Teaser trailer
A short video trailer has been posted on the Cold Case OKC site. It’s a sneak peek at the next case, which debuts Sunday in print and online. Check it out at www.coldcaseokc.com.
Chalk up another one
It’s official. Cold Case OKC received another honor Friday night, winning a first-place First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists in the online project category.
We couldn’t be there for the award banquet in Arlington, but we’re pretty happy all the same.
Tooting our own horn
We at Cold Case OKC (soon to be known as Cold Case Oklahoma) don’t do this for public acclaim. Our goal is to help families find justice — justice that is often long overdue.
But we’re proud of our work, so please allow us a moment to toot our own horn.
Cold Case OKC recently won an Addy award in the Interactive Media-Online category. The honor went to the Web team who built and maintain the Cold Case OKC Web site.
Two weeks ago, the Cold Case OKC print stories won first place in the public service reporting category of the 2007 Carl Rogan journalism awards.
Judges said: “A prime example of public service. Great job of bringing these cold cases back into (the) spotlight. The stories tugged at readers’ emotions and no doubt brought back memories for those who lived through it. Great job of reporting — and changing how the police department deals with unsolved homicides.”
Cold Case OKC is also a finalist for a Society of Professional Journalists’ First Amendment Award. Winners will be announced Friday in Arlington, Texas.
Thanks for your patience. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.
Oklahoma novelist’s debut involves a cold case
This week, Avon Harper Collins released the first of three books by Oklahoma novelist Jordan Dane. “No One Heard Her Scream” is available in stores.
Dane, a friend of Cold Case OKC, based her debut novel in part on real-life crimes, including at least one unsolved case.
“The Natalee Holloway investigation in Aruba shaped the story,” Dane wrote in a Q&A on her Web site, www.jordandane.com. ”I watched the drama played out in the media and witnessed the parents’ pain through this ongoing nightmare. I had also visited Aruba during the 1980s and knew something of the layout and terrain. And in my book research, I found many Internet sites that theorize a human trafficking angle to this very compelling case. Human trafficking and the trauma of such an ordeal became a facet to the plot.”
The novel centers on San Antonio police Detective Becca Montgomery, who is torn between two cases. Barred from investigating her sister’s abduction from a field trip, she distracts herself by working on another case: human remains in the walls of a burned theater.
“There is a cold case of skeletal remains in a wall,” Dane wrote in an e-mail to Cold Case OKC, “and there’s forensics about all of that part in the plot. … Quite a bit actually, including how they solve the case in the end. Cold cases are hard to solve with evidence, so it comes down to a tricky interrogation.”
Publisher’s Weekly praised the book as “a dynamite debut” and said: “Dane’s smooth style, believable characters and intense pacing will remind readers of Lisa Jackson, Lisa Gardner and Tami Hoag. While Dane’s debut is being marketed as romantic suspense, it crosses over into plain thriller country: the tight plotting and the male characters are exceptional, bad guys and good.”
For more information, visit Dane’s Web site.
Dallas reopens cold case unit
After going without a dedicated cold case squad for about seven years, Dallas police reopened their cold case unit this month, the Dallas Morning News reports.
About 700 homicides from 1990 to the present have gone unsolved in the Dallas area.
For more information, check out the complete story online: http://tinyurl.com/24esxb
From a reader:
This was e-mailed to me by a reader. Anyone know much about these cases?
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I enjoy reading the Cold Case section.
I remember two cases that have had me wondering for 40 years. There was a girl from Duncan named Tammara or Tammy Hallmark that was attacked and beaten by a man.
She suffered such severe brain damage, that she was unable to speak clearly. She kept saying a name that sounded like one of the teachers/coaches name but, the investigators could never be sure if she was I. D. ing the guy or just saying his name because she trusted him. This was in 1965-66. I have always wondered what became of the girl and if the teacher is still involved in teaching or got into anymore trouble.
Along about that same time there was a huge scandal that involved 3 young men from prominent OKC families, (lawyers, politicians) The had raped, beaten (maybe killed) a girl.
I know everyone thought they would get off because of their families.
I left for the Air Force in ‘66.and was not able to keep up with news but, I have always been curious about what became of these 2 big stories.
Do any of your readers have any info that could shed light on this?
Have an idea for a story?
We’re always looking for cases to profile on Cold Case OKC.
Is there a case you want to know more about?
Let us know. Post here or send an e-mail to coldcase@oklahoman.com.
Why we do it
Cold Case OKC is about more than storytelling.
It’s public service journalism.
In December, we brought you the story of Audrey Harris. Five days later — and after 18 years of nothing — police identified and arrested a suspect in her death.
Our role was limited. All we did was share the story with you.
That’s no small thing, though. Cold case detectives tell us that getting information about these unsolved crimes into your hands is the key to solving them.
Each case that we’ve shared with you so far contains information that has never been published before — details from police case files and fresh interviews with key players. Harris’ story had never been told so fully in any venue.
Our latest case, the deaths of three women between 1976 and 1986, is also unique. Bits and pieces had been reported in the past, but never in such a comprehensive fashion.
Hopefully, the context and new details will stir someone’s memory — maybe yours — and help police find justice for these unfortunate victims. They don’t deserve to be forgotten.
The more people who hear their story, the better the odds that the case will be closed.
So please, spread the word to your friends and family. Bookmark www.coldcaseokc.com. Link to it from your own blog or Web site.
And share your ideas for how we can improve the site.
Thanks.
Ken
And now, for something a little different
Veterans of the Cold Case OKC blog may have noticed something different about the site this time around: our new look.
The logo now looks a whole lot more like the one on the Cold Case OKC Web site, and the arrangement should be a little more user friendly.
So check it out — and sing out, too. We want to hear from you. What do you want to see on this blog? What stories would you like us to tell?
Thanks!
Find the missing, ID the dead
This is a unique Web site that should prove useful for anyone trying to find a missing loved one or anyone interested in cold cases.
Here’s a description from the site’s main page:
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons Initiative, NamUs, was launched by the Office of Justice Program’s National Institute of Justice in July 2007. NamUs is the first national online repository for missing persons and unidentified dead cases.
The NamUs initiative brings together two innovative programs and their online, searchable databases: IdentifyUs.org (for information on unidentified human remains, where users can now search over 400 cases) and Find-the-Missing.org (for information on missing persons).
When fully operational, NamUs will link these databases to provide a powerful tool for families, law enforcement agencies, medical examiners and coroners, victim advocates, and the general public. It will allow searches for matches between missing persons and unidentified human remains records. NamUs also will provide central access to information from other Web sites, State clearinghouses, and other important resources.
To visit the site, go to: www.namus.gov
