Ohio House passes missing persons law spurred by Dispatch investigation
Ohio House lawmakers passed legislation March 25 that could help find more missing Ohioans, spurred by a 2024 Dispatch investigation into how police handle cases of people who disappear.
House Bill 217, also known as the FIND Act (Finding and Identifying with NamUs Data), passed 95-0, with four representatives not voting. It now heads to the Ohio Senate. If the bill becomes law, it would require Ohio law enforcement to submit reports of missing persons to the National Missing and Unidentified System 30 days after they disappeared.
"I'm really hopeful that this bill will get across the finish line," said bill co-sponsor State Rep. Christine Cockley, D-Columbus. "It takes a team, it takes bipartisanship, it takes hours and days to make sure legislation has the impact we intend it to have."
Sponsored by Cockley and State Rep. Kevin Ritter, R-Marietta, the bill would make Ohio the 16th state to require reporting to NamUs, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. NamUs has helped to solve more than 46,000 missing persons cases since it was created in 2007.
The Dispatch's "VANISHED" investigation, which published in November 2024, found that roughly 1,000 Ohioans are missing at any given time. The probe also revealed that police rarely used every tool at their disposal to bring missing Ohioans home.
One of those tools — the federal clearinghouse NamUS — is underutilized by law enforcement agencies, which failed to enter hundreds of names into the database. The Dispatch compiled its own database of Ohioans who had been missing for more than a year but who had not been submitted to NamUs.
The bill also includes two recommendations that came from a statewide missing persons working group created by Gov. Mike DeWine in response to The Dispatch's investigation. Along with requiring entry in NamUs, the bill will mandate that law enforcement digitize old missing persons files before destroying them and establish a way for police to seek a search warrant in cases where someone is considered a high-risk missing person, Cockley said.
"When the tools exist to help families find answers, we should use them," Ritter told members of the Ohio House this week. "By supporting this legislation, we are telling Ohio families their loved ones will not be forgotten."
If signed into law, the bill will be named for Andy Chapman, a Columbus man who went missing nearly 20 years ago Dec. 8, 2006, at age 32 from the Hilltop neighborhood. His disappearance was featured as part of The Dispatch's "VANISHED" investigation.
A few weeks before Chapman went missing, he was pulled over near Ohio State University's campus and police found painkillers on him for which he didn't have a prescription. A caring father who loved the Detroit Lions and worked at the clerk of court's office in Columbus, Chapman had struggled with addiction since a doctor prescribed him opioids for pain after a car accident in 2003 or 2004, his sister Aimee Chapman has said.
"We are changing his legacy," Aimee Chapman said after the bill passed the house. "I think he would be proud of us that we took heartache and turned it into advocacy."
Today, Cockley represents the area Chapman disappeared from and invited his family to join lawmakers on March 25 as the bill passed the House. For months, Cockley drove past a billboard in the Hilltop with Andy's face on it every day on her way to work.
She praised his family, who were at the statehouse for the March 25 vote, for speaking out to help get the legislation passed in the house.
"This legislation represents hope for families like the Chapmans who have long searched for answers," Cockley said. "Their advocacy and love for Andy made this moment possible."
This story was updated with additional information.