What was the role of forensic DNA in Tommys case?
I saw an article about the President’s DNA Initiative-how DNA was being used to identify previously unidentified human remains. There was always the possibility that the remains we had buried were not Tommy’s. His father, sister, friends, and I hadn’t entirely accepted the identification. On the advice of Jerry Nance, a case manager at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, I had kept a sample of Tommy’s bones. When Oregon passed the new Missing Persons Law in 2008, we were able to have them analyzed by the University of North Texas Center on Human Identification, and the DNA analysis showed that the bones were Tommy’s. 7. How did you become an advocate? When Tommy was missing, I read John Walsh’s book, Tears of Rage, and became enraged with everything that went wrong in Tommy’s case. When we buried Tommy, I made a vow to become a voice for the missing. Just before the burial, something amazing happened. My daughter was in line at the store getting paper products for t
