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Entries from September 2005

Going Back to Old Crime Scenes

September 30th, 2005 · Comments Off on Going Back to Old Crime Scenes

Cold Case Squad detectives love going back to the crime scene, even when there’s nothing left. ADA’s are baffled by the practice, and there hasn’t been a time in anyone’s memory where detectives have recovered any valuable evidence, but this is one of the ways they psych themselves up to begin. They are mustering with […]

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Tags: Cold Case Investigation Facts

How Many Unsolved Murders?

September 27th, 2005 · 3 Comments

When my book went to press there were 8,894 unsolved murders in New York since 1985. Los Angeles, the next largest city in America, had 8,000 going back to 1960. Fairfax, VA, had 75 going back to 1964. If you want to try to figure out how many cold cases are in your city, go […]

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Tags: Homicide Facts

The Property Clerk Division

September 24th, 2005 · Comments Off on The Property Clerk Division

As an amateur historian, I was fascinated with the NYPD’s Property Clerk Division. I wanted to see what they had saved. What I learned was: not much. Before I go any further, as far as I can tell they have their act together now, which I detail in the book. They got serious about storage […]

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Tags: Police History

DNA – Not So Much

September 21st, 2005 · Comments Off on DNA – Not So Much

DNA was used in less than 2% of the cases the Cold Case Squad cleared. At the time The Restless Sleep went to press, the total forensic DNA hits in New York was 1,529. 7% were for murder cases, 72% were for sex crimes. ‘In most state or federal systems, for every crime solved with […]

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Tags: Cold Case Investigation Facts