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# The Evidence Has to Outlive the Case
- URL: https://www.forensicsbeat.com/evidence-outlives-the-case/
- Published: 2026-10-17T13:25:37.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T13:25:37.000Z
- Description: Two cold cases were solved 64 and 65 years later. A third collapsed because police lost the evidence. Genetic genealogy has changed how long evidence must last, and what property rooms need to do about it.
- Author: Forensics Resident Editor
- Tags: Cold Cases, Technique

In the same week, three cases that went cold decades ago reached the end of the road. Two were solved. One fell apart. The difference was not the science. It was whether the evidence was still on the shelf.

## Solved at 64 and 65 years

In Chicago, police identified the man they say killed 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz in 1960: Thomas McInerney Jr., who was then a 24-year-old patrol officer and later became a detective. He died in 2006\. According to [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chicago-police-find-killer-65-year-old-cold-case-murder-little-girl-on-rcna602947?ref=forensicsbeat.com), FBI genetic genealogy work in 2024 pointed to him from DNA on her clothing. Investigators then matched his fingerprints, taken for his 1959 police application, to a print lifted from her purse strap.

In Clark County, Washington, the sheriff's office cold case team resolved the 1962 killings of Charles Hale and Lester McCollum, the oldest case closure in the agency's history. [KATU reported](https://katu.com/news/local/battle-ground-double-homicide-cold-case-solved-after-64-years-washington-cold-clark-county-murder-investigation-justice-dna-breakthrough-evidebnce-true-crime?ref=forensicsbeat.com) that the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory tested DNA from cigarette butts and twine collected at the scene. A fingerprint lifted from the victim's stolen car in 1962 was not matched until 2017\. Both men identified were teenagers at the time, and both have since died.

Neither case turned on a new interview or a deathbed confession. Both turned on items that someone bagged, labeled and kept for more than six decades, including a fingerprint card from a job application and cigarette butts most people would have thrown away.

## Charged, then lost

In Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the opposite happened. Teacher Byron Carr was found strangled and stabbed in his home in November 1988\. Genetic genealogy work that began in 2022 led police to Todd Joseph Gallant, who was charged with first-degree murder in 2024 and pleaded not guilty. A jury trial was scheduled for next month.

This week, prosecutors withdrew the charges. The Crown said it learned in August that a "substantial portion of the physical evidence" could not be found, and a police review confirmed that the overwhelming majority of the evidence was lost, [Global News reported](https://globalnews.ca/news/12100544/charlottetown-cold-case-murder-withdrawn-byron-carr/?ref=forensicsbeat.com). The missing items include the towel believed to have been used to strangle Carr and a knife.

The detail that matters most is where the evidence went. According to [CP24](https://www.cp24.com/news/canada/2026/10/17/how-lost-police-evidence-derailed-a-historic-pei-cold-case-murder-prosecution/?ref=forensicsbeat.com), 1989 lab reports say the items were returned to Charlottetown police. When investigators reopened the case in 2007, they could not find them, and there was no paper trail showing what happened next. The force had no electronic evidence tracking in the 1980s. Biological material the lab had kept was enough to build a DNA profile and make an arrest, but not enough to carry a trial. The Crown also cited gaps in how the remaining evidence had been identified and tracked, which raised doubts about its reliability.

Interim Chief Darren MacDougall said the service has since changed its policies and evidence-management systems and is considering a third-party review. "We are looking inward to see what has gone wrong," he told CP24.

## The time horizon changed

For most of the last century, evidence in an unsolved case had a practical shelf life. If there was no suspect after a few years, the odds of ever needing the towel or the cigarette butts were low, and storage space was not free.

Genetic genealogy changed that calculation. A family tree can now point to a suspect 40, 60 or 65 years after the crime. The investigative lead can arrive long after everyone who collected the evidence has retired. What decides whether that lead becomes a conviction is whether the physical evidence, and the record of everyone who handled it, survived the wait.

P.E.I. shows the failure point clearly. The science worked. The lab's retained sample worked. What failed was the hand-off: items moved from the lab back to the police, and nothing recorded where they went after that.

## A property room checklist for cases that may wake up in 2050

None of this is new advice. In 2013, a technical working group convened by NIST and the National Institute of Justice published [*The Biological Evidence Preservation Handbook*](https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2013/NIST.IR.7928.pdf?ref=forensicsbeat.com). Its recommendations read differently after this week. The numbers below refer to the handbook.

1. **Keep homicide evidence indefinitely.** Biological evidence from an open investigation should be retained indefinitely for homicides, and at least for the statute of limitations for other offenses (I-4).
2. **Give every item, and every piece split from it, a unique ID.** Cuttings, swabs and extracts created during lab analysis should be documented so they link back to the original item (IV-5). This is the record that would show what came back from the lab and what stayed there.
3. **Track location everywhere, not just in your building.** Your system should show where each item is, whether that is a shelf or bin, a crime lab, a court or another agency, and who put it there (IV-2). The handbook calls for integrating tracking across locations (IV-11).
4. **Flag what has not come back.** A good system identifies items that are overdue or were never returned (IV-4).
5. **Inventory every year.** Verify that evidence is present and in its recorded location at least annually (IV-3). A missing item found in 1990 is a problem you can solve. Found in 2026, it can end a prosecution.
6. **Review before you dispose.** Run case-status reviews at least yearly before disposing of biological evidence, with named people authorized to sign off (V-1, V-2).
7. **Don't leave keep-or-destroy decisions to the property room alone.** When only a representative sample can be kept, custodians should decide with investigators, lab analysts and, where appropriate, prosecutors (I-3).

## Start the next cold case with an inventory

The checklist is for the property room. For cold case investigators, the lesson is about sequence: confirm what still exists before you build the case around it.

That is how Lansing, Michigan, detective Shannon Thielen approached the 2009 killing of 19-year-old Edric Hinton. When she took the case in 2019, she began with a full inventory of more than 50 pieces of evidence, [WILX reported](https://www.wilx.com/2026/10/12/lansing-police-share-details-resolution-2009-cold-case-homicide/?ref=forensicsbeat.com). A later tip led investigators to a buried shotgun, and the Michigan State Police lab matched it to shell casings that had been kept since the night of the shooting. The department announced this month that the case is solved. Both suspects are dead.

The tip, the genealogy match or the witness who finally talks may come years from now, to someone who has not yet joined your agency. Whether that break leads to a courtroom depends on what is still on the shelf, and on whether anyone can prove how it got there.

## Sources

- NBC News, "Chicago police find killer in 65-year-old cold case murder of little girl," Oct. 12, 2026
- KATU, "Battle Ground double homicide cold case solved after 64 years," Oct. 13, 2026
- CP24, "How lost police evidence derailed a historic P.E.I. cold case murder prosecution," Oct. 17, 2026
- Global News, "Lost evidence in 1988 cold case leads to murder charge being withdrawn," Oct. 2026
- WILX, "How a confidential tip helped Lansing police solve 2009 cold case," Oct. 12, 2026
- Technical Working Group on Biological Evidence Preservation, *The Biological Evidence Preservation Handbook: Best Practices for Evidence Handlers*, NISTIR 7928, NIST and NIJ, 2013