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 DNA, we solve 26 with fingerprints,” according to Ed German, a recently retired Chief of Intelligence for the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

Everywhere, all over America, the percentage of unsolved murders has been slowly creeping up. Right now, more than a third of all murder cases go cold. And yet, as fewer and fewer murders are solved, and the number of cold cases increases, all around the country police departments are allowing their Cold Case Squads to also slowly disintegrate.

But not everywhere. For the past year I have been putting together a list of Cold Case Squads.

Two years ago, Major John Newsom and the detectives of the Warren County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Squad began re-investigating the 1999 murder of Troy Temar. On Tuesday they arrested a brother and sister for the murder.

From yesterday’s Cincinnati Enquirer. “When Donna Temar received a detective’s call that her son’s 6-year-old homicide may have been solved, she felt like a “1,000-pound weight” had been lifted from her heart.”

Donna Temar’s son Troy.

Good work, Warren County.

The NYPD says this is their first mugshot. I found an 1857 New York Times article announcing a Daguerreotype Gallery of Criminals at the Detective Police Office, though. I wish the police department were hoarders. What a treasure that collection would have been if only they had saved it.

“I know that we actually made a difference and we really did put evil people away. I take great satisfaction from that. Not everyone can say they brought evil men to justice, but we did. I still go on line to the NY Department of Corrections web site and check where all my bad guys are.” – Vinnie Nitti, retired Cold Case Squad detective.

He’s talking about Inmate Lookup. I used that a lot while researching the 1951 case I wrote about in this book. I was sure that some of the people the police questioned back then would one day end up in prison.

Click here to look up Federal inmates.

Click here to look up New York State inmates.

I can’t post them all, but if you want to find prisoners in your state, go to Google and, depending on where you live, type: California inmate lookup, etc.