Relatives of missing people say the authorities in Monroe County are not prioritizing the cases of their loved ones.

A small group of people is making a lot of noise and calling out several people and organizations, saying they dropped the ball.

The concerns are about not just missing individuals, but unidentified people.

“These people are voiceless,” said Gabrielle Reh, of Buffalo. “We have to give them a voice and speak for them, because clearly they’re somewhere.”

For some of the people attending Monday's protest, it’s been months or years since they last saw their family member.

“My nephew Nick disappeared in 2020 around Thanksgiving," said Sylvia Didas, of Rochester.  

She says gave the police DNA within days of the disappearance, but it didn’t get into the right hands until it was resubmitted just a few weeks ago.

“We’d like to see a change,” Didas said. “I mean we’ve heard that there are bodies at the medical examiner’s office that haven’t been identified. These are people. These are our children. These are fathers. We would like them brought home where they belong, or at least know where they are and we can at least know what we have to do to take care of our family.”

The group is part of the Western New York Missing & Unidentified Persons Network, gathering in front of Rochester's Public Safety Building.

"We’re basically hoping to open the eyes of the detectives and [the Rochester Police Department] and everybody who has since dropped the ball on a few of these cases, [and] get them to reissue detectives for certain cases that have since been forgotten about," said Jennifer M., of the Western New York Missing & Unidentified Persons Network.

RPD Captain Greg Bello spoke with two of the families, including Didas.

“We talked about the fact that Mr. Bello, I don’t know what his title is, is going to look into it and try and get some answers as to why things have been stalled in this case," said Didas.

The families walked through the city streets, taking their protest to Rochester City Hall hoping to talk with Mayor Malik Evans — but that did not happen, a disappointment to relatives desperately wanting to know anything.

“Hiding up there in that building. Don’t hide. Come on out. We want to see Mayor Evans,” Joyce Williams, whose son Tommy went missing two years ago, shouted outside of City Hall.

A spokesperson from Monroe County says the medical examiner’s office processes the remains of about 4,000 individuals yearly and that the number on any given day fluctuates.

He says each case is different and the vast majority do have known identities.

He adds that a small fraction are remains and partial remains that are not identified, and those cases take much more time to process and investigate.