In 1946, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) was formed by the Virginia General Assembly. The OCME's jurisdiction has claim over a variety of different deaths, including homicides, suicides, and accidents. This includes death by overdose, deaths of persons in custody and in state facilities, and those who die unexpectedly while in presumably good health. This jurisdiction is iterated in the Code of Virginia, and has remained fairly similar since the formation of the OCME. There are currently four OCME locations in Virginia, dividing the state into four different jurisdictional districts. These districts include Tidewater, Northern, Western, and Central. At present, the Central district is located in Richmond City, though the office is transitioning to a new building in Hanover County in the coming years. Within the Central Office, there is a specific position for working on and managing unidentified cases: the Long-Term Unidentified Coordinator, Lara Newell.

At the Central Office, unidentified cases go as far back as 1946, a time period when identification was much more difficult due to a lack of technology. According to Newell, an initiative to specifically address and investigate the long-term unidentified remains across the Commonwealth truly began in 2009, when the National Institute of Justice awarded grants to the Virginia OCME for this purpose. Although the grant was ultimately not renewed, this push to identify long-term cases continued within the OCME, with the creation of a part-time position dedicated to working on said cases. This position lasted until 2020, when the investigator retired. At this point, OCME leadership identified the necessity of continuing this role because of the effect it had on the Richmond and Virginia community, and they elected to turn it into a full-time position, the one currently held by Newell.

Although not a very publicly recognized position, the work Newell does is immensely important. When she first started in her current role, Newell shared that she had around two hundred long-term unidentified cases. Currently, the number sits at two hundred and seventy nine, though she estimates the number will surpass three hundred once all of the cases are found. According to Newell, many of the original cases that she had when she first started ended up being historic or prehistoric in nature, meaning they predated modern medicine and science, and were then either released to the Department of Historic Resources for repatriation, which is when the body is released to their home country, or returned to the investigating agency.

The work done by Newell as the Long-Term Unidentified Coordinator is in part funded by a federal grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance. This grant, the Missing and Unidentified Humans Remains grant, is valued at one million dollars, and was awarded in the fall of 2023, as a means to help identify long-term unidentified individuals. With the vast improvements in technology that have occurred since 1946, Newell shared that the grant money goes towards different identification processes such as exhumations, forensic anthropology exams, forensic odontology exams, and forensic genetic genealogy testing.

Federal organizations also play a very important role in identifying long-term unidentified individuals, such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and NamUs, a national database for unidentified persons. Newell shared that state police, as well as local law enforcement agencies have been very helpful and willing to aid in identification. Along with that, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has helped tremendously with the implementation of fingerprint identification, according to Newell. Another important aspect of Newell's job in identification, in conjunction with the FBI, includes sending skulls to FBI labs for facial approximations, once or twice a year. With this process, forensic artists create a possible image of what the person may have looked like. From here, Newell said that it is her responsibility to schedule a press conference with the district the case is from in hopes of finding new leads on long-term unidentified cases.

The impact that this work has on not only the Richmond community, but Virginia as a whole, is profound. Some of these cases have existed, unidentified, for nearly a century. Newell put it best when she said, “They are someone's someone: their friend, their sister, their mother. They are everything to someone.” The effect of losing a loved one and not knowing where they are can be immensely detrimental. But, with the work that goes into solving these long-term unidentified cases, change is made within the Richmond community. Newell and her line of work helps people who were missing their loved ones get closure. Although the OCME may not be able to bring them back, the family can have some peace of mind, and the person can finally be laid to rest, with their loved ones knowing where they are.