With more than 300 unidentified people in the state, the Clark County Coroner is holding the first ever "Missing in Nevada Day."

Plus.... (Sallie Doebler) And the reality is, is that no matter who the mayor is, there are kids that need help.

-With a new mayor leading Las Vegas, what happens to the philanthropic fund that the previous mayor set up?

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

It's a first of its kind event in the state.

Missing in Nevada Day takes place on February 1 at the Clark County Government Center.

The Clark County Coroner's Office is hosting the event, which hopes to reconnect the public with missing loved ones.

And here to explain how this event will work is Clark County Coroner, Melanie Rouse.

Melanie, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you for having me.

-Okay.

So 300, more than 300 unidentified people in Nevada.

Can you give our viewers some perspective on how big of a number that is?

(Melanie Rouse) So 300 dating back to the 1960s and forward, as recent cases, even as recently as the last year, we have unidentifieds.

I would say it's pretty much on par with other large areas and large jurisdictional areas.

We have about 40,000 across the country.

-Wow.

I think that our viewers may wonder, 300 people, where are all of these bodies being kept?

-So after we have done our due diligence in collecting as much information as possible on these decedents and making sure we have built the best profile possible to make identifications on them, they do get transferred to a funeral home for disposition in a, in burial.

-I think you had mentioned that funeral homes rotate this responsibility.

How is it viewed?

-So there is a rotation service through social services that provides burials for unidentified decedents.

-Wow.

Okay.

What will happen at this Missing in Nevada Day that could lead to someone being identified?

-So we are hoping that people will come forward and either report their missing loved one or provide additional information on their missing loved one.

So to make an identification, you have to have information to compare to from when the person was alive to after the person passed.

By connecting those pieces, you can identify people.

The hopes is also to reconnect people and reunify them with people that may still be living.

-Can you give me an example of that, connecting something from when they've passed to something when they were alive?

-So it is really comparing things.

It could be things as simple as records or documents, medical records, X-rays, it could be dental records and X-rays, or it could be DNA compared to a living person that is part of their family lineage.

-So then, what do you want people to bring?

-We would like them to bring anything that could help with identification, whether that's dental records, specifically X-rays, any radiographs from when the person was alive and medical records and documents, any photos of identifying features such as tattoos or marks or scars.

-Any idea of how many people may show up?

-Well, we have monitored similar events in other jurisdictions, very similar to ours, and they had about 100 attendees.

-Is that how this event came to be, you saw it happening elsewhere?

-We did.

You know, this has been a long project in the making, and we've been hopeful to get this off the ground in hopes to get people a comforting place in a good environment to come to where they feel safe and welcomed to provide that information.

-That is something that you stress in the press release, the importance of providing a nonconfrontational environment.

Is that typically what someone would face when they're going to report a missing person?

-I think sometimes there's a fear of reporting their missing loved one.

I think sometimes people are nervous or scared or they may not want to approach law enforcement or they may be afraid of some actions that their own loved one may have been involved in.

And so I think there's an unease there.

So the idea behind Missing in Nevada Day is to provide them a safe and secure location where not only they can come report information, but they can also get resources that they may need as well.

-Like what?

-Like grief support resources or resources on things available to them in the community that they can utilize to help connect them to their loved one.

-All right.

Your office has provided us some slides of unidentified people.

Will those be on display at this event?

-Yes.

We actually printed those out into posters to be on display, in hopes that someone that may attend the event may recognize something, whether it's personal belongings or property or a composite sketch or drawing of the individual.

-Some of those posters, I noticed, even include molds of people's faces and heads.

Why are there some that have that and others that don't?

-It depends on the quality of the remains and our ability to complete those things.

-Okay.

Of those cases, those posters, do you want to talk about a couple or a few that stand out to you?

-I think there's several, and they're all of equal importance to us.

I think anybody that we can make an identification to and return that final piece of who they were is important.

