On Friday, members of Gabby Petito’s family expressed their support for a new bill that has been introduced in the Senate to assist in the search for missing persons.
The new bill was introduced on Thursday in the Senate by Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, both of whom are Democrats, along with Senators John Cornyn of Texas, John Hoven of North Dakota, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, all of whom are Republicans. It aims to simplify and standardize the process that is used across the country to report missing persons.
“As parents, we have stated that we are willing to assist in the process of making changes. A substantial advance has been made here,” Joseph Petito, Petito’s father, made a statement in a tweet on Friday.
The bill provides funding to the National Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for a missing person/unidentified database that the public can access and contribute to; it connects NamUs with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to improve missing person databases; it requires law enforcement to report missing persons to NamUs; it establishes incentives to help states report missing persons; and it requires the Justice Department to issue best practices for reporting missing persons.
