In order to better serve families of missing persons, The Help Find the Missing Act (Billy’s Law) was initiated by the mother of missing Billy Smolinski, Jan Smolinski. Billy’s Law was quickly and unanimously passed through the House of Representatives and is now in the Senate. We need EVERYONE to move quickly to contact the 2 Senators of your home state and all of the Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee to support and back this bill which will be of benefit to all families of missing persons.
What will Billy’s Law do? It will create incentives for all law enforcement agencies, medical examiners and coroners to be trained in how to properly process all missing persons cases, as well as enter the data into the NamUs system which was created by the Dept. of Justice.
The bill would authorize the sharing of information from the National Crime Information Center database to the NamUs database, therefore, increasing the number of case resolutions and potentially bringing answers to families of missing persons all across our country. Currently there are over 40,000 unidentified remains in our country and this database will aid in making matches to current missing persons, allowing families to know what happened to their loved one.
For the list of Senators on the Judiciary Committee, along with addresses, phone numbers, and information on Billy’s Law, gathered in one place, please go to
Peace4 the Missing (peace4missing.ning.com) Many professional members, along with Jan Smolinski ,are there working diligently to keep us updated on the progress, providing information and sample letters, and letting everyone know what to do next to insure that Billy’s Law passes in the Senate and goes on to be signed by the President.
This is a letter that is very well done for you to use when writing to your Senators . Created by Becky Castillo
NOTE: Remember this is a sample letter, All the facts are here use some of it, part of it, and in some cases if you have to use it all. In the letter you will see (Insert your personal story ) make sure you do this, when you are finished have it be your own.
Also in the Senate this Bill is S3019 this must be used in your letter.
Senator
I am writing this letter in support of pending legislation, Billy’s Law
(S3019). According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 4,000
unidentified remains are discovered each year.
After one year, 1,000 of these bodies remain unidentified. With tens of
thousands of people reported missing each year, it is likely that a
family member, friend, or loved one is looking for that unidentified
person and simply can’t find them due to the absence of a cooperative
effort by law enforcement across the country.
Some law enforcement agencies have a
lackadaisical attitude when they receive a report for the “voluntarily
missing” and often there is very little effort to search for them. The
problem is when the case goes long term. If there is any follow-up at
all, often it is long after the initial report. Often those long term
cases have not been resolved because the missing person has died and
their remains lay unidentified in a county morgue or cemetery.
(Insert personal story)
The problem we face is there is no national protocol in play to assist
investigators to bridge the gap between missing persons and unidentified
persons cases.
The Help Find the Missing Act will bridge the gap.
The National Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) is
by far becoming one of the best ways for the public and law enforcement
agencies across the country to work together to help bring missing loved
ones home! Since its launch in June of last year, the database of
unidentified decedents and missing persons has proved essential in
solving 16 cases. With the passing of Billy’s Law, this number only
stands to grow. Unfortunately, without the funding of Billy’s Law not
all law enforcement agencies are able to allocate the resources
necessary to use the NamUs system.
The passing of Billy’s Law would make it possible for agencies across
the country to input information on their unidentified decedents,
increasing the number of case resolutions and potentially bringing
closure to families of missing persons all across our country.
I support this funding and hope that you do as well. I respectfully urge
you to pass S3019 when it comes before you.
Respectfully,