The Dayton Police Department is expanding the Cold Case Unit. The unit will now have three full time detectives—instead of one—and their work will expand to include both unsolved homicide and sexual assaults.
“Victims of violent crime, to include their families and loved ones, are a top priority of our department. We are making these changes in hopes of greatly impacting the way we investigate and hopefully solve cases that for years have gone unsolved,” said Major Brian Johns, Commander of Investigations and Administrative Services.
Detectives are in the process of going through old homicide and sexual assault case files in order to categorize them based upon available DNA evidence and other credible evidence. To assist with this task, the department has partnered with the University of Dayton, who will provide student interns to help with the cataloging of old case files, while retired detectives will assist with the re-examination of files in an effort to identify those with increased evidentiary value for higher solvability.
The Dayton Police Department will continue to utilize advancements in technology such as DNA, forensic genealogy, computer forensics, etc., to help solve these homicide and sexual assault cases.
The Dayton Police Department will also launch a podcast to highlight unsolved cases in an effort to gain new or additional information and potential leads.
Republished courtesy of Dayton Police Department.