Stimulus funds start cold-case homicide unit
By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009 Share on Facebook
CONCORD – A new cold-case homicide unit will soon be opening the files on old murder cases, thanks to a total of $1.2 million in federal stimulus funds.
But State Police Col. Fred Booth warned yesterday against expecting instant results.
"You can't take a case off the shelf, say "Here's a suspect and go after him,' " Booth said.
If things go well, he hopes to report real progress by the time an update to the Legislature is due in December 2010.
"Hopefully, at the end of our first year, we'll start coming up with results. But we're digging up old information, digging up old memories and looking at old evidence," Booth said.
The final step in forming the cold case unit came this week when the Executive Council accepted nearly $700,000 in federal stimulus funding to cover the cost of hiring two full-time troopers through June 2012.
Booth said the troopers will be experienced members of his Major Crimes Unit who have years of homicide investigation work under their belts.
Booth said two part-time auxiliary troopers will also join the team, funded by his operating budget. The two are retired troopers who left with a combined 55 years of experience, he said. One is Chuck West, former lieutenant in Major Crimes who worked on the investigations that led to murder convictions against Sheila LaBarre for a gruesome slaying in Epping, and Jay Brooks in a murder-for-hire killing .
The Attorney General's Office will assign an attorney and part-time investigator to work in the office, funded by a three-year, $514,000 grant.
Deputy Attorney General Orville "Bud" Fitch said the public will get a chance to help the unit. He plans a web page at the Department of Justice that will list the murders investigators are pursuing. "There will be opportunities for tip lines for people to provide us with information they think can be useful," he said.
The state's grant request said there are more than 100 unsolved murders in New Hampshire, dating back to 1970. Legislators this spring approved formation of a cold case unit to work on the cases but it wanted it funded with federal money.
Booth said now that the funding is in place, he's setting up an office and letting the investigators get to work. The difference from past efforts to solve these murders is that the staff won't have to drop their work to head to new homicide scenes.
That doesn't mean they will be easy to crack, Booth said. "Each one of these has its own degree of difficulty. Sometimes technology can close the gap, sometimes witness statements can do it. What this requires many times is new set of eyes, some fresh ideas," Booth said. "We go back, start looking up old witnesses. People hold things inside themselves for years and sometimes it comes out. It may have been sitting on their conscience all that time."
He said technology that has developed over the past 40 years, such as DNA testing, can also be put to use on physical evidence taken at the scene.
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To anyone that said cold case unit is a waste of moneys I got said how wrong you are. As a conservative I have been outspoking about waste of moneys and it is good use of moneys. Let me ask you if you lose a love one and case was unsloved for many years you would want unit like this help slove it??
Look at Boulder's 'Jane Doe case a case that was unsloved for 55 year was just sloved last week shown any case can be slovd.
NH has 6 john and janes does cases that need to be sloved. NH Need put more use like have cases on AMW to help sloved them
- Courtney Turner, Weare NH
Bill,
Waste of money justice has not yet been served
- Matt, manchester
I don't understand why they are using the money for this. It is a noble effort, but will cost the taxpayers more if they actually solve a cold case. In the rare chance they actually get someone who is considered a suspect, what happens next? They will be incarcerated costing us more money while they are pre trial. 2 years will go by before the case even hits our plagued court system. This will cost us at least 70k in incarceration fees to the taxpayer. Then we have to prosecute the suspect, costing us maybe over 100k in legal fees. More than likely they will have a public defender as well, costing us that much more. Then if they are found guilty, we have to pay more to keep this person in prison. All for what? One family that is grieving for someone who was killed 30 years ago. Sorry, but it is no longer relevant. Fix the schools, fix the roads, and fix downtown Manchester....
- Mike, Manchester, NH
It would be great if these Troopers would volunteer their time and have student interns that could earn and learn from the best, you know spread the wealth. I'm sure this money could go a long way if it was used in class settings for our up and coming CSI's in our state.
- Linda, Derry
Waste of money. They can't even solve the current cases. How will they solve the cold ones?
- Bill, Wolfeboro
Hey leo (AKA: Law Enforcement Officer),
Why State Police and not City detetctives? Why not? Unless you, as a LEO, have an inside track, you have no idea what jurisdiction the cases originate from. So, the crime could have happened in a city like Manchester or Nashua where they have an established detective unit, or it could be some small town where they don't even have a full-time officer never mind a detective. So, again, why not the State Police?
