Posted on: Friday, February 25, 2005
Cold-case office open for business
By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state's first Cold Case Squad office opened yesterday even though there is still no formal agreement with the Honolulu Police Department, the state's largest law enforcement organization.
The Pearl Harbor-based squad's goal is to consolidate state law enforcement resources to close unsolved murder investigations.
A review by the attorney general's office determined that the state has had 376 unsolved homicides since 1975. All but 90 were committed on O'ahu.
Donald Wong, chief investigator with the attorney general's office, who heads up the squad, said this may be the best chance that many family members of victims of unsolved crimes have for closure.
"This (squad) is not for just anybody," he said yesterday. "It's easy to Monday-morning quarterback any situation but let me say, no way will we do that. We're going to give it the best shot we can."
Wong said that it's imperative that all agencies lending resources to the Cold Case Squad work together.
"Let's see if we can bring some closure, one way or another," he said.
HPD officials have not signed a formal agreement with the squad, police said. In June, when news of the squad's creation surfaced, HPD officials said the department would not participate because it had its own cold case efforts under way.
At the time, HPD was stepping up its contributions to a national DNA database maintained by the FBI. Analysis of DNA evidence is a key element in the resolution of old and new criminal cases. Investigators rely heavily on DNA to solve most cold cases.
As of June, HPD had sent 1,772 samples of DNA from Hawai'i felons to the national database.
HPD has assisted and cooperated with the squad's efforts, police said.
"We are working on a (memorandum of agreement)," said HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu.
The Police Department runs the only crime laboratory in Hawai'i, and the lack of an agreement raises questions about how much access the squad would have to HPD's lab. The lack of a formal agreement also means that the squad would not have unfettered access to HPD records and case files.
The squad has money budgeted for lab analysis, according to the attorney general's office, and the unit may receive assistance from federal labs or the California attorney general. The money also could be used to pay for lab work submitted to a private lab on the Mainland.
The squad was created last summer with a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The state must match up to $66,000 a year.
Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.
