Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and honourable members, for the opportunity to present on this important matter.
I'm here today as the mother of a missing child. My 14-year-old daughter, Lindsey Jill Nicholls, vanished in August 1993. For the past 15 years I have been working to have DNA profiles of missing persons and unidentified human remains included in the National DNA Data Bank.
I know that you've heard from technical and legal experts on this issue, so my presentation today will focus on trying to give you an insight from the perspective of a searching mother. I'll provide a few details of the investigation into Lindsey's disappearance, explain how I first got involved, touch on some privacy issues, and clarify why it is so critical to me that Lindsey's DNA be compared to those in the crime scene index.
Lindsey was last seen walking down a rural road in Comox Valley, and was presumed to be hitchhiking when she disappeared. She simply vanished, and the file is classified as foul play suspected.
The investigation has included thousands of hours of RCMP effort, including two full file reviews by the major crimes unit. The Missing Children Society of Canada sent investigators and launched several poster campaigns. There have been dozens of local and national media events over the years, including coverage by W5, Canada AM,Chatelaine,Reader's Digest, and most recently, 16x9.
When Lindsey had been missing for about five years, I contacted the RCMP requesting that her DNA be put into the National DNA Data Bank in case her remains were found. It was a painful decision, and it felt as though I was giving up hope, but I knew it was time to get it done. When I was told that a missing persons DNA data bank did not exist in Canada, I was horrified. All I could think about was: What if her remains had been found? I would never know.
The RCMP investigator at the time heard my anxiety and contacted individual coroners across the country to make sure that they were aware of Lindsey's particulars. He was able to tell me that they reported back to him that there were no remains that they thought were a close match, but I couldn't get it out of my mind. I didn't know how they could say that. Maybe the remains were not a full skeleton, or they didn't have the capacity to do the testing, and what if her remains were found the next week or the next year?
With the case into her disappearance going cold, I felt as though the only way I could search for her was through DNA, and I began lobbying in earnest. What was so frustrating to me was that I spoke to hundreds of people about my lobby, and every single person thought the same thing that I did: they all thought that Canada already did this type of comparison.
I'm sure it's obvious why the families of the missing need the humanitarian aspect of this legislation, comparing human remains with the missing. I know that we will start to get some matches once things are loaded, and family members will start to get the answers, but what often isn't so obvious is why I believe it's so critical to search for Lindsey in the crime scene index.
If Lindsey was abducted and murdered, I believe it was done by someone who had done this before. Media coverage and rewards are only effective in cases where more than one person knows what happened, and these types of child serial murderers don't tell their friends.
When a serial murderer is arrested, and the crime scene is profiled and loaded into the crime scene index, it may be possible to identify other victims, and then the investigation into their disappearance can start. The only way to do that is to compare the DNA of the missing.
As an example, some years ago there was a murder near Merritt, B.C. The perpetrator had hidden the body of a young girl in the woods. The police, I believe, leaked the information that they new where the body was and then followed him when he drove out to move the body. What if a forensic analysis had been done of the trunk of his car? What if he had put Lindsey or some other young girl in the same trunk?
My contention is that Lindsey's DNA could well be within the crime scene index. If her DNA was found in the trunk of that car, in someone's basement, or at the Pickton pig farm, we would know what happened to her, and there would likely be an additional murder charge.
What I'm saying is, what if the only remains of Lindsey are in the crime scene index? Then that comparison would be for humanitarian purposes as well. Keeping her murderer in jail for an additional term may save someone else's child from the same fate.
I'd like to try to touch on privacy issues. So many times over the years I've heard people say, “What if someone wants to be missing? What if there's an abused spouse?”, and those types of scenarios. I can only say that, if an abused spouse tries to disappear, unless an unidentifiable body part of her is found by a coroner and placed into the missing persons index, MPI, the legislation would never find her. There would be nothing to match. If Lindsey's in Toronto working at McDonald's or working in Vancouver's downtown eastside, this data bank will not find her.
I've also heard people take issue with the privacy of people at a crime scene who may not be a victim. Maybe they don't want to be found either. My answer to that is, by the time the profile is submitted and matched, they're certainly not going to be at the crime scene. If this information did help to find them, the police would simply tell the family that they had located the person, but the person did not want to make contact with the family. That's exactly what happens now if they find someone who does not want to be found. If a person who they do find is the murderer, then he should be found and identified.
Regarding international searches, I understand it would be done on a case-by-case basis as it is done now, with the difference being that the DNA would be ready as required. I can tell you from my perspective that it would be far less painful for the families. Twice I have had an investigator from the United States contact the RCMP about Lindsey's case. The first one requested dental records, and the second one requested DNA. If we had had her DNA profile ready to send, we would have significantly reduced that excruciating waiting period.
I can't even begin to explain to you what it means for me to have this legislation tabled and to have this opportunity to speak to the committee. I once heard a coroner speak about this issue and he said, “A missing person's really a national disaster. It's just that it's a disaster that happens over time.”
I've watched many news stories about Canada sending forensic teams to identify remains in foreign countries. I submit to you that our missing persons deserve to be identified and our families deserve answers. If the link to the crime scene index provides the identity of a serial murderer as well, then the victim and family may also get justice, and our country will be a safer place.
Remember that Lindsey is one of the thousands of missing loved ones. Each one has a desperately searching family like ours whose lives have been devastated first by the loss and then compounded by the unknown. This is the time to move forward with this legislation and provide us all with the comfort of knowing that we would know if our loved one is found.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.