North Texas detectives form coalition to solve cold case crimes

PLANO, Texas - They are called cold cases because the leads and the trails have faded over time. But the men and women who investigate them look at the past with a present lens.

And on Tuesday for the first time, cold case detectives from all across North Texas came together.

DFW Cold Case Network

What we know:

This new cold case coalition is called the DFW Cold Case Network.

Detectives from different agencies have committed to working together on researching and reviving cold cases.

It’s a network for support and sharing techniques.

Like the old saying goes, two heads are better than one. So, the detectives are putting their investigative brains together to learn from each other.

What they're saying:

"We have a lot of agencies here in Dallas who had done some really good work on cold cases, keeping these victims from being forgotten. Instead of us working individually in silos, how can we all work together and learn from each other? What things are working on these cases that other agencies are doing? And that’s the purpose of this meeting today. Let’s get everybody in a room. Detectives, crime analysts, admin, prosecutors – all the people working on these cases from the law enforcement side of things," said Det. Aaron Benzick with the Plano Police Department.

The Plano detective said he issued a challenge to the agencies that participated in Tuesday’s initial meeting.

"Do you even know how many cold cases you have?" he asked. 

He said while it’s important to solve crimes for living victims and their families, it’s just as important for the families of murder victims.

"We're working on these cases and we spend some time on them. These families are thinking about these cases every day. They're thinking about their family member. What happened? Who killed them? Maybe even a missing person case. They’re still thinking about where are they? So that's why it's important for us to work on these cold cases. This isn't just going through and working through stats and numbers. These are people. These are families. These are victims. And this is why we're in this room today," Det. Benzick said.

Cold Case Awareness Month

September is National Cold Case Awareness Month. That’s another thing Det. Benzick helped to establish.

He explained that many cold cases are being solved now through genetic genealogy, where people become genetic witnesses, sharing ancestry matches that help law enforcement identify a suspect.

That’s how Plano police identified Nicholas Carney, a 65-year-old man living in Oklahoma, in 2023.

DNA connected Carney to the 1991 abduction and sexual assault of an 8-year-old Plano girl, as well as the 1999 kidnapping and sexual assault of a child in Dallas.

He’s now serving a life sentence for those crimes.

Shaun Rabb’s Trackdown

Something unexpected also happened while FOX 4’s Shaun Rabb was covering the story. The Dallas Police Department presented him with the "Citizens Certificate of Merit" for his nearly 10-year Trackdown franchise.

Dallas police said his reports have directly contributed to the successful safe apprehension of suspects in cases that would otherwise not have been resolved. A total of 238 arrests or identifications have been made because of Trackdown.

Shaun was applauded for his passion and professionalism.

Crime and Public SafetyPlano