Trending
LISBON -- There is a list of Columbiana County residents waiting to learn what happened to a loved one and who was responsible for their deaths.
Both new county Prosecutor Vito Abruzzino and new Sheriff Brian McLaughlin have vowed to take a second look at those cold murder cases and investigators from both of their departments are working on them together.
Abruzzino said his office sent a letter out in January to each of those families letting them know about his pledge to revisit cold case murders in the county and that their loved ones' cases have not been forgotten.
He also said he plans to reach out once a year, around the date of the murder, with a status update.
There is a large cardboard box currently in the prosecutor's library just outside his office door containing evidence from one of those cases. He believes it may help by having some fresh sets of eyes reviewing the contents and reorganizing the data. They are creating timelines and suspects utilizing current technology. Investigators will be interviewing suspects and witnesses further, including those currently incarcerated on other cases.
At the same time the sheriff's office is getting warrants to continue looking into these cases and Abruzzino said they are including the prosecutor's investigators, Pat Wright and Troy Walker, giving them a chance to be at those scenes to assist.
With younger investigators in both departments, Abruzzino and McLaughlin believe this is a good time to work on these cases.
"Time is of the essence on some of these cases," Abruzzino said. "I'm proud to say the sheriff's office and our office are absolutely leaning forward on these cases and prayerful and hopeful they go somewhere."
McLaughlin said he has worked well with many of the people now involved in these cases for many years, including when he led the county Drug Task Force, and it is good for those strong investigators to be working together now on these cases.
McLaughlin began looking at these cases as he prepared to take office as the sheriff, using public records requests to start reviewing the cases. Although he would not give any details into which of the cold cases they are starting with, McLaughlin admitted interviews have been conducted in the past two weeks on three of them. The plan is to work on each one of them.
"It's good to get fresh eyes on the cases with guys very eager to make names for themselves," McLaughlin said. "I don't like to be idle and at least I can get to the point where I can say I did everything I could."