Russell Sage’s Criminal Investigation Resource Center Interns to Assist in Missing Persons Day Event on April 18 at New York State Museum

Students in the Criminal Investigation Resource Center (CIRC) at Russell Sage College will volunteer at the 23rd annual Missing Persons Day event on Saturday, April 18, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the New York State Museum, 222 Madison Ave. in Albany. The event is free and open to the public, but online registration is requested.

The free event includes law enforcement training and family discussion sessions, breakfast and lunch, a remembrance walk, and a keynote talk from Mary Lyall, whose daughter, Suzanne, a 19-year-old student at the University at Albany, disappeared in 1998. Her case remains unresolved.

Mary Lyall and her late husband, Doug, went on to found the nonprofit Center for Hope and lobbied to create the annual observance of New York State Missing Persons Day, organizing the event to mark it for decades.

Students in CIRC have had a long relationship with Mary Lyall as they’ve looked at Suzanne’s case and routinely assist at the Missing Persons Day event, which is now hosted by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Lyall serves in an advisory role for the event.

“Mary Lyall is a beloved person within CIRC, and her relationship with us is a reminder to the students that no victim should ever be forgotten and that unresolved missing person cases ripple through families and communities for decades,” said CIRC Director Christina Lane, a criminologist and associate professor of criminal justice at Russell Sage. “We are all inspired by Mary’s work, and we hope that Mary will one day receive the closure she’s been personally seeking for so long.”

CIRC partners with about a dozen law enforcement agencies, both local and out-of-state, to utilize students as a resource in keeping unresolved cases alive. Students, who are often criminal justice or forensic psychology majors, are held to a high standard of professionalism and confidentiality and are eligible to receive academic credit and pay for their work. CIRC has been credited by police with assisting in the resolution of three previously cold homicide cases.