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FACTORS THAT INVESTIGATORS FACE IN AN UNSOLVED CASES.

A case is considered unsolved until a suspect has been identified, charged, and tried for the crime. A
case that goes to trial and does not result in a conviction creates a big impact of failure to the police
investigators but still can also be kept on the books pending new evidence. But this seldom happens.

Police, prosecutors, and other law enforcement experts cite a number of systemic factors that make
it difficult for investigators to find suspects in many homicide cases. They include:

The random nature of some of the killings. With no obvious relationship between the killer and
victim, investigators often are left with few leads to pursue. If there is no personal connection
between the murderer and the victim and no witness, it would be very difficult for law enforcement
to determine who did the killing.

When physical evidence is limited, in those instances, investigators, instead, often must rely heavily
on witnesses, who often can't be found or are reluctant to testify.

If DNA is present, you still have to have a person to match it against. If they are not in the DNA
database, that DNA does no good until you have someone to compare it against. Lack of a suspect
who is actually guilty, may mean the crime is never solved.

Investigators look if any fingerprints or DNA left by the murderer had no matches in any data base
because that person had never before committed a crime.

Witnesses unwilling to cooperate with investigators for fear of being implicated in a crime themselves
or because they dont trust law enforcement and too often, those witnesses are unwilling to
cooperate either because theyre closely tied to the perpetrator in some way or theyre afraid of
retaliation if they talk to investigators or testify at trial.

In some instances, even when investigators have enough evidence to take a suspect to court, the
case falls apart because witnesses are too afraid to testify.

In a few cases, witnesses have received calls from untraceable phone numbers warning them that
they would be killed if they testified.

The amount of time between when a homicide occurs and when its reported to police is critical, The
quicker police respond, the more likely they are to find evidence that hasnt deteriorated or been
destroyed or removed, the more likely there are to be witnesses around and the more likely the killer
is to be nearby. As the time increases, all those factor decreases and the chances of solving the crime
getting farther from the reality.

The longer a homicide investigation goes, the more difficult it becomes to solve. Investigators have a
lot of tools they can use to collect and analyze evidence, but they still have to find it and be able to
match it up to a suspect. Over time, detectives start running out of leads and clues.

Obtaining physical evidence often is much easier in domestic cases or homicides where the victim
and the perpetrator had close contact. Domestic violence homicides are usually easier for police to
solve since the possibility that the suspect and the victim are related or has relation are present.
Those crimes where the victim and perpetrator are stranger to each other are more difficult to solve
because they typically involve strangers or people who are not very familiar with each other.

In some cases a suspect, often called a "person of interest" or "subject" is identified early on but no
evidence definitively linking the subject to the crime is found at that time and more often than not
the subject is not forthcoming with a confession. This often happens in cases where the subject has
an alibi, alibi witnesses, or lack of forensic evidence. Eventually the alibi is disproved, the witnesses
recant their statements, or advances in forensics help bring the subject to justice.
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Ample time to devote to the investigation (as one detective pointed out the golden rule: one
investigation at a time). All murders are solvable if there was sufficient time to work solely on one
murder at a time and with sufficient resources. Many avenues of enquiry never get done due to a
fresh homicide being committed.

Witness Factors

The most important witness factor was the actual presence of witnesses. the absence of witnesses
severely impedes the investigation. Consistently across respondents was the idea of getting it right
the first time. This referred to obtaining a thorough, well-documented statement by an experienced
detective containing all the relevant facts, negating the need to interview witnesses on multiple
occasions.

An interview conducted at the scene will have the benefit of time and relevance...conversely; they
may be distressed by the proximity of the crime or not wish to be seen discussing the event with
police in public.

Incompetence, due to lack of manpower (investigators) and not enough departmental resources to
investigate properly. New cases almost always take priority and there are always new cases. The
police are usually as frustrated, if not more so, as the public is, that a case remains unsolved.

However reasons for not being able to solve a murder can be lack of physical or eyewitness evidence,
not being able to link the decedent with anyone else, witnesses are afraid to come forward because
they are afraid for their lives or afraid and distrust the police, especially in minority communities,
people are afraid of the suspects which might retaliate towards them.

I assume that the most common reason for an unsolved murder would be insufficient evidence to
either identify the perpetrator or conclusively assign guilt. In stranger-on-stranger crime it can be
difficult to identify the perpetrator since there is no link between the two. If fingerprint and DNA
records don't exist for the unknown perpetrator, or if none are found, it is sometimes difficult to find
another way to identify those who had the opportunity, ability, and the motive.

