The Department of Justice awarded grants to several Florida police departments to help them work on cold cases. This includes the Fort Myers Police Department.
Detective Sgt. Brian O’Reilly with the Fort Myers PD said the preferred term for a cold case is an “unresolved homicide.”
But whatever name you give it, the $266,000 grant allows the agency to pay for overtime for detectives, DNA testing and to hire two part-time private contractors.
Fort Myers police have 122 unresolved homicides dating back to the mid-1970's.
O’Reilly said the department has selected 17 cases it feels have the best chances of being solved.
“You look at such things as what evidence has been processed, what evidence can still be processed, whether it was close contact between the victim and the offender where there may have been some sort of DNA transfer coupled with the availability of any witnesses,” he said.
Other Florida departments that received grant money include Orlando, Miami-Dade and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
