A look inside Pittsburgh police cold case unit working to bring families closure

PITTSBURGH — Tucked inside the Pittsburgh Police Bureau is a team solely focused on one thing: solving cold cases.

“Cold case for us is we review everything, go over everything, go over all the reports and documents, photos, everything and look for a lead,” said Maurita Bryant, a Pittsburgh police civilian detective.

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The work began last summer. A pile of cold homicide cases going back decades with just two detectives, so the question became where to begin?

“We went back five years to see what was open. Then we looked at young people under the age of 18 and decided to tackle those cases first. Because they are children and they are innocent and we need to look out for them,” said Assistant Chief Lavonnie Bickerstaff with Pittsburgh police.

But that doesn’t mean that’s all that’s on the board.

“The cases stay with you. I can ride all over Pittsburgh and can point out where homicides scenes were at,” Bryant said.

These cases are personal to the detectives, so they are willing to dive into any case they get a call on.

“There’s one from 2003 up on the board here that I was on scene, you are involved in working it, it becomes part of you. You think [with] some of these victims, what if it was your own family members or your parents or your children?” said Detective George Satler with Pittsburgh Police Cold Case Unit.

The driving force is seeking truth and justice and it comes in many forms.

“I got a phone call in the last six months from the dentist of a victim who the case had never been solved. We actually got a good viable lead and it’s being analyzed right now,” Satler said.

New technology has helped with retesting DNA and evidence, new witnesses are now willing to speak up, but it doesn’t come without frustrations.

“Once we review a case and there’s no new leads, we might have even identified a possible suspect and this person hasn’t been arrested and you are putting the case back and we weren’t able to do anything with it at this point,” Satler said.

As homicides continue in our city, this team wants those mothers waiting by the phone to know they’re working and their kids’ cases are not forgotten.

“We haven’t forgotten. It’s funny I spoke to a mother this morning, she was so excited just to know somebody was looking at her case. She said, ‘I think about my baby everyday,’” Bryant said.

The ultimate goal is to get more grant funding and continue to grow this team to include four to six detectives.

For now, they encourage anyone with information on any unsolved homicide to reach out either at 412-323-7800 or PBPColdCaseSquad@pittsburghpa.gov.

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