Bill Hagmaier retired from the FBI six years ago, and is now the executive director of the International Homicide Investigators Association. Hagmaier says the murder rate in the U.S. is at a 30-year low, but with police departments operating at a decreased capacity, the percentage of cases being cleared is dropping. He says only 62% of the estimated 16,000 murders each year in the U.S. are solved—leaving too many killers out on the streets.
The best candidates
In response to these startling trends, cold case squads are popping up from coast to coast. And since many unsolved murders date back several decades, retired detectives are often the best candidates to crack cold cases.
“These are people who can be extremely productive,” Hagmaier says. “They’re current on investigative techniques and computers, but also they bring to the table something that you can’t teach—and that’s having been there.”
Veteran detectives are already familiar with cold case files. They may have been on the scene, have already interviewed key suspects, and they understand the nuances of the time and place in which the crime was committed.
“When someone retires, the agency may hire them back as an investigator, so that experience and value that they have is not just thrown away,” says Houck. “It’s actually brought back in and can be applied to cases that are cold that require someone who has a broader range of experience and capabilities for those cases.”
Many dedicated detectives find it difficult to stop working on critical cases just because they’ve retired, so they are eager to join cold case squads.
Bornhofen says two of his fellow Vidocq Society members were on the scene of a murder 50 years ago and they are still working on the case today. “We call that the fire in the belly. Once a detective has the fire in the belly, he doesn’t want to give up on a case,” he says.
Advances in forensic science
The incentive to reopen old cases is even greater today because of advances in forensic science. Newer techniques like DNA testing give hope to cases that couldn’t be solved when the crime was committed.
“Investigators now understand that they don’t necessarily have to give up a case or just have a case sit there and get cold on them,” Houck says. “They can, in fact, go back and refresh it and give it a new chance.”
Retirees needed
The Vidocq Society encourages retirees to continue to put their talents to work on important cold cases. Bornhofen says the group gets more requests than it can handle—not only from police departments, but also from victims’ families.
Howard Morton is a member of Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, a Colorado group that advocates for state-sponsored cold case squads. Morton said 1,200 murders have gone unsolved in his state since 1970.
“We found many of those murders sitting in boxes in courthouse basements. You can imagine how that makes a family feel when they learn that their murder is not even being looked at, much less being worked on from many years ago,” Morton says.
Morton hopes to see a greater investment in cold case squads, not only to bring justice and closure to victims’ families—but to keep murderers from killing again.
“We have to take a much more serious approach to this as a country,” Morton says. “I think some people are getting the message, but I think there are many turf battles going on among law enforcement that are resisting the change.”
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