Every day, people go missing, leaving their loved ones without news and with the pain of living in uncertainty about their fate, unable to heal. People can go missing under normal circumstances or even amidst conflict and violence, during disasters, displacement or migration. Long after they go missing, the conflict or disasters are over and society begins to rebuild upon the ruins, the loved ones continue to suffer without news of their person - the last open wound.

 

They are plagued with questions; "Where is my child?  Did they suffer when they died? Will they ever come back?" For the loved ones they carry hope that their person will return. Any sign of life or every piece of information can become an obsession – the suffering is acute and haunting. Until answers come, the loved ones will carry the burden of suffering and grief with them throughout their lives and to their graves, holding onto the hope that they will one day be reunited. I believe that everyone deserves to be returned to and mourned by their loved ones. 

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When someone is reported missing, or a person is found (living or deceased), this launches an investigation into where the missing person is or who is this person we have found. This investigation is a part of the Identification Process, and is a multidisciplinary and multi-stage interconnected process that compares information about the missing person (including the circumstances of their disappearance and biological and personal information) with similar data collected from the found person or body to legally and scientifically identify an individual – essentially to “give them back their name and return them to their loved ones”.