“There was a sense of duty to finish the investigation. Any investigator has that one case they wish they’d finished, and that was mine. I just kept working on it. I wanted to get justice for that girl and her family.”

Pennsylvania State Trooper Jeffrey Brock, who continued to investigate the abduction and assault of a young girl some twenty years ago.  Although no match could be found to a partial fingerprint in 1999, advancements in the FBI’s fingerprint technology helped identify the perpetrator.

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fingerprint-technology-helps-solve-cold-case-091319

Brock consulted a now-retired FBI agent for advice on the cold case and the agent had the fingerprint re-checked using the advanced technology about a year ago.  Eventually there was a hit on an offender who was sentenced last year to 30 years in prison for this crime.

Dogged work, commitment and coordination with the FBI resulted in the solving of this cold case.  Had the trooper not reached out to this FBI agent, the agency would probably never have taken advantage of the latest technology used here, the Next Generation Identification System.

As happy an ending as you can have in a case like this and another striking contrast to the handling and evaluation of evidence in the OCCK case.  Thanks to a reader for sending this article to me.