KALAMAZOO, MI (WTVB) – The Western Michigan University Cold Case Program, a pioneering partnership with the Michigan State Police, has successfully assisted in resolving several long-standing cold cases while providing students with intensive, real-world investigative experience.
Students in the program work “shoulder to shoulder” with detectives, performing critical tasks such as digitizing thousands of case documents into secure databases, creating detailed timelines, and building family trees to uncover new leads.
The collaborative effort recently gained national attention for its role in identifying suspects in decades-old homicides, including the 1988 murder of Cathy Swartz and the 1987 killing of Roxanne Wood, the latter of which led to a conviction in 2022.
The program’s success has prompted a significant financial investment from the state, including $200,000 in new funding as of late 2024 to expand its reach and empower more student cohorts.
This investment underscores the program’s dual mission of bringing justice to victims’ families and training the next generation of law enforcement professionals, many of whom graduate in high demand by agencies like the FBI.
As of 2024, students were assisting detectives with at least 14 additional unsolved homicide and missing persons cases, continuing their work to organize and analyze evidence that had remained untouched for year
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