San Mateo County held its first-ever Missing Persons Day this weekend hoping to crack some unsolved cases.
People who have a missing family member submitted their DNA or the DNA of their missing relative to help identify one of the 80 unidentified remains in the county, as well as to help solve missing persons cases across the United States.
"By placing a missing person report on file they can do additional DNA submissions, they can put dental on file and gather all the information on file to make the connection as to who the missing person is," said Emily Tauscher, Assistant Coroner In San Mateo County.
Monica Bliss has been searching for her brother Jerome Meath since 1983. A then 19-year-old San Francisco City College students left home, headed to a doctor's appointment and vanished.
"I hired a private detective about 13 years ago and he couldn't come up with anything," said Bliss, who jumped at the chance to try again on Missing Persons Day.
The coroner says Bliss is not alone.
One case Brisbane Police want to solve, a man led them to the remains of a woman in 2012 saying he found them, this weekend police hope they can find a lead on the case. They still don’t know her identity.
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She is described to be 28 to 30 years old and they think she may have died between 2001 to 2008.
"This is someone's mother, sister, really good friend and I’m sure her bones want to be laid to rest," said Michelle Moneda from the Brisbane Police Department.
Officials are trying to encourage the community to attend the event to help identify or report a missing loved one with photos, x-rays and anything else they think may crack a case.
"As much as we can build who that person was in life we’re going to do a better job to be able to make the link if they are alive but a Doe somewhere or if they were found dead," said Tauscher. "The case may sound familiar to them and they may see if there is a match."
San Mateo County currently has 440 missing persons cases.
