HPD's cold case division was just awarded two grants, but the money can only be used for specific cases: the victims must be Black men killed before 1979.
HOUSTON, Texas -- Dozens upon dozens of manila envelopes sit atop Detective Rich Rodriguez's desk at the Houston Police Department.They are unsolved murders, rapes, and missing person cases, some dating back more than half a century. Some files have overflowing paperwork, photos, and witness statements. Other cases have almost no evidence at all.Countryman and Rodriguez head up the HPD cold case department, working with four other detectives. Houston has more than 6,000 unsolved cases.
On Monday, Congress passed the Emmett Till Bill and it now goes to President Joe Biden to sign into law. In 1955, the murder of Emmett Till, 14, helped launch the civil rights movement.HPD's money from the Emmett Till grant must be used to investigate Black men who were murdered because they were believed to be gay or transgender.
"We have to remember that that was a different time," Countryman says."So, it wasn't something that was necessarily focused on or even really discussed in public.""We have this population in the Montrose area that's always been underrepresented," Countryman says."Especially now, when you're seeing more and more transgender individuals that are being targeted and murdered for that simple reason.
Investigators say they can use the money to pay genetic genealogists to track down relatives of a suspect: something that's gotten a lot of attention in cold case investigations as of late.
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