# The Cold Cases > An independent public archive of unsolved homicides and missing persons across the United States, built from primary records. Every case file is documented and sourced. Canonical site: https://www.thecoldcases.com - Records published: 317 (90 case files, 32 investigative interviews, 195 field guides) - Language: English. Tone: institutional, victim-centred, non-sensational. - Free to read: no paywall, no advertising. Funded by reader donations only. ## Main sections - [Home](https://www.thecoldcases.com/): The archive front page: the lead record, recently catalogued case files, field guides, and interviews. - [Archive](https://www.thecoldcases.com/archive): Searchable index of every published case file, interview and field guide. - [Interviews](https://www.thecoldcases.com/podcast): Investigative interviews with families, witnesses and investigators. - [Field guides](https://www.thecoldcases.com/topics): Background material and recurring subjects across the archive. - [Community archive](https://www.thecoldcases.com/community): Records contributed by readers, documented by the people closest to the case. - [About](https://www.thecoldcases.com/about): Who keeps the archive, its standards, and how the reporting is funded. - [Contact](https://www.thecoldcases.com/contact): Send a tip, a correction, a records request or a press enquiry. - [Newsletter](https://www.thecoldcases.com/subscribe): Free newsletter: one message when a new record is filed. - [Donate](https://www.thecoldcases.com/donate): One-time gifts and monthly support. The archive has no paywall. ## Case files - [Danny Rollings, Adam Rosenthal, and The City of Gainesville, Florida](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/gainesvilleanddannyrollings): Danny Rollings & Adam Rosenthal Both Were Charming and Both Were Killers - [How Advanced Forensics Finally Closed the Ted Bundy File on Melissa Smith](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/how-advanced-forensics-melissa-smith): Although Bundy offered unverified, death-row confessions to the killing in 1989, authorities never officially closed the case without corroborating physical proof. Fifty-two years after Smith’s… - [How Modern Forensics Unmasked Detective Thomas McInerney, Jr. as the Killer of 8-Year-Old Gloria Kowalewicz](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/how-modern-forensics-unmasked-detective): CASE PROFILE & KEY DETAILS Victim: Gloria Kowalewicz (Age 8, third-grade student) Date of Crime: Saturday, November 12, 1960 Location of Abduction: South Side of Chicago, Illinois (en route to St… - [Michelle Parker’s Disappearance and the Arrest of Dale Smith Jr.](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/michelle-parkers-disappearance-and): The Victim: Michelle Parker, a 33-year-old mother of three (an 11-year-old son from a previous relationship and 3-year-old fraternal twins) and owner of a local mobile spray-tanning business, Glow… - [The 1916 Newberry Massacre and the Century of Silence](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-1916-newberry-massacre-and-the): In the sweltering pre-dawn humidity of August 18, 1916, a single shotgun blast shattered the quiet pines of Jonesville, Florida, a small agricultural hamlet ten miles west of - [The Top 10 Unsolved Cold Cases in American History](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-top-10-unsolved-cold-cases-in): Decades after crime tape was rolled away and forensic kits were sealed into evidence lockers, hundreds of American homicides and unexplained disappearances remain suspended in legal limbo. Behind… - [Shannon Sherrill Missing 40 Years After Hide & Seek](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/shannon-sherrill-missing-40-years): Investigating Agencies: Thorntown Police Department, Indiana State Police Cold Case Unit, - [Kristin Smart & The Unbroken Ground in the Search For Her Body](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/kristin-smart-and-the-unbroken-ground): For nearly twenty-five years, the face of nineteen-year-old Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart remained fixed to faded roadside billboards along California’s Highway 101. To passersby cutting through… - [Press Secretary Sally Heet And Her Unsolved Murder on Capitol Hill](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/press-secretary-sally-heet-and-her): On the morning of Thursday, April 17, 1986, the offices of United States Senator Daniel J. Evans were operating with their typical Capitol Hill urgency. But as 8:30 a.m. came and went, an… - [What Patrick Clancy Knew, What He Couldn’t See, and the Calculation of Blame](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/what-patrick-clancy-knew-what-he): On the afternoon of January 24, 2023, Patrick Clancy stepped away from his home office in Duxbury, Massachusetts, to run two routine suburban errands: picking up children’s laxative at a CVS pharmacy… - [Patrice Tamber Endres, 13-Minute Abduction at Tambers Trim ’n’ Tan in Georgia](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/patrice-tamber-endres-13-minute-abduction): On the