Thinking of Alan's family today
Dallas Voice
White case isn’t cold
DALLASVOICE.COM
It has been a year since Alan White was murdered, but police assure community the investigation remains active
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
Oct. 22 marked one year since the disappearance of Alan White. While police have not arrested anyone or named any suspects in his murder, Dallas police this week assured the LGBTQ community that the case is still open and still being investigated.
Dallas Police LGBT liaison Megan Thomas said this case has “definitely not moved to cold case status.” The rules for moving an investigation to cold case status aren’t hard and fast, she said, but the general guideline is that if investigators have found no leads within about a year, they would consider closing the active investigation.
Homicide cases might remain active longer, she said. And in this case, it’s less than six months since Alan White’s body was found.
White’s body was located in a field in South Dallas, he was taken to the medical examiner’s office where toxicology tests were done and an autopsy performed. Results were not released to the public. But as a result of the autopsy, police began calling the case a homicide rather than a missing person case and, later, an unexplained death.
Thomas said there are a number of reasons police don’t reveal autopsy information. “The public is not always given all of the information,” she said. “It’s all about solving the case,” and releasing some of the information investigators have might hinder the investigation.
When asked if something from the autopsy might verify whether information someone calls in is valid, Thomas suggested that question might have come from having watched too much TV, as did the question of police choosing not to release autopsy results because those results might include information only the killer would know.
“Police are following up on every lead that comes in,” Thomas reassured, going on to describe the detectives in the Dallas Police Department as a different breed of cop. “They have a drive to get every case solved,” she said.
But this case, she agreed, is particularly frustrating.
White case isn’t cold - Dallas Voice
