There are now 9,082 unsolved murders in New York City going back to 1985. That figure is a moving target of course. They are adding to that number all the time. Roughly 150 – 200 or more murders go cold every year, and try as they might, they are not going back and solving that many each year (of the older, cold cases).

That picture was take at one of the Property Clerk warehouses. Those barrels contain homicide evidence.

Attention!  If you have a friend or loved one whose murder is still unsolved and you want to know what to do, please read this:

People ask repeatedly in the comments section about what to do or who to call about an unsolved murder. The answer to those questions are on the left under the heading, Getting Help – Contacting a Cold Case Squad. First read the document titled Before You Contact a Cold Case Squad. Then look up the number in the document Cold Case Squad and Other Organizations.

If you can’t find a number for your city or town, call your local police department and ask them if they have a cold case squad or a person in their homicide squad who specializes in cold cases. If they don’t then ask to speak to someone in their homicide squad. If you don’t get what you believe is a decent response, then go to the document on the left titled, Escalating Your Case.

If you have specific questions after reading through these instructions please ask here, but come back to see the answer!

It’s not a cold case, but there was an extremely well done article about a 1927 murder in the Times yesterday. (Photograph by Uli Seit courtesy of the New York Times.)

Also, there is news of a faster DNA test (the article I once linked to is gone now).

On April 9, 1959, NASA announced which seven pilots would become the first US astronauts, Frank Lloyd Wright died, and Vyron Martin found his wife Ruth dead on the sofa in their cabin on Marsh-Miller Lake. She was naked and shot in the head with a .22 caliber bullet.

Here’s an article with more details. [The original article I linked to is gone, I am linking now to a different one.] According to the article, the police came across the 47 year old case while in the process of bar coding all crime scene evidence they’d been storing. That caught my eye because I was recently out at the Nassau and Suffolk Police Departments, looking into their process of storing evidence. This whole system of bar coding evidence is very impressive.

I tried to find someone alive who knew Ruth. Sadly, her husband Vyron died in 1980. He was still living in the town where she was murdered. I see Ruth was nine years older than Vyron, very unusual at time. I’m sure someone must exist somewhere, but I couldn’t find any living relatives.

The article hints at possible DNA evidence, but it doesn’t say what they found exactly. I wonder what they have.

This remains one of my favorite holiday shots. It’s still sad to see the Trade Center in the background, and I still want to know who that daring Santa was!

Happy holidays, everyone. For those who have sad memories, I’m very sorry. And for those who are doing what they can about those sad memories, thank you.