New national center focuses on cracking cold cases
Associated Press
October 12, 2006
WEST HAVEN, Conn. -- With one in three homicides in America unsolved, famed forensic scientist Henry Lee and other crime investigators are hoping a new National Cold Case Center will help bring justice to killers and closure to victims' families.
Lee and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., were among the dignitaries at the announcement Wednesday of the creation of the center at the University of New Haven, where Lee has been on the faculty since 1975. It is being billed as the only facility of its kind on a university campus anywhere.
"There's so many cold cases," said Lee, who has worked on numerous high-profile cases, including investigations involving JonBenet Ramsey, O.J. Simpson and William Kennedy Smith. "One major mission of this center is to train more investigators to solve cold cases. We need those investigators to take the initiative."
The center, funded by a $500,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice, will provide free training to law enforcement officials nationwide on investigative techniques and new technology. It will also work on unsolved cases.
Lee said he will teach many of the programs, which will begin in January at the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science at the university. Institute officials say they are now working on three cold cases, and expect requests for help to skyrocket once word of the new center gets out.
Lee said that he personally has 800 cases awaiting his attention.
There have been numerous advances in forensic science over the past decade that law enforcement officials need to know about and use in their investigations, Lee said. For example, he said there are 250 new methods for analyzing fingerprints, and there are new DNA tests.
The center also plans to train investigators on "data mining," which is using a variety of databases in an effort to get information helpful to an investigation.
Lee said that while the center will focus on homicides, it will also look at unsolved rapes, robberies and burglaries. He said two-thirds of homicides are solved, compared with only 50 percent of sexual assaults and 19 percent of burglaries.
Connecticut's chief state's attorney's office has its own cold case unit that is seeking information on the unsolved killings of eight people and a series of sexual assaults in the Hartford-Middletown area. The FBI and numerous law enforcement agencies nationwide also have units dedicated to unsolved crimes.
DeLauro, who helped secure the federal grant, said 200,000 murders in America have gone unsolved since 1960.
"For law enforcement, these cases are frustrating," she said. "But to the families of the victims, cold cases are heartbreaking.
"We need to give law enforcement the tools that it needs to solve those cases, to get violent criminals off the street once and for all and to give our families some peace of mind," she said.
State Victim Advocate James Papillo said the new Cold Case Center will make his job easier.
"If there is a term or word that can be used, it's `hope,"' he said. "It's strong medicine for the families I deal with who've lost hope."
Albert Harper, director of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science, said the institute has been providing training on solving cold cases since 1999, one year after it was created.
He said the biggest advantage of the new center will be that it will offer training for free. Such training has typically cost law enforcement agencies $700 to $800 per person in the past, which can be cost-prohibitive.
Middlebury Police Chief Richard Guisti said the new center will be a resource not only to law enforcement, but to victims' families.
"It will put closure to cases and help the families get some closure," he said.
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Copyright 2006 Associated Press