The Doe Network has existed as a non-profit organization for decades. It has a noble goal of helping law enforcement match the dots between cold cases, specifically missing persons cases and unidentified persons cases. In the following review, you’ll find out more about the organization and what it does.
What is the Doe Network?
The original idea became a site where volunteers helped law enforcement to solve cold cases. It was back in 1999. Later it transformed into a whole organization. Now it’s an official 501c with over 600 volunteers and 111 employees. The organization is 100% volunteer. These aren’t private detectives. This organization accomplishes its mission by exposing the cases on the sites and providing the potential links to the officers of the law.
What does Doe Network do?
The organization helps find similarities between missing person cases with Jon/Jane Doe cases. Volunteers help solve cold cases by identifying unidentified people. So, the main function this organization performs is matching them. Visitors of the website can also submit tips regarding some cases. If the information is relevant, the volunteers will submit it further to the proper investigative agency. It’s even possible to submit anonymous tips because the organization values visitors’ privacy.
Top facts about the organization
- The headquarters are located in Livingston, Tennessee.
- The organization has over 600 volunteers.
- The site was originally founded in 1999 by Jennifer Marra.
- The co-founders of the Doe Network are Helene Washisstrom and Todd Matthews;
- This organization deals with worldwide cases.
- The organization works in several languages all over the world.
How does the network operate?
The site posts available information about the cases. The case files contain forensic facial reconstructions, tattoos, age progressions, etc. There could be cases without a body, too. The files allow volunteers and visitors to make logical connections. Sometimes one detail is enough to make a break in the case.
The system allows any visitor to make an impact. There is a special form a visitor can submit. Here one explains potential matches between a cold case and an unidentified person. Volunteers study these forms, evaluate, and give to the authorities.
When matching, people evaluate the circumstances, estimate the sightings, recovery of the unidentified subjects, etc. So far, the organization has helped with over 90 identifications.
How to become a volunteer?
To become a volunteer, visitors must fill out an application. Each application is reviewed carefully. The organization confirms the background information before selecting new volunteers, too. Visit the official website to learn more about the process or go to the organization’s Facebook page.
The Doe Network in fiction
Many people wonder what the Doe Network is after watching Forensic Files or Who Killed Jane Doe series. That’s because both series had episodes that mentioned this organization.
Aside from TV, the organization was featured in the Deborah Halber book called The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuth Are Solving America’s Coldest Cases.