You also seem to think that the City detectives have a better solve-rate. And what do you base that belief on? Could be that a town might have one murder every 20 years, as opposed to the State Police Major Crime detectives getting assigned 20 murders every single year? Well, if you look at the one every twenty years in the small town that might get solved as opposed to maybe one of the 20 the State Police get every year not getting solved (immediately, anyway), of course the statistics will lean toward the cities. On it's face.
My take on it; I'll take my chances for a successful surgery with a doctor who performs the same operation 20 times a year and gets it right 99.9% of the time versus a small town doctor who's maybe seen the ailment once in his entire career, and didn't do a great job of curing that time. If they even did cure it!
Lastly, the State Police seem to be dedicating detectives to the old cases with no outside distractions....like having to take on NEW cases. What town in New Hampshire has the resources to do that?
Good luck State Police....
- J, Concord
Federally funded programs usually are awarded for a fixed period of time, after which the locals have to pick up the tab. How much is this going to cost once the Federal $$$ run out? The State can't pay its' bills now, does anyone thik it is going to be any easier in a year or two?
- dave a, hooksett
If major crimes had done it right the first time there wouldnt be a cold case. I guess no one confessed right off the bat. Why are they State Police Detectives and not city police? I think the city detectives have a higher a solve rate
- leo, Hooksett
And what happens at the end of three years?
- Sandy, Thornton
Hiring retired SP detectives that have homicide investigation experience makes sense in some ways. But were these guys part of the same group that didn't have the time or the resources to solve the cases in the first place? Sometimes a fresh set of trained eyes is needed.
I would be interested in knowing what salary these retired detectives will be paid in addition to their pensions. I think the pension system will not allow retirees to work full time in a state position, unless they give up their pension.
Sure sounds like the good ole boys in Concord are alive and doing well.
- Melvin, Keene
Nancy, I didn't write my post to slight the family of loved ones that were murdered.
These cases go cold because the police hit a wall and come up with no suspects, or not enough evidence to make an arrest. Realistically, evidence from the 1970's may or may not be around. DNA testing while a new tool is old enough that any evidence already my have been analyzed and quite honestly should have been already, and since the state doesn't announce re-opening an investigation, they do re-examine new leads. This should be part of their police budget and shouldn't require stimulus money on work that should already be done on their regular budget. How much does it cost for already paid investigator to go out and ask a few more probing questions or to pick up the phone to get some facts that may have been missed.
- Jack Alex, Manchester
Hey Jack Alex,
I'm sure that the families and friends of the 100 plus cold case victims (almost all unsolved homicides) don't feel this is a "waste" of money, time, or resources.
When the site launches, I encourage you personally to check it out and read about the 100 plus people who were murdered in this state since the 1970s and think about HOW YOU WOULD FEEL if your son/daughter/mother/father/brother/sister was on that list with their killer or killers still at large.
You might not feel this unit is such a waste if the circumstances involved you or your family.
- Nancy, Concord, NH
Marty, reread the articule... they are hiring two retired detectives... so there are no positions to fill... this is a waste of our money when we can be feeding the hungry and providing shelter for others in this horrific time of need... or how about oil and medicine... all four are in desperate need right now...
- Dee M, manchester, nh
Jack, didn't the Union-Leader report earlier in the week that State Police working with drunk drivers had lost their jobs (while advocacy for the arts got "stimulus" funding)? Now "stimulus" funding puts State Police back to work. Are these jobs that Obama has "created or saved"? "Shuffled" would be more like it. A shell game.
- Spike, Brentwood NH
Jack,
They are hiring new people. In order to move the experienced Troopers into this new unit, you have to find someone to fill those vacancies. Troopers with experience working cases will probably move to the Major Crimes Division, while new Troopers replace their vacant spots on the road. I'm sure that the same will occur at the AG's office with the personnel that they assign.
- Marty, Epsom
Wow, if it works on TV, it must be good for the budget eh? I'm sure that $.514 million will be better spent here then on people that can't afford food..
- Kevin, Bennington
Ok, this doesn't make sense. They're going to spend $1M dollars, not going to create any new jobs, just to re-open old files that were closed because they had no new leads. And, just how is this going to help the economy to recover?
I realized that there is no statute of limitiations on homicide, but to call this a stimulus project is absurd. This should be part of everyday policework. When a new lead comes in it gets investigated as long as there is nothing else that is pressing at the given moment.
The US taxpayers are in a hole, and every single day it keeps getting bigger and bigger with the waste.
- Jack Alex, Manchester