GREELEY, Colo. — The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is ramping up the number of open houses it hosts to get updated records from families who have missing loved ones, in hopes of closing more missing person cases.
One is scheduled at the Greeley Police Department on Wednesday from 1 to 7 p.m. It's open to families across the state.
The purpose is to give families a chance to ask investigators questions, connect with victim advocates, and provide DNA samples of biological relatives to help law enforcement. Those with missing loved ones are encouraged to bring photos, dental records and medical records of their loved ones. Biological family members can also provide DNA at the event through a cheek swab. CBI said it helps to have two samples on file, preferably from parents of the missing person.
If your loved one is missing but does not have an open case, CBI is telling families to report their missing loved ones to law enforcement before coming to the event.
Audrey Simkins, an investigative analyst with CBI's cold case unit, said the agency hosted its first missing person open house in November 2023. While CBI hosts annual events to connect families of missing loved ones to resources, Simkins said the agency wanted to do more to help.
"We really realized we probably need to make that opportunity available more than once a year, given the number of cases that we have," Simkins said.
She said there are currently more than 1,200 people missing in Colorado, with around half of those cases involving a person who has been missing for more than a year.
"It's in those cases that we want to make sure that we've collected everything that might help with that identification piece of the puzzle," Simkins said.
Simkins said while CBI is not the lead investigating agency in missing person cases, the agency is able to share resources to help smaller agencies. A spokesperson for the Greeley Police Department said it currently has 11 open missing person cases dating back to 1997, with the most recent case from June 2025.
"We are really there just for support, support with the local law enforcement agency, you know, kind of identifying what some of those gaps are that we want to just make sure are filled, helping them from a resource standpoint," Simkins said. "Maybe they don't have the personnel to take care of some of those things, and then just providing some extra support to those families as well."
CBI said the goal is to continue moving the event around Colorado to reach more families.
