Cold case · Lablypedia

Characteristics

Violent or major crime

Typically, cold cases are violent and other major felony crimes, such as murder and rape, which—unlike unsolved minor crimes—are generally not subject to a statute of limitations. Sometimes disappearances can also be considered cold cases if the victim has not been seen or heard from for some time, such as the case of Natalee Holloway or the Beaumont children.

Solve rate

Although advances in forensic science and investigative techniques have helped solve many older cases, a substantial number of homicides remain unsolved each year in the United States, resulting in a growing backlog of cold cases.

Suspect identification

In the search for suspects, some police organizations have created websites featuring cold cases. For example, the Texas Rangers have established a website in the hopes that it shall elicit new information and investigative leads.

Tunnel vision

Sometimes, a viable suspect has been overlooked or simply ignored due to then-flimsy circumstantial evidence, the presence of a likelier suspect (who is later proven to be innocent), or simply for the focus itself to exclude other possibilities.

Improvements in forensics

With the advent of and improvements to DNA testing/DNA profiling and other forensics technology, many cold cases are being re-opened and prosecuted. Police departments are opening cold case units whose job is to re-examine cold case files. DNA evidence helps in such cases but as in the case of fingerprints, it is of no value unless there is evidence on file to compare it to. However, to combat that issue, the FBI is switching from using the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) to using a newer technology called the Next Generation Identification (NGI). Other improvements in forensics lie in fields such as:

Digital forensics, one application of which is to recover hidden or deleted data.
Ballistics analysis which involves the evaluation of ammunition and firearms to determine which weapon might have been used in a crime.
Forensic anthropology which analyzes skeletal remains to determine their cause of death or any other relevant information.
Mobile forensics and social media which, since their creation, have had increased involvement in any police case, cold or not.
Forensic psychology which can be used to analyze crime scenes and identify suspect profiles.
Facial recognition which has been used to identify suspects based on their facial features.
Artificial intelligence (AI) which is used in all of the above systems to help analyze data and information from crime scenes.

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Famous criminal examples

The identity of Jack the Ripper is a notorious example of an outstanding cold case, with numerous suggestions as to the identity of the serial killer. Similarly, the Zodiac Killer has been studied extensively for almost 50 years, with numerous suspects discussed and debated. The perpetrators of the Wall Street bombing of 1920 have never been positively identified, though the Galleanists, a group of Italian anarchists, are widely believed to have planned the explosion. The burning of the Reichstag building in 1933 remains controversial and although Marinus van der Lubbe was tried, convicted and executed for arson, it is possible that the Reichstag fire was perpetrated by the Nazis to enhance their power and destroy democracy in Germany.

Examples of criminal cold cases that ended in conviction

Examples without conviction, but considered solved or likely solved

Examples of unsolved criminal cold cases

In popular culture

Film

In the film Max Payne, Detective Max Payne works in Cold Case, NYPD.

Literature

The phrase "Cold Case" is found in a number of story and book titles. Examples include:

L.L. Bartlett (2010). "Cold Case". A Jeff Resnick Mystery. ASIN B003I84LYW. Polaris Press. This short story inspired the fourth Jeff Resnick book, Bound by Suggestion.
Philip Gourevitch (2002). A Cold Case. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0312420024. True crime.
Julia Platt Leonard (2012). Cold Case. Aladdin. ISBN 978-1442420090. A children's book/mystery.
Nichelle Walker (2012). Cold Case Love. NWHoodTales Publishing. ISBN 978-0979402838. An urban novel.
Richard H. Walton, ed. (2006). Cold Case Homicides: Practical Investigative Techniques. CRC Press. ISBN 084932209X. An education and reference book.
Stephen White (2001). Cold Case. Alan Gregory. ISBN 978-0525945260.
Kate Wilhelm (2009). Cold Case. Barbara Holloway Novels. ISBN 978-0778326656.

Music

Cold Case Files (2008) and Cold Case Files Vol. 2 (2012) are compilation albums by the rap group Onyx.
"Cold Case Love" is a song on Rihanna's Rated R album, released November 23, 2009 on the Def Jam label.
"Stella: The Cold Case" is an EP by Aafke Romeijn.

Television

The Canadian television series Cold Squad (1998–2005), the British television series Waking the Dead (2000–2011) and the American television series Cold Case (2003–2010) all follow groups of fictional homicide detectives who investigate cold cases. They are set in Vancouver, London and Philadelphia, respectively.
Cold Case Files (1999–2006) is a documentary-style television series recounting actual solved cold cases.
New Tricks is a BBC series revolving around retired CID officers acting as consultants to serving officers and investigating unsolved cold cases.
Unforgotten is a ITV, DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) and DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar), as they solve cold cases of disappearance and murder.

Video game

Chase: Cold Case Investigations - Distant Memories is a video game about two detectives of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's cold case unit, Shounosuke Nanase and Koto Amekura.
Cold Case Inc is an online platform that publishes interactive, document-driven unsolved case file games.