Reporting a Missing Person
We assist both families and law enforcement agencies in the collection of important information and documents to find the missing person.
Please visit our Repository website to view open missing persons cases in the State of Louisiana and contact us if you have any information regarding a case.
Steps of Reporting a Missing Person
- Call the Police to Report the Person Missing
- It is a myth that you must wait a certain amount of time before reporting a missing person. You can file a report as soon as the person is confirmed missing.
- Collect as much of the following information as possible about the missing person
before you call
- Full and legal name
- Birthdate and Age
- Date of last contact
- Place last seen
- Details of the disappearance
- Gender/Sex
- Ancestry/Race
- Height and weight
- Hair and eye color
- Clothing last seen wearing
- Identifying features: tattoos, scars, previous injuries/surgeries, etc.
- Name and contact of missing person’s dentist and/or doctor
If you wish to report a person missing outside of Louisiana, you can use a search engine to find the local police department or Sheriff’s office in the appropriate city or town.
- Collect the following information from the agency that completed the missing persons
report
- Law enforcement agency name
- Name of officer
- Phone number of officer or agency
- Report number
- After report has been filed, contact the LSU FACES Laboratory if you would like to
have the missing person included in our missing persons database
The LSU FACES Laboratory manages the Louisiana Repository for Unidentified and Missing Persons Information Project. The State of Louisiana has established the Repository (LA State Act. 227) as a central database for information about missing and unidentified persons in Louisiana. The State of Louisiana requires that we collect the following information about missing persons for the purpose of identifying and finding missing persons:
-
- Biological data such as age, sex, ancestry, height, weight, etc.
- DNA profiles from family references for inclusion in the FBI DNA database
- Medical and dental records
Information about each missing person in our database is also placed in the following places so that the general public and law enforcement agents from around the country can search and obtain information.