A technician prepares specimens for DNA sequencing in the laboratory of the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding in Guelph in this undated handout. Every species, from extinct to thriving, is set to get its own DNA barcode in an attempt to better track the ones that are endangered, as well as those being shipped across international borders as food or consumer products. Researchers hope handheld mobile devices will be able to one day read these digital strips of rainbow-colored barcodes -- much like supermarket scanners -- to identify different species by testing tissue samples on site and comparing them with a digital database.
Nearly two decades after 14-year-old Lindsey Nicholls vanished from a small community on Vancouver Island, her mother fears she may never know what happened to her daughter, even if her remains are sitting in a coroner's office somewhere in Canada.
Last month, Ottawa announced millions of dollars to create a national missing-persons centre and a public tips website, improve an existing police database and make changes to the Criminal Code.
But for Judy Peterson of Sydney, B.C., there's still something missing: a national databank that would allow police and coroners across the country to use DNA to match people who've been reported missing with unidentified human remains.
"If Lindsey's remains are in Alberta or any other province, I would never know and they would never know," Ms. Peterson said.
She's spent the past decade pushing for legislation, which she wants to be called Lindsey's law, that would make such a system a reality.
"I always think it's going to happen and then it doesn't."
It's an idea that's been talked about for years, with at least three parliamentary reports urging Ottawa to move forward and three private member's bills - all proposed by Conservative MPs - that have died in the Commons.
However, the federal government appears no closer to adopting such a system, which would require new legislation and more resources for Canada's already overworked DNA labs.
Police and coroners caution that a DNA databank won't be a panacea that will suddenly bring closure to the thousands of people across Canada who've had a loved one disappear.
They note there are far more missing people than unidentified human remains, and an expensive and time-consuming DNA test is typically the last resort when other investigative techniques aren't working. It can also be difficult to get a usable DNA profile of a missing person, even with access to close relatives.
Still, they say it would certainly bring an end to some of those cases - especially when they stretch across provincial and territorial boundaries.
"There's really no border or boundaries when it comes to missing people," said Anthony Tessarolo of the Centre of Forensic Sciences, Ontario's government-run forensics lab in Toronto.
"By having a national approach, you have the greatest opportunity to identify linkages between missing persons and any identified remains that are uncovered."
Mr. Tessarolo testified in front of the Senate's public safety committee this year, where he was one of many witnesses who endorsed a DNA databank for missing people.
The committee issued a report in June that recommended Ottawa take steps to create such a system on "an urgent basis." A Commons committee report released a year earlier made the same recommendation, as did another Commons report in 2007.
Currently, DNA is typically used in missing-persons investigations only when police discover human remains they believe might be linked back to a specific case.
Some local coroners have limited DNA databases of human remains they can use to search for matches, notably in British Columbia, where the disappearance of women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and the Robert Pickton case highlighted the need for a better way to find missing people. But they still don't have extensive indexes of missing people to compare the DNA samples against.
And there is nothing in place to link up cases between provinces or territories, meaning DNA from a body found in Manitoba likely wouldn't be compared with a missing-persons report in Nova Scotia unless police make a specific request.
In the United States, that patchwork is sewn together with a database called the combined DNA index system, or CODIS, run by the FBI, which primarily focuses on criminal investigations but also includes missing-persons cases.
So far, Ottawa has appeared to show little interest in implementing the same here.
A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the government will respond to the Senate report soon, but added Ottawa is currently focused on beefing up Canada's existing DNA databases to track sex offenders and criminals.
Christopher McCluskey said his department has been consulting regional governments about a missing-persons database, but couldn't say whether that will actually happen.
"After years of under-resourcing, our current priority is to stabilize the existing DNA regime." Mr. McCluskey wrote in an e-mail.
Those existing databases work much the same as the system advocates of a missing-persons index are proposing.
When DNA is found at a crime scene, for example, it's currently searched against every DNA profile in the database, which includes violent criminals and sex offenders, to see whether there's a match.
But even that system is facing problems. Overworked and underfunded, Canada's DNA labs are already unable to keep up with demand.
The problem is so bad that the federal government recently issued a tender for a study examining what could be done, including the possibility of turning forensic work over to the private sector.
The Liberals' public safety critic, Mark Holland, said it will be impossible to create a missing-persons index without ensuring the country's DNA labs have the resources they need. He said the Conservative government needs to do both.
"It's wrong right now how little resources are put into being able to use DNA evidence," Mr. Holland said.
"We have to do everything in our power to help find those who go missing. As a father, it's pretty hard not to be seized by the idea that if there's something that can help, we should do it. The government should have acted on this earlier."
In the meantime, Ms. Peterson continues to wait - for answers about her daughter or news the government is finally ready to act.
She's encouraged by this year's Senate committee report, and hopes that means a DNA database might one day become a reality.
As for her daughter, it's become more difficult to cling to hope.
"I know what the police file says, foul play is suspected, and I know what they [investigators]believe," Ms. Peterson said.
"Logic tells me that if she's out there, then she would have called us by now, so I feel she was taken that day on the road. But I can't help but think she could be out there still."