Funding Cold Cases - A Critical Piece of Justice Full Episode
Hey, everybody. It's Jared. Welcome to another episode of all things crime, man.
Can't tell you how much we appreciate all of you that are watching on YouTube or rumble or, uh, listening to us on a podcast, whatever platform you prefer. We appreciate you hope that, uh, you've subscribed and please share this message because we've got a fantastic guest today. His name is Brad schleppy and I pronounce that right, right, Brad. Oh. Okay, man. I, I, uh, was shooting from the hip on that one, but Brad Schleppi, awesome guy, and he works for a company called Season of Justice.
And we're going to get into the details of that, but Season of Justice is one of those that it's kind of on the outside helping fund the inside. And it's so critical. Uh, it's like, you know, 501c3 companies you know, the, the latest interviews with Paul Huntingson went from Sound of Freedom. You know, he, um, has these different, different organizations that he belongs to, and he's, you know, out helping, um, you know, catch bad guys and child traffickers. Well, Brad is kind of in, I mean, Brad's not going undercover, but he's, he's one of the faces of Season of Justice and overall great guy and he's from Indiana, so what can go wrong? Right? Yeah.
Absolutely. Yeah. Are you, you're a Hoosier guy, right? I am a born Hoosier and a graduate as well. So Oh, man, there you go. Just full, full on there.
full throttle. Right on. Well, listen, Brad, welcome to the show. And appreciate you coming on. So first of all, give us a little background on you. And how you came to be with Season of Justice.
And then definitely go into kind of what Season of Justice is, what their goal is. I mean, you can go to their website. And, um... Man, I thought I saw something and it was just awesome that you guys have funded over a million dollars worth of testing and, and different, you know, funding for you know, whatever the police agency needs. So, yeah, rock on with us. Suhoor, Yeah.
excellent. Now, Jared, I appreciate it. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. Obviously Brad Schleppi, I'm with Season of Justice.
I'm the executive director here. I've been with Season of Justice for just a little less than a year now. I come to this position with Season of Justice with more than 20, 22 years of nonprofit management experience under my belt, um, with a degree in criminal justice and sociology. From Indiana University that we've, we just talked about um, as well as, um, extensive studies in, um, and at the Lilly School of Philanthropy here in Indianapolis Season of Justice, uh, Jared, you know, as you know, but for your listeners was founded just a little more than three years ago with, with the specific intent to help bridge the funding gap faced by so many law enforcement, um, agencies that are out there, investigative agencies that are out there to help them access cutting edge forensic science. You know, um, one of the things that that a lot of us know and that season of justice is here to do is to really work, come alongside.
Those investigative agencies and work with them specifically to help them not only access, but ensure that they are you know, pairing good forensic science, cutting edge forensic science, you know, with the needs that they have when investigating and continuing to investigate cold cases. You know, so many of our cases are 25, 35, 50 years old, you know, and the technology that was available in 1971 is a lot different than the technology that's available in 2022. And because of a lot of really good efforts by investigators and crime scene technicians, there's evidence that's that's been stored away.
For a very, very long time that can now be taken out of cold storage for a lack of a better term, you know, and test it and season of justice is not only helping to fund that but we're you know, seeing the results of that cutting edge forensic science in the number of solves that we see all across the country. We, we fund, um, investigative agencies. You know, coast to coast in all 50 states, uh, we've even focused some funding up in Canada as well to help them with some stuff. And so, um, like I said, we've been here, we've been around as a 501c3 organization for a little more than three years. We are honored to have grant funded more than a million dollars to more than 150 cases to date.
And, um, our intention, our expectation. Um, the expectation of our funders, um, is that we continue to grow those numbers. Oh, that's, that's just amazing. And I'll tell you folks right off the top, if you want to help, and I know there's so many of us out there that when we hear about these different cases you know, especially the cold cases, you know, kids being murdered, whatever. And then there's a specific case that, uh, I know Brad is gonna be talking to us about. But when we hear these, these stories, number one, we're all horrified about it.
And number two, I think the first thing is we want to, what can we do to help? And I, I'll tell you right now, one of the best ways you can help is go to Season of Justice, their website. Uh, is it season of justice.org? I is seasonofjustice. org. Absolutely.
