WA House unanimously approves bill to help find missing persons

OLYMPIA — The state House of Representatives gave unanimous approval Wednesday to a bill that would provide additional tools and resources to help locate and recover missing persons in Washington state.

“The first 24 hours of when a person goes missing is very critical,” said Rep. Gina Mosbrucker (R-Goldendale), prime sponsor of the bill. “This bill would create a much-needed resource that could be accessed instantly so that we can help those families who may be missing a loved one.”

According to a release by Mosbrucker’s office, House Bill 1512, also known as the “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Persons and Lucian Act,” is a recommendation from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force and the Office of the Attorney General. It is also named after Lucian Munguia, a four-year-old Yakima boy with autism who was reported missing from a local park on Sept. 10, and whose body was discovered nearly three months later in the Yakima River.

Mosbrucker also said in the release tribes have no uniform toolkit when searching for a missing tribal member.

"Over 20 different tribes may handle this crisis differently. Some may use tribal police. Some may turn to the county sheriff, or both. But in many cases, tribes do not have enough resources to find their loved ones," said Mosbrucker. "This legislation may help with the MMIWP cases."

The release stated the bill would require the Office of the Attorney General to publish and maintain on its website a "Missing Persons Toolkit" that contains regularly updated information related to locating and recovering missing persons.

The toolkit would include an explanation of how to report a missing person to an applicable law enforcement agency, an overview of the kinds of information that may be helpful to provide when reporting a missing person, a list of counseling resources and assistance to family members, friends and community members of missing persons, and information specifically tailored to reporting and recovering missing persons who are vulnerable due to age, health, or a mental or physical disability.

The bill, according to the release, directs the Attorney General's office to publish the toolkit in the top 10 languages spoken in Washington state. The toolkit would be made available digitally on the Attorney General's website, and a hard-copy version would be made available to law enforcement agencies and other relevant agencies that could be distributed to the public.

"We want to have a resource available to the public about immediate actions that should take place when someone vanishes, like writing down every detail you remember, and uploading photos of the missing person to 911 databases, such as the Travis Alert System, and accessing the NamUs National Missing and Unidentified Persons System," said Mosbrucker. "This would be a statewide toolkit that could help to save lives, bring loved ones home, and be available to all families."