Parents of missing students push for new Indiana legislation

A bill that would make it easier for missing persons to be found by making them a "high-risk missing person" is scheduled to be introduced into the Indiana House of Representatives on Thursday.\nRep. Dave Cheatham, D-North Vernon, and the author of Bill 1306 which some call "Molly's Bill," said when a missing person is labeled a "high-risk missing person" more resources are available from the state to help locate them.\n"We wanted to have conditions that would be reasonable for local and state law enforcement to go and proceed with the high risk assessment," Cheatham said. \nMolly Dattilo disappeared July 2004 while attending summer classes at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis. Her case is unsolved. Two of Dattilo's cousins have been pushing to get similar bills passed in other states through message boards on the Internet.\nThe bill would require "a law enforcement agency that receives a report of a missing person to take certain steps to locate the missing person and requires a coroner having custody of unidentified human remains to take certain steps to attempt to identify the remains."\nUnder the proposed bill, there are 13 qualifications that would classify a missing person as a "high-risk," such as if he or she is less than 21 years years old or if they have been missing for more than 30 days. A person needs to qualify under only one of these provisions to be eligible for the "high-risk" status. \nThe proposed bill would require DNA sampling to be taken and put into a database that would make it easier for national DNA services to access permitted information. Local law enforcement agencies would also have to notify state law enforcement of a missing person.\nDale Steffey and Dawn Adams, the parents of Wade Steffey, a Purdue student missing since Jan. 13, said they will testify in favor of the bill.\n"Our experience has made us realize that this is a very important problem and it's very difficult for families when something like this occurs," Steffey said. "Police are really your most important ally when this happens, and it's important that families working close with police have an understanding of what the procedures will be. ... It will raise enough of an alarm as soon as possible," he said.\nMarilyn Behrman said she felt strongly for anything that could be done to help match up remains that are found from missing people. Behrman is mother of Jill Behrman, an IU student who went missing in 2000 and whose remains were found three years later.\n"It's not just a help to the family but also would save in the long run a lot of investigation time and probably tax-payer dollars," Behrman said. "If somehow a database would help do some of that work on a regular basis, it would save time and … it would help identify perpetrators faster"