WEST HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -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 initia 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.”
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