Seminar hopes to solve cold cases

WEST CHESTER, Ohio (WDTN) - Ohio law enforcement officers are looking for a break in solving cold cases.

A special training session took place Tuesday in West Chester.

The classroom may not be where you'd expect a cold case to crack, but these investigators are hoping you're wrong.

44 officers from 21 different departments met at the West Chester Police Department for the first of several training courses put on by the Attorney General's Office.

The sessions are teaching authorities investigative strategies for unsolved homicides and showing officers what state resources are available to help.

"We're here to put people away that shouldn't be walking the streets."  Special Agent Ben Suver is a supervisor with the Bureau of Criminal Investigations and is helping lead the two day event during which three cold cases will be reviewed.

"Clearly anytime you are investigating a case, a new eye in the case, there's a reason the case is cold.  And by having a new investigative team look at it, you might come up with new investigative techniques you might not have thought of," said Suver.

One of the cases being reviewed happened in Mercer County.

Robert and Colleen Grube were found duct-taped and shot to death inside their Fort Recovery home in November 2011.

Since the killings, Mercer County deputies have made progress, but still no arrests.

"Its a rural community and you have an elderly male and his daughter and being disabled.  It definitely traumatizes the community."

Restoring a sense of security is something these investigators not only hope, but plan, to accomplish.

"Justice has to be done. Even if it comes 5 years 10 years, 50 years. It's important people be held accountable for what they did.  That justice be done, that the families get closure in these cases," said Leon Daidone, Chief Criminal Division at Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office.

There are currently more than 5,000 unsolved cases in Ohio according to the FBI.