FORT WORTH - Officials with the new Texas Missing Persons DNA Database have started collecting samples from relatives of missing children.

The database is part of the DNA Identity Lab at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. It is the nation's first non-law enforcement lab to be linked to the FBI's DNA index system.

Lab associate director John Planz says family members will be relieved if they can close even a few missing persons cases.

One family has been waiting for over a year. Robert and Janet Cooke of Georgetown have little information on their 19-year-old daughter Rachel's disappearance. She disappeared January 10 of 2002 while jogging near her family's home.

Although her parents are aware of the odds, they believe she still may be found alive. Janet Cooke recently had her cheek cells swabbed so DNA could be collected and stored in the new database.

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