Seasonofjustice. org, go there, contribute, do, you know, do what you can, spread the message, you know, share this podcast. And I think the more this word gets out and when they hear about the fantastic work that you guys are doing, helping, especially the agencies that can't afford it, you know, say you're out in the, in the woods somewhere, you know, I shouldn't say the woods, but you know, even the suburbs, a lot of the smaller jurisdictions. That are in the suburbs of big cities may not have the type of funding that the bigger cities do, but you still have a lot of that bleed over. This is 1 of the problems. That's really starting to happen a lot in the United States.
You'll take a big, a big city. Indianapolis is a good example, and then you have all of these smaller counties and cities. That are maybe, you know, 60 miles out.
But even that far, a lot of the gang violence and things like that are, is starting to spill over into those. And there's agencies that are really putting up a fight and they're, they're working really hard. But a lot of them are undermanned. A lot of them, um, can't afford the equipment. I mean, they're doing everything they can just to, just to fill the ranks, uh, you know, with the police, police, uh, forces and not having the, like you said, the latest and greatest in technology and whether that be, you know, ballistics or anything else. But I mean, for me, obviously during here near and dear to my heart is DNA.
So. Right. Um, and specifically MBAC testing. But, uh, just, you know what, I, I, I know you guys you, the, the, I think personally the best thing about you guys is that you can go to agencies or agencies will come to you and they'll tell you what they need. um, Mm hmm.
It exactly. Exactly. That's one of the, the principles of our grant making process is that the investigative agency comes to us. You know, specifically, you know, with that completed grant application, after talking with a lab specifically about the needs of their case the needs that the investigators have with respect to where they think the advanced technology from today could help them move this case forward and as an organization season of justice, we're not interested in getting in the middle of that at all.
That relationship is between the investigator in the lab. Season of justice is really here to be that financial bridge, you know, between access to that cutting edge, you know, technology and If I may underfunded you know, law enforcement, we know that they're not overfunded by any stretch of the imagination and we know that cold cases aren't, don't all cold case investigation does not always get, you know, first priority in terms of, you know, funding. And so that's really where that's the niche that season of justice is here. That's why we were, why we were funded. And pardon me, while we were founded, um, was to help.
Those types of situations, ultimately helping families find resolution. That's a piece we haven't spoken about yet. I know we will. Um, but yes, we, we support law enforcement, Uh we help fund law enforcement, but ultimately we're looking to find resolution for families.
You know, we, we know that we, we can't always bring closure through DNA science, but we can help find resolution. Um, and there are way too many families out there that just don't have any answers. And, and we're looking, and our donors help us provide that resolution every day. Yeah. Spot on, I, I've had numerous investigators, people that have been doing this for 20 years and they say, you know.
Of all the victims families and if it's a homicide victim, obviously it is, it's only the family, but many of them never actually get closure. And I, there's, you know, cold cases especially are kind of cutting, it's kind of a two edged, double edged sword. Especially they get 15, 20, 40 years old. You know, most of these family members have completely moved on with their lives. There's one particular case down in the Houston area. I'll just bring this up really quick.
And then you can talk a little bit about how season of justice was founded. Um, I think that'd be really interesting, but this, this case, um, uh, 39 years old. No, no, no four. I'm sorry. 43. Explaining all these cold cases that we've been working on over the years, but this particular case was a 12 year old girl that was raped and murdered, uh, in 40, well, 43 years ago.
And when they, when the, the county sheriff's department was finally able to solve that case, they had to, all the family had moved away, moved on with their lives. And two of the brothers One they couldn't even get a hold of. And the second one, when they did get a hold of him, they're just like, why are you calling me? They're like, you know what? We have moved on. We've forgiven whoever did it. There's nothing we can do to change it.