morning of Thursday, April 15, 2004, thirty-eight-year-old Patrice Tamber Endres began what appeared to be an ordinary spring workday at Tamber’s Trim ’n Tan , the roadside hair and tanning… - [Is the “Unknown Wanderer” Responsible for Tylenol Murders?](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/is-the-unknown-wanderer-responsible): BOISE, Idaho — For more than four decades, one of the Pacific Northwest’s most haunting enigmas was known simply as the “Unknown - [A Boise Cold Case Breakthrough with a Possible Connection to Tylenol Murders](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/a-boise-cold-case-breakthrough-with): On a frigid Saturday afternoon on December 4, 1982, inside Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Boise, Idaho, a parishioner arriving for 6:00 PM Mass noticed a well-dressed man slumped across a pew’s… - [How Grand Jury Testimony Cracked the Disappearance of Sabrina Kahler](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/how-grand-jury-testimony-cracked): For twenty-four summers, the disappearance of 20-year-old Sabrina Mae Kahler stood as one of northwestern Pennsylvania’s most agonizing unsolved mysteries. She vanished on a bright June afternoon in… - [Reddington Wants to Investigate Lone Juror, Patrick Clancy’s Stoicism, & Preparing for a Full Retrial](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/reddington-wants-to-investigate-lone): The legal and cultural aftermath of Massachusetts v. Lindsay Clancy has entered an unprecedented chapter of constitutional warfare and public scrutiny. In the wake of a grueling trial culminating in… - [The Summer of 1973 & the Gold Sock Killer: Unraveling South Florida’s Forgotten Serial Strangler](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-summer-of-1973-and-the-gold-sock): In the humid, sun-bleached summer of 1973, panic gripped Broward County, Florida. Over six short weeks between mid-July and late August, three women and teenage girls were found brutally strangled… - [Inside Arizona’s 6,700 Cold Cases and the Growing Fight for Justice](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/inside-arizonas-6700-cold-cases-and): Across the sun-baked expanses of the Sonoran Desert, behind the suburban walls of Maricopa County, and throughout the quiet mountain corridors of northern Arizona, more than 6,700 human stories have… - [An Important Update: Where I’ve Been, Healing, and What’s Next](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/an-important-update-where-ive-been): I want to offer you my sincere apology for stepping away without warning. If my sudden absence left you in the dark or hurt anyone’s feelings, I am truly sorry. I owe you an honest explanation of… - [Vanished: The Unsolved Murder of Five-Year-Old Nevaeh Buchanan](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/vanished-the-unsolved-murder-of-five): In the summer of 2009, a small Michigan city became the epicenter of national grief and outrage. The disappearance and death of five-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan captured headlines across the United… - [Calder Road and The Victims of the Fields That Never Forgot](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/calder-road-and-the-victims-of-the): In 1984, a sixteen-year-old girl named Laura Lynn Miller disappeared from a small Texas town wedged between Houston and the Gulf of Mexico. It would take more than a year to find her body. It would… - [A Bad Relationship and The Murder of Gabby Petito](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/a-bad-relationship-and-the-murder): She wanted to be a travel influencer. She had the van, the fiancé, the YouTube channel, and the open American road stretching out ahead of her. Gabby Petito was twenty-two years old in the summer of… - [Charity Beallis, Her Children, and the System That Failed Them](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/charity-beallis-her-children-and): Inside, they found 40-year-old Charity Beallis and her six-year-old twins, a boy named Maverick and a girl named Eliana, dead from apparent gunshot wounds. All three were transported to the Arkansas… - [Who Killed Anthony Guillory? He Was Just Left in the Street](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/who-killed-anthony-guillory-he-was): The call came in at 4:26 in the morning. Sometime before the sun rose over the Arkansas River on Saturday, July 12, 1986, Anthony Maurice Guillory — twenty-six years old, a resident of a North Tulsa… - [A Deadly Dose: Inside the Unsolved Chicago Tylenol Murders](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/a-deadly-dose-inside-the-unsolved): In late September 1982, a 12-year-old girl in a Chicago suburb woke up with what seemed like an ordinary illness. Her parents gave her Extra-Strength Tylenol, the most trusted over-the-counter… - [Indecipherable: The Unsolved Death of Ricky McCormick](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/indecipherable-the-unsolved-death): On a humid summer day in late June 1999, a woman driving along a rural road in St. Charles County, Missouri, noticed something unusual in a