The College of St. Rose in Albany debuted its new Cold Case Center Friday.
The Cold Case Analysis Center is a one-year internship offered to Saint Rose students enrolled in programs related to criminal justice and forensics. Associate professor of criminal justice Christina Lane leads the program: "It provides the opportunity for students to receive hands-on education in the field of cold case analysis and investigation. It give them a chance to learn in an applied setting and provides practical assistance to law enforcement, the parents of missing and murdered loved ones, and the community."
The center has partnered with the American Investigative Society of Cold Cases. St. Rose President Carolyn Stefanco: "The heartbreaking reality is that more and more people are desperately seeking answers about their loved ones. The College of St. Rose's Cold Case Analysis Center is the only one of its kind in New York state and one of just a half dozen in the nation that ties law enforcement agencies or organizations like the American Investigative Society of Cold Cases to college students via an internship course."
Students chosen for internships learn and practice analytical techniques. They volunteer to assist local law enforcement and criminal justice agencies in solving such cases.
Junior Emma Lacey, from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is one of those looking at cold cases with fresh eyes: "We're always talking back and forth. Everybody has a new theory, everybody has a new idea. There's 14 of us, so we all have a different outlook on all the information we're presented."
Mary Lyall is a familiar face at the Center. She co-founded the Center for Hope in Ballston Spa, and her daughter Suzanne has been missing for two decades. Lyall says you should never lose hope, citing a case in Ohio where three women were held captive in a private residence for 10 years. "One of the girls' mothers used to call us at Center for Hope and ask all sorts of questions. 'Should we go on television, should we talk to a psychic. Should we do this, should we do that?' She did wind up talking to Sylvia Brown, and Sylvia said to the woman 'You might as well forget it, your daughter is deceased, you know, don't go looking anymore.’ And eventually that woman died. And guess what? Her daughter was found. She was alive all the time."
Senior J'Hana Thomas from Albany says the students relate to the Lyall case. "We're not too far off from her age around the time that she went missing. A lot of us are 20, 21 years old, so we definitely have a different outlook that we can put toward the case."
According to statistics provided by St. Rose, there were about 185,000 unsolved homicides in the U.S. between 1990 and 2008, while an estimated 2,000 missing person cases go unsolved each year.
