KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Jackson County Prosecutors Office has been awarded a federal grant to fund the use of DNA to solve violent cold cases, Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced on Wednesday.
The two-year grant worth over $415,000 comes from the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice – the third time the office has received the grants for its DNA cold-case unit, having previously received the grant in 2008 and 2010.
“We are extremely pleased and honored to receive a third consecutive Solving Cold Cases with DNA grant from the Department of Justice,” said Ted Hunt, chief trial attorney over the prosecutor office’s Sex Crimes Unit, in a statement. “This award will allow us to continue our critically important work on violent, unsolved cases for the citizens to Jackson County.”
Prosecutors say that the unit has resulted in charges in 32 violent crime cases, as well as 27 other criminal filings against “John Doe,” which preserve the charges until a defendant is identified by name. In addition, evidence has been assembled in 2,545 violent cold cases that have a potential to be solved through DNA testing.
