act

Command Central

Site:

http://missing.ning.com

State Facebook Pages:

See page 27 of this docu-ment for all 50 links

Download Draft of Help Find the Missing Act (Billy’s Law):

http://www.reintjes.us/billys-law-draft-2014.pdf

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1. Alabama: https://www.facebook.com/ALforBillysLaw

2. Alaska: https://www.facebook.com/AKforBillysLaw

3. Arizona: https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaForBillysLaw

4. Arkansas: https://www.facebook.com/ARForBillysLaw

5. California: https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaforBillysLaw

6. Colorado: https://www.facebook.com/COforBillysLaw

7. Connecticut: https://www.facebook.com/CTforBillysLaw

8. Delaware: https://www.facebook.com/DEforBillysLaw

9. Florida: https://www.facebook.com/FLforBillysLaw

10. Georgia: https://www.facebook.com/GAforBillysLaw

11. Hawaii: https://www.facebook.com/HIforBillysLaw

12. Idaho: https://www.facebook.com/IDforBillysLaw

13. Illinois: https://www.facebook.com/ILforBillysLaw

14. Indiana: https://www.facebook.com/INforBillysLaw

15. Iowa: https://www.facebook.com/IAforBillysLaw

16. Kansas: https://www.facebook.com/KsForBillysLaw

17. Kentucky: https://www.facebook.com/KYforBillysLaw

18. Louisiana: https://www.facebook.com/LAforBillysLaw

19. Maine: https://www.facebook.com/MEforBillysLaw

20. Maryland: https://www.facebook.com/MDforBillysLaw

21. Massachusetts: https://www.facebook.com/MAforBillysLaw

22. Michigan: https://www.facebook.com/MIforBillysLaw

23. Minnesota: https://www.facebook.com/MNforBillysLaw

24. Mississippi: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mississippi-for-the-Federal-Help-Find-the-Missing-Act-Billys-Law/291034071049231

25. Missouri: https://www.facebook.com/MOforBillysLaw

26. Montana: https://www.facebook.com/MTforBillysLaw

27. Nebraska: https://www.facebook.com/NEforBillysLaw

28. Nevada: www.facebook.com/NVforBillysLaw

29. New Hampshire: https://www.facebook.com/NHforBillysLaw

30. New Jersey: https://www.facebook.com/NJforBillysLaw

31. New Mexico: https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Mexico-for-the-Federal-Help-Find-the-Missing-Act-Billys-Law/583000031797135

32. New York: https://www.facebook.com/NYForBillysLaw

33. North Carolina: https://www.facebook.com/NCforBillysLaw

34. North Dakota: https://www.facebook.com/NorthDakotaForBillysLaw

35. Ohio: https://www.facebook.com/OHforBillysLaw

36. Oklahoma: https://www.facebook.com/OKforBillysLaw

37. Oregon: https://www.facebook.com/ORforBillysLaw

38. Pennsylvania: https://www.facebook.com/PAforBillysLaw

39. Rhode Island: https://www.facebook.com/RhodeIslandForBillysLaw

40. South Carolina: https://www.facebook.com/SCForBillysLaw

41. South Dakota: https://www.facebook.com/SDforBillysLaw

42. Tennessee: https://www.facebook.com/TNforBillysLaw

43. Texas: https://www.facebook.com/TXforBillysLaw

44. Utah: https://www.facebook.com/UTforBillysLaw

45. Vermont: https://www.facebook.com/VTforBillysLaw

46. Virginia: https://www.facebook.com/VAforBillysLaw

47. Washington: https://www.facebook.com/WaForBillysLaw

48. West Virginia: https://www.facebook.com/WVforBillysLaw

49. Wisconsin: https://www.facebook.com/WIforBillysLaw

50. Wyoming: https://www.facebook.com/WYforBillysLaw

State Facebook Pages for Promotion

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“Did You Know?” Items to Think About

The promoters of this legislation are families of the missing and advocates that work with the families? Who knows better than these people what is needed to hasten answers for the families?

Did you know in the US we cannot count our missing accurately? It is thought there are 110,000 plus miss-ing and many say that number is quite a bit higher.

Did you know there are at least 40,000 unidentified persons remains around the U.S. that are not being matched in any database? How is a family supposed to get answers?

Did you know that the families of the missing have to jump from site to site to site (coroner’s sites, clearinghouses, and various other sites) looking at photos of the unidentified remains and reading re-ports? And , they have to ambulance chase down news reports of unidentified persons being found? Have you ever looked for a needle in a haystack? Without Billy’s Law in place this is what you are sentencing the families of the missing to spend years and decades doing. Strengthening NamUs via Billy’s Law can greatly reduce the size of that haystack!

Do you know how many are missing in your state? Don’t use the NCIC. Try determining the numbers from what the public and the media have to use and then pull the NCIC numbers and compare them. Shocked? How wrong is that? In this country we can’t count our missing because they are hidden in a law enforcement only archaic database made for criminals. NamUs is open and ac-cessible to everyone, everyone! Families don’t get answers if their cases are hidden.

Did you know you that you could get the families of the missing answers quicker than every before by co-sponsoring the reintroduction of Billy’s Law????

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Contacts

Senator Chris Murphy

Washington, DC

303 Hart Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 P: (202) 224-4041 F: (202) 224-9750

Hartford, CT

One Constitution Plaza, 7th Fl. Hartford, Connecticut 06103 P: (860) 549-8463 F: (860) 524-5091

Promoters/Organizers

Janice Smolinski NamUs Victim Advocate—CT Legislation is named in honor of Jan’s missing son, Billy Smolinski

*Maureen Reintjes NamUs Victim Advocate—KS Founder of Peace for Missing and Unidentified Persons (Billy’s Law Command Center) deskside2@yahoo.com

Larry Ramsdell Strategist

Todd Matthews National Director, Case Management and Communications NamUs @ UNTHSC

*For contact information for the above, please contact Maureen Reintjes.

NamUs

Phone: 1-855-626-7600

Email:questions@findthemissing.org

Facebook State Page Admins

See page 27 of this document for State links. On the state Facebook page click on “About” for the Admin of that page.

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