Attorney General Bonta Announces Milestone of Over 2,000 Missing Persons Identified Through the Missing Persons DNA Program and a New Bill to Support More Crime Being Solved

 Sponsors AB 3042 to remove the sunset on Proposition 69, the “DNA Fingerprint, Unsolved Crime and Innocence Protection Act” which directs funding from criminal fines to bolster essential crime-solving DNA services 

SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today announced that the California Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Missing Persons DNA Program (MPDP) has identified over 2,000 missing persons since its establishment in 2001. Attorney General Bonta also announced, with Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen (D – Elk Grove), a new bill to ensure DOJ will be able to continue to provide important forensic DNA services with funding through updates to Proposition 69, the “DNA Fingerprint, Unsolved Crime and Innocence Protection Act." Assembly Bill 3042 (AB 3042), authored by Assemblymember Nguyen and sponsored by Attorney General Bonta would remove the sunset date from Proposition 69, the “DNA Fingerprint, Unsolved Crime and Innocence Protection Act.” Proposition 69 directs funding from criminal fines to support essential crime-solving DNA programs both at DOJ and local law enforcement agencies. 

“I am very proud of the important work that is done in our Missing Persons DNA Program and our Bureau of Forensic Services,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “While this milestone is not a celebration, it is important to take a moment to acknowledge what our team has accomplished in the process of bringing closure to the families that have been impacted by tragedy. Nothing can bring a loved one back, but we hope this helps them find peace. This program is just one of the essential services provided by our Bureau of Forensic Services. The Bureau receives crucial funding through Proposition 69, and AB 3024 would ensure that Proposition 69 remains in place to support our efforts to solve crime through forensic services. I want to thank Assemblymember Nguyen and our law enforcement partners for all their work toward this important goal.”

“I would never feel safe knowing someone who has harmed me or my loved ones are still out there,” said Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen. “I am proud to author AB 3042 in collaboration with Attorney General Bonta to continue key funding to better support public safety in our communities as well as exonerating the innocent.”

Voters approved Proposition 69 in November 2004. Proposition 69 specifically directs money from criminal fines to be allocated towards funding the CAL-DNA Data Bank program which helps to solve violent crimes both at local public crime laboratories and within DOJ itself using the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). In another provision of Proposition 69, the CAL-DNA Data Bank also assists with the identification of missing and unidentified persons, including abducted children, using separate Missing Person CODIS databases. Historically, DOJ has received more than $74 million through Prop. 69 over a span of two decades. However, this proposition included a sunset date that would terminate funding collection after twenty years. AB 3042 seeks to eliminate this sunset date altogether and establish a steady source of revenue outside of the General Fund that will support DNA testing programs at both state and local levels. 

DOJ's Missing Persons DNA Program conducts autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) DNA testing, Y-STR (Y-chromosome, male-specific) testing, and mitochondrial DNA testing related to missing and unidentified person investigations. It compares DNA from missing persons and unidentified human remains with DNA from personal articles belonging to reported missing persons and DNA from relatives of missing persons. The MPDP services are provided at no cost to investigating law enforcement agencies and coroner’s offices. Parents and other biological relatives of missing persons are neither given an incentive to provide a DNA sample, nor will they be coerced or compelled to provide a sample. Further, DNA samples from relatives of missing persons are only searched against the DNA samples from missing persons and unidentified human remains to identify their missing relatives. They are never searched against any criminal or offender DNA databases. The DNA profiles from missing persons and unidentified human remains are uploaded to the database for searching and comparison with the DNA samples from missing person cases throughout the nation, not just in California. 

A fact sheet outlining the work of the Bureau of Forensic Services can be found here.

A video showing the MPDP family reference DNA collection process can be found here.