Evidence Technology Magazine recently posted an excerpt from Silvia Pettem’s book, Cold Case Research: Resources for Unidentified, Missing, and Cold Homicide Cases. Pettem describes how law enforcement agencies use media to generate leads on cold cases.
In one example, an unidentified body washed ashore on February 20, 1983 in Marin County, California. Although the body was decomposed, a pocket still held a keychain. The key fob advertised an auto sales company in Erie, Pennsylvania. The case was stored away until 2004 when Darrell Harris, an investigator with the Marin County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Division, contacted a newspaper reporter in Erie. The story, published in the Erie Times, provoked a response from a reader who said that he had a friend, Joseph Coogan, who had traveled to California in late 1982 or 1983 and then disappeared. Harris contacted every California agency with a beach-line jurisdiction in the area. He received an accidental drowning report from Monterey County about a man named Joseph Coogan, who had fallen from rocks on the coastline and had been swept out to sea. Further investigation confirmed that the John Doe was the body of Joseph Coogan.
Newspapers aren’t the only types of media used to awaken a cold case. Many law enforcement agencies post their cold cases on agency websites. For instance, the website of the City of San Antonio Police displays information about unsolved homicide cold cases with the aim of acquiring assistance from the public. The Cold Case Center™ website has links to information about cold cases from law enforcement agencies, as well as criminal justice and victim’s rights associations.
Law enforcement personnel also use social media to further an investigation. A search of Facebook and similar websites can uncover a subject’s friends, where they may be found, and photos of persons of interest. Investigators have created Facebook accounts for fictional people and then “friended” a person to access his or her wall. Why bother? Well, some people unintentionally help police by using their wall to brag about crimes that they have committed.