cornfield. What she had stumbled upon would become one of… - [Granddaughter of former Wyoming governor still missing 74 years after vanishing from Connecticut camp](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/granddaughter-of-former-wyoming-governor): Ten-year-old Constance “Connie” Smith vanished from the Camp Sloane summer retreat on July 16, 1952, after leaving her tent for what should have been a brief errand. She was last seen walking toward… - [Vanished Without a Trace: The Cold Case of Erica Baker](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/vanished-without-a-trace-the-cold): Over 25 years ago, 9-year-old Erica Nicole Baker vanished while walking her dog in a suburban park, and her disappearance remains one of southwest Ohio’s most perplexing cold cases, according to law… - [The Oldest Cold Case in Jackson County, Oregon: The Disappearance of Christie Lynn Farni](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-oldest-cold-case-in-jackson-county): On the morning of Dec. 14, 1978, 6-year-old Christie Lynn Farni walked out of her foster home and vanished. What began as a routine school day quickly spiraled into one of Jackson County’s most… - [Kelley Gaffield: The Webster Cold Case Still Shadowed by Silence](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/kelley-gaffield-the-webster-cold): Kelley Gaffield was 16 when she disappeared on Aug. 8, 1995, after telling her mother she was going to meet friends in the village. Two months later, her body was found in a wooded area in Webster… - [Urgent Plea for Shianne Turner: Let Her Go Now](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/urgent-plea-for-shianne-turner-let): A young woman named Shianne Turner is still missing — and those who care about her are not giving - [13-Year-Old Matthew Margolies Disappears in Greenwich, Connecticut](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/13-year-old-matthew-margolies-disappears): Matthew Margolies, 13, was well known in Greenwich, Connecticut’s Pemberwick neighborhood. In the early 1980s, neighbors often saw him riding his bike, stopping by his grandparents’ home, or fishing… - [The Alphabet Murders: Three Rochester Girls, Three Unsolved Killings, and a Mystery That Never Left](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-alphabet-murders-three-rochester): In Rochester, some names never really leave. Carmen Colón. Wanda Walkowicz. Michele - [The 1983 St. Louis Jane Doe: The Unidentified Headless Child of Clemens Avenue](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-1983-st-louis-jane-doe-the-unidentified): On February 28, 1983, two men searching an abandoned red-brick building in north St. Louis descended a narrow set of basement steps. They had entered the crumbling structure at 5635 Clemens Avenue… - [Something Isn’t Adding Up in Venango County](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/something-isnt-adding-up-in-venango): Over sixty people have been found dead across the county’s rivers, neighborhoods, and wooded areas. Many families have never received clear answers. A community is demanding to know - [36 Years Ago, Two Brothers Vanished in Richmond, Virginia. One Found Dead. The Other Still Missing](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/36-years-ago-two-brothers-vanished): It was a quiet spring day on April 16, 1990, in Richmond, Virginia, when two young brothers stepped outside to play, unaware their lives were about to change forever. Seven-year-old Jamal Abdul’… - [Whispers in Whitechapel: 138 Years After Jack the Ripper's Reign of Terror](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/whispers-in-whitechapel-138-years): In the fog-filled streets of Whitechapel in 1888, a killer struck with terrifying precision and then vanished into London’s shadows. Over three months, five women were brutally murdered, leaving the… - [Cold Case: Four Connecticut Child Murders From 1969 to 1970 Remain Unsolved](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/cold-case-four-connecticut-child): More than fifty years have passed since four young girls disappeared from towns across Connecticut. Ten-year-old Mary Mount vanished in New Canaan, fourteen-year-old Dawn Cave in Bethany, and Diane… - [The Deathbelt: Murder on the East Coast](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-deathbelt-murder-on-the-east): A striking interactive map spanning five decades of American homicide data reveals something that criminologists have long suspected but rarely seen visualized with such clarity: murder in the United… - [The Kayla Calderon Case: Milwaukee Has a Prosecution Problem](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-kayla-calderon-case-milwaukee): On March 18, 2023, Milwaukee police officers responding to a 911 call discovered Kayla F. Calderon — an 18-year-old high school student, young mother, and aspiring veterinarian — dead in a bedroom… - [The Murder of Barbara Waldman: A Long Island Cold Case Finally Solved After 52 Years](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-murder-of-barbara-waldman-a-long): For more than half a century, the brutal murder of a