UT Utah gets a statewide cold case database

[kporter]

Starting July 1, it will be easier to track unsolved murders and disappearances in Utah. At the request of our group, the Utah Cold Case Coalition, a state senator ran "Rosie's Bill" (named for 1995 murder victim Rosie Tapia) to create a statewide database. Presently, treatment of cold cases is a hodgepodge, one reason why it took so long to connect "Saltair Sally" and Nikole Bakoles. With the support of another senator whose husband's cousin (Reed Jeppson) vanished in 1964, the bill passed both houses unanimously.

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Utah Cold Case Coalition now offering $3,000 reward in more than 200 cases

Senate Bill 160, also known as "Rosie's Law", was passed earlier this year and took effect July 1. The legislation creates a statewide database of unsolved murders and disappearances more than three years old.

The database, which launched Tuesday, will be maintained by the Department of Public Safety. The coalition is looking for all available information, including witnesses and family members, to help fill out the database.

 

[EuTuCroquet?]

Utah Cold Case Coalition now offering $3,000 reward in more than 200 cases

Senate Bill 160, also known as "Rosie's Law", was passed earlier this year and took effect July 1. The legislation creates a statewide database of unsolved murders and disappearances more than three years old.

The database, which launched Tuesday, will be maintained by the Department of Public Safety. The coalition is looking for all available information, including witnesses and family members, to help fill out the database.

Wow! Excellent news.

 

[folieadeuxnola]

A $3,000 reward is now available for anyone who helps solve one of Utah’s 200-plus cold case murders and disappearances

Nonprofessional crime solvers are also getting involved in cold cases through the internet, said Tricia Arrington Griffith, who runs the nationally known online true-crime forum WebSleuths.com from her home in Wanship, near Park City.

“Crowd-sleuthing is the 21st-century version of ‘America’s Most Wanted,’” Griffith said.

 

[dotr]

Sept 5 2019
Utah’s cold case database has 179 entries, hundreds left to file
"SALT LAKE CITY — The Department of Public Safety said the new cold case database started earlier this year is working.

Kathy Mackay, a cold case crime analyst, has done 13 training sessions with law enforcement officers throughout the state and said, since its launch in February, they’ve had 179 cases entered.

“They’ll ask me, 'well. I’ve got this case, but we’ve almost got it solved' and I’m like, 'let me ask you this question: do you think your suspect could’ve killed someone else and you don’t know about it?'” said Mackay.

Some officers tell Mackay “yes,” and they put the information into the new database along with the other entries."
"Mackay said they’re listed under four categories in the system:

1. Serial killers
2. Gangs
3. Truck drivers — or people with a lot of access to roadways through the State
4. People they believe could have a past with murder"

 

[dotr]

Utah Cold Case Coalition announces first US nonprofit forensics lab
Nov 4th, 2019
"An office building at 4885 S. 900 East is currently undergoing reconstruction to be turned into a lab. Porter and her group hope to start testing cases by April. Dan Hellwig, who worked with Sorenson Forensics for a decade and has helped Salt Lake police with high-profile murder investigations such as Anna Palmer and Uta von Schwedler, will be the lab director.

Porter said the idea of the coalition starting its own lab came about because of the high fees private forensic labs typically charge.

“One of the things we sometimes heard was, ‘Gee, maybe if my family was rich, we’d have one of those phenotypes or maybe we’d have a DNA profile.’ So one of the things we want the public to know is this will level the playing field,” she said. “This is going to help resolve cold cases throughout Utah and throughout the country on this nonprofit basis.”

"Not only will it make forensic testing more affordable, but Porter said the group has received generous donations to fill the new lab with cutting-edge forensic equipment."

One machine, the MiSeq FGx Forensic Genomics System, allows researchers to “get a better profile from a smaller sample, a more degraded sample. They’re getting full profiles from samples from the eighth and ninth centuries,” Porter said.

She said it’s a different way of processing DNA, but something hospitals and universities have been doing for years.

The new lab will also offer free phenotyping and will do genetic genealogy testing.

Phenotyping predicts a person’s physical appearance and ancestry using genetic codes. Based on that information, researchers can predict skin color, hair color, eye color and facial structure using percentages."

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Utah Public Safety
@UtahDPS
A lot of us are spending more time online - did you know you can use your screen time to help possibly solve a #coldcase ? Take a look at our updated Cold Case website and see if you can provide any tips or info to law enforcement: https://bci.utah.gov/coldcases/ #MondayMotivation

Help solve a cold case, visit the Utah website with 400 unsolved crimes

 

[Fleur-de-lis]

Now expand on this - with all 50 states having a CC website/resources, AND those 50 tied into a national umbrella "system." Add tools for amateur sleuthers, too.