According to the FBI, murder is up 2.1% nationally.

It’s December, and every December the papers start tracking a competition the NYPD participates in every day of the year, the results of which are announced on January 1st: Getting the Yearly Homicide Totals Down.

As of December 11th, there were 508 murders in New York City. Last year, the total was 572. So far so good (relatively speaking, of course – not good for the 508).

In keeping with the topic of this blog, probably half of those 572 murders have been solved at this point. In two years, 35 – 40% will remain unsolved, and perhaps will be picked up by these guys (this is actually a very old photograph of the Cold Case Squad and a lot of these guys are retired).

I would like to eventually make this site more international. I was sent a pointer to an article here about a new cold case squad in Scotland. The Strathclyde Police have created the Unresolved Case Unit to reinvestigate their unsolved murders.

I went to West Virginia last week to research a piece I’m doing for NPR about a fire in Fayetteville, WV on December 25, 1945. Five children were believed to have died in the fire, but there was enough weirdness that night and for years afterwards that the family never accepted it. They believed the children were either kidnapped or murdered that night.

This is the billboard the family put up starting in 1952.

The children who died or went missing that night.

Maurice Sodder, 14 years old on December 25, 1945.

Martha Lee Sodder, 12 years old on December 25, 1945.

Louis Sodder, 9 years old on December 25, 1945 (his birthday was in 5 days).

Jennie Sodder, 8 years old on December 25, 1945.

Betty Sodder, 5 years old on December 25, 1945.

The site today. The billboard sat at the top of the rise, by the pine trees. The house that burned was on the left side of the driveway you see today.

This is Fayetteville today.

The Fayetteville Courthouse.