AUGUSTA, Maine — Democratic and Republican lawmakers who last year spearheaded the creation of a Maine State Police cold case squad said Tuesday that they will pursue additional measures designed to help families pursue their cases when the criminal justice system comes up empty.
Sen. Linda Valentino, D-Saco, and Rep. Karl Ward, R-Dedham, met Tuesday with several families of homicide victims whose cases have not been solved to discuss concerns that have come up since the cold case squad formed last year. Among those concerns are laws that keep criminal case files closed, which makes it difficult for media organizations to report on the cases, as well as a statute of limitations that bars the filing of civil cases more than two years after a homicide.
Valentino said numerous families in Maine have told her that they wish more details about investigations were available to the public, private investigators and national television documentary crews that might help spur interest in cold cases.
“We have had a lot of interest from different people to do documentaries on the cold cases in the state of Maine because this legislation has really gained national attention,” said Valentino. “Because of the limitations now on releasing any information, it has been impossible for them to do a show.”
The two bills discussed by Valentino need to be drafted and approved by the Legislative Council before they could be considered by the full Legislature.
Col. Robert Williams, chief of the Maine State Police, said his organization will wait until the legislation is drafted before deciding whether to support it, but that in general there are valid reasons for keeping investigative details secret. One reason, he said, is that closed case files help investigators weigh the validity of statements from witnesses and suspects against information that has not yet been made public.
“A concern we’d have with that is sometimes these production people come to their own conclusions when they do these documentaries,” said Williams. “When people see that on television, that becomes truth and then we spend all our time chasing down these false leads, and the family has great hope again that may not be there. Part of the reason we do some of the things we do is so that families aren’t continually on a roller coaster.”
Family members of homicide victims told reporters on Tuesday that one of their chief complaints about the handling of their cases is that there are not enough updates from investigators.
“Of all the families I have ever talked to, this is the biggest piece that is missing from this puzzle,” said Richard Moreau, whose daughter Kimberly has been missing since 1986. “When you get information and you give it to a detective, you expect that within a reasonable amount of time that you’ll get an answer back.”
Ramona and Nisco Torres, whose son Angel has been missing since 1999, agreed.
“We do not want to be told we are going to be contacted if it’s not going to happen,” said Nisco Torres. “It is extremely discouraging for us.”
Williams said detectives on the cold case squad, which has been named the Unsolved Homicide Unit, are aware of that issue and that the imminent hiring of a grant-funded victim-witness advocate by the attorney general’s office will help.
“There are 70 or 80 unsolved homicides and every family wants their hour or two with investigators,” said Williams. “That’s hundreds or thousands of hours a year of continued communication and we’re not able to work on the complaint. The witness victim advocate will be able to reach out to these people and keep them apprised when something comes up.”
Assistant Attorney General Lara Nomani said in a Jan. 8 letter to Valentino that her office has been developing the cold case squad for months, including the decision to focus the two-person unit on cases “that have the best prospect of solvability.”
“We determined that we did not want to leave any cases unattended or ignored but clearly could not assign two detectives responsibility for all of the Maine State Police unsolved homicide cases,” said Nomani. “The state is too large, and the number of cases too big for any two people to handle.”
Torres said these developments are positive news for grief-torn families such as his.
“These additional resources may be able to assist in solving these cases and bringing closure to families like ours who continue to search for information about our loved ones,” he said. “Even if the answers our family seeks are not found, surely there will be many families for whom questions will be answered.”
