# There are more than 15,000 unidentified-decedent cases in the US today. Does that surprise you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 13, 2026, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027 "2026-09-13T01:37:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/21 "2026-09-13T15:19:11Z")
Thanks for the tip. This is exactly the kind of case I’m looking for. It sounds like she was reported missing at the time, yet they weren’t able to identity her for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/22 "2026-09-13T15:26:10Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Fingerprint databases are generally focused on people with criminal records; Anyone who has ever worked for the Federal government, including the military, postal service, and those with secret clearances, high level state employees, law enforcement, teachers and school employees, etc etc. It’s far more extensive than just convicted criminals. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/23 "2026-09-13T15:49:15Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Thing is, if the investigators found that a body found in 1992 was probably your long-lost great uncle who you never met, and who disappeared onto the streets with the express intention of forgetting his past and becoming anonymous, who benefits from this knowledge? By this logic, no-one should ever try to find the identity of an unidentified dead body. You don’t know what you’re going to find until you find it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/24 "2026-09-13T16:04:11Z")
Surely you could imagine that for other people in other situations, finally knowing what happened to that loved one provides closure? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/25 "2026-09-13T16:10:36Z")
Yes, and this is exactly what Act 3 of my movie is all about. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/26 "2026-09-13T16:12:08Z")
I’ve had a few people drift out of my life only to find out years later they had passed away. There are individuals who just aren’t close to anyone, including their own family members, and sometimes people lose track of each other. As a number in and of itself, 15,000 is a lot of people, but when taken in the context of overall deaths it’s not really that much. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/27 "2026-09-13T16:12:37Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > Anyone who has ever worked for the Federal government, including the military, postal service, and those with secret clearances, high level state employees, law enforcement, teachers and school employees, etc etc. It’s far more extensive than just convicted criminals. Even so, what you describe probably includes people who number in the millions, maybe tens of millions. There are roughly 342 million people in the U.S.; I strongly suspect that most Americans – and many unidentified bodies – either (a) have never been fingerprinted, or (b) have fingerprints which are in a database that may not be generally available to investigators. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/28 "2026-09-13T16:21:41Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Surely you could imagine that for other people in other situations, finally knowing what happened to that loved one provides closure? Sure, but I expect testing for familial DNA matches is not cheap. Are they going to do this for every unidentified-decedent case going back decades? It would be nice to think that they will. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/29 "2026-09-13T18:32:38Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > I learned today that… as of **June 1, 2026** , the federal **NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)** had **more than 15,000 active unidentified-decedent cases**. These are people whose remains have been found but whose identities have not been established. That number doesn’t include the unidentified persons who are found but never get reported to NamUS. > > To me that sounds like a lot of dead people in he US that they have no idea who they are. Are you surprised by this number or is it just me? What kind of period are we talking about here? 15,000 since 2025 is a lot. 15,000 since 1900 isn’t that many. Not to downplay that every one of them is a tragic tale. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/30 "2026-09-13T18:52:54Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > To me that sounds like a lot of dead people in he US that they have no idea who they are. Are you surprised by this number or is it just me? You have to remember that the US has a third of billion living people. I also presume that some of those unidentified bodies remain so for years or decades. It’s not 15,000 people dying unidentified in one year, it’s however many such die in a year plus the backlog minus any that are identified during the course of the year. Remains that are “skeletonized” will be much harder to identify although that is possible in some cases. Improved DNA analysis has also lead to some identifications. There was also the case of one of the people in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington being eventually identified and returned to the family. