Private Funding of DNA Test in Missing Girl Case Refused

Two law enforcement agencies appear to have turned down offers to privately pay for and expedite DNA testing on an unidentifed Wisconsin girl who could be Everlyse Cabrera, a North Las Vegas foster child who disappeared in 2006.

In a Tuesday federal court hearing, attorney Dara Goldsmith, the court-appointed guardian for Everlyse, told Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leavitt that she was willing to use funds held in trust to bypass the public DNA testing backlog, which in Wisconsin is at least four months long.

That offer was extended to both North Las Vegas police and Green Bay, Wis., police, Goldsmith said.

Families Hope DNA Will Identify Missing Loved Ones

The University of North Texas Center for Human Identification is using the science of DNA in hopes of identifying more than 1,000 unidentified human remains from across the country.

In Florida, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement estimates there are more than 500 human remains yet to be named.

Medical examiners in Lee County hold on to tissues of the unidentified bodies in case DNA can one day be used to find a name.

DNA kits may assist searches for missing people

Families of adults who have been missing for years will get another tool to help in their searches when Youth Educated in Safety gives them DNA kits.

YES founder Jay Breyer said the kits will use hair samples and buccal swabs from family members to put into a nationwide system, hoping to match DNA from victims in potter's cemeteries and morgues.