If the killer doesn't leave fingerprints, or traces to the place of the murder, police is trying to see who
might have a motive to kill the person. Police are left to try and solve these cases.

But police are often left with little to go on, as in many cases, no witnesses or informants have come
forward despite the evidence that "someone knows something." Without cooperation, many cases
stay unsolved and killers remain on the street.

Police needs the help of the community, if police don't have enough evidence to solve crime by
themselves; they need to have an eyewitness come forward. Police have to have someone tell them
who is doing the crimes.

Is a lack of willingness among people to get involved, to report wrongdoing, to cooperate with
authorities, to want to make their communities safer. Residents in many neighborhoods and family
members of the victims are reluctant to assist law enforcement that make solving a killing impossible.

The police dont necessarily solve crime; Police investigate it and find all the facts. The people solve
crime. Witnesses solve crime.

Everyone grieves and responds to homicides differently but people whose loved ones deaths are
unsolved yearn to know that the person who committed. Police also understand the frustration
families feel; Police want them to know that the person that willfully took their loved ones life is
going to be held accountable.

When the relatives of the victim or the victim itself havent heard from the police several months, or
in a year, whats happening to their case because Investigators were in the same position that they
were a year ago. Investigators may try to explain to victims' families that they won't be calling every
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day or every week to update them about what's happening with their loved one's case that's simply
because there's nothing new to say.

When new information surfaces, which might help a case, police don't share that information in great
detail with victims' families to avoid jeopardizing the investigation.

Most frustrating is when investigators think they know who committed a killing but can't prove it.
Investigators think about those cases all the time. You keep telling yourself, 'Did anything else come
up?' And you go over the whole case again and you're still in the same spot you were three, four
months ago. ... It's frustrating.

The police investigators not only want to solve every case, but they also want convictions. When they
fall apart, its very frustrating.

When police arrested a suspect but prosecutors didn't file charges, citing a lack of evidence. In some
cases, prosecutors filed charges but later requested they be dismissed due to insufficiency of
evidence. In still others, prosecutors took the case to trial, but jurors acquitted the suspect since the
evidence of guilt is not strong.

People wouldnt be completely satisfied unless police made an arrest in every homicide. But, that is
an unrealistic expectation, given the challenges investigators face.

Weve worked hard at trying to get them solved

If residents dont cooperate with police, the problem will never go away.

Fear that if they that people who have called the police, only to be treated as suspect themselves.

Some witnesses are reluctant to talk to investigators for fear that word could get around that theyre
cooperating with authorities.

Others may worry about the police themselves.

Even a witness who is willing to talk to the police may not be able to tell everything he or she knows.
If police lose patience and lock the witness up for obstruction, that person could miss days or even
weeks of work and possibly lose a job.

Across the country, witness cooperation remains the biggest challenge in trying to solve and
prosecute homicide cases.

If no one will step forward and cooperate with police, or if people wont come to court to testify,
there isnt much the system can do.Our criminal justice system is only as good as the communities
that support it.

UNCOOPERATIVE WITNESSES

Part of the problem is that, oftentimes, witnesses live in the area where the crime occurred and
theyre nervous about what will happen if they talk to police. And police acknowledge they can offer
little in the way of protection.

If I could tell them nothings going to happen to them I would, but we dont do that because we just
dont know.

And too often, those witnesses are unwilling to cooperate either because theyre closely tied to the
perpetrator in some way or theyre afraid of retaliation if they talk to investigators or testify at trial.

In some instances, even when investigators have enough evidence to take a suspect to court, the
case falls apart because witnesses are too afraid to testify. It happens too often.
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In a few cases, witnesses have received calls from untraceable phone numbers warning them that
they would be killed if they testified.

Somebody might be listening will come sit in the back of the courtroom sometimes during preliminary
hearings when their buddys on trial in an attempt to coerce, in an attempt to threaten and scare
witnesses who are there to testify.

Still someone needs to be held accountable for the crime.

LACK OF EVIDENCE

The amount of time between when a homicide occurs and when its reported to police is critical, The
quicker police respond, the more likely they are to find evidence that hasnt deteriorated or been
destroyed or removed, the more likely there are to be witnesses around and the more likely the killer
is to be nearby. As the time increases, all those factor decreases and the chances of solving the crime
getting farther from the reality.

Witnesses too intimidated or afraid to come forward or testify.

Television crime shows that give some jurors an unrealistic expectation of the physical evidence
investigators can produce, making it difficult for prosecutors to win a conviction.

Juries that are sometimes less likely to convict a suspect if the victim had a criminal past.