Nowra is the last stop in the South Coast familial DNA pop up initiative after the police packed up their temporary centres in Merimbula and Batemans Bay.
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Family members of long term missing people can attend Nowra Rural Fire Service at 92 Albatross Road, South Nowra from 10am till 7pm on Friday, May 7.
The aim of these collection centres is to gather DNA samples from biologically related family members of long term missing people in order to identify bodies and human remains.
Missing Persons Registry Commander, Detective Inspector Glen Browne is urging family members of long term missing persons to come forward to provide a sample of their DNA.
The feedback we've got from families is that this is incredibly important. Many of these families have searched for answers for 30, 40 or 50 or more years.
- Detective Inspector Glen Browne
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"We're all hopeful that we may well get some links or matches out of this program," he said.
Det Insp Browne said it was crucial more samples are collected as all national law enforcement jurisdictions were reviewing the DNA of unidentified bodies and human remains.
"In recent years we have been able to get direct DNA profiles for all of our long term missing people, but for all of our historic cases, particularly those that occurred before DNA technology existed, we can't get the actual DNA profile for that missing person," he said.
"That's why it's so important that we get family members of long term missing people to come forward."
Familial DNA samples are provided via buccal swab and are only compared against missing persons databases in Australia.
"The index it goes into can only ever be matched against another index where we store the profiles for unidentified bodies and human remains," he said.
Det Insp Browne said the samples will not be used to attempt to solve cold cases as it would be illegal to do so.
Interviews are also conducted with family members and may add new and crucial pieces of information to long term missing persons cases.
The pop up program will roll out to other regional centres around NSW with locations to be announced in the coming months.
There are currently 34 cases of long term missing people in the South Coast.
Those who miss out on attending the pop up centres are encouraged to give their DNA samples at a local police station.
