You need direct evidence. Price said homicide investigations in counties like Weld are typically more difficult than homicides within cities because victims are often not found for a longer period of time. Often, victims are buried in clandestine graves, and often, victims are not local folks, he said. Price said his office is bridging the gap between old tracking methods, in which important details from unsolved cases were hastily scratched on index cards, to new technology, in which everything is stored in one electronic database. With a few strokes on a keyboard, officers plug into a national fingerprint computer database.
Crime labs offer advanced testing of body fluids that often lead police to killers.
Dead skin can be rehydrated for clues, even fingerprints. Autopsies whisper secrets to medical examiners when victims are silent. Still, the chances of solving Weld County's 30 unsolved homicides are slim, unless eyewitnesses come forward or murder weapons surface. Cora Rose Allyn Allyn's is the longest unsolved homicide on Weld County's books. Allyn was shot four times in the basement of her Greeley home.