NEWS > 05 August 2006

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ABC Regional Online - Australi
05 August 2006

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National missing persons datab

As missing persons week concludes today, Australia is still yet to use a national system to help find the thousands of people who disappear each year.

In Victoria, a scathing Coroner's report has identified a litany of bungles that led to one family mistakenly believing their son was missing but alive for nearly a decade.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) say a national database is on its way, but there is no indication of when it will be up and running.

Matthew Bibby went missing in 1996, and for almost 10 years his family lived with the hope he would come home.

They did not know the 34-year-old father of four had drowned in the Yarra River.

With police unable to identify his body, he was buried four days after his family reported him missing.

Victorian Coroner Graeme Johnstone found police failed to follow some of the best avenues of inquiry that could have identified him.

Matthew Bibby's sister, Liz Bibby Bison, says her family suffered needlessly for too many years.

"This case should have been resolved within one week of my brother passing away," she said.

"It's nearly 10 years later, and we are standing outside the Coroner's Court.

"The Coroner has stated that there are flaws in the system; he's made recommendations around the missing person and matching of unidentified bodies.

"We have the technology and intelligence to stop this from ever happening again."

Police failures

A report by the Victorian Office of Police Integrity identified six other similar cases where people believed missing were in fact dead, and police had failed to identify their remains.

Now up to 400 old missing persons cases will be reviewed.

Victorian Deputy Police Commissioner Simon Overland says mistakes were made, but police were also hampered by the lack of a national missing persons database.

"The national database is currently being considered as part of other issues being looked at by the Department of Immigration," he said.

"We're aware of that initiative and we are keen to be part of it, because we think that any answer around a database has to be a national approach, if it's going to be truly effective, and we'll be part of considerations around that."

But it seems there is no easy answer to just when such a database could be up and running.

An Immigration Department spokesman says a number of agencies are involved in developing the database.

An AFP spokesman says the information agency Crimtrac is in fact responsible, and a trial of the system has recently been completed in New South Wales and Victoria.

He says the AFP have been allocated $4 million to start using the new database, but cannot say when it will be in full use, or when it will be available for state and territory police.

For Matthew Bibby's mother Barbara, the new system cannot come soon enough.

"Matthew was a man of 34 and ... his loss was dreadful," he said.

"But I cannot imagine what it would be like for someone to lose a 16-year-old daughter, or a young son.

"Please, get out there and do something about this. Don't let it happen to more and more families."

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Article sourced from

ABC Regional Online - Australi05 August 2006

National missing persons datab

EiP Comments:

ABC Regional Online - Australi
05 August 2006