Mother of missing man petitions for national DNA databank for missing persons

It’s been more than three years since Melanie Alix’s son went missing.  

“I keep telling the police – I’m not going to go away. I’m going to be a thorn,” said Alix. 

Her son Dylan Koshman was 21 when he went missing in Edmonton.  

He had moved there for work and was living with his cousins.  

They got into an argument one night and he left without his wallet or coat.  

But Dylan’s mom has not lost hope he’s still alive. 

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“I have hope that he is and will continue to believe that until police knock on my door and say otherwise but what I want is closure.” 

She thinks a national DNA database for missing persons might help bring that closure. 

She has been petitioning to get the so-called Lindsey’s Law passed in parliament. 

Canada’s DNA database is used only to identify criminal, not cross-check remains with missing people.  

Saskatchewan RCMP agree it would be beneficial. 

“Anytime that we can have tools or information at our disposal obviously we are going to be in favour of it and if a DNA database was going to come into existence then we would be in favour of it,” said Saskatchewan RCMP Sgt. Dale Rockel. 

It’s the third time in ten years the bill went to Parliament. 

MP Ray Boughen will be the one to present it once the petition is certified. 

“Sometimes these bills that are good bills don’t make it through the floor because there’s 308 of us folks as MPs and all of us have constituents that would like to see something happen at the Parliamentary level,” said Boughen. 

But Melanie Alix will continue to push for Lindsey’s Law in the hopes it will bring the answers her family so desperately needs.