SPONSOR: Byrnes
Currently, if a child goes missing, any appropriate law enforcement agency must immediately submit certain pieces of information about the missing child to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Chidren (NCMEC). This bill states that the law enforcement agency can, without the parent or guardian's consent, submit to NCMEC any photograph of the child found in the public domain.
This further says that in the event of a missing child, law enforcement can generate a report within the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) within 30 days after a reporting of a missing child, vulnerable person, or adult into the registry whenever circumstances indicate that the missing person can be at immediate risk of death or injury, or if the missing person can match a record maintained in the NamUs unidentified person database. In all other missing persons cases, a report to NamUs can be generated within 180 days.
Upon locating the missing child, vulnerable person, or adult, or in the event that law enforcement determines that the missing person is no longer missing, the law enforcement agency can immediately remove the record of the missing person from NamUs. (Section 43.401, RSMo)
This bill provides that while in the process of determining the identification of unknown human remains, the medical examiner or coroner must communicate and keep in contact with law enforcement. The law enforcement agency, medical examiner, or coroner can create an unidentified persons record in the NamUs system prior to the submission of samples. For historic or prehistoric skeletal remains that have been determined not to be of medical or legal significance, jurisdiction can be transferred to the State Historic Preservation Officer. (Sections 43.411 and 58.010)
Statutes affected: