Cold Cases May Heat Up In Prince George's After County Wins Grant

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — Cold cases are some of the most challenging to solve. Over the years, evidence is lost and witnesses scatter.

All that is left is the occasional strand of seemingly untraceable DNA. Testing that DNA is expensive, but the process just got more affordable.

Prince George's County won a $470,000 grant to investigate cold cases, State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy announced Thursday. The U.S. Department of Justice grant will help the county fund dozens of DNA investigations over three years.

"I am very convinced that we will be able to solve more crimes and hold more people accountable," Braveboy said during a Thursday morning press conference. "This is just another area where we are going to make a big difference for the people of our county."

With DNA tests costing $2,000 per sample, hundreds of cold cases ground to a halt, Crime Lab Director Kristen Lease said.

Prince George's County has unmatched DNA evidence in more than 600 cold cases of serious violent crimes. That means detectives have DNA from the scene, but they don't know who it's from.

The grant will help the county dig deeper into some of these instances. About 120 murder cases and 360 sexual assault investigations are eligible.

"This will help us bring justice to our victims, most of whom can’t speak," said Anthony Schartner, deputy chief of the Prince George's County Police Department. "It’s our job to speak for them."

The county will choose 15 to 20 cases to look at each year. Braveboy's team and the police department will select cases based on the solvability and the strength of their DNA evidence.

The state's attorney highlighted a few investigations that the county may consider. Braveboy said these cases date as far back as 1979.

One potential is a 1991 sexual assault and stabbing that killed a woman, the state's attorney noted.

Braveboy also said police may reinvigorate their search in a 2007 murder of an unidentified man. Officers arrested the suspect, but never could identify the victim.

Through a test called forensic genetic genealogy, labs match the DNA to a victim or suspect. Detectives then try to find people who may have known the subject or could have witnessed the crime. As the years pass, this process gets even harder.

"We’re going to learn a lot over the next three years," said Bob Dean, special assistant to the state's attorney. "I’m excited for the opportunity."

Dean led the months-long application process, which started in May. Eventually, Prince George's County was one of 10 jurisdictions in the nation to win the grant, Schartner added.

"If it assists us in solving one [case,] it is successful already," Deputy State’s Attorney Jonathon Church said. "We’re obviously shooting for more than that ... This is a tool that takes us from stalled to moving forward."

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