There is things like jewelry.

There's pictures of shoes and clothing and things that belong to them, and the hope is that someone may recognize those items.

-Yeah, and then perhaps get to take that with them and have that as a memory of that person and bring some closure, as you mentioned.

So 200 missing people in Nevada, your press release mentions the 300 unidentified people and then 200 missing people in Nevada, according to a national registry.

Will this event help those people?

Because they are already reported missing.

I mean, haven't you already ran that information against what you have?

So the 200 is, again, like you said, it's the reported missing.

So those are ones that actually people have come forward and reported their missing loved one.

I think this event could absolutely still help them.

The hopes is that they'll bring forward additional information they may not have previously provided that can help us make those connections.

-How would that work?

What would that look like?

-So again, I think when they report a missing person, they may not, in that moment, provide additional details like who their dentist was or where they were last known to be alive or what property or belongings they may have had at the time they went missing.

I think anything that they can bring forward with that additional information would be helpful.

-You took this role in summer of 2021?

So you've been in this position about 3 1/2 years now.

Prior to this, you spent 15 years in the same field in Arizona.

I'm wondering, the large presence of tourists in Las Vegas and in Nevada, has that impacted your ability to identify people, your work in this area?

-So I would say our jurisdiction is unique, because we do have 45 million visitors that come through and travel to Las Vegas every single year.

Of those people, there are some that unfortunately do pass here.

So about 1,000 of our cases every single year come from non-Nevada residents, and amongst those, there are some unidentifieds that we are not able to make IDs.

It does increase the challenges, because making the connections to their families and being able to contact those parties is often difficult.

-If someone is unable to attend this event but sees this afterwards and they think perhaps my missing loved one is in Clark County, what do you suggest they do?

-So we do have an email address that they can submit information to and provide us with details regarding their missing loved one so that we can connect back with them, even if they're not able to attend in person.

-And is that a better method, in your opinion, than doing like the national registry, for example?

-So we do encourage people to still participate in the national registry.

What we are using here is a database to link our unidentifieds to missing persons that are reported right here in our jurisdiction.

-Okay.

I mentioned 3 1/2 years here in Clark County.

When you take a step back and look at the leading causes of death here, what has stood out to you?

-I would say the interesting things that we're seeing lately is the increase in drug-related fatalities.

We have had a significant increase in fentanyl-related fatalities, specifically.

What's interesting is that when we first saw fentanyl come into the, into the drug scene, it was usually in adulterated drugs.

So it was being placed into other drugs, and it was like a surprise finding, if you will.

Now what we see is we actually have people that are out seeking fentanyl as their drug of choice.

-Why do you think that is?

-It's hard to say.

I mean, the social determinants of health say that there's risk factors that drive people to drug use and make them more susceptible to succumbing to that.

-Okay.

And fentanyl is certainly stronger than some of the drugs they were-- -Fentanyl is a very strong opiate.

-Yeah.

Okay.

So opioids were what we were talking about several years ago.

Now it's fentanyl?

-Yes.

It's part of that drug classification, yes.

-Okay.

The Southern Nevada Health District reported that between 2018 and 2023 fentanyl-involved overdose deaths increased 566% in Clark County.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in that same time period an increase of 649%.

That report, though, from LA County says that: The increase rate slowed significantly in 2023 with only a 3% increase.

The slowdown in the annual increase of fentanyl overdose deaths suggests that fentanyl overdose and poisoning deaths may be nearing a plateau in LA County.

Do you think the same for Clark County?

-See, that is the hope.

But I can tell you just looking at our numbers from 2023 to 2024 we've already seen a 5% increase.

I anticipate that that will actually total out at about 9 1/2% once we finalize closing out of our cases from 2024.

-Okay.

Let's move on to heat-related deaths.

You told me prior to this, prior to us taping this, that there were more than 500 heat-related deaths in Southern Nevada in 2024.

