Cold Case: Factors That Promote Case Solvability

Abstract

The killing of one person by another is a topic that attracts a lot of media interest in our society. It is the responsibility of law enforcement officials to find solutions to these offenses, or at least find the perpetrators of such heinous crimes and bring them to justice. Despite the fast rise of forensics and the technology that goes with it, there are still unsolved instances of murders whose investigations have stalled for more than a year without apprehension of a perpetrator or the full appreciation of the circumstances leading to those incidents. Such murders/homicides are often referred to as cold cases. A retrospective study based on article reviews was conducted to explore characteristics that enhance cold case solvability, in order to determine which factors; forensic evidence or investigation technique has a larger impact on the clearance of cold case homicides. Basically, solvability factors refer to information about a case that aid in “clearing and closing” same (Moran & Llc, n.d.). Cold cases and the solution to unsolved homicides have piqued the interest of numerous law enforcement organizations in recent years. However, there has been little to no research done to determine the number of cases in Ghana and the elements that contribute to effective resolutions. Law enforcement and others have been working nonstop to resolve some of these cases. This paper aims to explore the factors that promote cold case solvability, thus factors that influence the selection of cold cases for investigations with a significant degree of solving such. The study found that research literature on cold case solvability was limited, mostly outdated, and largely not supported by scientific and empirical data. Furthermore, it found that available research provided no empirical or scientific proof of specific factors that can improve or influence cold case solvability, except for proposed solvability matrixes. It concluded that there is a need for further research to close the gap in literature related to characteristics and factors of cold cases/unsolved homicides that can help investigators to solve or achieve justiciable closure to cold case homicides.