TULSA, Okla. — Resolving long-standing cases and delivering justice is the goal of using advanced forensic technology to dig for answers in unsolved murders, disappearances, and the recovery of human remains.
It’s called Operation Spirit Return.
Othram, an accredited forensic laboratory based in Texas, is partnering with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to help solve murdered and missing people cases.
They work to generate human identities from evidence.
2 News listened to Othram’s Director of Case Management, Michael Vogan, to find out how this works.
“We built a completely in-house process to analyze DNA evidence. That DNA evidence can be from unidentified human remains or also suspect DNA from crime scenes and we work with government at the local, state and federal level to help them generate new investigative leads that they can go out and confirm,” said Vogan.
Vogan said it's using some really cool technology to bring answers to families and detectives who have waited a very long time for them.
“Operation Spirit Return is an initiative to help solve cases of missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska natives throughout the United States. So, we’re basically applying our technology to cases that can benefit from it, in hopes of bringing answers for unidentified folks and including suspect cases that take place on Indian ground,” said Vogan.
According to the National Crime Information Center, there were more than 5,000 reports of murdered or missing Indigenous women and girls in 2016.
However, the Cherokee Nation website reports that only 2% of those cases were logged by the National Missing and Unidentified Person System, which is a program of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Vogan said that the Othram technology can be applied to any case that has DNA available.
“To your point and you know this from covering cold cases, but they’re cold for a reason because they’ve tried everything and they’ve talked to everybody and they’ve excluded a lot of suspects or excluded a lot of potential missing people that could be the unidentified remains and now they just need more information,” said Vogan.
The Cherokee Nation confirms it hopes to begin working with Othram in the spring.
If you would like more information on MMIP cases, you can contact the Cherokee Nation at 918-207-3800.
If you have a cold case you would like KJRH to feature, you can email us at coldcase@kjrh.com.
