OHP to profile seven unidentified crash victims

At least seven bodies lay in their final repose in cemeteries scattered across the state, entombed under names not their own.

They are among the 111 people cataloged in a database of unidentified persons in the state, and their cases will soon be given attention through social media in an effort to reunite the dead with their loved ones.

Capt. Ronnie Hampton, who oversees the Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s traffic homicide program, said he was shocked when he logged into the database about a year ago and saw the number of dead who remain unidentified, ranging from the early 1970s to last year.

Hampton said a campaign is being launched between the patrol, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and the state medical examiner’s office to profile each of the seven people.

“Our goal is to bring attention to these valuable resources for Oklahomans who may have friends or relatives who have been missing for many years, and to reunite family members with their loved one’s remains,” Hampton said.

Each of the six men and one woman was either a pedestrian or occupant in vehicles who died in crashes. The oldest of the cases involves a pedestrian killed in 1972.

Using articles of clothing and other information gathered at the time of death, Hampton said, they are hoping members of the public will recognize the deceased and start the process of positively identifying them.

Hampton said the seven people are buried in cemeteries in the counties in which they died, as either Jane Doe or John Doe. He described what happens after the agency thinks it has a match on one of the dead as a “step by step process.”

“Once we believe we have found the person and (their) relative ... then the medical examiner will start the legal process to file an order to have the body exhumed to try to get core DNA samples to match to a relative,” Hampton said.

Some cases will be difficult, as at least two of the dead were badly burned in crashes, but Hampton said there are others he’s more hopeful of identifying.

“Some of them we don’t think will be really difficult to do. What we’re doing is triaging them, which one of these is most likely to solve. It will just depend on what evidence is in the case,” he said.