Solving the Unsolvable

In my previous article, Community Outreach V. Murder, I had mentioned the importance of communities working with their local and state police departments to assist with the high amounts of unsolved cases throughout America. I had also mentioned the important work of Thomas Hargrove with the Murder Accountability Project (MAP) and how it significantly supports the idea of serial murders being a big connection to many unidentified persons and cold cases. In a quote from Thomas Hargrove’s LinkedIn page, they report that “The Murder Accountability Project has assembled the nation's most complete database of homicides and unsolved homicides, including details about more than 20,000 murders never reported to the FBI. We have also developed an algorithm that can spot unsolved cases with an elevated probability of being the work of uncaught serial killers.” This alone is the start we need to help begin a beautiful symbiosis between the community and the justice system. In this article, I hope to bring light to the true crisis of unreported murders and how they eventually turn into cold cases. Without community assistance or the assistance of people like Thomas Hargrove, we can cast a veil that blinds us to the horrors lurking underneath which can be dangerous or lead to future victims falling into the same pattern as the past victims.

The scary facts are that slightly more than 565,000 Americans were murdered between January 1980 through December 2008 but only 510,000 murders were recorded in the FBI’s supplementary homicide reports (SHR) database. This program is completely voluntary leading overworked investigators to allow this information to slip by without being reported. Investigations into crimes like this are usually handled by state and local law enforcement and then passed to the FBI. We have many programs and databases which are there to help assist in investigations. The problem is we are not using them to cross-reference and make the connections necessary to figure out if this was a one-time event or if there is something larger hiding in the shadows. Giving all opportunities to provide more than just local people to give involvement in these issues by using the internet to their advantage or their knowledge of crimes in/close to their area could connect local law enforcement’s current focus by showing them things that could be slipping past their attention. This would cause a requirement for volunteers and specialists alike to be there to help with these communications to repair the foundation of law enforcement and encourage them to input data more and take advantage of any resources that are given to them.

Here is a quick overview of the databases available to law enforcement as provided by FBI.gov:

CODIS(mp) (Combined DNA Index System for Missing Persons): Also known as the National Missing Person DNA Database (NMPDD), CODIS(mp) is a database specifically designed to assemble data on missing persons and unidentified human remains cases. It was created in 2000 by the FBI using existing portions of the CODIS database. The searchable database includes information on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA obtained from unidentified remains, relatives of missing persons, and personal reference samples. Having both types of DNA profiles maximizes the potential for successful identification.

IAFIS (Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System): Maintained by the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division, this national fingerprint, and criminal history database provides automated fingerprint search capabilities, latent search capability, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints and responses. Agencies may submit fingerprints electronically and will receive quick turnaround on analyses.

NCIC (National Crime Information Center): An information system maintained by the FBI and dedicated to serving and supporting Federal, State, and local criminal justice agencies.

ViCAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program): This nationwide data center is designed to collect, collate, and analyze information on crimes of violence, such as homicides, sexual assaults, kidnappings, and missing persons cases.

These databases should be accessed to record and track these patterns in correspondence with the initiatives that have been put into place but unless law enforcement is utilizing them, there will not be any results. Statistics like 2,000 serial killers having had existed and have never been caught or convicted for their crimes and 15% of homicides being the result of serial killers shows the true importance of these operations being desperately needed to help place connections between serial killers and unsolved cases of unidentified victims.

It is highly believed that a big part of the issue with unsolved/cold cases is the idea of ‘drifter killers’. This is defined as serial killers who move over long distances and continue to murder as they move along. This causes a lot of unidentified remains to stay that way because a connection is harder to make. To combat this issue the Highway Serial Killer Initiative (HSKI) was put into place. Since most of the victims of these serial killers are women living transient lifestyles or truck-drivers who end up picking up dangerous hitchhikers during their long routes this initiative is of great importance to raise awareness of needing to make connections anywhere possible. The director of HSKI, Michael Harrigan, says on the subject of serial killers who move across state lines, “As individuals move interstate, and there’s a lot of mobility in our society with victims and also the suspects, many times that are not from the jurisdiction in which the crime is committed, very difficult with the movements. So you may have an individual, from, let’s say, Florida, moving through may victimize somebody in Missouri, and then within several hours could be several states away. So, it just creates a unique challenge for law enforcement whenever there’s a cross-jurisdictional crime.” With law enforcement believing this to be an uphill battle, we should be doing everything we can to convince them of the importance of continuously using every resource provided to them or allowing for others to step in to help.

In conclusion, the change will only be brought about by enhancing and using what is already being provided to us by these databases and programs available as well as trying to implement more as we learn better from these processes. As an example, in 2019 another program was put into place called the Prosecuting cold cases using DNA and other Forensic Technologies. This program was used to boost the Using DNA to Identify the Missing program and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) to better identify how many cases with unidentified remains could be the result of foul play. Steps like this will ultimately lead us in the right direction by combining all programs to help look into places that were lacking during the time of that crime being investigated. It will take community and law enforcement alike to continue to provide the information needed to successfully connect unknown serial killers to their possible unidentified victims. Murder should not be a guessing game or something to be taken lightly or go improperly investigated. The moment we give up on these victims is the moment they are truly gone. A family member or friends of these victims will not easily forget the suffering brought upon them over these tragedies and law enforcement, the FBI, and the community should remember that the victimizing doesn’t end at the person who was directly affected, it is a horrible event that leaves indirect victims as well. Everyone deserves justice but it will take a lot of work to provide them with that basic human right.