NamUs APInamus.gov ↗
Access NamUs missing-person case records via API. List and filter published cases by state and sex, or fetch full case details including physical descriptors and circumstances.
What is the NamUs API?
The NamUs API exposes two endpoints that surface public missing-person case data from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System at namus.gov. list_missing_persons returns paginated case summaries across all published records — covering identity, age at disappearance, last-known location, investigating agency, and modification time — while get_missing_person_case delivers the full record for a single case, including physical descriptors, vehicle records, and geocoded coordinates.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/c07f9334-1f12-4c8e-8f49-8e49bf6aa0fb/list_missing_persons?limit=25&state=Texas' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Typed, relational, agent-ready
A generated client with real types, enums, and the links between objects — the structure a flat JSON response can't carry. Autocompletes in your editor and reads cleanly to coding agents.
- Fully typed · autocompletes
- Objects link to objects
- Typed errors & pagination
Typed Python client. Set up the SDK in your uv project, then pull this API’s typed client:
uv add parse-sdk uv run parse init uv run parse add --marketplace namus-gov-api
uv run parse add --marketplace pulls a pinned snapshot of this canonical API — it won’t change underneath you. To customize it, subscribe and swap to your own copy.
"""Walkthrough: NamUs Missing Persons SDK — bounded, re-runnable."""
from parse_apis.namus_gov_api import NamUs, State, Gender, CaseNotFound
client = NamUs()
# List recent missing-person summaries in Texas, capped at 5 total items.
for summary in client.missing_person_summaries.list(state=State.TEXAS, limit=5):
print(summary.first_name, summary.last_name, summary.missing_age_display,
summary.city_of_last_contact, summary.state_of_last_contact)
# Drill down: take the first female missing-person summary and fetch full details.
summary = client.missing_person_summaries.list(gender=Gender.FEMALE, limit=1).first()
if summary is not None:
person = summary.details()
print(person.first_name, person.last_name, person.case_number)
print("Circumstances:", person.circumstances_of_disappearance)
for agency in person.investigating_agencies:
print(" Agency:", agency.name, agency.phone)
# Point lookup by case_id discovered from the previous result.
if summary is not None:
try:
full = client.missing_persons.get(case_id=summary.case_id)
print(full.first_name, full.last_name, "resolved:", full.case_is_resolved)
except CaseNotFound:
print("Case no longer available")
print("exercised: missing_person_summaries.list / details / missing_persons.get")
Returns one page of published NamUs missing-person cases, newest date of last contact first. Each row is one case summary (identity, age at disappearance, current age estimate, last-known city/county/state, sex, race/ethnicity, investigating agency, modification time). total_count is the site's full match count for the filters; the site only exposes the first 10,000 matches of any query, so accessible_count = min(total_count, 10000) and offsets of 10,000 or more are rejected. Without filters the full database (about 26,600 cases) therefore cannot be paged to the end in one query: to retrieve every case, iterate over states (every state has well under 10,000 cases). Paging is controlled by offset (default 0) and limit (default 100, maximum 1000, larger values clamped); has_more and next_offset describe the continuation within the accessible window. An unknown state or sex value yields total_count 0 and an empty cases array, which is a valid result. race_ethnicity is the site's primary race label (the literal 'Multiple' when several apply) and ethnicities is the full list.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| limit | integer | Cases per page; values above 1000 are clamped to 1000. |
| state | string | Full US state/territory name of last contact (e.g. one shape: Texas). Omitted = all states. An unrecognized name returns zero cases. |
| gender | string | Biological sex filter as recorded on the case. Omitted = no filter. |
| offset | integer | Zero-based index of the first case to return; must be below 10000. Pass next_offset from the previous page to continue. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"cases": "array of case summaries; case_id (integer) is the input for get_missing_person_case; missing_age_* in years at disappearance, current_age_* estimated years now; ethnicities is an array of race labels",
"limit": "integer, page size applied after clamping",
"offset": "integer, offset applied",
"has_more": "boolean, whether another page exists within the accessible window",
"next_offset": "integer offset for the next page, or null when has_more is false",
"total_count": "integer, site's total matching cases for the filters",
"accessible_count": "integer, matches reachable through paging (capped at 10000 by the site)"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"cases": [
{
"gender": "Male",
"case_id": 162783,
"case_url": "https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/162783",
"last_name": "Graham",
"first_name": "Kyani",
"case_number": "MP162783",
"ethnicities": [
"Black / African American"
],
"middle_name": "Eugene",
"thumbnail_url": "https://www.namus.gov/api/CaseSets/NamUs/MissingPersons/Cases/162783/Images/Default/Thumbnail",
"race_ethnicity": "Black / African American",
"current_age_max": 14,
"current_age_min": 14,
"missing_age_max": 14,
"missing_age_min": 14,
"modified_date_time": "2026-09-29T23:21:24.683",
"missing_age_display": "14 Years",
"city_of_last_contact": "Forney",
"date_of_last_contact": "2026-09-11",
"state_of_last_contact": "TX",
"county_of_last_contact": "Kaufman",
"primary_investigating_agency": "Kaufman County Constables Office Precinct 2"
}
],
"limit": 3,
"offset": 0,
"has_more": true,
"next_offset": 3,
"total_count": 2930,
"accessible_count": 2930
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the NamUs API
Listing and Filtering Cases
list_missing_persons returns case summaries ordered by newest date of last contact first. Each entry includes a case_id (used as input to the detail endpoint), missing_age_* fields in years at disappearance, a current age estimate, last-known city, county, and state, sex, race/ethnicity labels, and the investigating agency. You can narrow results with the state parameter (full name, e.g. Texas) and/or the gender parameter. Pagination uses zero-based offset and limit (capped at 1000 per page). The response includes total_count for the full matching set and accessible_count capped at 10,000 — meaning offset must stay below 10,000 to retrieve results.
