Hartford, Conn. (WTIC Radio)-To upgrade the effort to solve more than one-thousand cold case homicides in Connecticut, The Division of Criminal Justice has launched a dedicated Facebook page, seeking public input, Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney John Fahey said.
The Facebook address is state of Connecticut DCJ Cold Case Unit.
"The capital city has about 300 cold cases dating back the last 30 years. So about ten a year and that probably constitutes on an average year about a third to fifty percent of the homicides they have," Fahey said.
The DCJ is already starting its sixth version of the cold case playing cards. The cards are passed out to inmates. Each one contains a homicide and brief history. The hope is inmates will provide information to help solve each case.
Fahey hopes, "These cards or the Facebook page with the general public will prompt someone's memory about something that maybe they didn't think it was important at the time, but they see that the case is still pending. They remember something about the case and they send us a tip that at least puts us in a direction to see if we can gather more information."
The DCJ has received a new grant, shared with the state forensic lab and the city of Hartford. "To work on about 50 cases using genetic genealogy. We were able to solve four sexual assaults from 1984 in the last year and a half using forensic genetic genealogy," Fahey added.