3 Things to Know: OK Attorney General launches cold case unit

The Oklahoma Attorney General's office says it will use a $500,000 Bureau of Criminal Justice Assistance grant to help law enforcement solve cold cases across the state. It will establish a new cold case unit focused on using DNA technology to identify victims and prosecute suspects. Here are 3 things to know about the program:

1.The Cold Case Unit will tackle thousands of unmatched DNA samples

More than 3,800 samples of unmatched DNA exist in Oklahoma’s cold case files.

“Their lives matter and we need to bring closure for the families of those victims,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said.

The cold case unit will consist of a criminal investigator, a part-time criminal investigator and a criminal intelligence officer. They will spend three years sifting through those unmatched DNA samples using advanced DNA technology.

“Now we have more tools available to us. The database is more robust throughout the United States,” Drummond said.

2.The team will focus on victims of violent crimes

All of the DNA samples the cold case unit will work with are victims of violent crimes, where the DNA was recovered from scenes of unidentified bodies or scenes where a person was forcibly removed.

“We’re going to use the databases available throughout the United States to track down, try to get matches on these individuals, open up the cases and find out what happened,” Drummond said.

3.The AG’s office hopes to help solve cases involving Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

AG Drummond expects a large portion of the cases to involve tribal members.

“We know in Oklahoma empirically that Native American women have suffered crimes that have gone unresolved and we need to build that bridge with our Native American brothers and sisters,” Drummond said.

He hopes the cold case unit can bring peace to families who have suffered great loss.

“I think it will be a wonderful gift back to society if we are successful in closing some of these cases,” Drummond said.

The funding begins on June 30, but Drummond says results will take time.