young mother on Long Island haunted a family, a neighborhood, and the investigators who never stopped searching for answers. The case of Barbara… - [The 1977 Murder of Sharrey Lynn Case: Detectives Still Searching](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-1977-murder-of-sharrey-lynn-case): Cold cases have a way of lingering in the hearts of families and communities. Decades may pass, witnesses may move away, and evidence may grow old, but the search for justice never truly ends. One… - [Police Release New Evidence in the 1981 Gwinnett County Jane Doe Murder](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/police-release-new-evidence-in-the): Nearly forty-five years ago, a young woman was found dead in a wooded area in Georgia. She had no identification, no known family searching for her, and no name investigators could attach to the life… - [“Blood is Thicker: The Farris Wheel” — New True Crime Podcast Explores the Murder of Gary Farris](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/blood-is-thicker-the-farris-wheel): True crime fans are about to get a deeper look into one of Georgia’s most disturbing family murder cases. A new podcast from the legendary true crime brand 48 Hours is set to revisit the chilling… - [New Evidence Shows Boy Who Disappeared After Traveling to N.Y.C. 2 Weeks Ago Was Last Seen on Bridge](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/new-evidence-shows-boy-who-disappeared): Fifteen-year-old Thomas Medlin vanished on the evening of January 9, 2026, after traveling from his home in St. James, Long Island, into Manhattan. What began as a baffling missing persons case has… - [The Florida “Sex House” Murder: Inside the Twisted Killing of Timothy Smith](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-florida-sex-house-murder-inside): How a secret apartment, a life insurance policy, and a husband’s cold calculation turned a routine welfare check into Florida’s most chilling premeditated murder - …and 45 more at https://www.thecoldcases.com/archive ## Investigative interviews - [Did a Texas Confidential Informant Murder Joseph Orton and Get Off Scot-free? Police Called His Death “Natural.”](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/did-a-texas-confidential-informant): On March 26, 2023, 71-year-old retired process engineer Joseph Barclay Orton was found deceased on the kitchen floor of his rural Kirbyville, Texas home, lying in congealed blood with his reading… - [Did Kentucky’s Mattingly Family Cover-Up The Murder of William Carver, Jr.?](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/did-kentuckys-mattingly-family-cover): Alleged Primary Suspect / Employer: Todd Mattingly (alleged by Carver’s Estate to have shot Carver or directed individuals acting on his behalf to do - [Sara Ebersole’s Presumptive Death Certificate and the Unanswered Questions of that Night](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/sara-ebersoles-presumptive-death): Status: Presumed Deceased (Judicial Docket Entry: October 13, 2025) | Active Homicide/Missing Person - [John Hartenfeld’s Cold Case and His Son’s Long Search for Truth](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/john-hartenfelds-cold-case-and-his): The last confirmed photograph of John Curely Hartenfeld shows a man built for the outdoors — six feet tall, around 200 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. His friends remember him first as a… - [The Case of 15 Year Old Shaylee Snyder - She Was Lured & Murdered](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-case-of-15-year-old-shaylee-snyder): She left without her medications. Without money. Without a phone or a bag or a change of clothes. She left because someone had spent weeks earning her trust — someone who had sent her burner phones… - [The Disappearance of Guy Monroe Pyke and the 27-Year Search for Answers](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-disappearance-of-guy-monroe-pyke): “In my heart, in my mind, the only two things that I possibly think… he could have had some type of medical emergency and went off the road. Or he knew he was going to be going for this dementia… - [Dragged to a Retention Pond - The Unsolved Murder of Gary Butler](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/dragged-to-a-retention-pond-the-unsolved): Before Gary Butler became a cold case, before he became a file in a prosecutor’s office or a name on a county website, he was a person. He was a son. He was a - [She Wasn’t a Runaway. The Unsolved Disappearance of Deanna Merryfield](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/she-wasnt-a-runaway-the-unsolved): The last confirmed sighting of Deanna Michelle Merryfield lasted only a few minutes. It was around 3:30 in the morning on July 22, 1990 — a hot summer night in Killeen, Texas — and thirteen-year-old… - [An Angel On Grand Avenue: The Unsolved Murder of Devan Sanders](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/an-angel-on-grand-avenue-the-unsolved): Update: 03/30/2026 Devan Sanders was a case that left family and loved ones searching for answers following his death. After an extensive