Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Search for clues inches along for years, decades
Cold case unit knows job slow
BILLINGS, Mont. — In a small office on the second floor of the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office building, two volunteers read internet comment threads about the county’s oldest cold case.
Three donated computers and scattered papers cover the desks. On the wall, a sheet of paper hangs on the wall with a message printed on it: “Incarnate evil doesn’t always look evil.”
The volunteers, Scott Goodwin and Diana Walker, read aloud to each other, hoping to pick up some new morsel of information to add to the volumes of case files. Dozens of large binders sit on a bookshelf at the back wall, but one was removed, the Billings Gazette reported.
It was one of many binders covering the 1973 homicides of Cliff and Linda Bernhardt. The couple was found bludgeoned in their Dorothy Lane home. Their feet and hands had been bound, and Linda had been raped.
Investigators have been trying to solve the case since.
It’s one of nine cases that the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit has looked into over the past four years. The part-time volunteers, most of whom are ex-law enforcement, have been working behind the scenes, piecing together clues for murder cases that span decades.
Longtime reserve deputy Monty Wallis coordinates the unit. His group tries to find breaks in homicide cases that full-time law enforcement has investigated for years. The work can be frustrating and often tedious.
“Looking at cold case homicides is a lot different than regular law enforcement duties,” Wallis said. “Really, it’s a research process.” Getting up to speed Sheriff Mike Linder announced the Cold Case Unit in 2012. A research group would examine unresolved homicide cases, sort out the evidence and find ways to keep the investigation going.
The unit is comprised of volunteers. The computers, software and some money for lab tests were donated, Linder said. Without the unit, the six officers of the office’s detective division would tend the cases when their current caseload allowed for extra time.
“Manpower would not allow us to be in here full time,” he said.
The group started with 14 volunteers. They were former detectives, patrol officers, probation and parole personnel and specialized investigators. The unit is now down to about five volunteers. Collectively, they work up to 200 hours per month, Wallis said.
“Every genre of law enforcement in the community we’ve been able to tap,” said Sgt. Dan Paris, a detective with the sheriff’s office.
Much of the initial work involved digitizing and indexing the old case files. The old work had been done on paper, with carbon copies and other pieces of evidence added throughout the life of the case. There are “walls of case files” to go through, Wallis said.
In cataloged, digital form, current detectives can draw connections with other cases more quickly. If a name pops up in a 2016 case, investigators can easily see if that name appears in a cold case. With a strong lead, the detective division would then take over.
“If information comes in on a particular case, they can follow up and ferret it out,” Paris said.
He estimated that the digitization effort has saved him three months of work.
The unit goes over the case files, determining what evidence is available and searching for new leads — different ways to approach the investigation. Much of that comes from newer DNA technology that can be applied to evidence retained over the years.
It’s time-consuming work. A DNA analysis can take up to a year, depending on the Montana State Crime Lab’s load of current cases.
“That’s really how cold cases are solved these days — DNA evidence,” Wallis said.