WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — There's a renewed effort to solve cold cases in Palm Beach County.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and State Attorney Dave Aronberg were awarded a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice earmarked for advanced DNA testing.
Currently, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office has 489 cold cases that date back to 1964.
The hope is that adding more of the latest in DNA technology will help investigators bring killers to justice and closure to extended grieving families.
"We have about 60 cases right now that we have identified a DNA source and still trying to establish a suspect," Maj. Talal Masri said.
The major, alongside U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., and Aronberg, announced that the funds would be used to buy more of the advanced DNA testing critical to detectives and hopefully provide them with new leads.
"This grant is important because, with new technology, we now have the ability to increase the DNA profiles to allow law enforcement to test DNA that could not be tested before," Aronberg said.
"Unsolved homicides lead to grieving families and anxious neighbors, and it sends the wrong message to would-be criminals," Frankel added.
The grant money also means more genetic genealogy testing. It's where collected DNA samples are sent to private labs and entered into a public database for possible matches that could lead to identifying murder suspects.
A previous grant awarded to the sheriff's office helped identify suspects in nine different cases. One of them includes killer clown suspect Sheila Keen-Warren. Deputies arrested her in 2017 and she is currently awaiting trial.
"This grant allows us to do better at collecting it and also to do better at testing it, but the flip side is that it's expensive," Aronberg said.
Officials said the testing comes with a price tag between $5,000 and $10,000 per case.
In addition to the grant, the PBSO was also awarded $150,000 for community policing.