Police look into cold cases

The key to solving a case is persistence, good police work

In the summer of 2002, 18-year-old Kevin Miller was staying with a friend at an apartment on Colony Drive in New Bern. According to police, he attended a party in that apartment on the night of July 23. By the next morning, he was dead.

Miller's death was ruled a homicide. To this day, it remains unsolved.

"There was no sign of a struggle and there was virtually no physical evidence," said police spokesman Chris Stansbury. "We're still investigating. His grandmother still calls to ask about the case."

He pointed to a shortage of reliable information as a reason why the case remains unsolved.

Over in Havelock, Police Chief Mike Campbell can certainly feel his pain. Campbell has had to deal with an unsolved murder of his own that just passed the 8-year mark.

On Nov. 18, 1997, James Lucas Smith IV, 19, and John Philip Mattmiller, 37, were found bludgeoned to death at Woodson's Music and Pawn off U.S. 70 following a nighttime robbery. Despite extensive work by the Havelock police, the state bureau of investigation, the FBI and a rare profile on "America's Most Wanted," the case remains unsolved.

Campbell, however, is confident the case will be solved.

"We're actively investigating it and I expect it will be closed within six months," he said. "Sometimes, we get leads, but the cases go cold. But we never say we can't solve them. And we never give up. â?¦ Sometimes, it takes luck."

If Campbell ever needs more reason to feel optimistic, he needn't look any further than River Bend, where a murder remained unsolved for nearly 20 years before Police Chief Duke Pratt was able to close the case in 2002.

Alanda Jean Yusko, 19, was found beaten and bloody in the trunk of her car on Sept. 28, 1982. The car was found submerged in a man-made pond in River Bend. Yusko, a clerk at was then the Scotchman (now the Riverbend Market), had worked until 11 p.m. the night before. Her death remained a mystery for years.

Shortly after becoming chief of police, Pratt made closing the case a priority. He took the original evidence and subjected it to modern technological procedures, such as DNA testing.

"That helped us tremendously," he said. "We had a suspect in mind and it gave us what we needed to go after him."

The suspect, Carlton Tyrone Smith, now 46, was arrested and charged with Yusko's murder. As part of his guilty plea, he confessed to picking Yusko up after work, taking her to a spot off Rocky Run Road and beating her to death with a nunchaku - a martial arts weapon made from two linked-together sticks. Smith was sentenced to life in prison and Pratt received recognition in the form of a TOP COPS Award from the National Association of Police Organizations.

W. David McFadyen Jr., Craven County District Attorney, handled the Yusko case, as well as many other murders throughout a 26-year career.

"A majority of murders occur between people who know each other," he said. "In a tight-knit area like this, there's a higher solve rate."

Nevertheless, McFadyen was able to point to several murders in the area that remain unsolved, including those of Solomon Guion, Corey Spivey, Vincent Holt and Deborah Swindell.

"If you don't solve within the first several days, it becomes more difficult," he said. "But numerous murder cases have been solved years after they've occurred."

The key to solving cases, according to McFadyen, is persistence and good police work. He said the odds are in favor of solving a homicide if police stick with the case and develop the evidence.

"You have to have a theory that all crimes are solvable," he said. "Generally, identifying a suspect is the easy part. Getting evidence is more difficult, though every new advance is helpful. Circumstances are different, but whatever the case, you just never stop and keep pushing."

In addition to law enforcement, victims' families and groups such as Craven County Crime Stoppers work to bring unsolved murders to a close by offering rewards for information that results in arrests and convictions.

The dead may be dead, but they are not forgotten.

Zac Goldstein can be reached at 635-5673 or at zgoldstein@freedomenc.com.