The Maine State Police do not maintain a comprehensive database of all missing people in the state. (Photo by StockSeller_ukr/Getty Images)
Tammy Lacher Scully’s son disappeared from Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor 974 days ago, on June 6, 2022. Her family hasn’t stopped looking for him, but she said their search has continued largely without help from law enforcement.
Lacher Scully has followed thousands of tips she receives from social media, scanning bus stations in Bangor, visiting homeless encampments around the state and holding informational rallies in Maine’s major cities. The family has sent Graham Lacher’s posters to every tagging station to alert hunters, notified every library and posted signs on roadsides throughout the state, she said. They’ve attempted to convince convenience stores to display his photo, asked businesses to put post it notes on customer orders, and sent 1,000 postcards to all the places that should have been contacted by law enforcement — including hospitals and treatment centers — and to every single state legislator, the attorney general and the governor.
She is regularly asked if they’re running a scam, because despite these efforts, Graham Lacher is not listed on Maine State Police’s missing persons list.
That’s because the Maine State Police do not maintain a comprehensive database of all missing people in the state. The only record of that is maintained by the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Search (or NamUs), which lists 148 missing people in Maine currently — including Graham Lacher.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is the state agency responsible for maintaining a database of missing people, but only “where there is reason to suspect that those persons may not be found alive,” according to Lindsay Chasteen, OCME’s office administrator.
And while the agency links to the NamUs database and maintains contact with missing people’s families, law enforcement agencies don’t always report missing people to the medical examiner’s office, Chasteen said. They often find out on social media or through news stories about missing persons, such as in the case of the two missing Downeast fishermen.
“We found out through the news that they were missing. Nobody told us, nobody said a word. And that happens more often than you think,” Chasteen said.
All Maine law enforcement agencies have a protocol to report missing persons to the medical examiner’s office.
“They have that, our recommendation is enforcing it,” Chasteen said.
The absence of a list combined with the inconsistent reporting of missing persons makes it more likely that the burden is put on families, said Maine Rep. Nina Milliken (D-Blue Hill), who introduced legislation Monday that would require Maine State Police to maintain a full list.
“The bottom line is in Maine, there was no official understanding of what to do or when to do it when someone like my son goes missing,” Lacher Scully told members of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee during a public hearing on the bill..“Not publicly listing our missing loved ones sends the message that Maine does not care if they are found. It literally says that my son doesn’t count.”
Currently, the only missing people Maine State Police list are cases where foul play was suspected in their disappearance, according to public testimony from Lt. Thomas Pickering, who commands the unsolved homicides unit. The public database currently lists 36 people.
State Police opposed Milliken’s bill, saying it would add administrative burdens and require increased coordination with other law enforcement agencies. During testimony, Pickering said that if they were tasked with maintaining a full list of missing persons, they would receive all tips and would have to route them to sheriffs’ offices or police departments that are investigating the disappearances.
“If this law were to pass, Maine law enforcement agencies would be required to report [missing persons] to two state agencies, and it just seems duplicative,” he said.
“Seems more of a simple process just to maybe work this out with the medical examiner’s office that they already have to report this to,” suggesting they maintain a public list on their website.
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