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11-08-2008, 11:15 PM
Cold Case Squad clears a dozen old murder cases in just two years
DNA helps, but so do old-fashioned investigative techniques
By Gene Warner NEWS STAFF REPORTER Updated: 01/21/08 7:56 AM
Detectives solved one 33-year-old murder when the key suspect spit into a snowbank, and the detective scooped up the spittle, then compared it with the DNA on fingernail clippings taken from the homicide scene. It was a match.
Another homicide, from 1994, was cleared when a reluctant witness agreed to talk about the shooting death years later — but only after the key suspect had been shot to death in a barroom brawl.
And Cold Case Squad detectives cracked one of their first cases two years ago, helped by lab tests on DNA taken from the stockings used to tie a 68-year-old woman’s wrists to a bedpost.
The Buffalo police Cold Case Squad is thriving.
By definition, these detectives tackle the hardest cases, homicides lacking a smoking gun or a quick confession.
The squad, with only three detectives, has cleared about a dozen old homicides since it was formed in March 2006.
Advances in DNA technology, of course, have been the key.
But detectives also rely on the more traditional gumshoe techniques — scanning databases of old homicides, rereading old case files, looking for new witnesses, re-interviewing old witnesses and resubmitting physical evidence to the Erie County Central Police Services labs.
And, oddly enough, they rely on strong detective work and exhaustive police reports from their predecessors to provide them the leads they’re chasing years later.
Detectives Lissa M. Redmond, Charles Aronica and Dennis A. Delano — and a former squad member, Detective Mary E. Gugliuzza — have shed new light on old cases. They’ve brought some comfort or closure to the families of Barbara Lloyd, Alvin Cosby and Sandra Hainesworth, among others.
Now the families of Timothy Dzialak, Edward Myers Jr., Jermaine H. Lloyd and Journey W. Cooper III hope the cold-case detectives can help those four victims rest in peace also.
“This is the last thing in the world I can do for my only son,” said Dzialak’s mother, Louella. “I want to go to Timmy’s grave and say they’ve been put away for what they did.”
In all three of these cases, surviving family members have pushed hard for detectives to reopen their cases.
“I call them every week,” Louella Dzialak said. “I’m like a thorn in their side. I don’t care. That’s my son.”
Even armed with the new DNA technology, cold-case detectives still are stymied by the same problems that prevented homicide detectives from making an arrest immediately after any killing.
That’s the case with Timothy Dzialak, the victim of a particularly gruesome killing.
‘It’s going on 10 years’
On Nov. 8, 1998 , Dzialak’s body was found near railroad tracks in the city’s Black Rock section. He had been shot in the chest and his body set on fire.
No physical evidence has been linked to a possible killer. No one has come forward to tell police exactly what happened. And at least one of the people last seen with Dzialak has refused to talk with detectives, on the advice of his attorney.
Louella Dzialak is convinced that revenge was the motive. The father of two of his friends had stabbed Timothy Dzialak in the knee a few weeks earlier, police had charged.
She believes that four or five young people her son was with the night before he was killed, including the two brothers, were “in the thick” of the events surrounding his killing.
Cold Case Squad detectives aren’t so sure that there was any motive like that. They say Dzialak, 25, was involved in a couple of shoving matches that night while drinking with friends.
“This group of people, on weekends, they would drink heavily, and it wasn’t out of the ordinary for them to get into confrontations with each other,” Aronica said. “The alcohol could have triggered the murder.”
Louella Dzialak and the cold-case detectives agree that a larger group of people — including the killers’ friends and relatives — could help them solve the case.
“Nobody wants to say anything,” Redmond said. “People definitely know who did what, but no one’s willing to take that leap and come forward and give us names.”
In Louella Dzialak’s mind, that’s another crime that has occurred in this case.
“In my heart, the people who know about it and haven’t come forward are just as guilty,” she said.
To stir up new interest in the case, Buffalo police last week posted an item on their Web site, announcing an old $10,000 reward still in effect in the case. That came after some prodding from Louella Dzialak. Anyone with any information on this or any other case can call the department’s confidential tip line at 847-2255.
In her many phone calls and meetings, Dzialak has gotten to know the Cold Case Squad detectives. She says she likes both Aronica and Redmond. But there remain tensions between a still-grieving mother and the detectives hoping to crack the case.
“They say they’re working on it, but you wonder if they really are working as hard as they say they are,” she said. “It’s going on 10 years.”
The Dzialak case shows one key principle guiding the Cold Case Squad — not getting blinded by focusing on one or two possible suspects.
What about the possible involvement of the two brothers whose father was accused of stabbing Dzialak?
“It’s a possibility,” Aronica said. “I’m not eliminating anyone [Dzialak] was with that night.”
Advances in technology
Focusing on one suspect is a cardinal sin in homicide investigations. That’s why family members sometimes are convinced they know who killed their relative, while police try to keep a more open mind.
“The worst mistake you can make is to focus on one person, because then you rule out everybody else,” Redmond said. “You have to keep your options open, or you eliminate your investigative avenues.”
Cold Case Squad detectives insist that no case has higher priority than any other one. They scan computer lists of homicides and reread old files, looking for cases that are solvable even after several years. Often they send old physical evidence back to the police lab, looking for DNA results that weren’t obtainable years ago.
