MIDLAND, Texas — The Midland Police Department has sent the DNA test for the unidentified teen to Dallas as their efforts to find his identity continue, but the timeline is murky on when the results could come back.
The DNA will be put into a national database, and from there a match could be found.
Some situations take weeks to months depending on how many cases are being handled, but this case might be given higher priority due to its importance and rarity.
“This is a rarity…this is the first time that I can remember a situation like this," said Jennie Alonzo, the detective on the case for Midland Police Department.
Most, if not all, local law enforcement departments normally just collect DNA and have it sent off for further analysis elsewhere in the state.
The Midland Police Department has done the same, and patience will be needed.
“Typically it could take several weeks," said Alonzo. "We send our DNA sample[s] out to Dallas, and because they are currently snowed in and no one is in the office at this time we cannot even request it to be expedited or get an estimated time of how long it will take.”
Whenever his DNA does get put into the national database, a match will be dependent on whether or not his family history has DNA in there as well.
"If his DNA has ever been taken for any type of reason, or if for some reason his family is in a database," said Danial Linley, a sergeant with Crime Scene Investigations at the Ector County Sheriff's Office. "Aside from that, if you come from a family that nobody has ever had it; DNA can also find aunts and uncles and grandparents and distant family, and then you can start trying to track it down closer."
With no known family at this point in time, if a match with a family member is not found, then the DNA will have to stay in the database until a match is found, certainly making this case a difficult one.
“Especially unidentified persons, it can be hard to identify someone who, they don’t have identification on them, or someone doesn’t recognize them or there circumstances are unknown," said Lauren Gonzales, a Cold Case Homicide Detective with the Odessa Police Department.
There is no guarantee that his DNA will provide a match, and if that is the case, it could be years before perhaps a match is found.
DNA testing is a process that is typically used later on in trying to identify people, and at this point it is just about waiting to see what comes up.