15 cases solved after dysfunctional Missing Persons Unit replaced

Since the dysfunctional NSW Missing Persons Unit was dismantled and replaced by the new Missing Persons Registry, 15 missing person cases have been solved, ending the ­anguish of dozens of families whose loved ones have been missing for years.

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Fifteen missing persons cases have been solved and another 16 wiped off the books in a year after the dysfunctional NSW Missing Persons Unit was scrapped and replaced by a new crack police squad.

The new Missing Persons Registry, made up of seven detectives and four analysts, has helped end the ­anguish of dozens of families whose loved ones have been missing for years, and in some cases decades.

They now hope to provide solace for hundreds more as they work through more than 900 cases, painstakingly cross-referencing each one with hundreds of old paper files, bloodied exhibits, witness statements, DNA samples and travel and personal records.

Among the cases solved so far are:

■ A 19-year-old man reported missing in 2002. His tibia had been lying in the morgue since it washed up on a north coast beach in 2006. It was finally identified in May and the boy’s family informed.

■ A 23-year-old woman reported missing to Bankstown Police Station in August 2015, after she went missing overseas. A search of customs records showed she actually returned to Perth a year later.

■ A 47-year-old New Zealand woman reported missing in 1983. Police tracked her down this year and found she had returned to Australia in 2012.

■ Family reported a 53-year-old man missing in July 2017. They last heard from him two years earlier when he was in the Philippines. He actually returned to Australia in 2016 and was living in the Northern Territory.

■ A 20-year-old man from India was reported missing in October 2013 by family members who hadn’t heard from him in four months. This year police discovered he had overstayed his visa but left the country in ­August 2015.

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Thirteen people were found living interstate or overseas simply by checking customs records. The families of two missing people have learned their loved ones’ remains were found in the morgue.

The 16 other investigations eliminated from the books were identified as duplicate cases.

Hailing the success of the new unit, Police Commissioner Mick Fuller conceded families of missing people had been let down in the past.

“To have a loved one go missing has a devastating impact on family and friends,” he said.

“It needs to be acknowledged that families of missing persons have not been given the answers they have been seeking and this is not acceptable.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller says families of missing persons have been let down in the past. Picture: Brianne Makin

“We owe it to the people of NSW to deliver better outcomes for families of missing persons and vulnerable people who are most at risk of going missing. Those living with a mental illness, young people and older people with dementia or memory loss — to ensure every opportunity is explored to find loved ones wherever they may be.”

Part of the success of the new squad is down to the creation of a ­database that allows missing persons files to be cross-referenced with unidentified human remains and other evidence via computer, rather than relying on manual comparisons. This initiative is codenamed Project Alethia, meaning “seeker of truth”.

In a first for law enforcement in Australia, NSW Police also plans to use genealogy sites such as Ancestry.com to match family DNA to unidentified bones and to use biometric photos to track missing people.

State Crime Command Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith, who created the Missing Persons Registry, said: “Families just want an answer and we need to give them that. Modern forensics is going to give them that answer.”

The old Missing Persons Unit has come under fire from coroners for exacerbating families’ suffering. While some individual officers were criticised in the past, police sources believe the real problem was with the unit’s management.

The units failings are likely to be highlighted at the impending ­inquest into the death of 17-year-old Ursula Barwick, who was wrongly identified as Jessica Pearce after dying in a car crash in 1987.

It was only last year that the mistake was realised and her family informed.

A damning review of the MPU in January last year found cases were left on the shelves, links with bones in the morgue weren’t made and ­record keeping was woeful, ­resulting in a backlog of 905 cases. Since then, police have ­reviewed about 180 cases.

TRAGIC MYSTERY SOLVED AFTER 36 YEARS

When he left home on March 11, 1974, Howard John Pearce’s family thought he was off to school. But, after taking a sleeping pill, the 16-year-old fell asleep in Centennial Park and
never woke again.

“None of us thought he had died, we all thought he had run away,” Howard’s older sister, University of Sydney Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, said.

Although his family reported him missing, unbeknown to them a ranger had found his body in the park hours after he left his Woollahra home.

Howard Pearce’s (right) missing persons case was solved after 36 years.

In 2010, Sen-Constable Adam Marsh was comparing the files of missing people against unidentified remains. In a file marked unidentified body 204 he recognised a photo. It looked strikingly like Howard Pearce.

After contacting old witnesses, Constable Marsh sat down in Prof Brand-Miller’s loungeroom and broke the news.

“One of the biggest things was obviously, with the family waiting 36 years, we didn’t want to keep them waiting any longer,” he said.

After years of thinking the worst had happened to Howard, the family learned he had been buried decades earlier in Rookwood Cemetery.

Prof Brand-Miller said: “The overwhelming
feeling was relief that we finally knew.”

Originally published as 15 cases solved after dysfunctional Missing Persons Unit replaced