Over the past years, I have been very impressed with Herald Writer Scott North’s articles regarding some of our communities’ unsolved violent crimes. I am a strong supporter of journalism that can get our law enforcement agencies and our general community involved in helping to solve these “cold cases.” Not only the victim’s love ones should have their day in court, but also our community has the right to have the perpetrators of our unsolved murders brought before our courts. Our beautiful community does not need to have the stigma of all these “cold cases” being in our local history books
I know our well respected and active Snohomish County sheriff has developed a cold case unit, but even he has often acknowledged his law enforcement agency is under-staffed and under-financed. I can only assume most of our other police departments are also in this same bind. So to aid these agencies, why not have a governor’s appointed standing commission to assist cities, counties and state law enforcement agencies in solving their cold cases?
What I have in mind is after 10 years any violent crime case that is not being actively investigated must be reviewed by the governor’s appointed Cold Cases Commission. This august body should be comprised of representatives from; the Washington State Patrol, police chief and sheriff’s association, retired investigators, the Attorney General’s Office, Washington State Division of Community Corrections, a legislator, a professor who is knowledgeable in the field of criminology, a forensic psychologist, a forensic psychiatrist, a forensic anthropologist, an arson investigator, a medical examiner, and a citizen at large.
Since I was a member of a successful local Serial Arson Task Force, I understand police “turf,” however I also understand how important it is to have a diverse, trained group of investigators working on these hard cases. By having a Cold Cases Commission focusing on these unsolved violent crimes this group might be able to find some overlooked material, which may lead to the unraveling of some of these crimes.
I encourage all my fellow citizens to pay attention to the need to catch the perpetrators of these hideous unsolved violent crimes and get them off our books. We, as a community, need to keep the heat on these cold cases!
Mill Creek
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