A team of employees from the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division and the Laboratory Division provided onsite case assistance at the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (IACME) 2024 Training Symposium in Las Vegas to help identify unknown deceased persons. The team, with support from employees at the CJIS Division, processed fingerprints related to 30 cases for 21 different agencies and successfully identified seven unknown deceased individuals. Several cases are still under review.

After a discussion between an FBI employee and an IACME member at IACME’s 2023 Symposium led to a successful identification, the FBI worked with IACME representatives to promote the service at this year’s event. Attendees were encouraged to bring active and cold cases to the conference for the FBI to attempt to resolve in real time.

The FBI’s Deceased Persons Identification (DPI) Services, based at the CJIS Division, provides fingerprint-based deceased identification for active and cold cases. Federal, state, territorial, local, tribal, and international law enforcement agencies, as well as authorized medical examiners and coroners, may submit fingerprints to DPI Services. The team then searches the prints against multiple federal biometric systems, including the Next Generation Identification (NGI) System, to attempt to match the fingerprints with a known identity. When an identification occurs, the FBI staff advises the submitting agency and searches missing person entries in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) for possible matches. If a match is located, the FBI notifies the NCIC record submitting agency.

“It was important for us to take this service directly to our customers,” said CJIS Division Acting Assistant Director Timothy Ferguson. “Thousands of people die without an identification each year, and our team works diligently to help our partners identify these individuals. We wanted the coroner and medical examiner community to better understand our service and know we are here to help.”  

DPI Services assist law enforcement further a case and provide families resolution. Updating identities with an individual’s date of death helps reduce fraud and identity theft.   

To learn more about DPI Services or other CJIS Division programs, visit le.fbi.gov/cjis-division.