1st Edition
Practical Cold Case Homicide Investigations Procedural Manual
Designed for use by investigators in any agency, large or small, Practical Cold Case Homicide Investigations Procedural Manual provides an overview of the means and methods by which previously reported and investigated—yet unresolved—homicides might be solved. Written by an experienced cold case investigator and consultant, this convenient handbook is drawn from the author’s previous work, Cold Case Homicides: Practical Investigative Techniques and follows the successful format of Vernon Geberth’s Practical Homicide Investigation: Checklist and Field Guide.
The book examines the basics of case identification and reactivation, providing insight into file retrieval and review. It discusses the legal aspects of cold case investigation and prosecution and explores how to take advantage of technology and forensics advances developed since the case went cold—including forensic and people-searching databases. Readers will learn how techniques used in current homicide investigations have an expanded role in cold case investigations. The convenient format features a summary and checklist template and includes simple, step-by-step instructions.
While cold cases are frustrating for investigators and victims’ families, this book shows how modern cold case homicide investigation can best exploit the primary solvability factors of changes in technology and changes in relationships—turning the concept of time as an enemy into time as a friend.
Investigation
The Cold Case Concept
Case Reactivation and Review
Reading the File
Legal Issues and Prosecution
Investigation
Investigative Resources
ViCAP and Databases
FBI Resources
Death Certificate and Obituary
Coroners and Medical Examiners
Interviewing Senior Citizens
The Media in Cold Case Investigation
Cold Case Investigation Units
Technology
Friction-Ridge Impressions (Fingerprints)
Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems
Serology and DNA
Combined DNA Index System (CODIS)
Mitochondrial DNA Examination Of Cold Case Crime-Scene Hairs
National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN)
Investigative Tools
Forensic Anthropology
Forensic Odontology (Dentistry)
Forensic Exhumation
Criminal Investigative Analysis
Electronic Intercepts (Wiretaps)
Bloodstain Pattern Analysis in Homicide Cold Case Investigations
Luminol
Questioned Documents
Cold Case Polygraph
Geographic Profiling in Cold Case Investigations
Forensic Art
Index
Biography
Walton, Richard H.