[James Hart is a reporter for The Kansas City Star, where he writes Crime Scene KC, a blog about crime and public safety]
One of the most important things I learned as a police reporter: A lot of murderers never go to prison.
In Kansas City, Mo., where I live, we're relatively lucky. Our homicide detectives cleared about 87 percent of their cases last year. There are other cities, like Chicago and Detroit, that face bigger deficits. About 36 and 33 percent of their homicides were solved last year, respectively. And those are just the arrests -- we're not even talking about actual convictions.
Nationally? In 2006, 60.7 percent of homicides were cleared. Meaning the average killer stood an almost 40 percent chance of never getting caught. Not great odds, but decent. (Feel like creeping yourself out? Just imagine the murderers who continue to circulate, unknown and unpunished, in free society.)
Forty feels like a much bigger number when it's one of your loved ones who's been taken. Writing a crime blog, I've met a lot of families in this situation. They've waited weeks, months, sometimes years, and never seen an arrest. But they don't give up. They call the homicide unit every week. They hold garage sales and motorcycle runs to raise cash for the reward fund. They call reporters and ask them to right about their cases, in the hope -- however slender -- that someone might see the report and call the Crime Stoppers hotline.
Last week, I talked to a woman named Bridget McKeown about the sixth anniversary of her mother's disappearance. Shirley McKeown, 71, was driving to her daughter's house when she vanished on Aug. 24, 2002. Days later, police found her car. So much of her blood was spilled in the interior, investigators concluded, there was no way that she could still be alive. In the years since, they've never discovered exactly what happened to her. Despite the best efforts of police, her killer has never been held to account.
Shirley was a retired nurse with two kids, a lady who liked stopping at yard sales and flea markets. At the very least, she deserved to be buried with dignity, by people who loved her.
The reward in her case stands at $10,000. Bridget put up the bulk of it herself. Money well spent, she figures, if it leads to the killer. When I interviewed her about the investigation, she wasn't optimistic. There hadn't been any developments for years. But she had to keep trying.
I don't know if there will ever be justice for Shirley McKeown. You see so many cases, and every day, a new one -- seemingly more impossible -- comes along. (And I'm just a professional bystander. I have no idea how the investigators, the people on the front line, deal with this.)
But I've seen miracles happen, too. Mysteries that I thought would NEVER be resolved have suddenly crystallized and cleared. Somebody calls the hotline. A DNA sample finally gets run through the database. The bad guys lose.
It's good to know the odds. It's good to know hope, too.
Photo Credit: Freefoto.com
Please note that Investigation Discovery does not necessarily endorse any of the views expressed by guest bloggers and Investigation Discovery is not responsible for the information contained in guest posts.
Recent Comments