Over the past 20 years, many Canadians have heard the name Lindsey Nicholls. On Aug. 2, 1993, this 14-year-old girl went missing in B.C. Lindsey was described as an athletic child with blonde locks with a hidden artistic flare. An extensive search turned up multiple sightings across the Lower Mainland, but every lead went cold.
While many Canadians are familiar with the Nicholls case, far fewer are familiar with the name of Judy Peterson, Nicholls’s mother.
To this day, Judy continues to seek answers. She also wants to help other families achieve the sense of closure she has been denied for more than two decades. She launched a public campaign, known as Lindsey’s Law, to establish a DNA bank for Missing Persons. In some cases, this index would give police another tool to help reunite families.
In others, it would allow police to compare DNA from missing persons to that of unidentified remains.
In 2010, our government launched the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains (NCMPUR), in hopes of helping solve more missing persons cases.
The NCMPUR website, located at www.canadasmissing.ca, is Canada’s first national online portal designed to engage the public in reporting tips and information related to ongoing cases.
Law enforcement use of DNA to both solve crime and exonerate suspects is not new.
Since the National DNA Databank began its operations in 2000, under the stewardship of the RCMP, electronic DNA indexes have catalogued more than 350,000 DNA profiles gathered from convicted offenders as well as crime scenes.
Extending the use of DNA to missing persons cases just makes sense.
Mothers, like Judy Peterson, deserve as much.
