NYC Missing Persons Day provides a flicker of hope
Yesenia Duprey is cheek-swabbed Saturday by criminalist Alexandra Leichnam. Duprey and her mother, Awilda Del Valle, right, are seeking the whereabouts of Duprey’s sister and Del Valle’s daughter Kianie Cruz, who's been missing since September.
Credit: Newsday/Matthew Chayes
Yesenia Duprey, of the Bronx, said she feels like she’s being driven crazy in the absence of knowing what’s happened to her sister, Kianie Cruz, 38, who’s been missing since September.
Where has she gone? Is she hurt? Is she dead?
“You hold on to hope and faith, but then slowly but surely it starts to slip out your hands, the hope and the faith. It’s like, how do we not know about this girl for nine months?” Duprey, 49, said Saturday after she and the sisters’ mom, Awilda Del Valle, 69, were each cheek-swabbed at the city medical examiner's office for DNA in case Cruz is found and a genetic match needs to be made.
Saturday was NYC Missing Persons Day, held by the city medical examiner’s office, in the hopes of helping track down people’s loved ones who went missing with barely a trace, or none at all.
The DNA can be matched with jurisdictions nationwide, said Mark Desire, the office’s assistant director. The cutting-edge practices developed during the office’s experience in the aftermath of 9/11 help with everyday cases to identify missing persons.
“Every year, we open our doors,” he said.
But, he added that anyone with a missing person should reach out to the office to seek help.
On Saturday afternoon, Duprey and Del Valle sat in a medical examiner’s office conference room overlooking the East River and were interviewed by a criminalist, Alexandra Leichnam, about Cruz’s physical description, any tattoos, dental work, fingerprinting anywhere in the nation, and other identifying characteristics. A detective from the NYPD’s Missing Persons Squad also is working on the case.
There are about 100,000 missing persons cases in the United States, and about 40,000 “unknowns” buried in cemeteries, Desire said. At Saturday’s event, intake was done on about six cases — and six on Friday — ranging from those who disappeared in the 1970s to those in recent months, like Cruz. The event was open to missing persons cases from recent months.
Kianie Cruz, 38, has been missing since Sept. 28. Credit: /Yesenia Duprey
Duprey, a nurse, said her sister was depressed and had fallen into the wrong crowd, had been using drugs, and had overdosed the prior December.
Del Valle, a home health aide for autistic children, was the last person to see Cruz, on Sept. 28. The two lived together, and they were discussing a doctor’s appointment the following day that Cruz had for a liver condition. Del Valle woke up the next morning and Cruz was gone.
In the room overlooking the river, Leichnam spent about an hour with the mother and daughter, a process that ended with two buccal swabs each. Leichnam also said that a personal item from Cruz — a toothbrush, a hairbrush — could help.
“Even if it hasn’t been used in nine months there would be something there, right?” Duprey asked Leichnam.
“There’s always a chance,” Leichnam said. “I can’t confirm, but there’s always a chance.”
Throughout the interview, the sister teared up, dabbing her eyes and face with tissues from a box the office had provided.
Duprey said she never thought her family would find itself in this situation entirely unaware what happened to their loved one.
“It’s hard for me to deal with, because you see this stuff on the news, and you can’t imagine my family, myself, going through something like that,” she said.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.