Credit: San Antonio Police Department
A first-of-its-kind initiative in San Antonio—and one of the few in Texas overall—San Antonio Chief of Police William McManus announced the launch of a new $1 million forensic genetic genealogy program to tackle cold cases.
The $1.03 million allocation was secured by Rep. Joaquin Castro through a federal community project funding request—part of a program that allows members of Congress to direct funding toward local initiatives.
The funding will support outsourcing of DNA analysis and forensic genetic genealogy testing to specialized private laboratories in cold case homicides and sexual assault cases.
In the past five years, San Antonio has had 366 unsolved murder cases and 49 unsolved sexual assault cases. Of course, the total number of cold cases stretches much beyond that. Prioritization of cases for this initiative will occur based on the strength of available DNA evidence.
“Today, we declare we are determined to solve every single one of these unsolved cases and we’re committed. If you murdered someone in San Antonio, whether it was last year or 40 years ago, we are determined to find you,” said Castro. “If you committed a sexual assault, 5 years ago or 15 years ago, we will work to find you.”
While the $1 million in funding will launch the program, the cost of testing and the volume of cases means it’s only a starting point. To that end, Castro called on the local and state government to step up and provide more.
“I would like to challenge the state government and our local governments to join me in this effort to fully fund the San Antonio Police Department and the Brexer County Sheriff’s Department to peruse those who have committed heinous crimes,” concluded Castro.