0: state says 'unaccounted-for' list from Joplin tornado is cleared

current death toll is 134

June 01, 2011|by KY3 News

JOPLIN, Mo. -- The Missouri Department of Public Safety says it no longer is looking for the whereabouts of anyone after the EF-5 tornado on May 22. For the first time since the state took over the management of the list of names for whom people were searching, the number of people who are "unaccounted-for" is zero.

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Edited news release:

On May 25, Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol to assume responsibility for locating individuals who were unaccounted-for. After initial reports that the number of unaccounted-for individuals could be more than 1,300, the Patrol focused the search on individuals for whom an official missing-persons report had been filed.

On May 26, Nixon also directed the Missouri State Highway Patrol to augment the process of identifying the remains of those who died as a result of the tornado, and to expedite the process of notifying those individuals’ next of kin.

As of 1 p.m. Wednesday, a total of 268 missing-persons reports were filed since the tornado; that total includes three additional reports that have been filed since Tuesday afternoon’s media briefing. Over the past week, state troopers and other partners have worked 24 hours a day to account for each of those individuals.

Of the 268 individuals on the list:

144 previously unaccounted-for individuals are reported located;
124 previously unaccounted-for individuals have been confirmed deceased, and their next of kin have been notified

Persons categorized as “reported located” are individuals who the Missouri State Highway Patrol has received credible information indicating that they are alive.

As of 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, 134 individuals have been confirmed deceased as a result of the tornado. This total of 134 includes the following:

124 individuals included on the unaccounted-for list who have been confirmed deceased and whose next of kin have been notified by the Missouri State Highway Patrol;
7 individuals who have been confirmed deceased but were never transported to the temporary morgue because they were transported to funeral homes immediately after the tornado; and
3 individuals who died in a hospital since the storm.

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