Missing Persons

Louisiana State University’s FACES Lab has worked on a range of cold cases, from southern civil rights cases to ancient mummies from Egypt.

The FACES Lab is helping police solve these cold cases using DNA testing, facial reconstruction and the Louisiana Repository for Unidentified and Missing Persons. 

The LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services work with various agencies in Louisiana and collect and analyze DNA samples from unidentified remains.

FACES is also one of the premier labs in forensic anthropology for facial reconstruction. The lab can use the skeletal remains to try to determine the victim’s race, age and sex. 

“Based on the features of the skull, the location of the eye orbits compared to the nasal opening and then the shape of the jaw. We can take that information and we can create an image of what the person might have looked like,” said Ginesse Lisiti, FACES Director.

Listi says the lab takes these reconstructions and posts them in the hopes of finding the missing person’s family.

“Hopefully somebody could recognize it and say, ‘Well that looks like my uncle that went missing when I was a little girl,’ and then someone can call into law enforcement and say, ‘My uncle’s name is John Smith.’”

In Oct. 2021, the police were able to make an arrest and identify the “man in a well” from Sabine Parish. The police and the FACES Lab worked collaboratively to solve this murder and missing person case that is believed to be from 1984.

Cold Case Project Journalist Stanley Nelson says the lab is a really great asset to the state, the sheriff offices, the DA and the public.

Nelson met the FACES Lab while working on cold cases in Louisiana and Mississippi. Since 2009, Nelson has worked with LSU’s Cold Case Team and field class.

Nelson worked with the FACES Lab on the case of Joseph Edwards from the 1960s. Edwards was a young African American male in Accordia Parish who is believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by the Klu Klux Klan.

A skull was found that was presumed to be Edwards’; however, the FACES Lab determined that it did not belong to him. According to Nelson, the FACES Lab has obtained the DNA of Edwards’ sister in hopes that if his body is ever found the lab can use his sister’s DNA to make the determination. 

In 2001, FACES Lab worked on the famous case of “Precious Doe” from Kansas City, Missouri. The lab was able to determine the age and sex of the remains and created one of their facial reconstructions. 

“Precious Doe” was identified as Erica Green after her grandfather recognized her from an ad with a picture of the reconstruction. Her stepfather and mother were convicted of her murder.

According to the Manship News Service, FACES also worked in collaboration with The Louisiana Arts & Sciences Museum on the remains of a mummy from the bank of the Nile River in 300 BC.

“There are many missing people that have never been identified, and when the FACES Lab is able to get DNA from the family members of the missing and things like that, the hope remains that one day many of these people will be identified,” Nelson said.

Dr. Listi says you should always report a missing person to the police first, but the FACES Lab can help you through the process. to see the database of missing persons in Louisiana you can visit this site. 

There are currently 624 open cases in the Louisiana Repository for Unidentified and Missing Persons.