Photo by Mabel Cruz<\/a><\/p>\nDuring Ritchie\u2019s presentation on a cold case the police department had recently solved, she said she noticed he kept saying he wished they had more time to go over these cases, and she wondered if UTA students could do some of that work. <\/p>\n
After Eddings pitched the idea, the process took about six months to get everything lined up, Dishko said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was really a new idea where we were having work of cold cases being done by students who were looking to get into the profession,\u201d Dishko said. \u201cSo I thought it was a great idea, and one I definitely supported and wanted to make happen.\u201d <\/p>\n
The program allows students to work on three cases full time, something the police department can\u2019t do on its own because it doesn\u2019t have a cold case unit. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo have a group of students focus on one case for a whole semester is really a unique concept,\u201d Dishko said. \u201cEven our detectives don\u2019t get that kind of time because they\u2019re managing multiple cases at one time.\u201d <\/p>\n
Apart from having eyes on cold cases, the program also serves as a way to bring UTA students who want to be a part of the law enforcement profession together with the police department. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a natural fit for us to work with the university,\u201d Dishko said. \u201cWe work with the university in so many other areas, and to work with the university in actual cold case homicides is really a great opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n
The students\u2019 impact on these cases is not limited to just the reports and the presentations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not doing all this work for it just to go back in a case file and sit there,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to actually put resources into the case and try to solve the case based on their recommendations.\u201d <\/p>\n
For the students, the course is about more than just solving a cold case.<\/p>\n
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Courtesy of the Arlington Police Department<\/p>\n
Jacey Concannon, biology senior with a forensics minor, said the program allows students to feel like they are working in the field and gives them insight into all the information police officers and investigators go through and why some of these cases take as long as they do to be solved. <\/p>\n
Preston Schroeder, criminology and criminal justice junior, said the class gives them an opportunity to look for a break that gets them closer to solving the case. <\/p>\n
\u201cI recognize that there’s a family and this person’s friends who have been waiting all this time for some closure, and somewhere along the line something happened and they haven’t gotten it yet,\u201d Schroeder said. \u201cAnything that we could do as a group to look into these, I think, would be appreciated by them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Six weeks into the semester, the students are already showing enthusiasm and dedication to the class, with some of them showing up almost two hours early and leaving late to get as much time as possible with these cases, Eddings said. <\/p>\n
Eddings, who approves which students get into the course, said she looks for students who have already taken certain forensics classes, including crime scene investigation, forensic death investigation and introduction to forensics, to prepare them for what they need to do in the course. <\/p>\n
Concannon said working closely with Eddings has been great, and with Eddings\u2019 extensive forensics background, she could not think of a better-suited professor to teach the course. <\/p>\n
With Eddings having worked on all three cases during her time as a forensic analyst, this has become a full-circle moment for her. <\/p>\n
\u201c\u200b\u200bIt is tremendously rewarding for me to see these students get so excited and work so hard to try to help law enforcement with this task,\u201d Eddings said. <\/p>\n
@_.lexlie_<\/p>\n
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