Turning Passion into Purpose: Emma Tilley's Journey from Volunteer to PhD Candidate in Missing Persons Investigations
Locate International has hundreds of volunteers around the world. Some give a few hours of their time when they can, others considerably more and they all help out in a variety of different ways. But few of them turn their passion for locating missing persons and identifying bodies into a full-blown study heading towards a doctorate.
Emma Tilley, who features in The Body Detectives documentary (Channel 4) started volunteering for Locate in 2020. She had a background in investigations, working for the civil service and as an academic in policing. So, a meeting with Locate International’s Dave Grimstead, when they were both receiving a prestigious Churchill Fellowship Award for research, and a Twitter advert for the charity, combined to make it a perfect fit for her.
While lecturing in Policing and specialising in unidentified bodies and genetic genealogy, Emma led a number of investigation teams at Locate. She also worked on the Missing podcasts and various appeals before embarking on her Phd studies at Staffordshire University, close to her Black Country roots.
Emma’s Phd aims are to:
Critically review the cross-matching process of unidentified bodies and missing persons reports in England and Wales
Produce a basis for the development of a Code of Practice for the treatment of unidentified bodies in England and Wales
Examine the epidemiology of unidentified bodies in England and Wales
Identify how information about unidentified bodies is obtained, recorded, stored, reviewed, cross-matched, deleted and shared on a local, national, and international level • understand the obstacles and opportunities concerning the cross-matching process
Produce a basis for the development of a Code of Practice for the treatment of unidentified bodies in England and Wales
Lofty aims perhaps, but ones which Emma believes have practical applications.
She started her research by looking at ten years worth of cases from the UK Missing Persons Unit - both solved and unsolved. And, as if that wasn’t enough data, she then interviewed more than 300 stakeholders in England and Wales who are involved in some way with missing persons or unidentified bodies. These included police, coroners and local authorities.
“I wanted to understand the obstacles and hurdles that we are facing. One problem is the quality of the data that is available. It is very limited and so there are probably far more than the quoted number of 1,000 unidentified bodies in the UK. So, what is the true scale of the problem?”
Prior to the 1990s all the data that was recorded was paper based and bodies which were found were buried in unmarked graves or cremated.
“In many cases the papers have been lost so the identity can never be returned to those people because they are not in the system,” said Emma.
So what does Emma think the priorities should be for trying to create a better system?
“First there needs to be a huge push to recommend a national audit of all cases to establish the scale of the problem then there is a much better chance of a match. Then a joined up approach by all the agencies involved is needed but that comes after the audit.”
The joined-up approach and cross matching of data has had a well publicised success in Belgium with the identification of a British woman who was murdered there more than 30 years ago. It followed a landmark campaign by Interpol called Identify Me which was launched early in 2023 and was aimed at identifying 22 murdered women. It was the first time the international policing body had gone public with a list of so-called black notices, seeking information about unidentified bodies.
These notices are normally only circulated internally among Interpol's network of police forces throughout the world. The family of Rita Roberts, who had travelled from her home in Cardiff to the Belgian city of Antwerp in February 1992, spotted her distinctive tattoo in a report on the unidentified murder victims.
The last contact they’d had with her was a postcard in May 1992. Her body was found the following month lying against a grate in a river after she had been violently killed. After recognising the tattoo, the family met investigators in Belgium and formally identified her. Belgian authorities are now calling on the public to come forward with any information they have about Ms Roberts or the circumstances surrounding her death.
“That is a perfect example of what is possible with cross matching,” said Emma.
But she also believes there is more work to be done around procedures. For example there already is some guidance to deal with unidentified bodies, particularly for the police and coroners, but none for local authorities. The Law Commission in England and Wales is responsible for the disposal of the dead and as a matter of course many bodies are cremated, despite the religious and cultural opposition to this from some groups. Emma is asking them to charge the legislation to help improve the chances of establishing an identity for an unidentified body.
“Unless there’s a public health reason all bodies should be buried, never cremated. This removes the problem of cremation for many families and retains the possibility of exhumation, which is very important.”
Emma’s thesis is due for submission in April, so if all goes well, she should have her doctorate this summer. Although she expects the changes she is suggesting to take up to four years to be fully implemented.
“It will take a group effort to achieve it,” she said. “But even with just the basics of what I am suggesting, I am confident that many of our unidentified cases could be solved.”