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New cold case database launching in Utah hopes to bring closure to victims’ families

Posted at 2:20 PM, Jan 29, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-29 17:26:07-05

The Department of Public Safety has launched a new system, which is in some ways a re-boot on Utah’s missing person and cold case murder data base.

The goal is to allow law-enforcement personnel from all across the state to compare notes on cases they have with other agencies in just a few keystrokes.

The changes also include having a full-time analyst to review the data as it gets added.

State Senator Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, sponsored and helped pass Senate Bill 160 a year ago.

He feels strongly there’s a better way to track and crack the more than 400 cold cases in Utah. Those include murders, missing persons, and unidentified, deceased persons cases.

Police investigators across Utah are now required to enter unsolved cases more than three years old, as well as all unsolved murders, into the database.

SB 160 pays for a full-time analyst who will continually be reviewing that information for any kind of similarities that might link the various investigations.

The ultimate goal is to solve those cases and hopefully bring some closure to the victim’s families.

“...As others move on sometimes those cases get, you know, put in a box and off to the side and it's not anybody's fault..." said Chief Brian Redd of the Utah Department of Public Safety. "This will ensure that those cases are not forgotten."

Multiple agencies within DPS will be involved in the database, including the Bureau of Forensic Services, the State Bureau of Investigation, the State Information and Analysis Center and the Bureau of Criminal Identification.