Cold Case Investigation and Prosecution

DeKalb County, Georgia experiences an alarmingly high proliferation of violent crimes, including homicides. With that, the cold case count in DeKalb has reached alarming levels, at over 600. The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office is seeking $500,000 to create a formal Cold Case Unit. To initiate this Unit, funding is requested for a part-time Cold Case Investigator,  a part-time Data Entry Technician, a case management platform, and advanced DNA testing (FGG) for prioritized cases where there has been an obtained suspect DNA profile, and it has been determined that advanced techniques are most likely to lead in the identification of the suspect and successful prosecution of the homicide case.

The DeKalb District Attorney’s Office is committed to solving all existing cold cases. The DCDA is requesting funding to achieve the goal of increasing the number of violent crime cold case prosecutions and decreasing the number of awaiting/pending prosecution(s) of unresolved violent crime cold cases where suspect DNA has already been obtained, via the creation of a Cold Case Unit.  As directed by the grant requirements, the following objectives have been delineated: 600 cases will be reviewed, catalogued, and prioritized; approximately 24 cases will be sent for advanced DNA testing; approximately 30 cases will be prosecuted.

The activities by which the DCDA will achieve the above detailed goals and objectives are: hire a part-time Cold Case Investigator; acquire a comprehensive case management database; hire a part-time data entry technician to input all case information into the database; send already obtained suspect DNA for more advanced testing; and adjudicate formerly dormant cases which have evolved into fully prosecutable murder cases.