ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - Morgan Harrington's room is set just the way she left it with band posters on the wall, perfume on her desk, and a CD ready to play.
It's the place Dan and Gil Harrington went right after their 20-year-old daughter disappeared on October 17, 2009.
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The problem is, no one told the devastated family that going in Morgan's room could hurt the process of finding her.
"You want to sleep in the bed and cry, but by doing so you contaminate all scent resources for search and rescue dogs," mother Gil Harrington said.
Making sure not to contaminate DNA is one of the many things Gil Harrington says she wishes she would have known five years ago. Now, she hopes her voice and concerns will spark change.
The Virginia State Crime Commission used both Trina Murphy and Gil Harrington's input for proposed legislation.
In a Missing Persons/Search & Rescue study done by the Crime Commission, it recommends the Department of Criminal Justice create a family resource guide for missing persons. The guide would also be available online.
"Families who have a missing loved ones are in shock. They are not processing and to have something physical in their hands to read and to look at it, as well as online resource, is a great improvement," Harrington said.
It's not just a checklist for families, but a recommendation for a more coordinated response from law enforcement.
"Probably the main thing was we felt at the time that Morgan was abducted was a lack of resources for missing families," Harrington said. "There was no standardization of response. So you're response from a community or law enforcement if you were abducted in one jurisdiction was a very different experience from someone who was abducted elsewhere."