And just carrying that burden you know, it almost destroyed the entire family. Uh, hmm. and understandably so. And they're like, Uh, you know, frankly, great, you solved the case finally, 43 years later, and you know, but I, I think, I think most of society understands that 40 years ago, the, the technology that we have, the advancements that we have in forensic science, especially, uh, with all kinds of evidence, it doesn't matter if it's ballistics or DNA or fingerprinting Crime scene documentation, you know, the, the different technologies like Pharaoh and things like that that can, you know, spin around and it'll give you a 360 degree look at Mm hmm. entire crime scene.
It's just unbelievable. Well, I, I personally tell investigators, especially just with the, the improvements in the lab technologies that if you haven't tested. Like DN, done DNA testing in the, in the last like five years, you should do it again because the sensitivity of the, of the testing is so much better. And then you add on technologies like MVAC system and stuff like that, then man, it's just, it's just game changers. So.
It's incredible. I mean, the, the labs that we work with every, every day will tell you say the same thing, Jared, they say, if you haven't done it in five years, it might be time to do it again. and one of the things that we love about our vendor partners is that they know they know when to stop. They know what they can do, and they know what they can't do, you know, and when you're dealing with cold cases, there's Only so much evidence that's left. There's only so much, you know, DNA that's left or, um, you know, that, that they they, you don't want to eliminate all of it because technology 10 years from now might be able to do something.
And so, one of the things that we're always mindful of is that, you know, is, is a, uh, um, is the DNA test going to consume all the DNA. You know, and working with, you know, these, all the different labs we work with. That's always top of mind and it's not unusual for them to say, It's not a good time to do this test. Wait two years and then come back and see us.
You know, and we're thrilled to hear that. You know, because we don't want to consume all that evidence because we do want to leave that chance for a couple of years down the road, you know, for instance that way we could find, you know, hopefully get a solve, find that resolution for that family down the road. Yeah, well, it's interesting for those of you that don't know when you, when you're talking specifically about DNA, there's three major stages that this DNA needs to go through. One, the first one is the collection and I mean, specifically with the MVAC.
You know, even with, if somebody had swabbed it, say, you know, even a couple of years ago a lot of times agencies can go back over that evidence and use the EMVAC and still collect plenty of DNA. Well, the second step is the enrichment and well, the lab processes it, let's say that. So lab processing is the second one. And then the, I'll think about it when I stop thinking about it. It's that gap between the thoughts that, uh, You've just been a little busy as of late, yeah, you know, my brain's a little scattered, I just rolled in last night at 10 o'clock for, from a big conference. And yeah, and then, you know, we, we, we also got word that the helps solve the cold case from way back.
Where the only thing they had from, from this Jane Doe was these, uh, molds, like from a dentist's office, you know, way long time ago when they, they used to not be able to take pictures, they had to actually have that Right. cast that they put in your mouth, and Yeah. Oh, it's horrible. it's like, they would stuff that, that huge, um, almost like a mouth guard, you know, that you would see and, And it was, it wasn't formed to your teeth and your mouth. And so it always cut your gums and everything, but it was stacked full of that, that nasty plaster stuff.
And they stick it in there and then you had to bite down and hold it in there for what seemed like three hours. And then it like, you know, trying to get it off and it like, it stick to your teeth anyway, had, had one of those and they used the MVAC on it and they got this lady's DNA. From that to it to help identify her, but that's the only thing they had is a Yeah, little sidetracked there. But yeah, crazy, crazy what they can do with DNA nowadays. But, it's it's pretty incredible and it's growing.
It's changing every day. I Oh, yeah, I mean I You've been around it a lot more a lot longer than I have, you know, but I I'm drinking from a fire hose You know, and I, and I know there's times when you probably feel the same way is the technology is advancing so much. I mean, I was, you, you, you mentioned them back a couple seconds ago. I mean, our number number four for season of justice, our fourth solve, um, Rita Koran out of Burlington, Vermont was. was an MVAC case.
We specifically funded MVAC for the police department and they used the MVAC on a housecoat and compared that to DNA that they had on a from a cigarette butt that was near the victim. And that's how they did, they made the comparison to make the arrests and the confirmation and all that stuff. So, and that was from 1971, you know, so yeah, that's, that's a really cool case.
And I actually saw the, um, the press conference that Mm hmm. Burlington PD did on that one. And it's, you know, I, I, I love reporters.