investigation, law enforcement eventually reached back out… - [Who Killed Patricia Shea in the Summer of 1982? An Investigation](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/who-killed-patricia-shea-in-the-summer): Kevin Shea was fifteen years old the summer his aunt was murdered. He is in his fifties now, and he has spent decades carrying a case that official channels have never closed but have also never… - [She Had a Name: The Eighteen-Year Fight to Identify Amy Elizabeth Davis](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/she-had-a-name-the-sixteen-year-fight): On November 5, 2008, a crew from an Oklahoma City electric company arrived at what should have been a routine job — removing or replacing a utility power pole. What they found changed - [Someone Close to Elizibeth Green Knows Something and They're Not Telling](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/someone-close-to-elizibeth-green): Editor’s note: The allegations in this report regarding assault, sexual exploitation, and specific individuals’ conduct are drawn exclusively from statements made by Kale Green, Elizibeth’s father… - [Was Jack Morgan Killed by his Dad for Being Gay? His Aunt Thinks So.](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/was-jack-morgan-killed-by-his-dad): This piece contains discussion of domestic violence, child endangerment, and suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by calling or texting… - [Maryah Hope Allen Walked Out of Jail and Vanished](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/maryah-hope-allen-walked-out-of-jail): On the morning of April 5, 2018, Phyllis Jones tried to get her granddaughter to come to her senses but that never happened. Her granddaughter, Maryah Hope Allen, had just been released from the… - [Interview: Jacob Wenzel Missing Since 2022 in Wisconsin](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/interview-jacob-wenzel-missing-since): Jacob Wenzel stepped out into the autumn night on October 31, 2022, and vanished without a trace. More than three years later, his family still waits — and the questions keep - [The Unsolved Murder of Jimmie Retha Brown and the Man Who May Hold the Answers](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/the-unsolved-murder-of-jimmie-retha): Her name was Jimmie Retha Brown, and she was sixteen years old, full of the kind of energy that makes adults smile and shake their heads. She was a cheerleader. A basketball player. A youth coach who… - [Douglas Shondel's Mother Seeks Answers in His Cold Case](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/douglas-shondels-mother-seeks-answers): It has been more than two decades since Douglas James Shondel II — known to those who loved him as “DJ” — died under circumstances that his family, and even first responders, found deeply troubling… - [Claude Wendell Johnson Found Dead in 1981 in Tennessee](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/claude-wendell-johnson-found-dead): Tammie Johnson was living in Pennsylvania when she got the news. Her father was dead. Found in a ditch by the side of the road, a victim of blunt force trauma to the head. She was living her life as… - [Deanna Merryfield Updates: Unsolved Case in Killeen, Texas](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/deanna-merryfield-updates-unsolved): It has been 35 years since 13-year-old Deanna Merryfield disappeared in the middle of the night in Killeen, Texas — and for her family, that’s 35 years of living with unanswered questions. The… - [Pacific Atrocities Education Discusses & Documents WWII War Crimes in Asia](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/pacific-atrocities-education-discusses): In a quiet office in San Francisco, Jenny Chan, founder and director of Pacific Atrocities Education, shares a story that many Americans have never heard. It’s a story of systematic atrocities… - [“1921” Documentary about Tulsa Race Riots is What’s Needed for Healing](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/1921-documentary-about-tulsa-race): In a time when history is increasingly shaped by headlines, algorithms, and fleeting attention spans, some stories demand to be told slowly, carefully, and with reverence. One such story is the 1921… - [Little Miss Panasoffkee, Maureen Rowan has a name. Her daughter, Ann Patrick, speaks out here for the first time.](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/little-miss-panasoffkee-maureen-rowans): On the morning of February 19, 1971, two teenage hitchhikers from Illinois made a grim discovery beneath an Interstate 75 overpass in Sumter County, Florida. Noticing a human hand beneath the bridge… - …and 10 more at https://www.thecoldcases.com/podcast ## Field guides - [Cold Case Funding: Where the Money Comes From and How to Ask](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/cold-case-funding-and-grants): Cold case work is limited by staffing, not by interest. Grant programmes, budget lines and legislative appropriations determine how many files get read. Here is how the funding works. - [How to Report a Sighting in a Missing Person