Alaska Department of Public Safety launches Cold Case Investigation Unit website.

The general public now has access to the list of longstanding cold cases.

The Alaska Department of Public Safety has launched the Cold Case Investigation Unit webpage, according to the department.

“In a sense, we’re offering this revamped webpage as a call to action,” Colonel Barry Wilson, Director of the Alaska State Troopers, said in a press release issued Tuesday. “We’re hoping the public will be inspired to get involved and help put more of these cases to rest. Any new information, DNA as a family member or dental records which may be matched to newly or previously discovered remains that have gone unidentified, can bring closure to an investigation.”

The site went live on Monday.

Now the public can see the lists of names of unresolved homicide cases and victims, and missing person cases that have not been solves. The CCIU was formed in 2002 with the goal of investigating unsolved cases that date as far back as 1961. The Alaska Bureau of Investigation oversees the CCIU.

“With the advancement of DNA technology, the CCIU and the Missing Persons Clearinghouse have solved homicides and missing persons cases by working with victims’ family members who’ve come forward to provide DNA,” DPS officials said in the release.

DPS cited recent examples of breaks in cold cases including the arrest of Steven Downs of Auburn, Maine, who has been charged in the murder and sexual assault of Sophie Sergie, who was killed in a UAF dorm in 1993.

For more, see dps.alaska.gov/AST/ABI/ColdCase.

Contact the Frontiersman at news@frontiersman.com.