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| Alabama to possibly get Cold Case Unit | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 26 2007, 08:00 PM (299 Views) | |
| luvmycat | Jul 26 2007, 08:00 PM Post #1 |
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Sneezy!
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New heat hits cold case Local officials: All cases considered open Lindsay Field / Staff Writer July 26, 2007 ADVERTISEMENT Though a few high-profile cases may be lingering mysteries, local law enforcement officials vow they don’t let cases go cold. “Once they’re assigned to an investigator, the case belongs to that detective,” Auburn Police Lt. Paul Register said. “We don’t consider anything a cold case, though, because we are actively looking at cases. No matter how old it is, we follow up on information.” Since January of this year, Register said he’s assigned more than 700 cases to investigators. High-priority cases, like the Dick Salmon murder and Lori Slesinski missing persons investigation, are reviewed periodically by detectives. Sunday marked the two-year anniversary of Salmon’s murder at his SACO gas station on Opelika Road in Auburn. Police have never identified a suspect in the shooting death of the well-known 72 year-old businessman. Another case that has received a great deal of attention locally is that of Slesinski, a 24 year-old Auburn University graduate who was reported missing by her mother on July 13, 2006. She still hasn’t been heard from and detectives with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the FBI have joined with Auburn police to interview more than 80 people about her disappearance. Alabama Attorney General Troy King announced Wednesday the formation of a “Cold Case Unit” that will be dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of unsolved criminal cases throughout Alabama. King said the unit, which will be funded through a $200,000 appropriation by the Alabama Legislature, will be “exclusively dedicated to helping those who have not yet seen justice done for the horrible acts that have been committed against them.” Typically, cold cases are violent or other felony crimes, such as murder or rape. Unlike unsolved minor crimes, these crimes are generally not subject to a statute of limitations. Although there are a few cases the Opelika Police Department, Auburn Police Division and Lee County Sheriff’s Office have not solved, the officers in agreement noted that no matter how old a case is, they didn’t refer to an investigation as a “cold case.” “We consider every case we have - the homicides in particular - open cases,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said. “There may be a lot of time that’s expired since the crime occurred, but our position is that we never close those cases. They stay open until solved, especially the ones where we have violent crime.” He said his investigators have actually been looking at a few cases that date back 20 or 30 years. “We may not investigate them every day, but a couple of investigators receive information, and they’ve kind of taken an interest in these cases,” he said. “The concept itself, as far as focusing on old cases, is good, though, a very positive thing,” Jones said. The Opelika Police Department has periodically distributed older cases among detectives to look into, as well. “In the past, we’ve actually assigned those cases to senior investigators to work and touch base with some of the families to let people know we haven’t forgot about them,” Opelika Police Capt. Allan Elkins said. “Cold cases are still actually assigned to investigators, and it’s not always the seasoned detectives that gets them,” he said. “Often, you bring in a new investigator to get a fresh perspective of the case.” King said at the press conference that he expects the program to begin operation in October. A screening committee of Cold Case Unit investigators and prosecutors will review cases submitted by local authorities to determine their appropriateness for acceptance. Factors such as the age of a case, the severity of a crime, the availability of witnesses and evidence, the existence of DNA evidence, and the susceptibility of that evidence to resolution with the use of new technology, will be used to determine which cases will be taken, and cases from the Civil Rights era will receive special emphasis. “To the people of Alabama, know this: If someone commits a crime against you, I will work tirelessly to ensure that law enforcement and prosecutors have the resources necessary to find the guilty and to drag them to justice,” King promised in a press release. “That a case is old or cold will no longer be a reason to call off the search or not to hunt down the ones who did these evil deeds. As we reopen cases, we will seek to bring the light of justice to those who have gone too long in the darkness, by making sure that justice is won and done.” Subscribe to the Newspaper © 2007 Media General Terms and Conditions http://www.oanow.com/servlet/Satellite?pag...30&path=%21news |
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Albert Einstein: The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. ![]() http://icaremissingpersonscoldcases.yuku.com/ | |
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3:23 AM Jul 11