I found this so interesting I decided to post it. Read down to "Tunnel Vision".
Cold case:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cold case refers to a crime or accident that has not been solved and is not the subject of current criminal investigation or civil litigation,
but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony
or re-examined archives, as well as retained material evidence. New
technical methods developed after the case can be used on the surviving
evidence to re-analyze the causes, often with conclusive results.
Characteristics of a criminal cold case:
Violent or major crime
Typically, cold cases are violent or other major felony crimes, such as murder or 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 been not seen or heard from for some time such as the case
of Natalee Holloway.
In about 35% of those cases are not really cold cases at all. Some
cases become instantly cold when a seeming closed (solved) case is
re-opened due to the discovery of new evidence pointing the way from
the original suspect(s). This happens in a surprising number of cases,
and is the result of a miscarriage of justice. Other cases are cold when the crime, usually through discovery of human remains, is discovered well after the fact. Other cases are classified cold cases when a case that had been
originally ruled an accident or suicide is re-designated a murder when
new evidence emerges.
Identifying a suspect:
A case is considered unsolved until a suspect has been identified, charged, and tried for the crime. A case that goes to trial and does not result in a conviction can also be kept on the books pending new evidence.
Many times, those investigating the case have a suspect in mind or
he/she emerges early in the investigation but have not been able to
find evidence sufficient to charge the suspect with the crime --
especially since most suspects are not forthcoming with a confession.
Even in other cases a suspect never even considered before or even
unknown emerges mainly through forensic or DNA evidence. This is
usually the case in brutally violent homicides where a suspect is
either bludgeoned to death or in which rape or sexual assault is the
underlying crime. Sometimes forensic evidence even helps to determine
the crimes are serial crimes. The BTK case and Original Night Stalker (still unsolved) cases are such examples.
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 a tendency of
investigators to zero in on someone else to the exclusion of other
possibilities (which goes back to the likelier suspect angle) -- known
as "tunnel vision":
- Another example is the Carol Hutto murder case in Florida. In
December 1976 the 16-year old's body was found in a lake near an
abandoned house in Largo, Florida. She was last seen alive the night
before when she received a call. Suspicion fell on her half-brother
Jerry Irwin, then 17, who had stayed out all night and whose route home
took him past the house and lake. Moreover he had a long juvenile
record of troublemaking and some violence. As a result the police
focused in on him even though they could not make a case against him.
This however allowed a better suspect to escape detection for nearly 18
years and even then four more were needed to bring the suspect, Carol's
boyfriend Jimmy Kuenn, to trial for the crime.
Improvements in forensics:
With the advent and improving DNA testing 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.
