Aug 18, 2006 9:21 pm US/Central
Arlington Cold Case Unit Seeing Mostly Success
by Jay Gormley
ARLINGTON (CBS 11 News) ―
Arlington proves that cold case units are hot.
Since November of 2004, when police dusted off their first case, 16 of the city's 76 cold case murders have been resolved. The one that haunts the city the most, however, remains open.
"I don't think it would be too far off base to say that the Amber Hagerman case is to Arlington, Texas what the JonBenet Ramsey case is to Colorado," said Christy Gilfour with the Arlington Police Department.
Amber Hagerman was snatched off her bike in 1996, when she was just 9 years old. Her body was found four days later. Arlington police say the Hagerman murder is technically not a cold case because they still receive viable leads every few months. Perhaps the same can be said for the JonBenet Ramsey murder, but detectives say it still bodes well for cold case units.
"Well, certainly it makes a statement," said Sgt. Mark Simpson with the Arlington cold case unit, "that if you remain active in an investigation and keep following leads, that there is always a possibility of making a solution and bringing a case to resolution."
Arlington's most recent success story is 51-year-old Dennis Enos, who just pled guilty and received 20 years in prison for a 17-year-old murder.
Since the beginning, Arlington's cold case unit has run on grant money. The unit's success is finally paying off though, as the police department plans to make it a mainstay by funding it in the yearly budget.
Fort Worth's cold case unit still runs on grant money, and only has one detective running through more than 700 unsolved murders dating back roughly 40 years.
(CBS 11 News)
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