Full Case Records
get_missing_person_case accepts a numeric case_id and returns the complete public record: the canonical case_number (format MP<id>), case_url, ethnicities array, height and weight ranges in inches and pounds (height_from_in, weight_from_lb), hair and eye colour, physical features and clothing arrays, circumstances of disappearance, vehicle records, a poster_url, and image_count. Geocoded last-contact coordinates are returned as latitude (and implied longitude) when the site has published them; these may be null.
Coverage and Freshness
The data reflects what NamUs has published publicly on each case page. Cases that have been closed, merged, or restricted by the investigating agency will not appear. The modification_time field in list results indicates when NamUs last updated a given record, which is useful for detecting changed cases on repeated queries.
The NamUs API is a managed, monitored endpoint for namus.gov — not a raw scraper you maintain. Every endpoint is automatically health-checked on a schedule, and when namus.gov changes and a check fails, the API is automatically queued for repair and re-verified. It is built to keep working as the site underneath it changes.
This isn't an official namus.gov API — it's an independent, maintained REST wrapper over public data. Where the source has no official API (or only a limited one), Parse gives you a stable contract over a source that never promised one, and keeps it current. Need a new endpoint or field? You can revise it yourself in plain English and the agent rebuilds it against the live site in minutes — contributing the change back to the shared API is free.
Will this API break when the source site changes?+
Is this an official API from the source site?+
Can I fix or extend this API myself if I need a new endpoint or field?+
What happens if I call an endpoint that has an issue?+
- Build a state-level dashboard of active missing-person cases filtered by
stateandgender - Monitor NamUs for newly modified cases by comparing
modification_timeacross paginated list responses - Plot last-known locations on a map using
latitudecoordinates returned byget_missing_person_case - Compile physical descriptor datasets (height, weight, hair colour, eye colour) for research or analysis
- Cross-reference vehicle records from
get_missing_person_caseagainst other automotive or law-enforcement datasets - Generate printable missing-person posters using
poster_urland physical descriptor fields - Aggregate case counts by state and race/ethnicity using
total_countandethnicitiesdata
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 200 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 100 req/min |
| Team | $300/mo | 20,000 | 300 req/min |
| Company | $1,000/mo | 100,000 | 500 req/min |
Each endpoint has a fixed posted price per successful call — most fall between 1 and 10 credits — shown on this API's page before you run it. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does NamUs have an official public developer API?+
What does `list_missing_persons` return and how does pagination work?+
list_missing_persons returns one page of case summaries with fields including case_id, age at disappearance, last-known location, sex, race/ethnicity, investigating agency, and modification time. Use offset and limit (max 1000) to page through results. Pass next_offset from one response as the offset of the next. The site caps accessible results at 10,000, so offset must remain below that value. total_count reflects the full matching set even when it exceeds 10,000.Are unidentified remains (Doe) cases available through this API?+
list_missing_persons and get_missing_person_case. NamUs also maintains a separate unidentified-remains database on the same site. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add an endpoint covering unidentified-remains cases.Can I filter cases by race/ethnicity or age range in `list_missing_persons`?+
list_missing_persons currently supports filtering by state and gender only. Race/ethnicity labels and age fields are present in each case summary in the response, so client-side filtering is possible, but the API does not accept them as query parameters. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add those filter parameters if the underlying data supports them.How current is the case data returned by the API?+
list_missing_persons includes a modification_time field that reflects when NamUs last updated that record. The API returns the current published state of each case; there is no historical snapshot or change-log endpoint, so polling modification_time is the practical way to detect updates.