Technology may hold key for solving missing person cases

With the resources of police departments becoming increasingly strained by overwhelming numbers of cases, can anything be done so that another family doesn't endure the trauma Bob Batdorf's family has for two years?

As odd as it sounds, family pets could hold the answer.

For years, veterinarians have been implanting microchips beneath the surface of pets' skin -- tiny pieces of metal holding a bar code that, with the aid of a scanner passing over a spot on their coat, can reveal in an instant the owner's name, address and phone number.

The opportunity exists for humans to follow suit.

Standing alongside a stainless steel countertop inside a coroner's office examining room, Clark County Coroner Ron Flud pops the top off a plastic container holding a set of dentures. It would almost take a magnifying glass to make out the little black secret imprinted just below the gum line: the owner's name.

Dentists nowadays are equipped to drop names, bar codes, even Social Security numbers into restorative or other dental work -- a means of instant identification.

"Several years back we tried to get that made into law and it did not pass because a lot of people felt that it was Big Brother tracking them -- that (government) could track you wherever you go and whatever you do," Flud said.

When teeth are not available, a set of fingerprints -- all 10 fingers, rolled from top to bottom, side to side -- can help if they had been entered into a nationwide database.

"We get really spoiled here in Las Vegas because the majority of the people who work here have their fingerprints on file," Flud said. "If you've got a work card, your prints are on file. If you start talking to people in different states and ask them for fingerprints, they get mad at you: "What are you saying, that (my relative) was a criminal?' "

A seemingly intrusive identification tool to some, a bar code implant could potentially put a name to every John and Jane Doe on file. In the case of Batdorf's family, it could have prevented two years of anguish.

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