Attorney General Jim Petro Helps Crime Stoppers Create

Statewide Toll-Free Tip Line, Web Site To Help Find Missing Adults

       
COLUMBUS - Thanks to a $25,000 grant from Attorney General Jim Petro, Crime Stoppers has created a statewide toll-free tip line and a Web site designed to help locate missing adults.

"I am pleased that Crime Stoppers was able to use the money to quickly implement two very important tools," Petro said. "The tip line and Web site certainly will be helpful in solving crimes and locating missing persons."

The statewide tip line, 1-888-400-TIPS, automatically will connect tipsters calling from Ohio to their local Crime Stoppers chapter 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Many of the 18 Crime Stoppers affiliates throughout the state did not previously have the ability to man a tip line around the clock.

The Web site, www.ohiomissingadults.com, will post information and pictures about missing adult Ohioans. All of the posted information will be added to the National Center for Missing Adults Web site as well. Citizens will be able to submit information about missing family members to the Ohio site, but nothing will be posted until it is confirmed by Crime Stoppers and the appropriate local law-enforcement agency.

"On behalf of all Ohioans who are missing family members, I want to express my gratitude to Attorney General Petro for providing this assistance," said Kevin Miles, president of Central Ohio Crime Stoppers.

Staff from Attorney General Jim Petro's Crime Victims Services Section, which maintains the Ohio Missing Children Clearinghouse, will provide any requested support and assistance to Crime Stoppers officials as they launch the missing-adult site.

Petro reminded families of missing adults about Project LINK (Linking Individuals Not Known), a service offered by the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) that allows blood relatives of missing persons to submit their DNA samples for comparison with DNA extracted from unidentified remains. Coroners in Ohio are required to submit all unidentified remains to BCI for DNA testing.