These guys. They, um, there's, there's nobody that can screw up a story worse than a reporter. And for example, no, I mean, it's cool that they can get DNA off a cigarette butt and, and it's also cool that so many bad guys smoke because they're always leaving their DNA everywhere. It makes, Yeah. And yeah, the, makes it easy. it the ones that really don't get it I've, I've read of um, like burglars, they'll break into a house.
And after, after looting the house of whatever they were going to get, they'd open up the refrigerator and take a Coke and a piece of pizza out and, you know, drink part of the Coke and, um, you know, and then take a couple bites of pizza and then just leave it on the counter. And the police come in like, Hey, our job's done. It's right there. look at this genius left us, man. Yeah.
These guys would, they'll use the bathroom and then wipe their hands on the towel or. You know, it's just like, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm sorry, folks, when you are sloughing off 400, 000 cells a day, Um, you, everywhere you go, you are leaving your DNA, and When you, when you have sensitivities, like what we're talking about, especially with DNA, but you know, even fingerprinting and things like that. Like, you know, there's a, there's a machine. I saw a presentation at the, the, the IAI conference that I was just at.
And even if like on a, on a shell casing, you know, when you, when you're loading a magazine and you're pushing the bullets into the magazine, you're leaving DNA and. And even if, even if that shell casing has been, uh, in water, it can, it, it, they can Now, there's a machine now that can, um, it's a full system. It's like a fuming, a little fuming hood.
That piece of glass comes down, chunk, and I mean, it's really cool works. And, um, yeah, they can get your fingerprint off of that. And so any kind of metal composite they can, they can get fingerprinting, even if it's been sitting in the water for a long time. I, I don't know if it's that same technology, but we're our board of directors is funding a very similar case. Um, actually next week that involves the firearm, the magazine, the whole nine yards, you know, and, and the belief is that this is gonna be a treasure trove here. We just, we just gotta get it, get the right science, you know, to, to test it and all of that stuff.
So it should be, well, let's, let's go into the, uh, the reader crayon a little bit better. And so it's. This case is actually really interesting. And we've, we've got some more of this kind of information on our website. It mvac.
com. But the interesting thing is, so Rita Cran, uh, was an, I believe she was an, a school teacher and she was, um, 24 years old and there was a guy named William DeRusse and he lived two floors above. Rita and Rita had a couple of roommates, but these roommates, uh, went out to a bar or something. And Rita was just getting ready. Well, this guy, this, uh, William DeRusse, he he saw her through the window getting ready for bed and she was wearing a robe and everything.
And, and, and he was arguing with his wife supposedly, and there's all sorts of, um, circumstances that goes into this. But the key is he breaks into her, into her home you know, molester and then and, and kills her. Well, he was also smoking. And so he left a cigarette butt next to her body.
And the, the initial testing that helped solve the case was they, they got the DNA off the cigarette butt, but it wasn't a super strong profile. And then. In, inbound with Season of Justice, you guys helped fund the MVAC testing on that robe. And if you look at the actual, the strengths of the profile, so, to give, to give, uh, the listeners a little idea.
So if you've ever seen a heart monitor where you got those blips imagine a heart monitor that's kind of spread out and it shows 24 heartbeats going at the same time. And out of those heartbeats, somebody has a specific signature that they send out so that, you know, in, in say 10 or 12 of those locations, there's a specific heartbeat that goes in each one of those, it's called a loci, and that is how you identify Jared or Brad or anybody else. And each one of us has a specific signature that we send out. Well, that, and that's on a, they, they develop that from a specific spot on the DNA strand.
And it's just fascinating the way they do that. But when you, when you have a, what's called a reference sample, which is like somebody can come in and they can take a, um, like a Q tip and do the, do the inside of your mouth is the best place to do it. If you have that, and then you compare it to what they find on the evidence.
If it's a one to one, man, it can be like one in 20 trillion that it's not, you know, Jared and that's a, and when you get into those kinds of specifics, it's like, yeah, we're pretty sure that you know, that Brad was the bad guy and he was the one out there, uh, you know, raping and murdering all these people. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Anyway, that that's, uh, this William DeRuse guy is just. Not a good character, but he, you know, just a neighbor and it's amazing how many victims and it's super sad.
