AUGUSTA, Maine — The state’s first cold case squad for unsolved homicides will soon have an advocate to address communication lapses between state officials and the families of victims, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills said Thursday.
Mills addressed some complaints by family members of victims when she told the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee that state police apparently were not getting back to victims’ families who offered tips on cases and that the state police cold case Web page is out of date.
“Good communications are vital to helping solve the cases and to the families being heard,” Mills said during the hearing. “I can understand the desperate need” families have for more information.
“I ask for continued patience from all of the people concerned” while state officials prepare to launch the squad in December, Mills said.
The advocate will be hired as soon as possible, said Tim Feeley, a spokesman for the AG’s office, on Thursday. Officials are drafting the specifications for the position and hope to advertise it shortly.
State police administrators were interviewing candidates for the lieutenant’s position on Thursday, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. A selection is expected shortly.
Sen. Linda Valentino, D-Saco, a committee member who sponsored the bill appropriating to the squad what eventually became $491,662 annually, sought the hearing in response to questions from victims’ families.
Valentino said Monday that she wants to ensure that the squad conducts good customer relations, community outreach and victims advocacy, points she reiterated at the hearing.
Family members of victims have wondered how state police detectives could effectively replace other state police detectives and still give cases a fresh look, Valentino said Thursday.
The families “want to be assured that there won’t be anybody looking at files and trying to make sure that nobody speaks against prior [investigative] work that was done,” she said.
“They want to make sure that” fresh eyes review every cold case to see what might have been overlooked or what new could be done, Valentino added.
The combined efforts of her office, the two new state police detectives to be appointed next month, the lieutenant appointed to oversee the squad, and the state forensic lab worker who will review evidence will provide that fresh approach, Mills said.
Expected this week, the appointment of the lieutenant had raised questions among cold case families who noted that Valentino’s bill called for the squad to be run by the attorney general’s office. The families also said the funding was effective July 1, meaning that state police might have started the squad shortly thereafter.
That lieutenant’s position, Mills said, will not be funded by Valentino’s bill. The victims’ advocate, the state’s third working on homicides investigated by state police, will be funded by a combination of state funds and grants state officials will apply for, she said.
Pamela McLain said the hiring of the advocate was good news. She is an occasional critic of state police. Her daughter Joyce McLain’s murder in 1980 in East Millinocket inspired the filing of the cold case bill in 2013 that Valentino’s bill funded.
The lack of an advocate was among the reasons Pamela McLain has had to publicly press state police since 2005 for reassurances that her daughter’s case was still a priority, she said during a telephone interview.
“No one would have given it a thought if I didn’t keep [my daughter’s case] out there with the help of a lot of family and friends,” said McLain, who has never testified in Augusta, finding the idea too painful. “If I was the type of person who sat back, Joyce’s case would have sat back with a lot of dust on it.”
McLain is not alone in her dissatisfaction.
“The state police for a lot of us have not communicated the way they should. In our case, we have never had communication from the state police or from an advocate. If you do call the state police, they are not on your side. A very adversarial position they take,” said Candus Simpson, whose grandmother, Maxine Bitomski, was slain in 1993 in Kittery.
The advocate will improve state police efficiency, said Patrick Day, a volunteer who works with about 60 cold case families as part of administering a website, coldcasesquadme.com, and a Facebook page, Support Cold Case Squad Maine, with 3,497 and 3,463 subscribers, respectively.
“I think it is taking precious, valuable time that the detectives could use for investigative things — talking to witnesses and working on cases. I don’t think it is necessary that families have to speak to a detective every time,” Day said.
“The victim’s advocates have always been an important and helpful link to victim’s families and we have worked well with those who have served in that role,” McCausland said.
The cold case Web page at maine.gov lists 70 homicides, but the attorney general’s office officials have said that the actual number of cases is closer to 120.
“The registry is out of date and we will be trying to get [state police] to update it,” Mills said.
Simpson expressed skepticism about Mills’ promises. The complaints about state police’s lack of communication were voiced during legislative hearings in May. Yet despite her direct testimony, no one from state police has contacted her since that hearing, she said.
“To not be contacted since May,” Simpson said, “is just unbelievable.”