Approximately 20 percent of those cases have been resolved, and 40 percent of the resolved cases have resulted in an arrest or indictment, according to the coroner’s office.
Betz said the grant, provided by the National Institute of Justice, puts the Miami Valley at an advantage because it allows a team of investigators to focus specifically on cold cases. They have conducted nearly 700 interviews in the last two years, Betz said, both in and out of state.
One of those cases was the unsolved murder of Murray Griffin, chief of police for the Belle Center Village in Logan County. He and Phyllis “Tootie” Mullett were killed in a double-homicide in 1986.
“I find it hard to put into words the appreciation this entire family has for your untiring work on Murray’s case,” Catherine Griffin wrote in a thank-you letter to the Cold Case Unit.
Using new DNA technology, the Cold Case Unit and Logan County officials uncovered evidence linking the original suspect in the case to the crime. Additional charges could not be brought against the man, however, because the original case was dismissed with prejudice.
Griffin’s daughter, Nancy Conley, said she did not realize how much her father’s death had haunted her until she finally got the answers she deserved.
“If anything, families do want to know what happened,” said Ken Betz, Director of the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab. “They do want to know what happened; that we didn’t forget about them.”
The grant will ensure that the unit can continue to investigate the deaths of people who are long gone but not forgotten.
“It’s always satisfying for the team members when you are successful, when you find DNA, when you present it through a grand jury, when you can find a guilty plea, and suspects from the past are now in jail,” Betz said.
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