Case](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/how-to-report-a-sighting-in-a-missing-person-case): A single credible sighting can redirect an investigation. A flood of vague ones buries it. Here is how to report what you saw in a form an investigator can use. - [Presumption of Death for Long-Missing Persons](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/presumption-of-death-for-long-missing-persons): For families of the long missing, a declaration of death resolves legal status without resolving the case. Here is what it requires and what it does not do. - [Chronicling America and Other Newspaper Databases](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/chronicling-america-and-newspaper-databases): Large newspaper archives have changed cold case research more than any other source. Here is how to search them well, and what they still cannot give you. - [State Archives: How to Use Them Without Wasting a Trip](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/state-archives-and-how-to-use-them): State archives hold the records courts and agencies discarded, organised in ways that reward preparation. Here is how to work one properly. - [County Historical Societies: The Archive Nobody Checks](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/county-historical-societies): A county historical society may hold the only surviving copy of a 1950s coroner's ledger. Here is how to find one, approach it, and read what it holds. - [Requesting Post-Conviction DNA Testing](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/request-post-conviction-dna-testing): Post-conviction DNA statutes set out who may apply, what must be shown, and what happens if the material is gone. Here is how the process works. - [How Innocence Organizations Decide to Take a Case](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/how-innocence-organizations-take-a-case): Innocence projects accept a small fraction of requests, and almost always for reasons that can be assessed in advance. Here is what they look for and what they cannot do. - [Writing to a Conviction Integrity Unit](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/write-to-a-conviction-integrity-unit): A conviction integrity unit can investigate a case the office itself won. A well-built written request is the only way in, and most of them are filed by families. - [What a Defense Investigator Actually Does](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/what-a-defense-investigator-does): Defense investigators re-interview witnesses, chase records and test the state's account. Their reports are sometimes obtainable, and always worth knowing about. - [Reading a Plea Agreement in an Old Case](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/reading-a-plea-agreement): A plea agreement records what was charged, what was admitted and what was promised. Read carefully, it shows how the case was actually built. - [Requesting a Trial Transcript From an Old Case](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/request-a-trial-transcript): Trial transcripts record testimony under oath, exhibits, rulings and objections. They are court records with their own access rules, costs and delays. Here is how to get one. - [Suing an Agency for Records: When It Is Worth It](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/suing-an-agency-for-records): Litigation over a records denial is a defined process with its own costs and its own leverage. Here is how it works and how to judge whether to start one. - [Inmate Records and Correspondence: Reaching Someone in Custody](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/inmate-records-and-correspondence): Correctional records document a person's movements, health and conduct. Correspondence with an inmate is possible but regulated. Here is how both work. - [Parole Hearings: Where Families Still Have a Voice](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/parole-hearings-and-family-testimony): Parole hearings recur for as long as the sentence runs. Understanding the board's process, and what it asks for, changes what a family can accomplish in the room. - [Victim Impact Statements: What They Do and Where They Belong](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/victim-impact-statements): Victim impact statements give families a formal voice at sentencing, parole and sometimes earlier. Here is how they are used, written and delivered. - [Correcting an Error on a Death Certificate](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/correct-an-error-on-a-death-certificate): A death certificate is a legal record, and its errors follow families into insurance claims, benefits and investigations. Here is how amendments actually happen. - [Juvenile Records in a Cold Case](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/juvenile-records-in-a-cold-case): Juvenile records are protected by design, and that protection survives the person growing up. Here is what can still be obtained and who has standing to ask. - [Sealed Records: What a Seal Actually Does, and How It Opens](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/sealed-records-and-how-they-open): Sealed