Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Case Murders
When the body of an unidentified child was found stuffed inside a portable cooler
alongside the Henry Hudson Parkway 22 years ago, NYPD detectives dubbed the
girl Baby Hope, to reflect their optimism that they would one day find her killer.
But the case sat cold until this summer, when routine canvassing of the
neighborhood where Baby Hope was found elicited the childs real nameAnjelica
Castilloand, later, a suspectCastillos cousin, Conrado Juarez, who reportedly
confessed on Saturday to sexually assaulting and murdering Castillo back in 1991.
The arrest of Juarez is a triumph for the NYPDs tiny Cold Case Squad, but its also
a sad reminder that similar successes are few and far between. With staffing and
funding levels hovering around all-time lows, the NYPDs Cold Case Squad is
currently a shell of what it used to be.
The cold case squad concept originated in Miami in the 1980s, and soon spread
to police departments across the country. The NYPDs Cold Case Squad was formed
in 1996, with approximately 50 detectives charged with reexamining some of the
departments most difficult cases. In The Restless Sleep, her history of the Squad,
Stacy Horn wrote about how the unit was staffed with aggressive, intelligent
detectives with a special talent for joining loose ends. You are here for a reason,
the squads commander used to tell his detectives. You were handpicked. You
know how to put a case together. You know how to find someone. Go out and find
these guys who thought they were going to get away with murder.
But over the past decade, with municipal budgets shrinking, cold case
squads around the country have been decimated, and New York is no exception. In
2012, the New York Post reported that only eight NYPD cold case detectives
remained on the squad. The city has had about 9,000 unsolved murders since
1985, reported the Post. An FBI study found that to solve a homicide, an
investigator should work no more than three cases at a time. City cold-case
experts handle 50 to 100 cases at once.
This means, of course, that the remaining investigators are spread thin. The
coverage of the Conrado Juarez arrest made a big deal out of the fact that
detectives would canvas Washington Heights each year around the time Castillos
body was found. Left unsaid is that, due to the staffing cutbacks, passing out
handbills and hanging posters was likely the extent of the detectives annual work
on the Baby Hope case. Cold case cops generally wont start to dig deep into a
case unless theres new information to analyze. Otherwise, itll remain on ice.
There are a few reasons why cold case squads have dwindled. Dwindling funding
and manpower is one of them, of course. It can be hard to justify funding for units
specializing in decades-old cases when brand-new homicides are going unsolved.
Many cold case units have come to rely on federal funding, much of which is doled
out by the National Institute of Justices Solving Cold Cases with DNA program. If
federal grants dont come through, these units are often unable to continue their
work.
Its also a question of departmental priorities. Its not high on the agenda if its
not about terrorism, a former NYPD detective told New York in 2007, when asked
why he thought the Cold Case Squad had been given short shrift. Theres a lack of
interest, a lack of training, and a lack of resources. In The Restless Sleep, Stacy
Horn also noted that cold case arrests are not submitted to CompStat and from
there to the FBI. As a result, theyre not scrutinized in the weekly CompStat
meetings. CompStat is the crime statistics program through which the
department analyzes its performance; commanders are often so obsessed with
showing progress in CompStat that non-CompStat matters get little attention. I
know we could do much better. But its not a priority with the police department,
a former Cold Case Squad official told Horn. The priority is the twenty-eight-day
CompStat period.
That seems short-sighted. For one thing, cold case arrests generate positive
publicity for a department that needs all it can get. Moreover, as the Post noted,
New York state is now collecting DNA samples from everyone convicted of a felony
or a misdemeanorinformation that could be very useful in linking convicts with
unsolved crimes. But as long as the squad remains short-staffed, these links will go
under-investigated, which is a shame. The Baby Hope arrest goes to show how
much more the Cold Case Squad could do if it had the resources it needs.
Hay algunas razones por las escuadras de casos fros han disminuido. La
disminucin de la financiacin y los recursos humanos es uno de ellos, por
supuesto. Puede ser difcil de justificar el financiamiento para las unidades
especializadas en casos de dcadas de antigedad, cuando los homicidios
flamantes van sin resolver. Muchas unidades de casos fros han llegado a depender
de los fondos federales, muchos de los cuales se repartieron por el Instituto
Nacional de "Justicia Resolucin de Casos Fros con el ADN del programa ". Si los
subsidios federales no vienen a travs de, estas unidades son a menudo incapaces
de continuar su trabajo.
