Playing cards are a new strategy in solving cold cases
By Angie Ricono, Cyndi Fahrlander
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KANSAS CITY, Kansas (KCTV) — The Kansas Department of Corrections is hoping playing cards will help them solve cold cases.
It’s not as crazy as it sounds. A few other states have used playing cards to help solve cases—Connecticut, Indiana and Florida.
“You’re left to good old fashioned police work, but until you get that tip, you can’t start a new lead,” said John Fahey, with the Attorney General’s office in Connecticut.
The cards are sold in the prison commissary. Each card has information about a cold case. The cards, and the box, remind inmates to call and share information.
“Obviously not every tip is legitimate,” said Fahey. “And not every tip renders fruit in terms of solving a case.”
Still, Fahey calls the program a success. He told us Connecticut is now on its fifth edition of the cards.
“It was just simply a thought process to try to generate conversations among inmates,” said Fahey. “And every once a while those conversations…an inmate will say, ‘Oh, yeah, I know about that case,’ or ‘I’m responsible for that case.’”
The Kansas Department of Corrections has collected case submissions from various Kansas law enforcement agencies. A selection committee is narrowing the selection to 52 cold cases with the greatest chance of being solved. The cases include murders, missing persons, unidentified remains and serial violent crimes.
The department expects the first deck ready for distribution in late spring or summer.
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