Florida’s top prosecutor is hopeful that a few top talent will help solve some of the state’s coldest cases.
State Attorney General Ashley Moody said 5,000 sets of cards with photos and information about unsolved crimes, including murders and missing persons cases, will be distributed throughout the prison system.
In a statement announcing the effort, Moody said he hopes the cards will evoke old memories and lead to new clues.
“We’ve seen many stalled investigations given new momentum by someone providing breakthrough information — sometimes it’s a criminal with a change of heart, sometimes it’s a co-conspirator, sometimes it’s a reward-seeking individual,” Moody said.
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Authorities in Florida solved the murder of Ingrid Lugo after an inmate identified Brian Curry (left) as the killer from a cold case playing card. (Manatee County Sheriff’s Office/Florida Attorney General’s Office/State of Florida)
She added that dormant cases aren’t necessarily resurrected through high-tech forensics.
“We give inmates cold case cards, but we’re not playing games. This low-tech approach to information gathering could be the trump card in continuing to bring closure to cases that seem unsolvable,” she said.
The decks will be distributed to inmates in 60 county jails and 145 facilities run by the state Department of Corrections.
Moody said her office will work with Florida Crime Prevention, the Florida Sheriffs Association, the state Department of Corrections and Season of Justice, a nonprofit that works to solve cold cases.
Florida cited the success of this strategy in other states.
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Authorities in Florida are handing out playing cards to inmates with information about cold cases and missing persons cases to help solve stalled investigations. (Florida Crime Prevention Association)
Connecticut investigators have solved 20 cold cases through the effort, officials said, while South Carolina has used the cards to resolve eight stalled investigations.
Florida is offering a $9,500 reward for information leading to an arrest, and tipsters can remain anonymous.
Moody noted that an earlier version of the program, launched in 2007, helped solve a murder case in Florida.
In 2004, construction workers discovered the body of Ingrid Lugo, 34, in a retention pond in Bradenton, about 45 miles south of Tampa.
The case remained unsolved when she appeared on a playing card distributed in 2007.
The inmate who found the six of spades was serving time with a man named Brian Curry and contacted authorities to say he believed he was involved in the murders.
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Florida Department of Corrections Deputy Secretary Joe Winkler has announced a new initiative to distribute playing cards to inmates featuring unsolved and missing person cases. (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office)
After Lugo broke off their engagement, Curry strangled her to death. He was arrested and ultimately convicted of murder at trial in 2008 and sentenced to life in prison.
Another example of the program’s success was the 2004 murder of retiree James Foote, whose inmate was arrested after seeing Club 7 recap the murder. Foote was found in a Fort Myers parking lot with a gunshot wound to the chest.
Inmates at Lake City Jail told authorities that Derrick Hamilton had bragged to others about the crimes.
He was arrested in 2007, pleaded not guilty, and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Polk County, Florida, law enforcement first handed out cold case playing cards to inmates in 2005, which led to the resolution of four unsolved crimes.
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These playing cards contain information about murder victims and missing people. (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office)
According to the nonprofit Cold Case Project, the rate at which murders are solved in the United States has fallen by more than 20 percent over the past 50 years.
In 1980, more than 72% of murder cases were solved, but that figure has dropped to just 51% in 2021. To address the issue, Moody announced the creation of a new state cold case unit in February.
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“This effort seeks to address some of Florida’s most haunting unsolved murder cases,” Moody said in a statement. “By shining a spotlight on these cases within our prisons and jails, our shared hope is that it will generate clues that will help solve these cases and provide much-needed closure to the victims’ families and loved ones.”