I mean, this, this poor girl, 24 years old, she had her whole life ahead of her, uh, wasn't, you know, she had no reason to be there's, there's just no reason. I mean, a second grade teacher, it's like. Yeah. know, she wasn't doing it for the money and she's just, she probably just loved kids and loved teaching and was just trying to get on with her life. And, uh, it was that summer that she had moved out of her parents home the first time, you know, lived with, with some other roommates.
And, um, anyway, taking graduate courses, University of Vermont. And murdered on the midnight, around midnight on July 19th in 1971, she was found strangled, beaten and sexually assaulted. And, you know, in a small town back in 1971, I lived there actually in the late 70s. So it would have been, you know, 7 or 8 years after this, but I was just a little kid back then.
But I'm sure just, you know, the, the repercussions of this just rippled through the entire community and just tore them apart. Well, it, you know, went cold back then they didn't have the technology to solve this, but thank goodness for organizations like you guys. And, and like I said, technology that catches up to it, but they were able to, like you said, That cigarette butt was kind of the initial indicator, but the real nail in a coffin, if you will, uh, was the, this, the much stronger profile that they got from the house code.
So obviously he had just kind of ripped the house code open and, um. In the process of, uh, you know, raping her and strangling her. So, fantastic, man. I'm just, uh, we're just, what a blessing to have this season of justice around that was able to, to help solve that case. Yeah.
Well, yeah, no, that's, I, I, I stutter because I get choked up just thinking about, you know, each one of these and they're all just so meaningful. You know, but at the end of the day, you know, it's as, as you've alluded to a couple of times already, Jared, it's, it's our donors that make this possible. We have donors that give to Season of Justice that are around the world. We have, you know, uh, we have donors in Cambodia, we have donors in Denmark, you know, we have donors in, uh, Western Europe, you know, and of course across the United States and in Canada and South America and stuff and it's, it's those individuals that want to see. justice, want to help families find this resolution that we are just you know, blessed to be trusted by these folks, you know, as that, as that charity of choice, as that trusted charity that, you know, has those proven partnerships, you know, with law enforcement, trusted partnerships with law enforcement trusted partnerships with labs.
You know, so that we can help you. know, again bridge that financial grant gap, you know, and and help these families right along with you know, law enforcement and that stuff. And that's, that's another thing, if you don't mind me, I'm, I, I would like to say is that one of the, one of the things and why you know, donating to season of justice, you know, is, is so important is that, you know, our commitment to law enforcement is we're not going to be talking about your case.
When an investigative agency comes to Season of Justice to say, Hey, we need help, uh, we'd like to, you know, have the NVAC done on this housecoat, and you know, it's going to cost this amount of dollars and we can't afford that. Our commitment to that investigator and to that department beyond the financial help that we're going to provide you know, is the fact that you know, there's going to be an NDA in place. You know, that says season of justice.
We're not going to talk about the cases that we're involved in. We're not going to go out and advertise. you're, not going to see us on social media. We're not going to do those types of things because the, the absolute last thing that we want to do, um, as an organization is to you know, to, to mess up an investigation, you know, to, you know, provide, you know, you're specifically talking about while the investigation is happening.
Yeah, yeah, while those, Yeah, we're, we're kind of, we're kind of the same way. There's so many agencies use the MBAC. And they're like, Hey, you know, we're ordering more supplies for obvious reasons. Can't tell you why. And, and we're like, Oh, you know what? I mean, even if you did tell us why we couldn't we couldn't talk about it anyway.
