State Police Inviting Public To 'Missing In New Jersey' Event At Rowan University
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GLASSBORO, N.J. (CBS) -- Families of missing persons are encouraged to attend an event called "Missing in New Jersey" this Saturday at Rowan University.
The event from 1-5 p.m. at the student center is aimed at lending support and new resources to families of missing persons.
New Jersey State Police will help people create DNA profiles that may be useful in identifying a missing person through NAMUS the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System Database.
"Technologies that weren't available potentially when the missing person went missing are available today and we want to take advantage of those technologies and take advantage of the family support," says NJSP Detective Sgt. Joel Trella from the Missing Persons Unit.
Officials say the event is not limited to New Jersey residents and any DNA collected will not be used for any purposes other than identifying missing people.
Last May, state police held a first "Missing NJ" event at Rutgers University creating 20 DNA profiles and had a success story.
Tammy Csaszar and her mother Christina Generoso submitted DNA to find their Tammy's brother Jason Grabert, who they hadn't heard from since January 2010.
"They walked me through the process they spent a considerable amount of time with us," says Csaszar from Howell.
After sending their DNA to the University of North Texas for processing and running it through the NAMUS database, NJSP got a notification there was a match.
Jason's remains had been found in Florida in December of 2010 and remained unidentified for about 7 years.
"We have closure but we don't have my son. He's home, but not the way I would have liked it," says Jason's mother Christina Generoso.
Right now there are more than 1,000 long unsolved missing persons cases in New Jersey and about 320 unidentified human remains.
