From the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office
PRESS RELEASE
Sheriff Tommy Gage is pleased to announce that the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office has
been awarded a second “Solving Cold Cases with DNA” grant in the amount of $221,092, from
the National Institute of Justice. The 18-month grant which will begin in October provides
funding for DNA testing of evidence associated with unsolved violent crimes, including
homicides, sex crimes, robberies, kidnappings and aggravated assaults. The grant is fully funded
by the National Institute of Justice a division of the Department of Justice.
The original “Solving Cold Cases with DNA” grant was awarded to the Sheriff’s Office in late
2007 and ended in March of 2009. Over one hundred cases were selected and subjected to the
latest in DNA technology. The cases included over twenty homicides and over seventy sexual
assaults.
Under the grant, evidence is submitted to a forensics laboratory, for DNA testing. DNA profiles
from the evidence are entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) by the Texas
Department of Public Safety in Houston and compared to individuals whose DNA profiles are on
file. Texas law allows DNA samples to be collected and entered into the data base from
convicted felons and the DNA is cross referenced within CODIS to find matches.
The Sheriff’s Office has received several CODIS “hits” in cold cases that were reviewed with the
initial grant funds and expect others to follow. These grant funds allow the accelerated
processing of evidence in a field where a single DNA test can cost thousands of dollars.
The following are some of the cases with positive results as a direct product of the grant funds
and the Cold Case Squad. Others are expected to follow:
