…and “John Doe” doesn’t count. Neither does “Tent Girl,” or “Buckskin Girl,” or “Johnny ‘Dupage’ Doe.” Those aren’t real names. Those are the names given to people by the press, because no one knows who there are. Those names belong to dead people, bodies found by the side of the road, or wrapped in a bag in a vacant lot, or mummified in an abandoned railroad tunnel.
Law enforcement officials have some 40,000 unidentified bodies in their records, and over 100,000 people go missing each year. The Doe Network works to “give the nameless back their names and return the missing to their families.” I can’t think of many better uses of energy. What an amazing calling.
