Cold case investigators find frustration can be worthwhile

ROCKY HILL, Conn. (AP) — Prosecutor Patrick Griffin cautions those who join his staff at the Cold Case and Shooting Taskforce Bureau to expect frustration.

"Every single day," Griffin said. "You talk to 50 people to get one person to cooperate. But you have to do that and each case has to be investigated as if it occurred yesterday. That's the goal of this bureau."

Griffin is the supervisory assistant state's attorney leading the bureau, which has a primary function to investigate and prosecute cold homicide and shooting cases. The bureau assists police departments across the state with resources, manpower and other tools to help crack cold cases. The bureau is based at the state's Office Division of Criminal Justice under the Chief State's Attorney's Office.

There's no standard definition of a cold case, though Griffin said that most cold cases involve an investigation where police had a suspect but were not able to develop probable cause and cases without a suspect that have gone cold for a period time. A previously unreported and investigated case sparked by the unexpected location of a body or remains is also considered a cold case, Griffin said.

It's not the state's duty to investigate the estimated 1,200 cold cases across Connecticut. Rather, cases are referred by the investigating police department directly to Griffin's office, which then works with the 13 state's attorneys in their respective districts to begin investigating a case.

The cold case bureau was created to replace the state's cold case unit, Griffin said. The bureau must get approval from of the local state's attorney's office before pursuing an investigation.

"Our function is to assist and to be an asset hopefully to the people in the field," Griffin said. "Each police department, I can assure you, around the state is working on their cold cases to their best of their ability. When they feel that we can add additional value, that we bring something additional to the table, they will make a referral to us, then we jump in."

"By the time we get a case, it's been looked over by many eyes and picked over by many hands generally," Griffin said. "These cases are labor-intensive, they take months and months, sometimes years to put together."

The bureau is currently investigating 27 cold cases, and while Griffin said he couldn't provide details about the active investigations, he did say the office was currently investigating cold cases based in New Haven County, including assisting investigations in New Haven and Waterbury.

Griffin said that the office has investigated cold cases ranging from 24 months to 30 years old.

Charles Grady, spokesman for the FBI's New Haven office, said the agency does not track cold cases. Like the state's cold case bureau, the federal agency usually assists local or state law enforcement offices with manpower and resources. The kind of resources made available depends on the kind of case, but could include access to records, Grady said. The federal agency will also participate in taskforces assembled for cold cases by local agencies.

Once a state's attorney or a police department requests assistance, the state's cold case bureau sets up a meeting with police and prosecutors. After discussing the case, the bureau is given access to evidence, which it begins examining with help of analysts at the bureau.

"The first step in any investigation is for us to look, to determine, No. 1, what is the status of the physical evidence?" Griffin said.

This means starting where initial investigators started: At the scene of the crime.

"We want to look at the scene and we want to make sure that we have all the photographs, if there are photographs, that all the physical evidence has been accounted for," Griffin said. "We want to know what steps have been taken by the local police department in terms of testing and whether or additional testing or a request for retesting is in order."

When the physical evidence has been preserved, the bureau will request access to it. Since certain tools may not have been available when cases were initially investigated, the bureau may seek to retest the evidence with modern techniques.

Mike Sullivan, chief inspector at the bureau, is familiar with the frustration faced by the bureau on a nearly daily basis. Before joining the staff, he was the head of the detective bureau at New Britain Police Department. The bureau also employs former officers from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other local law enforcement agencies from Hartford, Norwalk and Greenwich.

"People are fearful, talking to the police, becoming a witness," Sullivan said.

Thankfully for Sullivan, the bureau has a valuable tool in helping overcome such a roadblock.

Among the most powerful resources made available to local law enforcement agencies by the bureau is its ability to compel a state investigatory grand jury. Griffin said it's the principal tool that's been used by the bureau for several cold case investigations to develop probable cause and make arrests.

"An investigating grand jury is a procedure by which the state applies to a three-judge panel to be allowed to investigate a case in front of a grand juror — and generally in this state it would be a one-person judge — and that would give us investigatory subpoena power," Griffin said.

The grand jury extends the bureau's authority by compelling witnesses to testify and offer evidence under oath in procedures that are not public. This is especially helpful for investigations in areas where witnesses in homicide cases are less likely to come forward as a witness or cooperate with police due to fear of retribution.

"A New Haven officer or a Waterbury officer who goes to the scene of a homicide and speaks to what he or she believes to be a material witness, if that witness does not wish to cooperate, the police don't have any recourse at that point," Griffin said. "An investigative grand jury would allow us to call that person under oath and to question that person in front of that grand juror to determine whether or not that person had material knowledge."

Another method employed by the bureau to help solve cold cases is the creation of its playing cards, which feature photographs and information on cold case homicides throughout the state.

The decks are the only playing cards available to state Department of Correction inmates and are distributed with the goal of getting inmates to offer tips after using the cards.

"Someone playing, talking (with) these cards may generate discussion and ultimately lead to tips," Griffin said.

Since the cards were created in 2010, more than 600 tips have been generated, helping solve at least 11 cases, Griffin said. The bureau operates a 24-hour, automated anonymous tip line associated with the cards. Reviewing tips is among Sullivan's first duties when he arrives at work. The cards are in their third edition, with a fourth edition set for release sometime this year, Sullivan said.

The bureau has nine inspectors and four prosecutors, including Griffin. The office has supportive staff from other law enforcement agencies, including the Hartford Police Department, which has detectives assigned to the bureau.

"Cases are cold for a reason," Griffin said. "By the time a case comes down to us, generally, it has been investigated very thoroughly in every respect by the local police department."

Restarting a potentially years-old investigation presents a litany of challenges: People's memory fades, people move away, people die, lead investigators retire, witnesses become unavailable and other issues arise, Griffin said.

Yet their perseverance can pay off.

Griffin said over the past two years, the bureau has helped develop probable cause through state grand juries for five homicides in Hartford and two in federal grand juries, including helping charge Donald Raynor in 2013 in his alleged role as the leader of a gang in Hartford.

The numbers aren't necessarily eye-popping. Yet Sullivan said that while the staff knows they may not be able to solve every case, coming to work every day helps ensure their efforts are not in vain — even with all the frequent roadblocks.

"You just keep plugging along," Sullivan said. "We've solved cases. That one case that we solved makes it worthwhile."

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Information from: New Haven Register, http://www.nhregister.com