New Tool To Match Remains to Missing Persons

A local mother's dedication could help solve thousands of family mysteries and some murders.

Debbie Culberson is on the board of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

Culberson worked with the Justice Department to create a centralized, online tool to match the unidentified dead, with missing persons across the country.

Local 12's Deborah Dixon shows how, for Culberson, the mission is personal, as she looks for the remains of her daughter, Carrie, killed 12 years ago.

Great American Ball Park filled to capacity. It would take 8,000 more people to equal the number of unidentified dead in America.

"The number of unidentified bodies is astounding," said Dr. Amy Burrows-Beckham, Kentucky medical examiner. "It's been called the nation's silent national disaster."

Some of the unidentified dead were murdered. Thousands have families searching for answers.

There was no way to do that, until now.

Now there is NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System