In 2023 the Southern Nevada Health District reported 294 heat-related deaths, so a 78% increase.

What's going on?

-So that is heat related or heat attributed.

So I think that's also you cannot talk about heat-related deaths without talking about drug-related deaths.

So as drug-related fatalities increase, so do your heat-related fatalities.

So there are drugs that actually cause your body to not be able to thermoregulate, making you more susceptible to succumb to heat illness.

That being said, I think also the increases of reflection of we're doing a better job of classifying those deaths.

We implemented a standard process in 2021 so that the classification of heat-related fatalities would be easily abstracted so that we could get good data surrounding these deaths so we could see what was happening in our community.

-When there is a heat-related death where drugs are involved, which category do you end up recording it in?

-It gets classified in both.

-Oh, okay.

So there's a double number, kind of?

I mean, maybe are we counting one person in each category?

-Yes, they could fall into both categories.

So you could also look at that death as a drug-related fatality as well as a heat-caused or heat-attributed fatality.

-And for the education of our viewers, what are some of those drugs that are contributing to heat-related deaths?

-So we do see a lot of methamphetamine in heat-related fatalities.

-Okay.

Why did you go about making those changes?

Because that was something you implemented when you came on board in 2021.

What was happening prior to that?

-So we just wanted to have a standard terminology that could be easily obtained and given to our public health partners so that we could have really good community information, community involvement, and help with those public intervention pieces.

-Any other changes that you've implemented since coming on board?

-I think just standardizing some of our operations, making sure that we're following industry standards across the country, and just making sure that we're doing things correctly to report out.

-A couple more questions.

COVID-19, what are you seeing in terms of deaths related to COVID?

-So the COVID-19 fatalities have decreased significantly since we first saw COVID hit our community, but we are still seeing it.

Now it's much similar to how we have our flu-attributed deaths every single year.

-And what about suicide numbers?

-So our suicide numbers are increasing, which is, which is likely due to the population increase, but I would not say it's a significant climb compared to what you would see year after year.

-Last question.

Back to the event, Missing in Nevada Day, what's a practical expectation of what will come out of that event?

Have you followed up with other events and seen how many people ended up being identified?

-So we have followed up with some results out of other events.

We have found that some events were successful in not only locating and identifying decedents, but they were also successful in reunifying living parties.

So we're hopeful that any kind of identification that we make we would consider a success.

-Melanie Rouse, Clark County Coroner, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you for having me.

-President Trump's recent order to freeze federal funding is highlighting the vulnerability of nonprofits that rely on federal assistance.

And for those that don't, like the Mayor's Fund for Las Vegas Life, it can mean that their donors will face increased pressure to give from the nonprofits that now need to fill their budget gaps.

Former Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman established the Mayor's Fund for Las Vegas Life as a means for businesses, foundations, and individuals to invest in programs that address the city's challenges and improve residents' quality of life, but now that Shelley Berkley is Mayor, what happens to that fund?

It's one of several questions we asked Sallie Doebler, CEO of the Mayor's Fund.

I want to start with the transition of a new mayor into the city of Las Vegas and how that impacts this fund.

Are there concerns about how people are going to view it?

(Sallie Doebler) I think that's kind of the misinterpretation sometimes of the Mayor's Fund.

So the fund was started in 2017 by Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who came back from a mayor's conference in Philadelphia, who also has a Mayor's Fund, and introduced this vehicle that would help the City with some of their budget gaps and to help expand their programming for the residents.

However, we are now a separate 501(c)(3).

We have our own board.

We have our own advisory committee.

They're all community leaders.

And so the the mayor is really somebody we work with, don't work for.

So we work with the mayor, the city council, the departments.

We find what their needs are, but we do know that the mayor is going to be very, very supportive of the Mayor's Fund because she is deeply committed to making sure we can do everything we can to benefit the residents.

-What is the funding that's involved in this fund?

-Well, so we really work off donations.

