Cobb County Cold Case Investigation and Prosecution Unit

The Cobb District Attorney, located in Cobb County, Georgia, currently holds physical case files for approximately 100 unsolved murder, violent crime, and sexual assault cases from Cobb County.  An initial cursory review identified that 10% of those cases have contain DNA from a suspect.  Cobb County will increase the number of violent crime cold prosecutions and decrease the number of unresolved violence crime cold cases awaiting prosecution through the work of a dedicated cold case investigator and testing, or additional testing, of existing DNA evidence. The confirmed cases alone with DNA evidence from a suspect indicate that there are 10 families, if not more, for which justice can be effected should the Cold Case Unit have time and resources to devote to investigation and prosecution of these cases.

While program deliverables will consists of output measures as required of BJA, the impact of this initiative will be far-reaching and will both affect justice for victims on unresolved cases and hold individuals accountable for their crimes through arrest and subsequent prosecution.  Further, investigation and data from this work will result in the resolution of cold cases and the submission of these cases for prosecution.  Evaluation of Unit work and testing results entered into ViCAP, CODIS, and NamUS will result in significant advances in the field.