Cold case: Who killed Karen Whiteside?
EUGENE, Ore. -- When 16-year-old Karen Whiteside was found dead at Fairfield Elementary School in 1978, police pledged to bring her killer to justice.
The case remains unsolved, one of 30 unsolved homicides in Eugene dating back to 1969.
The pledge to bring the killer to justice, however, remains in full effect -- and if you're a retired law enforcement professional, your help is in high demand.
Today, three boxes of evidence from Whiteside's murder sit at Eugene police headquarters. Detectives recently sent some evidence from her case to a lab. They hope new forensic technology will lead them to the person or people responsible.
"We may have cases where we have DNA that's never been submitted," said Sgt. Kathy Flynn, "that we need to pull and submit so that it can possibly match up in the computer to a suspect."
Flynn, who supervises the violent crime unit, said police detectives often lack the time to work these "cold cases."
"Right now, every open homicide is assigned to a detective," she said, "and right now, it's purely, the only reason is time."
And going through an old case takes time.
"It takes literally days, if not into weeks, to go through, page by page to read every interview to look at every piece of evidence, to physically look at every piece of evidence to see if there's something on there that maybe got missed before," Flynn said.
Without the funds to hire more detectives, Eugene police are looking for volunteers to form a cold case squad.
Police want retired or former members of law enforcement to volunteer to work 10 to 12 hours a week on the cold case squad. If you're interested, call (541) 682-5355.
Volunteers will sort through boxes of evidence and transcripts. Cold case investigators will decide if there's anything that warrants a second look.
Sometimes, evidence gathered at the time of the crime wasn't good enough with that era's technology. New investigative techniques could help.
"Fingerprint technology is evolving to where a lesser quality fingerprint may be more useful today than it was 5 or 10 years ago," Flynn said.
Reviewing cold case evidence may get results. Whiteside's murder is one of those cases.
Detectives reviewed the evidence and identified people they want to interview again.
