Local man named to sheriff’s cold case team

  • <br>Enterprise staff
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 6:49am

After an intensive interviewing process, including a polygraph examination, Chuck Wright of Mill Creek took the oath of office when Sheriff Rick Bart swore him in. After the ceremony Wright became the Technical Analyst for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Cold Murder Case Team.

Wright is currently using his skills to develop a cold-case criteria check list, to help him and his other five team members pick out the cold murder cases that can be solved within the shortest period of time.

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office defines a cold murder case as: “A murder or murders or probably homicide, which occurred in Snohomish County and the murder happened at least a year ago and the case cannot be investigated by the original investigator(s) because of workload, time constraints, lack of viable leads, or the unavailability of the original investigator(s).”

Wright said working on cold murder cases is nothing like what happens on television. About half way through the 45-minute show the offender is identified and by the end of the product-sponsored TV screenplay the person is brought to justice. In reality, a cold murder case investigator spends that much time just studying around 45 pages of the hundreds of reports, photographs, profiles and statements.

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