JSO and JFRD join forces to help find endangered missing persons

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is using science to save lives. Investigators are using a program called MEPSAR to find missing people.

This idea was inspired by a local missing person’s case in 2019 when two young children went missing in a wide-ranged wooded area.

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It was a tense two days in December 2019. Braxton and Bri’ya Williams disappeared from their Westside home, prompting an extensive search in the woods.

Enter the Missing Endangered Persons Search and Rescue program. It starts with a 911 phone call.

“From there our patrol officers start asking a series of questions that help us build a profile,” says JSO Lieutenant Chuck Ford.

While that profile’s being built, JSO collaborates with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department to build a map of the area that needs to be searched.

“What we do is take the data they’ve collected and put it onto a search map, so we have a visual representation of areas of high probability to find the missing persons,” says JFRD District Chief Gary Kuehner.

A map that looks like this is sent out. Then more boots are put on the ground. This strategy helped bring Braxton and Bri’ya Williams home safely and helped develop a new method of solving cases like this in the future.

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Ford told me JSO has had more than 2500 missing persons cases this year alone.

“Of those cases, 504 of those have had some type of special needs,” says Ford.

“Folks with autism, persons with dementia, Alzheimer’s, children under 11 years old or even serious physical or mental disabilities,” says Ford.

MEPSAR has evolved to include scent kits like these, which go to families with loved ones who tend to wander off frequently. They hold their loved one’s clothing so a search K-9 can get their scent. A scent can last anywhere from 5 to 7 years.

Soon JSO will have 20 of these tracking bracelets, which will go to people who’ve disappeared two or more times. Investigators are using science to save lives in the hopes of having more happy endings like Braxton and Bri’ya Williams’.

“The MEPSAR program was built off, like I said, a success from finding the Williams children,” says Kuehner.

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