And I mean, there was yeah, exactly, exactly, so it's, yeah, one of the first cases we helped work in Southern Florida, uh, was in 2014 and it took eight years for that thing to get adjudicated. And so we couldn't really talk about it for eight years. We, we kind of knew what had happened, but, and why they had used it.
right, and, and I mean, not the specific results, but we, we, I mean, whenever a detective is smiling, when you mention a case, that's a good sign. And right, the detectives were like, yeah, you know, good things. We're just waiting for it to go to trial. And eight years, I was like, Oh gosh, really? It's like. One of our, um, and that was when we were just getting started in forensics. I was like, man, come on, you know, you're, you're killing us, you know, throw, throw me a bone, man.
well, But they couldn't, you know, they, they were going to trial and it was just taking forever. And so, but it finally got adjudicated and that was actually a, um, a brutal murder down in South Florida. And the, the evidence that they got from it was from a, like a cinder block basically. And, and it Oh, wow.
yeah, crazy. So touch DNA from, from like a cinder block. And, Mm hmm. Anyway, yeah, we can talk about that case later. But, but the bottom line is you guys I, I'm, I'm positive.
You, you're, the trust level between you and your donors and the victim's families, The law enforcement agencies is just rock solid. It has to be, It does. It has to be. And we work every day to maintain that on all levels. Right. So, hey, quick question.
The can the donors, I don't know if this is even possible but if the donors have a specific case in mind, can they donate specifically to that? Or is it just kind of going to a general fund? no, it goes into a general fund that supports all of our, all of our grant making. The vast majority of our grant making goes to our DNA grant programs, but we do also have an an awareness campaign grant. Process that we have where we work with families you know, of murdered and missing individuals that, you know, Uh, the cases have gone cold and, you know, again, working alongside and with law enforcement, um, it's been determined that a media campaign a billboard. Some of the geo netting, some, you know, Google types of techie types of stuff, Uh, maybe newspaper ads, those types of things, a mass media push, Uh, has been determined that it might shed new light.
Well, and of course will shed new light on a case, but it may bring. you know, some, some new leads to an investigation that's gone cold. And so, for our donors, basically we're asking them just to give to our general fund.
Um, we review cases for the DNA grant program once a month and our, our board of directors approves all of those grants. And then we do a, um, one family grant per month where we're working with the family. You know, somewhere here in the United States to help shed new light on their case. And again, as I said, bring awareness, you know, to, Uh, to their situation, um, in coordination with law enforcement. Yeah. that's awesome.
Yeah, I know a lot of people, especially if it's in their community or a neighbor, you know, brother or sister that they, that they know, uh, sometimes they want to donate to that specific case, but you know, there, sometimes like you, like you mentioned earlier, sometimes you review the case and you're just like, Oh, you know what? Technologies just isn't right for this and that, that's and more to backtrack onto my previous thought, the third phase of DNA is actually the, the interpretation. And there's, that's where there's, uh, there's leaps and bounds being made right now with the interpretation of it. Because, you know, DNA is so complicated. And, and if you have too many people that have touched the doorknob, for example, and so when you sample that doorknob, you get, you know, 10 people.
Well, currently you can't do anything without and, and, but hopefully in the, in the not too distant future, there will be technology that they'll be able to kind of. Unmix that Right. Yeah. Those mixtures.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's mixtures are actually the, the, the biggest problem. So, and to, to give everybody that's listening, maybe a little better idea of what a mixture is.
So imagine we'll go back to the heart monitor. Imagine 20 people in a hospital all hooked up to the same heart monitor. And so everybody's heartbeat is being in there and it's all jibbered together and.
So, you know, the doctor would look at that and go, I don't know whose heartbeat is whose. And so that's kind of what happens in DNA profiles. And so there are algorithm type of of, you know, software basically that they can plug this the, the, the signatures into. And right now, I think the capability is five to seven.
Somewhere around there that they can kind of separate and look into, but um, uh, in the, hopefully in the very near future, uh, they're looking at 10, 12, you know, more, so it'll it's only growing and getting better. You know, that would be the perfect example of, um, you know, if, if they said, you know what, we'd love to find this, but the technology just isn't there right now. So. it doesn't mean you shouldn't donate if you can, because everybody definitely needs to, and that's, you know, helping save a child in Alabama or, uh, a murder in Oregon, you know, it doesn't, doesn't really matter.
Ultimately, has to all get done. And to give, to give the folks, and I've said this number quite a few times, there's almost 250, 000. Cold case homicides. That's just homicides. If you include rapes and assaults and all those kinds of, you know, even the major crimes, you're well into the millions of, of unsolved cases. And ultimately every single one of those victims deserves justice and anything we can do to solve, solve any of them, then obviously it's, it's kind of our obligation as a society to do that, to do the best we can, at least so.
Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more that ethical obligation that we all have, you know, to, to give back to help these families find resolution you know, in any way we possibly can, you know, and, and Season of justice is, is one of those ways. You know, we're a very unique organization as far as I know, sitting here today, talking to you. There's, there's not another organization out there like us that has the, the processes and procedures in place, the relationships with both law enforcement and the forensic science side to really put all of this together you know, and really drive at scale the type of results and effect that we're, we're, we're having.
right now Yeah. So talk about really quick the, the process. So if somebody had a case and they're like, just languishing with it, and they're like, man, if we had the, if we had the funding, this is what we do. Absolutely. how, how do they do that? Okay.
It's real easy. Go to seasonofjustice.org and at the top of the web page you're going to see a tab that says applications. Click on applications, then click on DNA grant applications.
Uh, we'll, we'll, we'll talk about the DNA grant, which is the for, um, investigative agencies. Right now this, our grant application. Was designed by a retired homicide detective for homicide detectives. It's, it is a grant application, uh, but it is about the easiest grant application you're ever going to see in your life.
It's easier than filling out a credit card application. The vast majority, 99 percent of the information that we're asking for, you either have top of mind because you're working the case so hard or it's in your case file and it's a real quick, you know, cut and paste type of situation. You know, to that end, we are not looking for a whole lot of detail. To be totally honest with you, uh, we realize the details, you know, are important to investigators and, you know, preserving and maintaining those, uh, those details and secret can help solve cases.
So we're not, we're not going to be asking for detailed synopsis. or summaries of the case itself. What we're looking for, you know, is information about the case, information about the technology that you're looking to take advantage of to help advance the case, technology that can help, um, with that lead generation. You know, for the investigation. And then after that we, we ask that you submit your grant application with a vendor lab quote your, you know, most detectives are working with labs anyway, you know, on a number of different cases, we ask that you go through one of the pretty easy, you know, case reviews with your, your chosen lab of choice season of justice does not choose the lab. For the investigative agency that's on the detective or the department to make that decision, we ask that you go through that case review process with the lab and then accompany the grant application or accompanying the grant application will be that vendor quote that has the testing plane in there that outlines.
Hey, we're going to do this, this, and this. We want MVAC because here's what we're going to go after, you know, dot, dot, dot. So we can see what a what a financial commitment might be, you know, is it going to be a, you know, a thousand dollar case or a 15, 000 case, that type of thing.
With, with both of those items, the grant application, that's really easy. I can't say that enough times in the vendor quotes, uh, that the lab is going to send you, you submit that, Um, via email to us. Or you can do All of this online at seasonofjustice. com, or pardon me, seasonofjustice. org. And then usually our turnaround time is anywhere from 60 to 90 days.
So we are actively looking at these cases, our staff is actively looking at these cases when they come in every single day. We have An advisory board member that works directly with our staff, they go through, they vet the cases, they make sure that they're in line kind of the ducks are in a row and then as long as it meets our criteria, as long as the ducks are in a row there's a really good chance that your case is going to go in front of the board within 30 to 60 days you know, for, for grant funding for consideration you know, to, to that end, one of the, our most recent solves down in another Burlington, but Burlington, Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati I think the detective down there told me that the turnaround time was, you know, right. at 62 days. From the moment he made application to us, 62 days later, you, know, he was, you know, working directly with the lab to get what they needed.
Wow, that's awesome. Awesome, awesome stuff. And like I said, you've funded 150 plus cases over a million dollars, uh, submitted. I mean, you know, all of this forensic stuff and it doesn't matter if it's DNA or fingerprinting, it's, uh, the DNA especially is really expensive and it's just the nature of the beast. I mean, you know, all of this stuff is That lab equipment alone, you know, you're, you easily up in the millions of dollars.
So it's, um, but to, to, to even run the machines, sometimes it's like 1,500 a cartridge. Oh yeah, yeah, it's crazy. It's unbelievable. So, but you know, that's what you got to do in, in order to solve a case. Then it's not that much, really.
