Foresnic Artists Hope To Help Solve Missing Person Cold Cases

Kelly Dove from Harrisonburg is just one of hundreds of people who are part of a database with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She has been missing since 1982 and would be 54 years old now.

When these children are still missing years later, it is important to pay attention to them --even decades after.

Joe Mullins is a forensic artist for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Once a cold case hits the two year mark, Mullins creates an image of what the child might look like now.

According to Mullins, by age three, the upper part of one's cranium is 70 percent mature, but the lower two-thirds of a child's face can change.

"We want one phone call," Mullins said. "If we generate the right person who's seen this image, we've done our job."

Mullins said it just takes one person looking at a photo to make a difference, and that is the goal of the organization: To help bring children home like Kelly Dove.