The Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office says the new investigator will tackle 11 unsolved cases dating back as far as 1983.
GUADALUPE COUNTY, Texas — New hope in Guadalupe County for unsolved cases as the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office hires a dedicated cold case investigator.
11 cases remain unsolved in the county.
“I’ve gotten phone calls from the families in regards cause to these cases because a lot of these families feel forgotten about after a while, because the cases have gone on for years,” said Sheriff Joshua Ray. “The oldest one in Guadalupe County right now is from 1983. I don’t want to fail those victims because that’s that’s why we do this job.”
The sheriff has been pushing for the part-time position since different sheriff’s offices and police departments have had success hiring retired detectives to focus specifically on cold cases.
“A murder has has no statute limitations in the state of Texas, so as long as we’re willing, as long as we have the resources, we can keep looking at it,” he said. “These cases, they’re not solved, usually for one of two reasons. What I’ve seen in my experience, sometimes it’s poor police work. I’ll admit that it does happen. Sometimes it’s because they’re hard to begin with.”
Evolving technology, combined with a fresh set of eyes, Sheriff Joshua Ray, believes could lead to success.
A lot of these cases, they have the evidence,” he explained. “Especially back in the 80s time frame is what I’ve seen, they had they collected the right evidence during that time, but they didn’t necessarily know we were going to use it for DNA later. So as long as the evidence has still been preserved in the chain of custody and it has been maintained, we can use that evidence now for with DNA to be able to develop a suspect.”
He hopes it could help provide closure to families who lost their loved ones decades ago.
“I can promise the families and the citizens is that I’m going to dedicate the right people and the right amount of resources to try and solve them,” Ray said.
The position is expected to be filled in the next few weeks.