By admin 
FLAGSTAFF, AZ (AZFamily) — A task force in Coconino County is helping bring closure to families decades after their loved ones went missing. The Unidentified Remains Task Force recently identified a body that was first found outside of Flagstaff in 1980.
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Coconino County already has a cold case unit, but because it is federally funded, that unit often focuses on criminal cases.
Unidentified remains cases kept piling up, so the task force was created to focus on cases that are often left forgotten.
Cases date back decades
Every year, about 25 unidentified remains are found in Coconino County, the second largest county by area in the continental United States, according to Mike Madsen, the county chief medical examiner.
Many of the cases are solved, but those that aren’t pile up year over year. Those cases often aren’t opened again until decades later.
“We had 72 cases and some of those, a lot of these cases were from the 70s and 80s,” Madsen said. “We even had some cases stretching back into the like 1950s.”
Madsen also helps local law enforcement identify Jane and John Does with the Unidentified Remains Task Force.
Older remains present challenges
Some remains have been stored in the office for decades. Others have to be dug up. Dealing with older remains comes with challenges.
“The quality of the remains, being able to get a good DNA sample,” Madsen said. “It just takes more effort.”
While the task force has modern DNA technology, members are also dealing with written reports and information from the last century.
“You can imagine that investigative techniques and methodologies from 60 years ago are nothing what we’re familiar with now,” said Deputy Adam Simonsen with the Coconino Sheriff’s Office. “So records are not digitized. Evidence is filed differently.”
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Sheriff’s office and county attorney involved
Simonsen and others at the sheriff’s office sort through old case files, figure out which cases to prioritize and hunt down leads.
County Attorney Ammon Barker and his team handle the last part of the process, which sometimes leads to charges.
“Even some of these cases that are you know 10, 20 years old, there’s maybe these people out there still and we need to make sure we find out who they are and hold them accountable,” Barker said.
Each man said the goal is to bring closure to the families still waiting for their loved ones.
“Years and years of their lives have been spent trying to advocate for a lost loved one and just being able to see that whole story come together is very unique,” Simonsen said.
Latest case identified
The task force’s latest case identified a body found in the woods east of Flagstaff in July 1980. The team has not released the name of that person out of respect for the family.
Over the past year and a half, the task force has cut the number of unidentified remains cases from 72 to 53.
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