Phoenix Police Department Is Hosting Missing In Arizona Day: Virtual Event On October 17, 2020

Press release from the City of Phoenix:

October 1, 2020

It has been called the nation's silent mass disaster. There are an estimated 40,000 unidentified bodies nationwide, and 84,000 missing persons. But there can be a link between some unidentified bodies and reported missing persons. And that link can be connected with a simple swab of DNA.

"Had I known the power of what the DNA will do for myself, for other people even.,I mean, the closure is a whole new life," Toinette Benson said.

Benson's brother Todd Mertes went missing from Las Vegas in 1986. He was only 25 years old. For the following 26 years, no one knew what happened to him.

"You always hold hope," Benson said. "Even though in my heart of hearts, I knew he was gone."

In 1988, unbeknownst to Benson and her family living in Washington State, Todd's burned skeletal remains had been found in Tonopah, Arizona, and were sitting in a medical examiner's office unidentified."

The feeling of not knowing what happened to your loved one...my brother Todd, he was my only sibling," Benson said. "We were like Irish twins. We were 14 months apart. So, it doesn't go away."

Around 2010, a cold case detective in Washington State approached Toinette and her family about collecting DNA to enter into a national database in the hopes of finding Todd's body. That same year, detectives in Arizona coincidentally entered DNA from Todd's remains into the database. And in 2012, the DNA profiles matched.

"I didn't believe it at first," Benson said. "I didn't believe it. I felt like it was some kind of, not a joke. But it was just surreal. Could this really be."

Toinette and Todd's story is just one example of what can happen when the pieces of the puzzle come together in a case like this.

The Phoenix Police Department is hosting Missing in Arizona Day—a virtual event to help even more families missing loved ones connect the puzzle pieces. MIA day is October 17th from 10 to 4. Investigators will be available to take reports and gather information at 602-534-2121 or email at missing.persons@phoenix.gov.

This press release was produced by the City of Phoenix. The views expressed here are the author’s own.