State police are calling on families who have missing relatives to take part in a DNA drive on Saturday to help identify human remains that have been found in the state.
The Missing Persons DNA Drive is for families who have missing relatives. It will be held on Saturday, Sept. 16, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the University of New Haven.
State police said the DNA drive is for families closely related to the missing person, including parents, siblings and children. The closer the relationship to the missing person, the better the chance for an identification, they said.
The University of New Haven, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Connecticut State Police and the Department of Emergency Services & Public Protection Division of Scientific Services are holding the drive so families with missing loved ones who have not already submitted a DNA sample into the missing person and unidentified database of the Combined DNA Index System – or CODIS – can do so.
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State police said that when unidentified human remains are found, a sample is sent to the Division of Scientific Services to be tested and then entered into CODIS and, if a sample from a family member has already been entered into CODIS, it can connect to the unidentified remains.
State police said the DNA will only be used to try and identify the unidentified human remains and the missing people's samples that are in the DNA Database or those that will be entered in the future.
DNA samples taken at the drive will be submitted to the Division of Scientific Services to be tested and then entered into CODIS. The missing persons case will also be entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
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State police said free Family Tree DNA ancestry kits will also be available for those family members who wish to take one. The services are free of charge.
The drive will be at the main entrance of the University of New Haven at 300 Boston Post Road in West Haven.
State Police also urge anyone who has a missing family member to make a police report with the local police department in the town where the person went missing. If a report has already been made but a family DNA sample was not taken, they are asking the family to take part in the DNA Drive on Sept. 16 so they can enter the sample into the database and hopefully match it with a loved one.
If a family has not reported their missing loved one to the police, members of the Connecticut State Police will be available to take the report.
