CINCINNATI — Saturday is Ohio Missing Persons Day and Attorney General Dave Yost is holding an event to help the families of missing people.
The event will be at the Springdale Police Department just outside of Cincinnati where families can submit DNA samples and dental records. They can even meet with facial reconstruction artists.
10TV spoke with Criminal Intelligence Analyst Jennifer Lester about why those steps are so critical.
"I've been involved in numerous cases where a body was located in Ohio and they had DNA on the body, but the missing, they had never taken DNA. Some of them were one county over from each other and it took years and years for us to connect that because the DNA had never been collected," Lester said.
Lester said her role at the attorney general's office is to help police agencies with resources like obtaining DNA, phone records, timelines and other intelligence support. But she said her biggest challenge is families that do not report a missing adult until its far too late.
"A lot of phone companies keep records for so many months or years, so if that person isn't reported right away, we could lose that data," Lester said.
The Attorney General's office has a program called Project Link to try and solve missing person cases.
Out of more than 1,500 cases of missing adults and children in Ohio, families of only 280 submitted DNA that allows analysts to cross-match with cases in a nationwide DNA database.
One of the many cases Lester is working on is Andy Chapman, who disappeared in west Columbus 16 years ago.
Chapman's family has never given up their search. His mom, Judy Rafferty, said that ever since 2006, her life has been a roller coaster.
"You put on this outward appearance that everything is fine, while inside your heart is screaming in pain," Rafferty said. "Because you don't know where your son is. You have no closure. And you feel like either you've done too much or you have not done enough to look for him."
Rafferty said she's determined to do more. The family started a social media fundraising campaign to help increase the reward to find Chapman.
Chapman's family will be taking part in Saturday's Ohio Missing Persons Day. They said it's a chance for all families of the missing to find fellowship with each other.