Case Resources

NCMEC provides a range of resources and services to help bring home missing children and combat child sexual exploitation. From forensic imaging including age progressions and facial reconstructions by forensic artists to on-site case consultations, NCMEC is here to help. Read on to learn about our wide range of case resources.

NCMEC can provide direct case management support after a missing child is reported to NCMEC and a Case Manager is assigned. As the primary point of contact in the missing child’s case, the Case Manager will:

• Maintain continued contact with parents, legal guardians, and law enforcement to obtain updated information about the child, possible companion, or suspect, to further assess risk and ongoing case needs.
• Coordinate specialized resources, such as analytical, biometric, forensic, Team Adam services, to help locate the child.
• Strategically target the distribution of posters and age progressed photos utilizing our nationwide, 200+ photo distribution partners.
• Work with NCMEC’s internal Media/Comms team for additional case exposure via traditional media outlets and NCMEC’s social media platforms. 
• Facilitate collaboration between various local, state, and federal agencies.
• Coordinate the wide range of NCMEC support services for parents and families of missing children while the child is missing and after they are recovered.
• Establish access to recovery planning and travel assistance to recover a child if needed. 

Additionally, when a child remains missing for an extended period, the Long-Term Case Unit offers resources and support to families and law enforcement. Click on the Managing Long-Term Missing Cases flyer below to learn more.

NCMEC can provide free, direct analytical support for missing and unidentified deceased child cases to include missing children who have run away, have been missing a long time, were abducted by a parent or family member, are being trafficked for sex, or have special needs.  This analytical support includes: 

• Conducting open source queries to help develop additional publicly-available information that could lead to a child’s recovery. 
• Searching attempted abductions known to NCMEC and convicted sex offenders within the region of critical missing child cases to develop possible leads. 
• Assisting in long-term case reviews, possibly by locating family members for DNA submission or creating timelines to visualize case activity. 
• Providing large-scale aerial and topographic maps for grid searching in critical missing child cases. 
• Reviewing leads that arrive through NCMEC's call center to provide additional value and associate unrelated leads to a NCMEC case. 
• Produce maps displaying NCMEC data nationwide, regionally, or for case specific needs.

NCMEC can facilitate biometric collection to help law enforcement and families find missing children and identify unknown deceased children. Biometrics can help confirm identity and develop a tip to the child’s location independent of other information through a hit in a national database. 

• DNA: NCMEC can facilitate DNA collection from searching family members for entry into the national DNA database.
  
• Dentals: NCMEC staff can facilitate the collection of dental records and work with Forensic Odontologists through the Team Adam program for coding and upload into national missing and unidentified person databases.
  
• Fingerprints: NCMEC staff can facilitate the collection of fingerprint records and work with Fingerprint Examiners through the U.S. Secret Service for coding and upload into the national missing and unidentified person databases.

NCMEC offers forensic services to law enforcement, medical examiners, and coroners to find missing children, identify unknown deceased children, and develop leads on child abduction homicides. The Forensic Services Unit calls upon subject matter experts from a wide array of forensic disciplines to develop a comprehensive evidence strategy to ensure all possible forensic resources have been considered. The forensic professionals NCMEC collaborates with provide a limited number of free or reduced costs services and resources. NCMEC can facilitate the following forensic services:

The following companies and organizations provide forensic services on NCMEC cases through the Forensic Services Unit:

Hear why some of our partners collaborate with NCMEC:

Team Adam provides rapid, onsite assistance to law-enforcement agencies and families during critical cases involving missing children. Consultants are deployed to the scene and provide technical assistance and connect families and law enforcement to NCMEC’s vast network of resources. 

In addition, Team Adam Consultants assist law enforcement with long-term missing cases utilizing case reviews, landfill assessments, search and rescue, biometrics collection and the integration of all other available NCMEC resources. 

Team Adam partners with FEMA to provide child reunification services during federally declared disasters, providing assistance to families affected by such disasters nationwide.   

Download the Team Adam one pager for more information about Team Adam, or please contact RLeonard@ncmec.org.

If you are retired law enforcement and interested in becoming a member of Team Adam, download the application here.

The Sex Offender Tracking Team  provides technical assistance to help locate noncompliant sex offenders, including:

• Conducting searches for noncompliant sex offenders through public record databases, online open-source sites, and other systems. 
• Providing comprehensive analytical reports to help locate noncompliant sex offenders.
• Producing timelines of offenders’ histories including places of residence, employment, and travel.
• Examining data regarding attempted abductions, online child sexual exploitation, and child abductions for potential links with noncompliant sex offenders.

The Child Victim Identification Program serves as the central clearinghouse for information related to previously identified child victims who appear in child sexual abuse images and videos. We also help to identify children in these images. We review hundreds of millions of images, looking for clues that might help determine, literally, where in the world is this child victim?  CVIP analyzes statistical information concerning the dynamics of child pornography victimization and provides that research, analysis and data to key stakeholders, including Congress, courts, victims’ attorneys, prosecutors, and the internet industry.

Since 2006, NCMEC has operated the National Emergency Child Locator Center (NECLC). NCMEC can activate this Call Center to assist in the location of children and the reunification of families resulting from disasters or subsequent evacuations.

In 2010, NCMEC launched the Unaccompanied Minors Registry to facilitate the reporting of children 18 and under found separated from their families during an emergency. This registry is open to emergency management agents, law enforcement, shelter staff, hospital employees, as well as the public. When a person makes a report to the Unaccompanied Minors Registry it goes directly to NCMEC’s Call Center. A case will be opened for the child and information will be passed on to field resources on the ground.

To order a free copy of this video for educational use, email disasterwork@ncmec.org.

Read the full 2015 Disaster Report here.

We work with traditional media outlets and social media platforms to target specific geographic areas to help raise public awareness and find missing children. We assist law enforcement and families with media strategies and highlight anniversaries of long-term missing children.

Download NCMEC's Guidelines for Utilizing the Media When Investigating a Missing Person.