If you’ve reached this particular post, chances are I’ve sent it to you. I have been working on a project for years that helps publicize mid to late 1970’s (1975-1979) missing person cold cases– particularly male. Why male, you may ask? Well, it all started with me trying to provide tips for an unidentified person, John Doe Delafield. I compiled a database of many men who went missing in the 1970’s who may be a potential match to this unidentified man. I talked to many of their family members and sent them photos of John Doe Delafield. Most of them told me that it was not their loved one. That leaves me with more questions, such as, then where is your loved one?
I’ve been a missing / unidentified person advocate for years. I have taken a focus on the late 1970’s cold cases particularly because of the amount of investment I’ve already put in to try to help circulate and “push” John Doe Delafield’s case. (The more these cases are pushed, the more recognition they get; in turn, sometimes the more people will see the cases and provide clues, or law enforcement will be prompted to push the case too.)
So, my goal is not just to identify John Doe Delafield when dealing with the 1970’s cases! I have other goals for this endeavor, which are as follows:
1- To help circulate your loved one’s story. To hopefully provide more information than Namus has.
2- To organize the mishaps in the John Wayne Gacy case. There were several mistakes in this case that had mistakenly linked the wrong people to the deceased bodies; Michael Marino is one example. To see if your loved one could have been a victim.
3- To help you get your DNA read. Right now law enforcement does use Namus to do one-to-one comparisons for DNA. But when an unidentified person is in their database, your DNA is not “automatically” run against this unidentified person. It must be manually done. Right now many of the unidentified people are being examined through Gedmatch. I’m a forensic genealogist, and I use Gedmatch to help with cases. Having your DNA on Gedmatch is crucial. I recommend testing with Ancestry.com first, and then uploading the raw data to Gedmatch. That’s where I would come in, to help guide you through that process. I would also gladly help you check your relative matches to see if your loved one is on there (if alive) or if maybe they have children or grandchildren that have taken a test.
4- To find your loved one. If you suspect your loved one is deceased, please consider uploading your DNA to Gedmatch– not just Namus. Namus will have a lag.
** If you are against using Gedmatch, there are alternatives to compare against unidentified John Doe’s. Where I would come into play is I would try to contact law enforcement to ask them to compare against other cases that we may think could be a potential match. **
6- To find the identity to John Doe Delafield AND other 1970’s unidentified men.
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