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WMU cold case team helps search for remains of woman missing nearly 50 years
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Students crack cold cases for college credit
The program allows students to sift through boxes of evidence to help the state crack cases that have gone cold for decades without answers – and they have already helped MSP solve a murder from 1987!
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Join the team
Applications for the Spring 2024 semester have now closed, check back in January 2024 for applications for the Summer and Fall 2024 semesters.
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An immersive program
Western's Cold Case Program with Michigan State Police is a leader in student cold case investigation, putting cohorts shoulder to shoulder with detectives solving homicide and missing persons cases. An exemplar of experience-driven learning, the program allows students to engage in criminal investigative techniques supported by seasoned law enforcement officials with the intent of resolving cases that have gone unsolved for decades.
Students graduate from the program in high demand, ready to hit the ground running at agencies from the FBI to local and state law enforcement and forensic labs. Their work also contributes to the public good, bolstering the police force while helping victims' families find justice and closure decades in the making.
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7,200 hours of student cold case work per semester
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28 cold case homicide and missing persons cases worked on by students and detectives
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2 student-assisted cold case solves
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Being a part of the Cold Case Program has been life-changing. It has given me the opportunity to develop my investigative and leadership skills while making professional connections in the field. I feel confident and prepared to step into a career in criminal justice having gained real-world, hands-on experience working with the program.
Jayla Williams, criminal justice, B.A.'23
As part of the Cold Case Program with Michigan State Police, student investigators gain countless skills by performing tasks such as:
Organizing older case files, tips, lab reports, photographs and police reports
Scanning thousands of documents into a workable, searchable format that will assist detectives in their investigations
Create timelines, an index of people and interviews, labeling security camera footage, identifying phone numbers and vehicles, creating maps and family trees that detectives believe will help them in their investigations
PLEASE NOTE: Deciding which cold cases in Michigan to reopen/re-investigate is a complicated decision-making process involving the type of physical evidence that is available and still testable, which witnesses are still available for interviews and whether weapons or property was retrieved at the time of murder. The Cold Case Program with the Michigan State Police does not choose which cases will be reopened for further investigation; it is assigned cases by detectives.
Latest News
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CBS 48 Hours
Correspondent Peter Van Sant delves into "The 'Unsolvable' Murder of Roxanne Wood"
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ABC12
MSP Tri-Cities cold case detectives to work with Western Michigan University Cold Case Program
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NBC Today Show
Students sift through evidence to help the state crack cases that have gone cold for decades
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WZZM13
WMU cold case team helps search for remains of woman missing nearly 50 years
