TACOMA — The Tacoma Police Department has devoted a detective to solving cold cases.
The News Tribune reports that as many as 190 killings from the past 50 years remain unsolved.
Longtime homicide detective Gene Miller started working on the cold-cases last month after the department revaluated its priorities and decided to cut the number of detectives who investigate fatal, serious-injury and hit-and-run crashes to one from two.
Miller previously worked on cold cases while handling new homicides, officer-involved shootings and serious assaults. Last year he year he solved the 1986 slayings of two Pierce County teens.
He’s been putting together binders for each of the city’s unsolved slayings and, with the help of the Washington State Patrol crime lab, is prioritizing the homicides for potential DNA work.
Both the Tacoma Police Department and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office are hoping to supplement their cold-case work with federal grants.
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