TULSA, Okla — Some Americans are obsessed with true crime, but for the families of the victims, their stories represent unimaginable pain and years of heartache, and questions without answers.
Over the last 10 years, the Tulsa Police Department has averaged a 95% solve rate, with only 5% of its cases remaining unsolved.
Currently, roughly 300 cold cases are waiting for answers, some dating back to the 1970’s.
“It’s difficult and it’s especially difficult having that many cases because you have a lot of families and we’re talking 300 and some odd families who want updates,” said Tulsa Police Lt. Brandon Watkins.
Watkins tells 2 News that some of his homicide detectives have worked a case for more than 20 years in the unit.
“Once you leave the unit, if you have a cold case, then it goes to the cold case unit. Obviously, these are cold cases for a reason and very often we get a tip or somebody who wants to exchange information, or we get a good Samaritan who has something that has been weighing on their mind for the last 10-15 or 20 years who wants to tell us something,” said Watkins.
He says TPD has been able to close some of its cold cases because people have reached out to talk about the case and put the detectives on the right track.
Watkins said one of the hardest parts of the job is speaking with families still looking for answers.
“We try to give them one, but very often that update is nothing has happened since the last time we talked because it’s difficult to focus on one case when you have a whole lot of people wanting information,” said Watkins.
The department recently hired back former homicide detective, Ronnie Leatherman, to take a closer look at cold cases that have DNA.
He spent 22 years on the force and most recently worked in the Tulsa Police Department’s crime lab as an analyst.
“We’re going to start going through the cases and see if there is DNA that can be tested especially stuff from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s and you know DNA wasn’t really being tested back then so there is a chance that there is several of these that could have DNA and hopefully with that, we will be able to solve several of them,” said Leatherman.
Watkins says working cold cases can be tricky at times.
“There’s a lot of hurdles that have to be cleared to get these things solved and even when they’re solved, there is no guarantee that they can get filed depending on witnesses at the time, their level of cooperating nowadays or we’ve had quite a few to where witnesses that were important to old cases died themselves and so these things are difficult,” said Watkins.
Despite the challenges, both Watkins and Leatherman say they will keep pushing and are committed to looking for new ways to solve these cases and bring Oklahoma families some much needed closure.
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