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > > [@dolphinboy](#): > > > > Are there national fingerprint or DNA databases they can try to match a body to if nobody locally has reported someone missing that matches the unidentified body? > > Fingerprint databases are generally focused on people with criminal records; I believe they are not even supposed to include people who were arrested for a crime but never charged; on the other hand, I believe they may or do include people who were charged with a crime but acquitted. Those beliefs are both based on things I have heard in passing and not on anything I can point to. The main point is that the majority of people would not be captured in any national or local fingerprint database that is based on criminal charges. There are other fingerprint databases out there. Many government employees, for example. Military personnel. I believe some states use a fingerprint as part of the State ID/Driver’s licence. I think you need to be fingerprinted in this State if you want a firearm license and that’s probably true elsewhere, too. Not all fingerprinting is based on criminality. > [@bob\_2](#): > > > [@Chronos](#): > > > > When the cops find a homeless person frozen to death on a park bench, what avenues would there be for them to find the person’s identity? > > And what incentive would they have? Somebody has to pay for disposal of the corpse, one way or another. So local governments may be keen to find relatives to ask them to pay for it. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/31 "2026-09-13T18:53:05Z")
From what I read, 15,000 is the total number of **active** unidentified-decedent cases, not just in the past year. I also read somewhere that between 1,000 to 4,000 new cases are reported each year, but some/many of those cases get resolved eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/32 "2026-09-13T19:50:24Z")
Yes, but since when? Does it include bodies that were found in the 1950s that are still unidentified? Are bodies no longer active after a certain period? Is there any cut off? Somerton Man was found in 1948 and identified in 2022. Would he be on the list in 2021? (And yes I know that wasn’t USA. ) ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/33 "2026-09-13T19:57:13Z")
This does not surprise me, but I don’t know really what numbers would surprise me. Over the course of the entire time since they’ve been recorded…(1920s? 1870s?..1790’s?) I would be surprised if the number was 200 or fewer. I would also be surprised if the number was 20 million. But somewhere within the band of 200-20,000,000 I wouldn’t be surprised. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/34 "2026-09-13T20:06:16Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I’ve had a few people drift out of my life only to find out years later they had passed away. There are individuals who just aren’t close to anyone, including their own family members, and sometimes people lose track of each other. As a number in and of itself, 15,000 is a lot of people, but when taken in the context of overall deaths it’s not really that much. That’s a perfectly normal thing, but for such a person _also_ to die in such a way that they can’t be connected to their past life at all… not near their residence, or the residence of anyone who knows what happens to them, or their car, or their wallet and ID, or bicycle or phone, and nobody looking for them who knew generally where they were, that’s hard to pull off except in cases of homelessness, foul play, suicide, misadventure, etc. While 15,000 doesn’t seem inordinately high if it’s an all-time figure, it’s still a very exceptional thing to happen. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/35 "2026-09-13T21:50:19Z")
Nothing about DNA on passport applications (yet). The fingerprints are required for background checks (criminal) as stated. Just the check, the prints don’t go on/in your passport chip. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/36 "2026-09-13T21:55:57Z")
Are you saying that a background check, including fingerprinting, is part of the passport application process? Because I didn’t know that. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/37 "2026-09-13T21:57:53Z")
When I applied for TSA Precheck a decade ago, the application involved submitting to a fingerprint check (which I assume was also for a criminal background check). I have no idea if the prints were stored somewhere, and/or who other than TSA has access to them now. I got a U.S. passport in 1993, and got a new one in 2012 (the old one had expired); I did not have to submit fingerprints on either of those occasions. I can’t speak to what the process is like today. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/38 "2026-09-13T21:59:20Z")
Right. I provided fingerprints when applying for Global Entry. But for a regular American passport? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/39 "2026-09-13T22:02:40Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > But for a regular American passport? I’m not convinced that they are generally required. This page on the U.S. State Department’s website outlines the requirements for applying for a U.S. passport. Fingerprints are not mentioned anywhere in the process. [https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/adults.html#accordion-e38fdea780-item-b455f1ab75](https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/adults.html#accordion-e38fdea780-item-b455f1ab75) ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027/40 "2026-09-13T22:29:02Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > While 15,000 doesn’t seem inordinately high if it’s an all-time figure, it’s still a very exceptional thing to happen. Sure. That’s why it happens to so few people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-are-more-than-15-000-unidentified-decedent-cases-in-the-us-today-does-that-surprise-you/1033027.md?page=3)