The State of Ohio has formed a cold case unit. A “cold” case is an open criminal investigation police are no longer actively investigating. Usually, this is because of a lack of evidence. Some cities in Ohio have cold case units but up until now, the Attorney General’s Office did not.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said this unit won’t investigate all cold cases, just the most serious crimes. The new unit will focus on cold case homicides and unsolved sexual assaults.
Yost said, “We can make a difference, even when years have passed since a murder or sexual assault.” The attorney general pointed out that modern forensics makes it possible to solve cases that are decades old. “Consider how DNA testing advances have unmasked, time, and time again, violent criminals who got away with living among us for too long.”
State-Of-The-Art Technology
The Cold Case Unit (CCU) is part of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). Yost said this new until will combine the best in modern science with the latest in investigative techniques.
- state-of-the-art criminal intelligence gathering
- laboratory analysis
- expertise in forensic disciplines such as crime scene and cybercrimes
Yost said CCU will work with local law enforcement agencies to help solves the open cases.
The attorney general explained how the new unit would help out. “For example, CCU could tap BCI’s Investigation Division for interrogations and exhumations; the Laboratory for advanced DNA testing or fingerprint analysis; and the Criminal Intelligence Unit for genealogy research after familial DNA tests or a fresh take on case details to ID new suspects. Such BCI tools have been used to investigate serial killers, identify unknown remains and indict sexual assault perpetrators.”
Sexual Assault Cases
Yost said the new unit has teamed up with the current BCI lab to focus on solving sexual assaults. He cited two new initiatives:
- Project SEND, local law enforcement agencies across Ohio will be notified of thousands of older cases in which technological advancements could provide new leads.
- In Project SAK, law enforcement agencies will be offered additional investigative or laboratory strategies in cases in which BCI already found DNA, part of Ohio’s effort to test old sexual assault evidence that had been gathering dust in department storage rooms.
“Even if leads were thought to be exhausted in the past, applying current technology and new techniques may help solve old cases,” BCI Superintendent Joe Morbitzer said.