Continued-
DNA helps, but so do old-fashioned investigative techniques
By Gene Warner NEWS STAFF REPORTER Updated: 01/21/08 7:56 AM
Detectives solved one 33-year-old murder when the key suspect spit into a snowbank, and the detective scooped up the spittle, then compared it with the DNA on fingernail clippings taken from the homicide scene. It was a match.
Another homicide, from 1994, was cleared when a reluctant witness agreed to talk about the shooting death years later — but only after the key suspect had been shot to death in a barroom brawl.
And Cold Case Squad detectives cracked one of their first cases two years ago, helped by lab tests on DNA taken from the stockings used to tie a 68-year-old woman’s wrists to a bedpost.
The Buffalo police Cold Case Squad is thriving.
By definition, these detectives tackle the hardest cases, homicides lacking a smoking gun or a quick confession.
The squad, with only three detectives, has cleared about a dozen old homicides since it was formed in March 2006.
Advances in DNA technology, of course, have been the key.
But detectives also rely on the more traditional gumshoe techniques — scanning databases of old homicides, rereading old case files, looking for new witnesses, re-interviewing old witnesses and resubmitting physical evidence to the Erie County Central Police Services labs.
And, oddly enough, they rely on strong detective work and exhaustive police reports from their predecessors to provide them the leads they’re chasing years later.
Detectives Lissa M. Redmond, Charles Aronica and Dennis A. Delano — and a former squad member, Detective Mary E. Gugliuzza — have shed new light on old cases. They’ve brought some comfort or closure to the families of Barbara Lloyd, Alvin Cosby and Sandra Hainesworth, among others.
Now the families of Timothy Dzialak, Edward Myers Jr., Jermaine H. Lloyd and Journey W. Cooper III hope the cold-case detectives can help those four victims rest in peace also.
“This is the last thing in the world I can do for my only son,” said Dzialak’s mother, Louella. “I want to go to Timmy’s grave and say they’ve been put away for what they did.”
In all three of these cases, surviving family members have pushed hard for detectives to reopen their cases.
“I call them every week,” Louella Dzialak said. “I’m like a thorn in their side. I don’t care. That’s my son.”
Even armed with the new DNA technology, cold-case detectives still are stymied by the same problems that prevented homicide detectives from making an arrest immediately after any killing.
That’s the case with Timothy Dzialak, the victim of a particularly gruesome killing.
‘It’s going on 10 years’
On Nov. 8, 1998 , Dzialak’s body was found near railroad tracks in the city’s Black Rock section. He had been shot in the chest and his body set on fire.
No physical evidence has been linked to a possible killer. No one has come forward to tell police exactly what happened. And at least one of the people last seen with Dzialak has refused to talk with detectives, on the advice of his attorney.
Louella Dzialak is convinced that revenge was the motive. The father of two of his friends had stabbed Timothy Dzialak in the knee a few weeks earlier, police had charged.
She believes that four or five young people her son was with the night before he was killed, including the two brothers, were “in the thick” of the events surrounding his killing.
Cold Case Squad detectives aren’t so sure that there was any motive like that. They say Dzialak, 25, was involved in a couple of shoving matches that night while drinking with friends.
“This group of people, on weekends, they would drink heavily, and it wasn’t out of the ordinary for them to get into confrontations with each other,” Aronica said. “The alcohol could have triggered the murder.”
Louella Dzialak and the cold-case detectives agree that a larger group of people — including the killers’ friends and relatives — could help them solve the case.
“Nobody wants to say anything,” Redmond said. “People definitely know who did what, but no one’s willing to take that leap and come forward and give us names.”
In Louella Dzialak’s mind, that’s another crime that has occurred in this case.
“In my heart, the people who know about it and haven’t come forward are just as guilty,” she said.
To stir up new interest in the case, Buffalo police last week posted an item on their Web site, announcing an old $10,000 reward still in effect in the case. That came after some prodding from Louella Dzialak. Anyone with any information on this or any other case can call the department’s confidential tip line at 847-2255.
In her many phone calls and meetings, Dzialak has gotten to know the Cold Case Squad detectives. She says she likes both Aronica and Redmond. But there remain tensions between a still-grieving mother and the detectives hoping to crack the case.
“They say they’re working on it, but you wonder if they really are working as hard as they say they are,” she said. “It’s going on 10 years.”
The Dzialak case shows one key principle guiding the Cold Case Squad — not getting blinded by focusing on one or two possible suspects.
What about the possible involvement of the two brothers whose father was accused of stabbing Dzialak?
“It’s a possibility,” Aronica said. “I’m not eliminating anyone [Dzialak] was with that night.”
Advances in technology
Focusing on one suspect is a cardinal sin in homicide investigations. That’s why family members sometimes are convinced they know who killed their relative, while police try to keep a more open mind.
“The worst mistake you can make is to focus on one person, because then you rule out everybody else,” Redmond said. “You have to keep your options open, or you eliminate your investigative avenues.”
Cold Case Squad detectives insist that no case has higher priority than any other one. They scan computer lists of homicides and reread old files, looking for cases that are solvable even after several years. Often they send old physical evidence back to the police lab, looking for DNA results that weren’t obtainable years ago.
Continued-