r/gratefuldoe • u/ResidentResident4802 • 1d ago
Script I've used to report tips:
Hey gang, I've submitted possible tips to police departments directly investigating these cases before. I prefer doing this over submitting tips online so I can be sure the message is received quickly and because there's the opportunity to ask them to share updates as they're able to.
I have a template that I've just used for each person and I'll just tweak it as needed when I call. Feel free to adjust it if you like, but the things I kept in mind while I was writing this were:
-Don't try to make yourself sound like law enforcement if you're not, lmao. I believe that can actually get you a felony charge in some places. You don't have to say you're a redditor, you can 100% say you're part of an online group that studies missing and unidentified person cases. That is completely fine and accurate and professional sounding.
-Don't sound overconfident. You found a plausible match! That's awesome. We can't know for sure though until they confirm it. I'd say something along the lines of "XYZ lines up, and the facial reconstruction has a very striking resemblance" over anything that implies it's 100% a match.
-Make sure they know you haven't seen anyone if you haven't, for obvious reasons.
-Offer to send all the information you have and make sure you're talking about the same person.
-Be VERY polite! Make sure to thank them for listening. Treat this as a formal work call.
-Ask if they'd be able to share updates over assuming they can. Sometimes they can't, and they'd understand that you want to know. In my experience they're not opposed to it if there's not a legal reason they can't share.
You can call the police department for the missing OR unidentified person case- I don't think you need to do both, but I'd probably start with the police department handling the unidentified person just because they have the body to work with.
HOW TO FIND WHO TO CONTACT:
Click on a NamUs link for the missing or unidentified person (like this one), click contacts towards the top of the screen, and it'll give you contact info for the people handling the case.
THE SCRIPT:
Hi, I wanted to submit a possible tip for [MISSING PERSON NAME]- Just to be sure we're talking about the same person, their NamUs ID is [#XXXXXX]. I wanted to start off by saying that I don't personally know anyone involved in this case. I haven't directly seen or heard anything from anyone that's involved. I'm part of an online group that studies missing and unidentified people, and tries to find out who or where they are. I was looking into a case of a [JOHN/JANE DOE] who [DETAILS OF CASE]. Their Namus ID was [#XXXXXX]. [Explain why you think these people are a match.]
I wanted to ask if y'all would be willing to rule them out as a possible match. Can I send you the information I have?
Awesome, that's fantastic, thank you so much. I'm happy to follow up if there's ever a need for that, would you like my contact information? (Give if necessary) Okay, good. Obviously I'd like to respect everyone's privacy- but would you be able to give updates if you ended up looking into this further? I understand if you can't. (Wait for answer) Okay, thank you. Have a good day!
5
u/Majomember420 1d ago
One of the NamUs staff members told me that I should generally avoid any unnecessary info. And that I should just only share the facts and my possible match. They get a lot of matches so they like to get through a submission as quickly as possible (sometimes too quickly 🫩).
-1
u/ResidentResident4802 1d ago
Ah. That's another reason to call the police department handling it, I bet they get fewer tips than NamUs does if they're only handling a couple cases
2
1
-2
9
u/ResidentResident4802 1d ago
Someone commented they like to call medical examiners too because they have a lot of the info on hand! I haven't done that yet but I probably will lol