Russell Sage launches center to solve cold cases

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Russell Sage College announced the launch of its new Criminal Investigation Resource Center (CIRC) which will allow student interns to work with law enforcement agencies and missing persons organizations on unresolved cases, also known as cold cases. The center was started by the founders of the Cold Case Analysis Center at the College of Saint Rose, Christina Lane and Christopher Kunkle.

The college reports that there are more than 250,000 unresolved murder cases, over 20,000 unresolved missing person cases, and 14,000 unidentified person cases in the U.S., based on FBI Uniform Crime Report data. Russell Sage also reports that only an estimated 52.3% of murder cases are solved, leaving almost half of them as cold cases.

CIRC is partnering with six law enforcement agencies, including the Albany Police Department and the Center for Hope, a nonprofit in the Capital Region supporting friends and families of missing people. Almost two dozen Russell Sage students are already working in the center.

The students working at the center have a slate of tasks, including fulfilling research requests, organizing or reorganizing cases, promoting media coverage of cases for increased community assistance, and generating funds to aid in investigations. There is a high standard of confidentiality since they are working with real case files.

Expert advisors assisting the center include retired investigators from the police, FBI, and Attorney General's Office, a librarian with archive research expertise, a forensic entomologist, and a forensic anthropologist. Students of any major at Russell Sage can apply to be an intern at CIRC for a chance to work with these experts, as long as they take a course in criminal behavior analysis.