Dustin Reed Terry is the founder and publisher of The Cold Cases and an investigative journalist focused on unresolved homicides and missing persons.
Each request is dated and logged with the agency, statute, deadline and every reply, including partial releases and denials that may be appealed.
No. Chain of custody applies to physical evidence held by investigators; a provenance record traces where a published document came from.
Parts of the case can often be rebuilt from court, medical examiner, archive and press records, with every gap and source clearly labeled.
Yes. Inventorying records, logging requests, recording provenance and verifying claims are practical habits anyone researching a case can adopt.