And so we can use cash donations.

We can use in-kind.

We rely on the private sector--foundations, philanthropic groups, corporate foundations.

We like to work very holistically and find out what's going to be important to our donors.

The City has a vast array of different initiatives, programs that they execute very, very well.

So we're almost like matchmakers.

We take what's important to our donors and then we match it up with what the City really has need to do and can execute well.

And that's really how we match up our initiatives and our donations.

-And these are programs that cannot be funded by the city entirely?

-Yes, correct.

You know, there was a significant change with the ARPA fund sunsetting, which has affected many municipalities, many nonprofits, and there's always budget gaps.

It also allows us to create some programs that we think could be important that the City would like to execute but couldn't because of budget issues.

-I imagine that some people may hear, Mayor's Fund for Las Vegas Life, why would I want to give any money to that mayor?

I didn't vote for her.

Some people might think that.

Do you come across that?

-You know, we do when they don't understand the purpose of our organization.

And the reality is, is that no matter who the mayor is, there are kids that need help.

There are still people that are homeless.

And so we're not focused on the political.

We're very apolitical with all that.

We're focused on making sure that we help people.

-What do you believe some of the biggest accomplishments of this fund have been?

-Well, when you look at the past even like six, seven years, multiple.

I'm particularly proud of what we've done at the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center.

There's an animal kennel facility down there.

It's unique because, as we know, homeless folks, sometimes the only companionship they have is that animal, and they won't leave their animal on the street if that means that that's what they would have to do to get resources.

So it's unique in that they're able to bring their pets in.

We upgraded that facility.

So we installed a shade covering for the turf, cooling in the summer, heating in the wintertime, and so now they can come in and leave their pets, feel secure.

And holistically, now they can go in and get the resources that they need to try to change their lives.

We've done, you know, many other things, like the hockey clinics.

I'm very excited about having accomplished that, because I think that we're looking at things that are important to changing people's lives.

And particularly with kids, we have a big focus on that.

One of the things that we've done recently is we got a large donation of used computers from the Hard Rock, Mirage before they closed down, which the City repurposed.

AT&T Foundation gave us a significant donation, so we were able to load them with software, and now the City is giving those computers for free to students, seniors, organizations, families that otherwise would not have that opportunity to be able to have that digital connection.

-I want to go back to the hockey camps.

These are not just any hockey camps.

They are specifically for girls.

-The grant as we proposed it to the Golden Knights was for girls, which is the ultimate end result that we'd like to see for the girls league.

Of course, we want to be inclusive, so we did allow the boys to be in the clinics and within the big clinic that we did at Lorenzi Park.

But as far as the girls league, that will be for girls.

I'd like to be doing that with some of the other sports, like WNBA sports, and that's what we're looking forward in the next year is trying to find ways to make that even more inclusive with some of the sports.

-We talked about this off camera, but will you elaborate on how this helps businesses as well, in addition to the philanthropy that is being provided.

-The issues that we have in our community affect all of us.

And in many cases, we're working with employees of these businesses.

We're giving them services that the businesses themselves cannot do.

We give the opportunity for business and public entities to work together for the good of the community.

So holistically, we all benefit because, at the end of the day, we're helping people who need help.

-Can you break that down what that looks like in the case of the Golden Knights, for example?

How does this, these clinics and this league, impact them as a business?

-You know, Kerry Bubolz, the president of the Golden Knights, will tell you that this is a community sport, being involved in the community.

And so they're very engaged with making sure that they make their mark and show that they're out there helping the community.

And at the same time, we're also helping to promote the sport of hockey.

So when you look at it from that standpoint, we touch those things that they care about, which is making sure that they show that they care about the community, and then we also help them with promoting the sport that's done so much for our city.

-And create a pipeline, perhaps, to a future hockey player or someone who buys tickets to the game.

-100%.

So they may-- these girls may turn out to be hockey players.

Who knows where it will be in 10 years?

