When Does an Investigation Become a Cold Case?

Cold cases are one of the most mysterious—and underrepresented—parts of the crime and investigation world. These are the cases that haven’t been solved for one reason or another, and people can’t help but ask why. Yet because they’ve remained open for months or years, they are also the cases that get far less media attention and may have less resources devoted to solving them. So, when does a case officially “go cold,” and what happens when it does?

A&E’s The First 48 opens every episode with a reminder: “For homicide detectives, their chance of solving a murder is cut in half if they don’t get a lead within the first 48 hours.” This is a chilling reality, as information and evidence can begin to disappear. However, any kind of case (not just homicide) doesn’t go cold after that amount of time; it can be actively investigated for weeks, months or years if the police have something to investigate. In fact, there is no standard definition of a “cold case.” It varies between police departments.

Miguel Iglesias’ career with the New York Police Department included serving as the Executive Officer of the Detective Bureau, which supervised the NYPD’s Cold Case Squad. “How we classified a case cold was when all leads were exhausted and no new information [had been] gleaned,” he tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “How those cases become active is when a new witness is found, evidence is discovered or new technology comes to light.”

Joe Moura, a former law enforcement officer from Boston now working as a private investigator, tells A&E Crime + Investigation he's learned that a particular type of cold case receives more attention than others.

“There’s no universal standard in reference to what classifies a cold case from state to state or even country to country,” he says. “A lot of it has to do with manpower [and] resources financially to be able to continue investigating some of these cases. My experience has found that if the victim is high profile, a person of means, there’s more effort and resources supporting that particular investigation versus someone of no means and no influence in the community.”

Moura says “most small police departments will use the state police detectives to assist in their investigations,” whereas Iglesias explains that the NYPD’s cold case team is a city-wide unit, with personnel assigned to each borough. But it’s not just manpower or money that may turn a case cold: Police departments may simply not have the right technology they need to break a particular investigation open. True crime fans have already seen this in action with developments in fingerprinting and DNA, yet there are other evidentiary avenues that are continuing to develop.

“During my time with the Cold Case Squad, we were heavy into seeking ways to expand our forensics and genealogy investigations,” Iglesias says. “We were seeking accreditation for our lab and a company to partner with.”

Cold cases are also uniquely challenging for investigators, whether they are homicides or any other type of crime. As mentioned on The First 48, the passage of time is hugely important to any criminal investigation. Witnesses can disappear, or in some cases, even die before they are able to provide statements to police. Physical evidence can degrade. Data evidence may be deleted.

Additionally, the person picking up that cold case may not be the same one who initially investigated the crime; they might not even have been anywhere near it. In the First 48 episode “Unforgotten: Ben,” Tulsa Homicide Detective Lacy Lansdown takes over a murder investigation that originally belonged to now-retired Detective Ronnie Leatherman.

“The major challenge to cold case investigations is time,” Iglesias says. “As time passes, you lose evidence [such as] video footage. Witnesses tend not to remember details that may help. There is also expense, as we experienced in attempting to put together our genealogical program.”

So, what is the best way for an investigator to approach a cold case? “You have to start from the very beginning,” Moura explains. “Carefully follow the steps that the previous investigators took. Look for areas in the investigation where the investigators did not follow what we would consider small, weak leads. Typically, we’re looking for any mistake that the original investigator has made.”

The biggest step forward for cold cases, however, is simply providing the police with the time and resources necessary to dig further into these so far unsolved crimes. Iglesias advocates for dedicated teams of officers who are specifically focused on cold cases. “You just can’t have investigators being pulled in every other direction, because of the meticulousness of these cases,” he says. He adds that those investigators will also need enough funding in order to process evidence that may have degraded over time.

These are the most important facts for outside audiences to understand about cold cases: They are not unsolvable, and they are not intentionally ignored. There may not be a universal legal definition of a “cold case,” but on a human level, they’re cases that police departments just need an opportunity to break. Whether it’s an extra set of helping hands, a new technology advancement that generates another lead or another witness that comes forward, there is almost always a chance that they can be closed. It doesn’t matter how long it takes—it matters how much support police have behind them.

“I would like the public to understand that cold cases never die,” Iglesias says. “They are constantly being reviewed for any new evidence, tips or technological advances. The cold case investigators of the NYPD are some of the best, and all are handpicked from the different homicide squads throughout the city. Really the best of the best.”

Moura agreed with Iglesias that police departments need backing from their communities to push cold cases toward the finish line. “The public needs to be aware that these cases require manpower and financial commitment from the communities,” he says. “When investigators can’t get that support, it means that the perpetrators are continuing to commit these crimes and people’s lives are lost.”