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Cold Cases: Gone But Not Forgotten, Part 1By Ashley Hinson, Anchor/ReporterIf you watch any primetime TV or cable shows, it's hard to miss the numerous shows dedicated to solving cold cases. Cold cases are catching the attention of law enforcement as well. TV-9 wanted to look at the struggles and the successes investigators face when looking to bring justice to the victims of cold cases. They're cases of those who are gone but not forgotten.  "It's hundreds, and we're adding them all the time. I just added one from 1967, “ says Nancy Bowers, one of the administrators of the website IowaColdCases.com. She's also an author, looking into one cold case in particular...the case of Shelia Collins."I actually love her. I think she's just a wonderful person, the more I've found out about her the more tragic it became,” Bowers says. “She wasn't just a name in the newspaper or a photograph."
Collins, an 18 year old Iowa State Student was found murdered in 1968, face-down in a ditch about 20 miles east of Ames. Sadly, her case is not unusual.
Take the murder of 37 year old Donna Marshall of Iowa City. She was found mortally wounded at the Bon-Aire mobile home park in 1996.
"Child was dropped off at her mother's house and went inside and found her mom with a gunshot wound," says Lieutenant Jim Steffen, who is in charge of the Iowa City Police Department's Criminal Investigations section. He says many times if they run out of leads in a murder investigation, there're only a few things that can help them crack a cold case.
"The most recent help we've got is the advancement of DNA,” says Lt. Steffen. “A lot of times DNA was collected back then and there was nothing they could do about it."
 Waterloo Police Investigator Robert Duncan says his department recently submitted evidence to the Division of Criminal Investigation from a 1979 missing person's case, and got a male DNA profile back. Duncan says times have certainly changed since the original detective conducted interviews and collected evidence.
"At that time he thought that the gentlemen did commit the murder there just wasn't enough evidence to link him to it at the time," says Duncan.
Willie Ann Rucker, a mother of three, went missing in 1979, just days after calling police to say her boyfriend was scaring her. Nobody has seen or heard from her since. Waterloo police are just waiting on additional DNA evidence to come back. It’s evidence they say could tie their suspect to the crime.
Duncan says it’s fairly simple. "Testimony from victims or witnesses they can maybe lie a little bit or change their story, but DNA doesn't lie."
IowaColdCases.com houses hundreds of cold cases from all over the state. Many of the cases don’t have any DNA evidence, or any kind of smoking gun that could help them catch whodunit. But administrators of the site are hoping to jar memories, or a conscience, to get people to come forward about old crimes.
"People know what happened. People out there know who killed somebody and how it was covered up, and they know where that person is now,” says Bowers.
Detectives TV-9 spoke with say many witnesses may be reluctant to come forward with details because they may have been involved with a related crime.
Investigator Duncan says busting witnesses isn't their top priority. "What's more important… putting a murderer off the street or charging this guy with drugs? I think everybody will agree that it's much more important to get that person who committed murder. "
Many departments throughout Eastern Iowa are establishing "cold case squads" to take a look back. But many times, those investigators also have piles of case work from current crimes to sort through as well.
“The primary investigators have moved on, or are in positions where they can’t investigate any more,” says Lt. Steffen. “It’s hard now in this atmosphere of limited budgets to take somebody away for a case like that when you have all these new cases piling up.”
Wednesday night (3/3/10) on the TV-9 news at 10, we take an exclusive look inside the DCI Laboratories to see how investigators use DNA, fingerprints, and ballistics to catch a killer.
If you have any leads on cold cases, contact your local law enorcement, or the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation's Cold Case Unit.
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