Family of missing Staten Island man will submit DNA to database – PIX11 New York News

NEW YORK (PIX11) The Office of Chief Medical Examiner said the brother of a Staten Island teen who went missing in 1976 will submit DNA for a databank at Saturdays Missing Persons Day.

Freddie Escobar, the brother of Rafael Escobar Jr. who was 19 when he disappeared from a Staten Island group home told forensic scientists he will get swabbed for DNA.

The goal is to see if Freddie Escobars DNA matches any of the unidentified missing found in the United States, dead or alive.

Their DNA will only go into the Missing Persons data bank, said Mark Desire, assistant director at the Department of Forensic Biology.

He said the genetic profiles dont go into any other databases.

We are bound by law to only search missing persons cases, Desire added.

Veronica Cano is a criminalist whos worked at the DNA MIssing Persons lab for six years.

Its very rewarding, Cano said of the times when theres a DNA match. I love my job.

Jonathan Holly works on the initial phase of investigations, when the remains of unidentified people show up at the medical examiners office. He showed PIX11 News how bone fragments can get pulverized into powder, so DNA can be extracted.

Every year, about 14,000 people go missing in New York City. Even though most eventually turn up, hundreds of others vanish without a trace.

Desire said the remains of 40,000 Jane and John Does are buried in potters fields around the United States.

He said his scientists are using a new technology called Next Generation Sequencing to better extract DNA from bones.

Families interested in submitting a DNA sample at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner can go to the Hirsch Building at 421 East 26th Street this Saturday, June 25. Missing Persons Day will last from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Desire said the quick swabbing for saliva is free, quick and not painful.

Test results could take two to four weeks.

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Family of missing Staten Island man will submit DNA to database - PIX11 New York News