Why nearly 50% of all Phoenix murders go unsolved

Reported by: Josh Bernstein
Email: jbernstein@abc15.com
Produced by: Dan Siegel
Last Update: 2:39 pm

PHOENIX -- Hundreds of killers are still on Valley streets, leaving the families of murder victims to wait for justice.

A review of Phoenix Police Department records shows 2,088 unsolved murders over a 28-year period, with a clearance rate of just 54.6 percent.

"The clearance rate is something that's near and dear to me," said Phoenix Police Department Lt. Joe Knott, who oversees the homicide unit. "I would love to be at 100 percent, but I'm also realistic that it's never going to happen."

The ABC15 Investigators teamed up with colleagues at Scripps Howard News Service and reviewed annual uniform crime reporting data submitted by the Phoenix Police Department to the FBI from 1980 to 2008.

The data shows the Phoenix Police Department is one of the worst in the country over this time period for unsolved murders, averaging 74 unsolved murders a year.

By comparison, Philadelphia, a city similar in size to Phoenix and one of the most violent in the nation, had more than twice as many homicides from 1980 to 2008, but a clearance rate of almost 73 percent. That's nearly 20 percent points higher than Phoenix.

The 4,602 homicides in the city of Phoenix (over the 28-year span) is similar to the number of homicides in St. Louis, Atlanta, Memphis, and San Antonio, all of which had clearance rates of 64 percent or better.

One of Phoenix's unsolved homicides is the case of 66-year-old Virginia Farmer, grandmother of four and great-grandmother of three.

In November 2001, Virginia and her husband Floyd were driving in their pickup truck within a block of their home, when gunfire erupted.

Both Virginia and Floyd were hit, and their truck came to rest upside down in a front yard.

Virginia died at the scene.

Floyd, her husband of 49 years, was hospitalized and was unable to attend Virginia's funeral.

In the days after the murder, the family prayed for justice.

"In the end, whoever did this is going to pay, and they're going to pay with a price they had no idea was coming," Kathryn Alkire, the victim's daughter, said in 2001.

But nine years later, police have made no arrests and have no suspects in the case, and now, the family is focusing its anger on the Phoenix Police Department.

"The family feels just like we've been forgotten and the murder's been forgotten and these people have just gotten away," said Terri Millegan, the victim's granddaughter.

"Last time I personally heard from a detective was at the hospital when I was there with my father nine years ago," Alkire said.

"There are many families pretty upset with the Phoenix Police Department," Knott acknowledged.

In 2001, when Kathryn's mother was murdered, the department's clearance rate was just 45 percent.

In 2004, it hit an all-time low, only one out of three murders were solved.

"I mean they call them Phoenix's finest. My question is finest what," Alkire said.

A lack of money and resources may be to blame. Prior to 2007, the Phoenix Police Department's cold case squad consisted of only one sergeant and two detectives.

The shortage of detectives resulted in a backlog of cases and few answers for families. Since 2007, under Knott's command, the cold case squad has more than doubled in size. The result has been more arrests and more cases solved, with a 65 percent clearance rate in 2009.

As for the Farmer's case, "we've done what we can on that case," Knott said.

Knott said someone must come forward for Virginia's killer, and other murderers to face justice.

"I would love for us to be able to spend the time that's really necessary to go through and solve every one of those cases, but I'm also wise enough to know we're not going to solve all these cases," Knott said.

That cold reality is difficult for many families to accept.

"If the law doesn't get you, God will," Alkire said.

http://www.abc15.com/content/news/inves ... THzjQ.cspx