Eleven retired police investigators — with a combined 300-plus years of experience as St. Paul officers — gathered Wednesday for a "meeting of the minds" on cold homicide cases in St. Paul.
It was the first time all the investigators were together for a new St. Paul police unit aiming to solve old homicides with new DNA technology. The unit is funded with a nearly $260,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Many expressed the same sentiment about why they wanted to be part of the unit.
"I really think a cold-case unit is a victim's last chance for justice," said Michael Toronto, who commanded the department's homicide unit from 2001 until he retired in 2002. "They deserve and they demand justice. Someone's got to work for the victim."
Sgt. Anita Muldoon, who heads the new unit, started working last summer to enter into a computer about 100 unsolved St. Paul homicides, from the mid-1970s to those about five years old.
She has reviewed 35 cases and submitted evidence from 18 to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for DNA testing. Muldoon is awaiting results.
"These cases are very difficult, but science has progressed so much it will hopefully help to have a fresh look," Muldoon said.
The retired investigators, who mostly worked as homicide detectives, comprise the rest of the cold-case unit. They are now considered civilian employees (their title is research analyst) and will turn to police officers to execute search warrants and make arrests.
They will be putting cases together — tracking old witnesses and suspects, along with further evidence.
On Wednesday, Muldoon gave each investigator a different "murder book" — a summary of case files — for a preliminary review. She asked them to jot down names and possible evidence. They'll meet again in two weeks and decide which cases are the best ones to solve through DNA evidence, Muldoon said.
Though investigators may be working on homicides they were assigned to when they happened, they won't be working on them alone, Muldoon said. At "murder meetings," all the investigators will talk about the cases to get a fresh perspective, said Senior Cmdr. Tim Lynch, who heads the homicide unit.
Two of the investigators, Tom Dunaski and Scott Duff, won an award from the International Homicide Investigators Association last year for their work in solving a St. Paul cold case — the 1970 homicide of St. Paul officer James Sackett. Two people were convicted of murder in 2006.
Dunaski and Duff, both St. Paul officers for 37 years, retired in September.
"The federal government figures that on the property-room shelves all over the country there's (potentially) solved murders sitting in there, evidence on the shelves that just needs to be tested and then matched up with suspects," Lynch told the investigators Wednesday. "Obviously, you guys know it's not that simple."
Minneapolis, with a $500,000 grant from the same fund, started a cold-case unit Jan. 1 with two investigators, said Capt. Amelia Huffman, who commands the criminal investigations division. The first success came Sept. 29, when a man was charged with murder in a 1989 case, she said.
The Hennepin County attorney and sheriff's office recently said they had received a nearly $500,000 grant to investigate cold-case homicides and sexual assaults.
In St. Paul, some unsolved homicides have never had evidence tested for DNA, Muldoon said. Others have evidence that will be retested because of new technology, including touch DNA, which allows samples to be extracted from microscopic skin cells left when a person touches an object, even another person.
The cold-case unit is part of an unfair labor practices lawsuit filed by the St. Paul Police Federation in May. The suit claims the department is trying to "civilianize several positions."
The union and the city have selected a mediator, Mark Gehan, the federation's attorney, said Wednesday.
Muldoon said she hopes the project will evolve into a full-time unit staffed with sworn officers.
Unsolved homicide cases in St. Paul are never closed.
On Tuesday, a woman stopped into police headquarters and Muldoon, who had never met her before, talked to the woman. As a child, she had found a slain family member's body. The case is unsolved.
"She said to me, 'I can't believe it's been 18 years. The pain is still so great,' " Muldoon told the investigators. "There's so much value in doing this and hopefully we can find them some sort of (resolution) ... and maybe some peace for the first time in their lives."
Anyone with information about a St. Paul homicide is asked to call police at 651-266-5650.
Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262.
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