A new partnership at the University at Albany could help detectives solve cold cases. As WAMC reports, student-interns will be going through data to support investigative efforts.
The next time you see a TV special on a cold case resolution, local college students might have played a role.
Formerly housed at the now-shuttered College of Saint Rose, the Cold Case Analysis Center is finding new roots with the University at Albany’s School of Criminal Justice. Formed in 2018, the center works with investigative agencies across the region and communities to lend different perspectives to cases gone cold.
Cam Hughes was the director of the CCAC at Saint Rose. She was tapped by officials at UAlbany to bring the program to the public college. Hughes says students take on sensitive information with hopes of adding thoughtful and useful research to cases.
“Looking at the history of the case, you know, digital versions of evidence and those sorts of things to really help give a second look or third look, in some cases, at cases,” Hughes said. “So that they can kind of avoid things like tunnel vision or any sort of biases that might have been around when the case actually occurred, to try to help develop new angles, new areas of inquiry, potential new suspects, or folks to interview related to cases and recommendations about other forensics testing that might be useful, things have changed pretty significantly in the last decade.”
While the likelihood that cases will be solved by students is slim, there is more to the center’s work than just closing cases. Hughes says work done by the student interns can help families feel like the case was fully vetted.
Both undergrads and graduate students from any major can apply for an internship. While at Saint Rose, the program was only open to criminal justice, forensic psychology, and forensic science students.
Pam Hoxha is a senior studying criminal justice. A former Saint Rose student, she knew she wanted to continue her work with the center following the private college’s closure in June.
At Saint Rose, she interned in the center more than once a week.
“I went through the files, took a lot of notes,” Hoxha said. “I was taking books with me, so I can just incorporate some of the stuff that I had from outside resources into what we were doing. So, for me, it was mostly like I was going there, going through files, going through photographs, taking notes, stuff like that.”
She explained that she would often take books home to study, with hopes of learning new information that would help her and her teammates in their investigation. She explained what a day working on cases looked like.
“On the case that we had, basically, I was going into the autopsy photos, and I was trying to figure out where it could have been something that was mistakenly overlooked,” Hoxa said.
Hoxa plans to graduate with a master’s in criminal justice in May. Hoxa, who attended Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, started at Saint Rose just before the college announced its closure. Hughes says she then stopped actively searching for agencies to partner with. By the end of the spring semester, the center had worked through and turned over its remaining cases.
“Fortunately, we didn't have a lot of cases we were actively working and so we were able to set it up in a way to wrap up what we had been working on, or the cases were in a position where the investigative agency was working on something, and so we were not,” Hughes said. “So, they were working on re- interviewing some folks, because generally I don't like students interviewing potential suspects, so we hand those kinds of things back over to the investigative agencies. And so, they were doing the work on their ends. And we didn't really have to stop anything that we were doing.”
Hoxa looks forward to the new opportunity she and the center have at UAlbany.
“I believe right now will be way more organized. We would have more things. And yeah, I'm really excited to join,” Hoxa said.
Classes begin Monday.
