A new Missing Persons Map may help bring closure to loved ones of the lost. Ten One talks to its creator, Senior Constable CARLOS SPENCER, about the project.
There is nothing easy about losing a loved one and, when there is no body recovered, the loss is even harder to comprehend.
However, a new interactive Missing Persons Map provides a new tool to help return long-term missing persons to their families.
There are currently close to 500 people missing presumed dead in New Zealand, with more than 50 unrecovered climbers on Aoraki Mt Cook alone.
Senior Constable Paul (Carlos) Spencer has been part of Canterbury’s Search and Rescue (SAR) team for more than 15 years. He has dealt with many families, some who were reunited with their loved ones, and others who weren’t so lucky.
“It’s the ones who have never been found that play on my mind,” says Carlos. “Their families are left without answers and without a body to mourn. It’s incredibly difficult.”
Towards the end of 2023, Carlos read a news article about the climatic factors at play in the decline of glaciers, featuring glaciologist Brian Anderson. It gave him an idea.
“In the article, Brian said that 200 glaciers in the Southern Alps have disappeared over 30 years, and Franz Josef has shrunk 500 metres over the last five years.
“That kind of flicked a switch in my head. As the ice melts, human remains and property could be uncovered. If that happens, how will we start our investigation to know who it belongs to?”
During his more than 15 years as part of Canterbury District's SAR squad, Carlos has been involved in wide variety of searches and disaster victim identification (DVI) operations, including the Canterbury earthquakes and the March 15 terror attacks.
This isn’t a new problem. There have been instances where human remains have been found with no clear way to identify them.
For example, it took five years to identify climber Terry Jordan’s property and remains, located on the lower reaches of one of Mount Aspiring’s three major glacial systems, 43 years after his death.
“We have so much knowledge and expertise in our SAR teams across the country, and within the mountaineering community, but a lot of information is held by individuals. People move on, and it’s not acceptable that information goes with them.
“I thought ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had a visual record of all the last known points of missing people, so that when we find remains or property, we could see at a glance who they could belong to’.”
So, Carlos started the Missing Persons Project.
“I set out to map the lost climbers on Aoraki Mt Cook using geospatial technology. I had no experience with the software, so I enlisted the help of our Police Geospatial team.
“They were keen to be involved but only if we did it for the whole country. That absolutely made sense, so that’s what we did.”
Carlos painstakingly gathered all the information held by Police on every recorded long-term missing person in New Zealand over the past 50 years, including dental, medical and DNA records and details of clothing, jewellery and property.
With the help of the Geospatial team, this information was entered into an interactive geospatial map, then Carlos carefully plotted the location of each person according to their last known whereabouts.
He put the last pin on the map (pictured right) in February this year, 18 months after he began the project.
Carlos says it has been a slow process but worthwhile. He also credits the work of former SAR Sergeant Phil Simmonds.
“Phil saw the opportunity a while ago and started collecting information about missing people but without the technology at the time, it didn’t come to anything more than a pile of files.
“I don’t think it can be underestimated what it means to families to be able to provide some form of closure. Items of clothing or property provide a tangible connection to a loved one in their final moments.”
This view of the map shows the last known location of missing persons on Aoraki Mt Cook.
The Missing Persons Map now sits with SAR Coordinators across the country to use and keep updated.
It was used twice while it was in development to rule people out but not yet to make an identification.
It’s not an investigation tool to find missing people but a tool to give us a starting point when human remains are found,” says Carlos.
“What I really want people to understand is that although we may not be actively looking, we still care, and we will do everything we can to return a loved one to their family.”
National Missing Persons Coordinator Detective Sergeant Jacinda Clarke says what Carlos has achieved is no small feat and required “an extraordinary level of diligence and attention to detail”.
“This application is a significant improvement over what we previously had available, which relied on spreadsheets and manual interrogation,” says Jacinda.
“I see it as a game changer for both the Search and Rescue perspective and the Missing Persons Unit, enabling us to return missing people to their loved ones more efficiently.”
Inspector Craig McKay, Canterbury Operations and Support Manager, agrees wholeheartedly.
“The enormous amount of work Carlos has put into this means we now have a lasting national resource to ensure the families of missing people know that their loved ones are not forgotten.
“This valuable resource will support the return of long-term missing people and their belongings long after Carlos has left Police – what a legacy!”