Someone wrote and asked if you had to be a family member to ask the Cold Case Squad to look into a case, or could a friend of the victim make the request.

From Vito Spano: “Yes, anyone can refer a case to the Cold Sase Squad, you don’t have to be a family member. The important issue is what information you have concerning the case. It doesn’t have to first hand information.”

Vito reminded me of a case one of his detectives had. A woman was strangled by someone who collected soda cans. Someone “came forward because she felt her friend was murdered by this guy and nothing was done by the police since the incident in 1991. Not only was he collared for murder of the friend but also for two open rapes.”

From Wendell Stradford: “Yes, they can ask, but we will want to know what their relationship was/is to the victim, and is the family aware that you are making inquiries. Also we would ask that before we did anything, that they have the victims family contact us. As you know we don’t need anyone’s permission to look into a case.”

I asked Vito, “what if the person doesn’t have any information, they’re just a friend who would like the cold case detectives to take a look and see if there’s anything they can do?”

From Vito: “We’re getting into a situational thing. What is the rational for the referral? I would want to know why the person is asking that the case be looked into. Is there some compelling reason? Is the person a concerned citizen, or is there something else? I would never automatically say ‘no’ to a request. I would want to look at the case and take a look at the person referring the case.”

I’m a little slow. I always wondered why guys in mug shots looked somewhat deformed. “That’s because someone just beat the crap out of them,” a Cold Case Squad commander explained. Oh. “We don’t do that anymore,” he added.

I spent the last few days reading posts from family members of murder victims on a cold case website. It was heartbreaking. Post after post like, “My son was murdered 10 years ago and no one was ever caught, please help me,” went largely unanswered. (Not anyone’s fault, it wasn’t a place set up to provide help.)

I have a list of Cold Case Squads that I’ve been putting together, to see it click here. Whenever I hear about a Cold Case Squad being formed I call them and ask if I can add them to my list. I’ve been working my way through calling everyone on a list of law enforcement agenices who got DNA grants from the Dept. of Justice to test evidence from cold case.

If you know of a cold case squad or unit that is not on my list, please email me.

I love old police photographs, particularly any that show antiquated forensics. I got this shot of some old police lab guys and their equipment from the photo unit at One Police Plaza, aka 1PP. There was no date – can anyone guess when this was taken?

I displayed it at my book party and then after the party gave it to Lisa Faber, a criminalist who works at the Police Laboratory. The New York Post recently wrote about Lisa Faber and Wendell Stradford (both in my book) in an article called: Secret Weapons – Meet the Elite Supercops of the NYPD.

Aside from serology and DNA tests, which are done at the OCME, anything else that needs to be tested–ballistics, narcotics, and fingerprint lifting–are done in Police Laboratory in Queens. I keep meaning to ask Lisa if she’d be willing to help out with forensic questions here. She’s extremely smart. Among other things, Faber makes determinations about trace evidence found at crime scenes, ie, if hairs are animal, human or fibers.

This is Lisa Faber at my party.