Eso parece miope. Por un lado, las detenciones de casos fros generan publicidad
positiva para un departamento que necesita todo se puede conseguir. Adems,
como el poste de sealar, el estado de Nueva York est ahora recogiendo muestras
de ADN de toda persona declarada culpable de un delito grave o un delito menor-la
informacin que podra ser muy til en la vinculacin de los condenados con
crmenes sin resolver. Pero mientras el equipo sigue siendo corto de personal,
estos enlaces se van poco investigados, lo cual es una lstima. El arresto de beb
Esperanza viene a demostrar cunto ms el Caso Escuadrn podra hacer si tuviera
los recursos que necesita.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/10/14/baby_hope_anjelica_castillo_almost_no_one_is_working
_on_new_york_s_thousands.html
Desde el mismo momento en que se comete el delito hay impunidad. Esto se refleja cuando el cadver pasa entre
cuatro y cinco horas a la espera de ser levantado por los tcnicos del Cuerpo de Investigaciones Cientficas,
Penales y Criminalsticas (Cicpc), debido a la falta de personal y de vehculos. Una vez que lo llevan a la
medicatura forense los familiares deben esperar hasta dos y ms das para la entrega del cuerpo ante el dficit de
patlogos.
Por otra parte, durante la fase de averiguaciones est el dilema de la escasez de material para someter a estudio las
evidencias colectadas en la escena del crimen. Aunado a ello, no hay suficientes investigadores, segn lo explica
Guzmn.
Hasta el ao 1999, cuando Guzmn dej la direccin nacional del Cicpc, haba 3.000 investigadores. Desde ese
entonces la cifra de especialistas en investigacin criminal solo se ha incrementado a cuatro mil, cuando debera
triplicarse en la medida en que el delito aumenta y va en ascenso la poblacin. En la actualidad, el cuerpo
detectivesco tendra que disponer de al menos 12 mil hombres para estudiar los casos, significa que tiene un
dficit de 8.000 efectivos.
Algunos casos son complejos. El nmero de expedientes supera con creces la cifra de personal para estudiarlos.
Estas son algunas de las razones de peso por las cuales muchos casos se quedan sin resolver.
Para Alfredo Ruz, miembro de la Red Justicia y Paz, esas trabas provocan el desgaste de los familiares de las
vctimas que ante la demora, porque pasan meses y hasta aos a la espera de que los culpables sean encarcelados,
optan por abandonar la lucha. "Adems hay que considerar que esa fase implica inversin de tiempo y dinero por
traslados al Cicpc y a la Fiscala en bsqueda de justicia. En ese nterin la polica dice que no consigue a nadie o
como excusa que la vctima fue abatida en un enfrentamiento, sin hacer un trabajo exhaustivo para identificar y
dar con el paradero de los responsables", explica Ruz.
Agrega que de los mil casos que acompaa la referida organizacin, dedicada a la defensa a las vctimas de
ajusticiamientos y torturas por parte fuerzas policiales y castrenses, solo 10% de los parientes de las vctimas
tienen la voluntad de continuar con la lucha y llegar a la segunda fase: la imputacin y condena de los
responsables, una vez que son aprehendidos.
Explica que las audiencias preliminares suelen suspenderse entre ocho y 10 veces por falta de traslado del
imputado o porque tanto la defensa o la parte acusadora no se presentan. No hay sanciones para los que no
asisten. Una vez que el caso pasa a juicio, tarda varias semanas, mientras llega el expediente al tribunal que le
corresponde y se hace el sorteo para saber qu juez se encargar de emitir el juicio. "En promedio desde que
ocurren los hechos hasta que se dicta la sentencia final, pueden transcurrir seis aos, lo cual requiere de paciencia,
recursos y apoyo moral por parte de los parientes de las vctimas". Comenta Ruiz que entre los aos 2000 a 2012,
la organizacin ha atendido 236 casos de ejecuciones extrajudiciales y menos de 10% de los responsables han ido
a sentencia.
http://www.eluniversal.com/sucesos/131111/70-de-los-homicidios-quedan-impunes