CLEARWATER, Fla. — Florida has launched a state Cold Case Unit that will attempt to deliver justice to families who have waited for closure.

What You Need To Know

  • Florida has launched a Cold Case Unit

  • Experienced prosecutors and investigators will staff it 

  • They will focus on unsolved homicides across Florida 

  • A bill making it easier for families of cold case victims to ask law enforcement to re-open an investigation failed  

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said experienced prosecutors and investigators would make up the unit.

However, a bill that would have made it easier for families of cold case victims to ask law enforcement to re-open an investigation has failed. It did not make it out of committee during this legislative session.

The bill would have:

  • Allowed a victim’s family to request in writing that a law enforcement agency review an unsolved murder (they couldn’t make that request until five years after the murder occurred)
  • If the review suggested new leads or suspects were possible, the agency would have been required to do another investigation

The act was named, in part, after Clifford Backmann. He was murdered Oct. 10, 2009 in Jacksonville. His killer has never been found.

Backmann’s son, Ryan, launched Project Cold Case to help other families of cold case murders. The organization focuses on advocating for these families, helping them interact with law enforcement and keeping their loved one’s case in the public eye.

Project Cold Case says there are more than 20,000 open homicide cases in Florida since 1965.

“There are a lot of families like me out there,” Backmann said. “Often times, you feel really alone and isolated, like you’re the only out there. That’s what I wanted to change by starting Project Cold Case, to let families know they’re not alone.”

Andrea Bolden sometimes feels alone, though. Standing over her late husband’s grave in Dunedin, she told Spectrum Bay News 9, “I feel forgotten.”

Her husband, Clarence, was murdered in 2002 in Clearwater. Though Clearwater Police believe it was a robbery, they have not identified the killer.

“Here we go, 22 years, never been solved,” Andrea said. “We know we deserve justice. It’s just been too long. A long time coming.”

She says, as detectives have been promoted or retired, it’s been difficult to keep a focus on her husband’s case.

Her husband’s case is listed under the police department’s “unsolved homicides” section of its website.

Clearwater Police told Spectrum Bay News 9 that every unsolved homicide – including Clarence Bolden’s case – remains assigned to a detective. A police spokesman said “detectives regularly review these cases and consult with peers looking for new investigative leads.”