OSBI Starts New Program To Identify Human Remains

News9.com

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced Friday it had created an Unidentified Remains Unit; a new program to help identify human remains found across the state.

The OSBI revealed details about the program during news conferences at its headquarters in Oklahoma City and its office in Tulsa. State and local law enforcement agencies have agreed to team up to initiate the program.

It's designed to help identify more than 200 sets of remains found across the state. Many of the remains were skeletal and discovered during the last several decades.

The first step in the program will be to collect DNA samples from relatives of missing persons. The state's Chief Medical Examiner will take swabs from the inside of the volunteers' mouths, and then send the samples to the University of North Texas for identification. The DNA will then be compared to samples taken from the unidentified remains.

The OSBI said the program will mean a lot to families searching for missing loved ones, and may give them information they've been waiting years to hear.

According to OSBI statistics, as many as 100,000 active missing person cases go unsolved in the United States.