Alice Gainer joined CBS News New York as a reporter and anchor in January 2013. She covers breaking, feature and general assignment stories.

Queens held its first ever Missing Persons Day on Friday, providing one-on-one assistance to families with loved ones missing for 60 days or more.

The New York City Medical Examiner's Office hosted the event at the Queens District Attorney's Office, which hopes it leads to clues in dozens of unsolved cases.

Lorrain Townsend and Jackie Pennington are hoping to get some answers. They haven't heard from their cousin, Allen Foster, in 20 years.

"He had a dimple on the right side when he smiled," Townsend told investigators.

CBS News New York followed along as they gave information to the medical examiner's office, provided a DNA sample and filed a missing person's report with the NYPD, something they do not think was ever done.

"It was one of those things, you know, he's M.I.A. for maybe a month or two, two months, but he would always resurface somewhere. But then it was, six months went by," Townsend said.

The city's chief medical examiner, Dr. Jason Graham, said they've hosted events like this in other boroughs before, but this was the first in Queens.

"We have many partners across the city. The NYPD, other investigating agencies who partner with us to really serve these families," Graham said.

Other tools loved ones are urged to use include the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, known as NamUs.

Queens DA Melinda Katz, who started the first cold case unit in the borough, said DNA collected at the event will be put in the system and compared in databases across the country.

"We are investigating over 47 homicides that the victim is not identified in," Katz said. "And we'd like to find the victim's identity for closure for that family."

Closure is exactly what Pennington is hoping for.

"The not knowing is what's really hard. If he's alive, we would like to find him and reconnect. If he's not, then at lease we have an answer," she said.

"We just want to know," Townsend said. "How would you feel if we knew something about your family and we just kept it to ourself?"

Sixteen people representing nine families were at the event. Six others did phone interviews.

If you were unable to attend the event, you can call the NYC Medical Examiner's Office at 212-323-1201 or click here for more information.

Missing Persons Day could help solve dozens of cold cases, Queens DA hopes