Florida adopts new forensic technology aimed at solving 21,000 statewide cold cases
Florida adopts new forensic technology aimed at solving 21,000 statewide cold cases
Publish Date: 2026-04-09 16:43:00
Source Domain: weartv.com
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Cold cases across Florida will now get extra attention from state and local law enforcement, as Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a new cold case task force.
The AG hopes this will bring closure for thousands of Floridians.
More than 21,000 murders remain unsolved in Florida, including nearly 900 of those with unidentified remains.
“managing family expectations is probably one of the biggest hurdles in a cold case,” says Matthew Jones, chief investigator of Palafox PI.
With years of investigating crimes, he says another challenge is maintaining physical evidence.
“Some of this evidence has been sitting on the shelf, just collecting dust, waiting for technology to catch up,” Jones says. “And now technology is catching up, and it gives investigators a much bigger leg in the fight.”
Uthmeier announced a partnership with Othram this week. It’s a forensic technology company that uses DNA and geneology to uncover leads.
“By combining codes with advanced DNA identity inference, investigators can now generate leads, even when there is no suspect and no database,” Othram founder David Mittelman said.
Mittelman says the tools will help identify serial offenders, and track them in different areas.
Uthmeier says the task force will start by investigating several cases in central and south Florida, including murders dating back to the 1970s.
Dozens of cases remain a mystery right here in Northwest Florida — from Tiffany Daniels to Brandy Maples to Paris Matthews to Kenny Underwood and dozens more.
All of their disappearances are currently unexplained.
“Many of these cases were never unsolvable,” says Danny Hall, Othram senior director. “The evidence was there, what was missing was the ability to interpret it. This project changes that.”
“It doesn’t matter if it was yesterday, or 10 years ago or 40 years ago,” Uthmeier says. “We will prosecute to the fullest here in Florida.”
Uthmeier says this will be a coordinated effort between local law enforcement…