At the very least, they will probably want to go to a lot of games.

-I want to go back to the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center.

A lot of funding has come from the Mayor's Fund for that.

Now, the current mayor has mentioned that she does not think that that resource center is doing enough to address homelessness, in particular, with the mental health aspect that's part of this issue.

How does that impact your fund and its future funding in this area?

-You know, homelessness is a huge problem for most of the major cities in this country, and there's always improvements that can be made in any program.

The Courtyard has been servicing 6,500 people every year, but this is just not a city of Las Vegas problem.

So we really welcome, I think, as a community, we welcome the additional support that's going to be coming in with the support of the State, Clark County, and the Resort Association as they build additional facilities, because this is just not in the city of Las Vegas.

You know, we think that we will look for anything that we can do.

The numbers for homelessness are staggering, and so the City has done what it can within the budget that it can.

We'll continue to find those small projects.

We can't cure homelessness, but we could certainly make sure those animals were comfortable and created a kind of a safety valve for those guests coming in that needed help.

-So if I'm interpreting it correctly, you'll listen to what she's saying, but it doesn't ultimately impact whether you will continue to fund the Courtyard.

-Well, we definitely want to support the City of Las Vegas, and that is a City of Las Vegas facility.

So our job would be to find what we can do to help them with that facility and how can we help improve and be part of the solution.

But recognizing it's a huge problem, we're a small nonprofit, we'll look for ways that we can make an impact where we really feel like we're making a difference.

-Perhaps the most recent impact that this fund has made is in the sculpture of the Goodmans, former Mayor Oscar Goodman, former Mayor Carolyn Goodman, in front of City Hall, 11 feet tall, bronze, beautiful.

-Larger than life.

[laughter] -As the Goodmans are.

-Absolutely.

-Now, to those who would say, Maybe that money could have gone to something else, to the homeless, perhaps.

Why is that part of this fund?

What would you say?

-This was a really unique project.

I think it's a good example about why it's important for the fund to be an independent entity from the city.

The city employees cannot solicit donations.

We can solicit donations and then grant it back to the city.

This was a tribute project, and so we went to the folks that were the close friends of the Goodmans, and it gave them an opportunity to do something for them to show their appreciation.

So this is going to be a testimony for in perpetuity, as long as City Hall is standing there, and the donors were very clear that this was the purpose of this entire project.

And I will tell you, this is the easiest and the most fun fundraising project I've ever had, because everybody wanted to honor the Goodmans.

And where would we be without the Goodmans here for 20 years, 25 years?

What does-- what would our city look like without them?

-And this will certainly serve to remind future generations of their contributions.

And there is an argument for public art and its value in a community.

Now, in terms of art and its importance in Las Vegas, how do you make people aware of how Las Vegas compares to the rest of the country, other cities, about this presence, its presence, and is this something that you will be talking to legislators about this upcoming legislative session?

-Yeah, public art is really important.

It's also important to the city.

It's important to the state.

Obviously, there's a huge movement in the Arts District to kind of get that back to the state, where you have artists down there making it a thriving creative opportunity.

We feel very strongly about it, and we're going to be more engaged with it this year, as far as the public art, for so many reasons.

Psychologically, art improves a community.

People feel prouder about their communities when they have art.

There are so many benefits.

And I think, philanthropically, we just need to make that community aware of how important it is to be able to create that kind of beauty within our community, in our city.

-So what will your message be up in Carson City?

-That's really important to be able to-- while we look at all those issues, and everything's important.

I mean, there's so much need in our region, but it's also important to do things that start to beautify the community, because that's the beginning of so many other things that will really help that population.

-Sallie Doebler with the Mayor's Fund for Las Vegas, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-It was a pleasure.

Thank you for the opportunity, Amber.

-And thank you for watching.

For more information on any of the resources discussed in this show, including the email address to use in order to report a missing person, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek, and I'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