Oleg "Al" Bohlouli in a photo provided by the Anchorage Police Department.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTVA-CBS 11 News) An Anchorage man, murdered more than four years ago, is putting the spotlight on a proposal by Gov. Sean Parnell, R-Alaska, to build a new $75 million crime lab.

"It's very difficult to even be here. And the reality that that's my little brother down there, that's very hard," Ron Bohlouli said at his brother Oleg "Al" Bohlouli's graveside.

Bohlouli's reality four years after his younger brother was murdered is still as fresh as the snow that fell on his grave.

"How do you deal with it?" Bohlouli says. "There's no training manual. You just do the best you can."

"I think at this point enough time had gone by to where we were hoping for some more information to get out there," says Bohlouli's sister Kim Bender.

Her brother's case is now cold. Bender flew up to Anchorage to join her brother in helping solve what police once thought was a random robbery gone bad.

"Because that's not what really happened," Bender says. "I believe my brother was murdered to keep his mouth shut."

Bohlouli's family says they think he was murdered when he found out marijuana he was growing in his basement was actually connected to the international Ranes and Shine drug trafficking ring.

"We defiantly, absolutely need a new crime lab in Anchorage," says Sen. Judiciary Chair Hollis French, D-Anchorage, who feels that would help with backlog of cold cases like Bohlouli's.

"There's such a big backlog of DNA samples


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because of the cramped conditions, and the limited space they have to work in," French says.

Parnell is making a new $75 million crime lab one of his capital budget priorities. French and House Judiciary Chair Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, support the proposal.

"The crime lab itself is critical," Ramras says. "But we forget Alaska politics isn't necessarily partisan. It's often regional"

Parnell is not proposing any new rural Alaska buildings in his capital budget. Sen. Finance Co-Chairs Bert Stedman, R-Sitaka, and Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, are from rural Alaska.

Ramras says that is why the crime lab could become a political battle, as cases like Bohlouli's continue to go unsolved.

"He would've turned 50 years old this month and I was really looking forward to sharing that with him," Bender says.

The Bohlouli family is pitching in an additional $5,000 to a $1,000 Crime Stoppers reward. If you have any information call 561-STOP.

Anchorage police say right now there is no evidence connecting the Bohlouli murder to the Ranes and Shine ring.

Stedman did not return our request for comment, and Hoffman is currently out of the country.

To contact the Newsroom, call 907-274-1111.