PORTAGE, Mich. - A new bill signed into law by Governor Rick Snyder last week is increasing the efforts made to find missing people.
The bill which was introduced by State Rep. Tommy Brann will require Michigan law enforcement officials to share missing person information on a national database.
"By police having to put that information in immediately when a missing person report gets filed, I believe it’s going to change the game," Kellie Yunginger, said.
For the last few years, Yunginger, a missing persons advocate, has been doing what she can to help families that deal with a miserable mystery.
Most recently she helped out in the search for Theresa Lockhart, whose body was found in Allegan County. Lockhart's husband admitted to the murder in a suicide note.
Efforts that truly resonate for the Portage native. Yunginger's cousin, Richard Hitchcock, has been missing since 1990.
"He was genuinely a good person," she said as she looked at his missing person flyer.
Hitchcock was last seen December 22, 1990 leaving a bar in Allegan County. Since then, the Sheriff's office says the case has gone cold.
"Why do I do it? Because I don't want a family to be holding this poster 27 years later," she said as picked up her a flyer with her cousin's face on it.
"Here we are, still don't know where our Richie is. We didn't get to say good bye. We didn't get to bury him, somebody else did. I don't want another family to have to go through that, that's not fair."
But she believes the new law will help. Michigan authorities will now have to enter missing people into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System or NAMUS.
"I truly believe it's going to make an impact on when we bring our missing home and l believe that to be sooner rather than later."
A $5,000 is still available for any information that would lead to Hitchcock's recovery. The family will be out in Allegan next Monday to pass out hundreds of flyers on what would have been Hitchcock's 49th birthday.
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