CT forensics experts are tackling backlog of grim cold cases. New money and old DNA can bring justice
In a Hartford courtroom on Tuesday morning, prosecutors will begin presenting evidence in a case that went cold for years — a double homicide in the city’s North End in 2016.
The state will argue its case against Brandon Letman, hoping for a conviction in just one of the many cases in Connecticut that went cold, this one leaving the victim’s loved ones waiting for answers for years.
In other cases, families have been waiting for nearly half a century.
Behind the scenes, Sevasti Papakanakis, deputy director of Forensic Biology and DNA at the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory in Meriden, has boxes and boxes of cold case files stacked all around her desk.
Some of the files are small with just a few records from the initial investigation, others fill towers of white cardboard containers that pile high in one corner of her office.
The 40 or so cases in those boxes, which she has looked at recently to determine their eligibility for new grant-funded DNA testing, are only a fraction of the cases yet to be solved.
CT crime lab offering DNA testing funds to help local police departments crack cold cases
“That’s just a drop in the bucket,” she said sitting behind her desk, glancing around at the mountains of paperwork. “There are hundreds if not thousands,” of cold cases waiting to be solved here in Connecticut, she said.
After working in the lab all day, Papakanakis tends to open up case files at home at night, reading through handwritten notes scrawled in pencil on long-yellowed notebook paper and examining hand-drawn sketches of potential suspects, like one of a man in glasses from the 1995 killing of Karla Storer in Trumbull.
She always reviews the case in chronological order, she said, learning the information as investigators did.
“I like to go through the original police reports and get a feel for how everything was collected, where everything was collected,” Papakanakis said.
“I think it’s important to go from the beginning. I like to start from scratch, I think fresh eyes really help.”
Then, she makes many, many spreadsheets, and contacts the investigators who have been, or are still on, the case.
“It is critical that I deal with the assigned detective, and I sometimes have them send over everything they have,” she said.
She looks at the bigger picture of the case first, she said, making sure not to get her hopes up over any potential untested evidence.
Those materials can include everything from evidence logs, crime scene sketches and photos of the victim’s torn or bloodstained clothing to the evidence Papakanakis is always hoping to find — DNA.
Through the new grant funding, the lab can take a look back at some of the cases, whether they’ve been left long untouched or revisited dozens of times, to see if there is evidence available for new testing through advancements in DNA testing or through forensic genealogy.
John F. Fahey, Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney and head of the Cold Case Unit at the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney said that his unit has already started combing through their caseload, working collaboratively with state’s attorneys to send cases to the lab that might benefit from further testing under the new grant, which can be used over the next three years, Fahey said.
“So, over the course of that time, we will continue to give them cases that we think have some promise, based on initial reviews of evidence, to see if there’s anything that potentially could contain DNA,” Fahey said.
Those cases might include ones where, “when the case was originally committed, DNA might not have been a thing or DNA wasn’t as good as it is now. And certainly we didn’t have forensic genealogy,” he said.
Sometimes, Papakanakis said she would find evidence that should have been tested earlier in the investigation but wasn’t, usually due to a lack of technology rather than negligence.
DNA testing is an entirely different ballgame than it was when some of these crimes were committed and has even evolved since some of the newer cases were first investigated as recently as 2017.
While some of the oldest cases Papakanakis looked at recently date back to the 1970s, she’s looking to apply new DNA testing and fresh eyes to more recent cases, too.
“Now, in 2024, cases from 2015 or even 2020 are considered cold,” Papakanakis said.
Years ago, she said, “You would need a blood sample the size of a quarter to test DNA. Now you need a microscopic sample, as little as two or three cells, to test DNA.”
In-house DNA testing at the lab using amplification kits is much more advanced than it was even five or 10 years ago, Papakanakis said. “The sensitivity has increased a lot since then, meaning we can do a lot more with a lot less DNA.”
