ANCHORAGE, Alaska --- Right now, there are 74 unsolved murders in Anchorage. After Anchorage Police run out of leads, and witnesses have no more to say, most of those cases go cold. That is exactly what has happened to 57 of those 74 unsolved murder cases: they have become cold cases.

"We have cases that are unsolved going back almost 40 years," says APD Homicide detective Sgt. Slawomir Markiewicz, "Not developing anything new, the case goes cold." Right now, there are 57 cold cases in Anchorage and 57 families without closure.

One of them is the Dillivan family. Jerry Dillivan was killed in 1995, and his murder has become a cold case. "The night before Jerry passed away he had called me from work, and he said mom, ill be home at 9 o'clock and he said mom, I love you," recalls Julie Dillivan, Jerry's mother.

"My last memory of him was playing a monopoly game- that was the last," says his sister Cheyenne Dillivan.

Last year, the Anchorage Police Department got a $500,000 grant from the federal government, and some of that money is being used to tackle the city's cold cases. Of the 57 cold cases, 28 are being reopened and reassigned.

"We assigned the cases that we thought we could proceed and continue our investigation," says Sgt. Markiewicz. "So we have 28 cold cases assigned and there is working progress on these cases and things happening."

Part of the federal grant is enough money to send cold case evidence to a private laboratory in Utah. That lab is now working with the Alaska Crime Lab to hopefully find something with new technology that was undetectable before.

"There are definitely some technologies in existence today that didn't exist 5 to 10 years ago," says Michelle Collins, DNA supervisor at the State Crime Lab. "Once the technology was there, the evidence was resubmitted to the laboratory and we were now able to develop a DNA profile.

"Even with all the years that have passed, we are still looking at the cases, so people shouldn't be discouraged by the fact that 10 or 15 years passed," says Sgt. Markiewicz. "The victims haven't been forgotten."

Tackling 28 cold cases is a task too big for APD's Homicide Unit alone. Homicide only has six detectives, who also have to investigate recent murders, like the one on Polar Drive and shootings like the ambush shooting of Officer Jason Allen.

Which is why APD opened the cold cases up to all detectives from all units.

"We actually have detectives from special victims unit, crimes against children unit, fraud that are interested and working on these cold cases," says Sgt. Markiewicz

With the help of state of the art technology the detectives are pouring over the old evidence, witness statements and suspect profiles, looking for anything to break the cases that have remained unsolved for so long.

"The DNA evidence hangs around and it's going to be able to be analyzed for many, many years," says Collins.

But it is not only forensic evidence that will break a cold case. Just as important are people.

Police say witnesses may be more willing to come forward with information in a cold case than about a murder that just happened. That is what APD detectives are now counting on for the 28 reopened cold cases, and the rest of the unsolved murders in Anchorage.

"We'd like to solve every case," says Sgt. Markiewicz

Now, they are looking for the last piece of the puzzle they need, to turn the cold cases into closed cases.

To contact Andrea Gusty, call 907-273-3146.