The Restless Sleep:

DNA Barrels at the Property Clerk Warehouse

Homicide evidence is placed in what are called DNA or blood barrells, and stored at the Property Clerk Warehouse. The warehouses look like that final shot of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when they are putting away the Ark of the Covenant, amongst endless stacks of wooden crates. Here, there are fifty foot tall towers of cardboard DOA barrels. Each barrel holds 20 to 25 envelopes of evidence. There are roughly five or six thousand barrels. At 25 envelops per barrel, that could represent up to 150,000 crimes.

When is a Case Too Cold? Part 1

Someone asked, "How far back in time can a cold case be sent in? How many years back can a case be re-opened?"

I'm going to ask the cold case guys to weigh in, but there is no statute of limitations on murder. If a murder hasn't been solved, the case is still open even if no one has looked at it for years or decades. Practically speaking though, the Cold Case detectives concentrate on cases they think they can solve first, cases with evidence and/or witnesses, or people with direct information about the murder, and cases where the murderer is likely still alive.

So, most of their cases are fairly recent. They usually don't have cases earlier than the 70's, although there are always exceptions. The Cold Case detectives are currently looking at the 1930 Judge Crater case, technically a missing persons case which was closed in 1979. Even though most people believed Crater was killed, the police had no evidence, and as a missing persons case -- not a homicide -- it could be closed. New evidence has recently emerged however, although how reliable it is and if it leads to anything remains to be seen. But it would be fun if it did!

Zeus - A Cadaver Dog

When they’re looking for a body they’ll bring a cadaver dog. In one cold case investigation a cadaver dog named Zeus found a body that was wrapped in plastic and buried under concrete four years earlier. To train a dog to find dead bodies they construct something called a scent tube. It’s made from PVC and sealed at both ends after inserting a piece of gauze that’s been doused with one of the following perfumes: Pseudo Corpse I or II (II is a corpse further along), Pseudo Drowned Victim, or Cadaverine. They get the stuff from the Sigma Chemical Company in St. Louis and it’s expensive. In comparison, 1.5 ounces of the famously expensive perfume, Joy, by Jean Patou, which requires the blossoms of 10,600 jasmine flowers and 336 May roses, retails for $100 . The same amount of Pseudo Corpse II would run you $276.75.

These are not great shots of Zeus, I know. I scanned them from newspapers. Zeus’s official rank was detective--that’s more prestigious than a patrol cop. Zeus did recovery work for the Oklahoma City bombing, and was accepted into the Oklahoma Pet Hall of Fame on January 20, 1996, for locating 24 victims. This is Zeus finding a body at Oklahoma City. "When Zeus was digging," Police Officer Robert Schnelle, his handler, describes, "he was on a mission."

There are half a dozen official cadaver dogs, although because of 9/11 more dogs than usual got some cadaver experience. They don’t like to use rescue dogs for cadaver work, though. Rescue dogs are used to finding people alive and finding only corpses screws them up. I remember reading about how rescue workers would hide in the rubble of the Trade Center so the defeated and depressed rescue dogs would have a live person to rescue occasionally.

Zeus worked the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, but he had already been retired for a year when it was attacked again in 2001. His legs were finished, he just didn’t have it in him anymore. Then, the following Fall, Zeus developed cancer. A tumor burst that Spring, and he bled internally. Schnelle was at work when it happened and while he got to Zeus in time to take him to the vet, Zeus didn’t make it. He would have turned 11.

Who Can Contact the Cold Case Squad?

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."

Old Mug Shots - Part 1

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.

What to Do When A Case Goes Cold/Part 1

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.