files still exist and are still indexed. Understanding the difference between sealed, expunged and confidential tells you which request to make and to whom. - [How to Ask for a Formal Cold Case Review](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/request-a-formal-cold-case-review): Agencies review cold cases on their own schedule, badly or well. A written request that names a standard can move a case into the queue. Here is what to ask for. - [Consent and Ethics in Genetic Genealogy](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/consent-and-ethics-in-genetic-genealogy): Investigative genetic genealogy works by reaching people who did not consent to anything. The rules that govern it are recent, uneven, and worth understanding before you ask for it. - [Cell Phone Records in Old Cases: What Survives and What Does Not](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/cell-phone-records-in-old-cases): Historical call detail records can place a phone near a cell site at a time, within limits that are much wider than television implies. Here is what to ask for and what is already gone. - [Handwriting and Document Examination in a Cold Case](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/handwriting-and-document-examination): Questioned document examination can compare handwriting, detect alteration and date some materials. It is also more limited than courtroom drama suggests. - [Fingerprints in Old Cases: Why the Card Still Matters](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/fingerprints-in-old-cases): Fingerprint comparison is the oldest of the primary identifiers and the cheapest to run. The obstacle is almost never the science; it is finding a print on the right card. - [Dental Records and Identification: The Comparison That Still Works](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/dental-records-and-identification): Dental identification is faster and cheaper than DNA in many cases, and it depends on a record most families can locate. Here is how the comparison is made and how to obtain the chart. - [Isotopic Analysis: Finding Out Where an Unidentified Person Lived](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/isotopic-analysis-and-where-a-person-lived): Stable isotope analysis can indicate where a person grew up and, more faintly, where they lived later. Here is what the method measures and where its resolution ends. - [Composite Sketches and Age Progression: What They Can and Cannot Do](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/composite-sketches-and-age-progression): Composites and age-progressed images shape what the public looks for. Knowing how they are made, and where they fail, tells you how much weight to give one. - [Untested Sexual Assault Kits: What the Backlog Really Means](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/untested-sexual-assault-kits): Kits go untested for reasons that have little to do with science, and a DNA hit is not the same as a solved case. Here is what the backlog is, and how to find out about a specific kit. - [What a Subpoena Can and Cannot Get You](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/what-a-subpoena-can-and-cannot-get): A subpoena reaches records a public-records request cannot, but only inside litigation. Here is what it covers, what it never covers, and how a family gets one. - [Exhuming a Body for Testing: When It Happens and What It Costs](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/exhuming-a-body-for-testing): A body can be raised for a specific forensic question, but the question has to be one the science can actually answer. Here is how the process works and what it demands. - [Requesting Photographs From a Police File](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/request-photographs-from-a-police-file): Asking for every photograph guarantees a refusal. Asking for the log, the exteriors and specific numbered frames is a request an agency can actually grant. - [Getting a Case Back Into the News After Years of Silence](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/get-a-case-into-the-news-again): Coverage fades because nothing new happens. Producing one new fact is what restarts it, and most new facts come from records requests a family can file. - [The Death Investigation Report: What Investigators File Before the Autopsy](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/what-is-a-death-investigation-report): A death investigation report captures the observations made at the scene, before the cause of death was known. That timing is what makes it valuable. - [Asking for a Case Status Letter: The Small Request That Moves Files](https://www.thecoldcases.com/p/request-a-case-status-letter): Status is an administrative fact, not investigative content. Framed that way, it is answerable — and the answer often changes what a family should do next. - …and 161 more at https://www.thecoldcases.com/topics ## Machine-readable - Sitemap: https://www.thecoldcases.com/sitemap.xml - Robots: https://www.thecoldcases.com/robots.txt - Full reference: https://www.thecoldcases.com/llms-full.txt