"We want to solve these cases together with the homicide investigators from the district police authorities," explains the head of the LKA profiler Andreas Müller. He and his colleagues work together with numerous experts. The team regularly includes LKA profilers, forensic pathologists and forensic psychiatrists. The cases date back to the 1970s. The technology has developed further - traces can subsequently provide clues to the crime, the motive and not least the perpetrator.
A new case processing system and the future inclusion of modern software for text recognition make it possible: all information about a crime can now be recorded and processed digitally. The LKA NRW is taking advantage of this opportunity and has been storing unsolved homicides centrally in this database since the beginning of 2018. In addition to old cases, they also record current homicides that have been closed as unsolved.
Murder investigators and LKA profilers can research possible crime connections, reconstruct crime sequences and deduce motives. If, for example, murder characteristics can be found, this is a starting point for resuming investigations and forensic examinations. After all, murder is not time-barred - unlike manslaughter.
The homicide investigators at the district police authorities transfer the contents of the paper files to electronic files and send them to the LKA NRW. This ensures that investigators of future generations can also access the case-related data.
The system is managed by the LKA profilers. After receiving the "cold cases", they decide which cases are to be prioritized and whether they are to be subjected to an operational case analysis. Priority is given to manslaughter offences that will soon be time-barred and cases that reveal new investigative approaches.
The newly established BAO Cold Cases can now be contacted by interested former detectives as well as relatives of victims of the cases in question and potential whistleblowers on 0211 939 3176 and by email at BAOColdCases.LKA [at] polizei.nrw.de (BAOColdCases[dot]LKA[at]polizei[dot]nrw[dot]de).