Newer technology may soon allow the lab to conduct single-cell analysis. This means forensic analysts will need just one cell to make a probable DNA match.
And nowadays, there is a lot more to compare those DNA samples to.
Traditional testing compares DNA samples to a known profile in CODIS — Combined DNA Index System — from someone who has been convicted of a crime and therefore has their DNA in the system.
But that’s not all they can compare samples to today.
Thanks to genealogical DNA testing, DNA samples from crime scenes can also be compared to public databases built from individuals who submit their DNA to genealogy sites and opt in to such testing.
This type of testing, Papakanakis said, is used for “those samples that typically have been searched in CODIS and haven’t hit to anything. They haven’t hit to another case or a suspect. (Meaning) our suspect has never been convicted of a crime. So we’re looking for samples that can be searched against private databases,” Papakanakis said.
Recently, forensic geology helped to solve a decades-old cold case of four home invasion kidnappings.
For years, Michael Sharpe, a former charter school CEO, was known only as “John Doe” in police records regarding a string of home invasions that occurred in Bloomfield, Middletown, Rocky Hill and Windsor in the summer of 1984. In January 2023, he was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes.
Sharpe’s case is the oldest cold case that the Cold Case Unit has been able to solve, Fahey said, and never would have been solved without forensic genealogy.
In Letman’s case, he faces two counts of accessory to murder, witness tampering, and weapons charges, records show.
The new grant funding may help solve similar cases.
“The good thing about this grant is it’s not limited to homicides. It is (for) violent crime cold cases,” said Papakanakis.
That means the lab is also taking a look at cases of sexual assaults and armed robberies where the investigations have stalled.
The Division of Criminal Justice lists about 40 open cold cases, but Fahey said the number is truly unlimited. And they’re hoping to solve as many as possible.
“There is no case that’s more important to me than any other one, and so if we solve one out of this, if we solve five out of this, if we solve 100 out of this, I’m just as happy,” he said.
The Cold Case Unit’s list includes the killing of an unidentified baby boy in 1986, a mother and daughter who were killed in Windsor in 1996, a man who was killed at the East Windsor gas station where he worked in 1985 and three young girls who disappeared in Vernon, Rockville and Tolland between 1968 and 1974.
The more time passes though, the more issues investigators may run into when revisiting an old case. Suspects, victims, witnesses and original investigating officers may die, taking memories and some pieces of evidence with them. But Fahey said DNA evidence will allow there to be hope to solve those cases.
“I think the DNA is going to allow us to go a little deeper in terms of years than we could with witnesses because the DNA sort of speaks for itself,” he said. “The DNA is able to stand on its own a little more.”
In the halls of the state lab, photos of crime scenes and evidence line the walls — from examples of handwriting analysis to photos of pieces of clothing examined for DNA evidence. Inside the labs, racks of lab coats hang near machines that extract DNA evidence from cuttings and swabs.
The forensic examiners who work at the lab are tackling the cold case backlog in addition to the 5,000 to 6,000 new cases that come in annually.
Papakanakis said that as scientists, the examiners try to remove emotion from their work. They look at the facts and work hard to separate themselves from prosecution or defense.
“We try not to get emotionally invested in our cases but it is satisfying to know it can end with a result. And that can go either way: either you’ve identified somebody or exonerated,” she said.
“It is exciting that after so many years you can still give a scientific response to something,” she said.
Despite the size of the caseload, both she and Fahey remain hopeful that DNA will offer answers to the questions that have plagued some of these cases for so many years.
“We are truly hopeful that we will garner some results,” Fahey said.
“I really feel that there’s always something to be done, even if resources now are limited for a case,” Papakanakis added. “I always think it’s important to say ‘Look at this in the future, or save this for when technology gets better.’”
Police departments and prosecutors are asked to contact Papakanakis’ office with cases that they have DNA samples for so that the lab can determine if the case is suitable for the funded testing.
“I can only review the cases that I know about,” she said.
