Search

Category: Highlights

Dark grey-filled circle with a woman holding a sword and a justice scale inside
Highlights

Denver Police solve four related cold case homicides that occurred between 1978 and 1981

The Denver Police Department and law enforcement partners today announced that through the continued determination of investigators, DNA evidence, investigative genetic genealogy and familial DNA search, the suspect in three Denver cold case homicides and an Adams County cold case homicide has been identified as Joe Michael Ervin (DOB: 6/25/51), who is deceased. The murders of three women and a teenage girl occurred in separate incidents between 1978 and 1981. The four cases were linked together and solved through several significant investigative developments beginning 35 years later. The final identification of the suspect in these four murders through Investigative Genetic Genealogy and familial DNA research was a result of Denver’s Integrated Cold Case Project. This project is funded in part through a 2020 Genetic Genealogy & Familial Match Searching grant, awarded to the Denver Police Department by the Bureau of Justice Assistance for a total of $470,000.
January 2022
Dark grey-filled circle with a woman holding a sword and a justice scale inside
County of Monterey

Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni receives a $535,000 federal grant for her cold case task force for use of DNA technology in violent crime investigations and prosecutions

District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni announced today that the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force a $535,000 grant for the use of DNA technology in cold-case investigations and prosecutions. With the support of the grant, the Cold Case Task Force proposes to identify and actively investigate 45 violent-crime cold cases over the next three years where suspect DNA has been identified or where there is DNA evidence that could be used to identify previously unidentified human remains. The grant funding will enable the Task Force to hire an annuitant investigator to exclusively work on qualifying cold cases, as well as to pursue advanced DNA testing at accredited private laboratories.
January 2022
Grey-filled circle with a justice scale icon inside
Highlights

Exoneration of Ted Bradford

Ted Louis Bradford spent almost 10 years in prison for a sexual assault he didn’t commit—and another four years awaiting a new trial—before he was retried and acquitted based on DNA evidence of his innocence in 2010.
January 2019

© 2025 All rights reserved​