When Jesse Goliath moved to Mississippi in 2021, he was surprised to learn that there was no official statewide database for missing and unidentified people.
Goliath is a forensic anthropologist and assistant professor of anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and Near Eastern Studies at Mississippi State University. He is also a senior research fellow at the Cobb Institute of Archaeology.
In his role at Mississippi State, Goliath set out to create a database that would help connect the state's missing and unidentified people. To date, there are more than 1,000 names in the database and many more need to be added, he said.
He acquired Louisiana State University's program to build its missing and unidentified persons database in Louisiana and began building a database for Mississippi, gathering information from various sources.
Goliath looked for nonprofits that reported on missing people and began collecting information from these websites. He also recruited students to scour social media to find other missing person reports.
Before the database was created, Goliath helped a Pontotoc County team find the body of Felicia Cox, who had been missing since 2007.
Her brother-in-law, David Neal Cox, told authorities where her body might be shortly before his execution in December 2021 for murdering his wife, Kim Kirk Cox, and sexually abusing their young daughter.
The District 1 District Attorney's Office contacted the State of Mississippi for assistance. Goliath was able to help the sheriff's office locate the body in the area where David Cox said she would be.
“They contacted us and said, 'Hey, can you help us find this person using this map,'” Goliath said.
Goliath and his team used experience and ground-penetrating radar to locate Felicia Cox's body in the area where David Cox said Felicia Cox would be buried.
Pontotoc County Sheriff Leo Mask said Goliath's help was invaluable.
“It worked out really well,” Mask said. “They did a great job. It wasn't great work. It was a great job, I promise you.”
Mask said a nationwide database is needed and opens the door to solving more missing and unidentified people cases.
“That would help us a lot,” he said.
It was then that Goliath realized that Mississippi needed a missing persons database.
“My next thought was, 'If Felicia has been missing for so long and they knew who did it, how many other cases are there in Mississippi where it's just a lack of information, a lack of awareness or a lack of communication.' I asked law enforcement. I asked a lot of other people, “Is there a database for this?” Is anyone following this information?” and everyone said no.
Goliath soon sought funding and launched the Missing and Unidentified Persons Database for Mississippi.
“Missing people is a silent epidemic, especially for women of color,” Goliath said.
Around the same time, media attention turned to the disappearance of Gabby Petito and the search for her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie.
“It got so much attention that other people were out and about looking for missing people,” Goliath said. “For me the question was, 'What's happening in rural areas like Mississippi, where there isn't a big social media presence, big cities or a lot of resources?'”
Goliath's work documenting missing persons dates back to when he worked as a contract worker in Hawaii for the Department of Defense's POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is responsible for identifying missing service members in World War II, Korea and other conflicts.
“The idea of the missing person thing is something I've been doing for a while,” he said. “In this way, it will help provide closure for families.”
The Mississippi Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons launched in November at Missinginms.msstate.edu. It is open to the public and there is a private area where law enforcement and other officials can access more detailed information about a missing or unidentified person that could assist in their investigations.
“We want all Mississippians to know who is missing in their state and to be able to report if their loved ones go missing,” Goliath said. “This archive will help law enforcement focus their efforts and resources on known regions with missing persons. “With the unidentified person data, we could potentially solve unsolved cases in the state.”
Goliath works with Assistant Professor of Anthropology Jordan Lynton Cox, who uses geospatial analytics to identify medical and health disparities across the state. According to her bio on the Missing website, “her primary research uses interdisciplinary approaches such as story mapping and geospatial analysis to answer questions about race, diaspora, transnationalism, governance and globalization.”
The third person on Goliath's team is Mississippi State University Police Lieutenant Bo Shelton, a cold case investigator.
Goliath said the team's work on the database and help from law enforcement and community members may help solve some of the unsolved cases.
“Unfortunately, it tends to be the marginalized groups of our population, the people who are victims of sex trafficking, the poorest of the poor, the people on the margins,” Goliath said. “If you don’t stand up for them, no one will.”
Examples of some people in the database
- Angela Freeman was 17 years old when she was last seen at the Pizza Hut in Petal on September 10, 1993. Although she was officially declared dead, her body was never found and no one was ever charged in connection with her disappearance.
- Andrew Funchess was last seen on September 1, 2016, driving a white 2006 Monte Carlo on George Washington Drive in Jackson.
- Elton Jackson was last seen on January 3, 2017 at Willow Run in Jackson, apparently on his way to a store.
To learn more
Search the Mississippi Repository for missing and unidentified persons and visit missinginms.msstate.edu.
Follow database updates on Facebook at the Mississippi Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons; on X @missinginms; and on Instagram @missinginms.
For more information, email failedinms@msstate.edu.
Do you have a story you would like to tell? Contact Lici Beveridge at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.
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