It's, it's interesting. There were some stats. We, we had some research, ah, man, this is, this is a number of years ago, but it included FBI stats and all this other things. And every time a department has to reopen a cold case, it's between the, the police overtime and, you know, testing and all this stuff. It averages about 35,000 per case So every time they pull that, that off the shelf.
So a lot of times, you know, they have to just. They may be aware of it, but it just sits there until they know something is different and, and I know that may not be the answer that the families want to hear, but, you know, unless something changes, nothing changes and there's no point in just, just looking at it, just for the sake of looking at it now, you know, sometimes there's a new cold case squad is, you know, is, is formed but for them to, um, Try to reopen, especially if they're in a larger agency. Jeez. I mean, they may have 500 cold cases. It it's, you know, it's, it's crazy how many of these cases they just run out of leads.
They just, there's just nothing else that they can do until a new technology or something comes along. So yeah, Right. well, Brad, it's just, uh, it's fantastic. I can't, I mean, I was really excited to have you on because I hope. So everybody listening to this goes to seasonadjustice.
org and checks out their website. And hopefully you guys can donate whatever you can to, uh, to this organization because it's one of the good ones. And it's, it's a huge need out there. There are agencies all over the country.
And if you're an investigator and you're listening to this and you. Have been like turned down by the lab, you know, you have evidence that you, you know, if you submit it, you'll, you're just really confident you'll get something off of it. And, you know, for some 1 reason or another, you just haven't been able to do it, then what do you have to lose to, to contact 1st of all, every lab that I know, every private lab that I know of will do a free consult. They don't charge you to look, you know, look at the case file. So utilize that, you know, it's, it's free, have another set of eyes, look at it. And then, you know, you can get a quote from them and then submit it to, to season of justice.
And it sounds like a pretty simple process and, you know, roll the dice, man. But the worst thing you can do is, is do nothing. And I, it's just, I think. It's so interesting with so many things happening in life right now and between, well, just everything, if you just look at society in general, the time to sit on the fence is over. People have to step up and, you know, I know everybody's life is busy.
I know everybody's like, man, I just, I just can't take on anything else. But you know what? There's a, there's a saying that I, that happened a long time ago, that it just says in order for evil to succeed, all good men, all that has to happen is good men to do nothing and, and good men and women should be included in there. So if, if you are listening to this, then more than likely, you're an amazing person because you're listening, you're an all things crime fan. Absolutely. And, um, And so, you know, get up and do something and you know what, going to seasonofjustice.
org and donating is one of the best. So, Brad, any, uh, last thoughts? Silence. No, just, uh, our appreciation Jared for give us an opportunity to talk about what we do and, you know, who we support and all of those things.
And, and please do reach out to us via the web page. There's a contact us page there. We've got a, you know, a really quick turnaround on you know, not only getting back to you to talk about your case, but also those those full grant applications with quotes, turning those around to is at the end of the day, we're here to help law enforcement. We're here to bridge that gap.
We're here to help families. And for all of us to find that resolution for those cold cases that, you know, have been out there needing this advanced technology that we now have access to that we didn't even five years ago. Yeah, well, again, what we talked about earlier with Rita Karen, uh, I guarantee her family, uh, was really, really suffering. And, and frankly, I guarantee the entire community of Burlington, Every time they thought about that cold case just hanging over their heads, uh, it had to be just painful and so that right there is the perfect example of what can happen just with with good, good people's money and by donations and fund a case like that that may have otherwise never been solved.
Bam. You've got a success story. So fantastic stuff, Brad.
Appreciate you, man. We'll, um, I'm sure we'll be seeing you at a conference here before I'll see you out there on the road. Absolutely. So you guys keep doing the best fight and, um, definitely tell all of your donors and you know, the founders and everybody how much we appreciate everything that they do, because good people like that are are the reason that that stuff's getting done, you know, even if they don't want their name out there, they, um, they're still just doing amazing things.
So Absolutely. I'll stuff, man. Okay, buddy. Thank you.
2023-10-17 02:32
