Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 713

Tonight's special guest is Todd Matthews from Tennessee, Director of Communications and Quality Assurance at NamUs.gov. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) is a national centralized repository and resource center for missing persons and unidentified decedent records. NamUs is a free online system that can be searched by medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement officials and the general public from all over the country in hopes of resolving these cases. There are three distinctive databases, one for Missing Persons, another for Unidentified Persons and a third for UnClaimed Persons (identified remains with no known next of kin). Todd Matthews joined the UNT Center for Human Identification in October 2011 as part of the NamUs program. He previously served on the NamUs advisory board for the database and program development, and he piloted efforts to coordinate case exchanges between NamUs and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Mr. Matthews' efforts in the area of volunteer programs related to missing and unidentified person investigations involve creating and serving as the Media Director for two important volunteer programs: The DoeNetwork and Project EDAN. In his role with the UNT Center for Human Identification's CAFIS program, Mr. Matthews will provide visionary and strategic leadership, as well as coordinate outreach and media communications. A few years ago, Mr Matthews recorded 100 episodes of a podcast called www.MissingPieces.info.