Crime Stoppers of Sangamon and Menard Counties announces that the Cold Case Homicide Enhanced Reward Program scheduled to end at the end of September 2016 has been extended for one month and will conclude on October 31, 2016. The special enhanced reward program offers a $5000 reward for any information which leads to an arrest in any “cold case” homicide in Sangamon or Menard County, regardless of how long ago the homicide occurred. Cold Case’s were defined as any homicide investigation in which all leads were exhausted and in which all witnesses, suspects, or persons with information had been interviewed with no arrest having resulted. In some cases, ‘persons of interest’ or suspects were established during the initial investigation however an insufficient amount of evidence was available to prosecute the offender. In those instances, prosecution could have been initiated with a key piece of solid information or the location of physical evidence to corroborate something that was identified during the police investigation. Although there were several tips presented to Crime Stoppers which were forwarded to investigators during recent weeks, none of the tips wielded new information sufficient to close a case. With this one month extension of the program, we are hoping that somehow new leads will materialize.

Crime Stoppers will continue to bring forward past homicide cases to the public in hopes of generating tips. The format of the case releases, however, will change during the time period of the extension. In October, Crime Stoppers will release multiple “cold” homicide cases on a bi-weekly basis to attempt to generate cooperation from persons who have information which might be helpful in any homicide investigation. Since it is impossible to leave the program open ended, it is hoped this extension of the $5000 reward for information leading to an arrest creates a time frame in which valuable information necessary to solve cases comes in.