*Western Michigan University students are helping Michigan State Police crack decades-old homicide and missing person cases while providing real-world investigative experience to the next generation of law enforcement professionals.*

Since its inception in 2020, the WMU Cold Case Program has helped solve seven cold cases across the state, with students working alongside Michigan State Police detectives to bring justice to victims and their families.

The program was launched by Professor Ashlyn Kuersten, who said the primary goal is to support detectives by digitizing case files and creating useful documents.

"Mainly their job is to make the detectives' lives easier," Kuersten said. "They create documents, they digitize case files, whatever the detective finds would be most useful for their investigation."

CASES SOLVED

Among the cases the program has helped solve is the 1987 murder of Roxanne Wood in Niles Township. Wood was assaulted, raped, and murdered, and a suspect was arrested and convicted in 2022.

The program also contributed to solving the murder of Cathy Swartz, a 19-year-old found dead in her Three Rivers apartment in 1988. A suspect was arrested 35 years later, but died by suicide in jail.

Students have also worked on active cases, such as the disappearance of Brittany Shank in 2018. Shank went missing after a car crash in Sturgis, and her whereabouts remain unknown.

"I'm really surprised, I didn't expect that we would see results like that," Kuersten said. "I just thought this would be a wonderful experience for my students."

NATIONAL ATTENTION

The program's success has prompted a significant financial investment from the state, including $200,000 in new funding as of late 2024 to expand its reach and empower more student cohorts.

This investment underscores the program's dual mission of bringing justice to victims' families and training the next generation of law enforcement professionals, many of whom graduate in high demand by agencies like the FBI.

As of 2024, students were assisting detectives with at least 14 additional unsolved homicide and missing persons cases, continuing their work to organize and analyze evidence that had remained untouched for years.

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

WMU students in the program say the experience is invaluable.

"It's much different than studying for exams every week," Gabriella Tesin, a student in the program, said. "It's cool to be able to get my hands on the case file."

Halli Warner, another student, emphasized the importance of the hands-on investigative work.

ONGOING CASES

The program is currently working on several high-profile cases including:

  • Janis Sanders - Disappeared in 1975 from her job as a waitress in Niles. Her case was reclassified from Missing Person to Homicide Abducted in November 2022.
  • Anne Paetz - 23-year-old murdered in 1999. Her body was found 15 miles from where her car was found.
  • Linda Meteer - 41-year-old mother of five found dead in 1989 in Hoosier Valley, near Traverse City.
  • Thelma Hofmann - Shot and killed in 2020 at her residence in Mt. Haley Township.
  • Randa Jawhari - Reported missing from her apartment in Fenton in 2009.
  • Jacob Cabinaw - Missing since 2010.
  • Kim Larrow - Disappeared in 1981 from southeast Michigan.
  • Miquan Davis - Shot and killed in 2021 after a robbery attempt.
  • Jeanette Wilton - 57-year-old woman found dead in the Flint River in 2003. A suspect was charged in December 2024.

The work of the Cold Case Program continues to bring new insight to cases that span decades, with students helping detectives identify suspects whose names had been forgotten by time.

MORE INFORMATION

The WMU Cold Case Program works with detectives from multiple MSP districts and often directly with victims' families. Students help bring new insight to cases by digitizing case files, creating detailed timelines, building family trees, and performing other critical investigative tasks.

For more information about the program, visit the WMU Cold Case Program website at https://wmich.edu/coldcase.

"It's cool to be able to get my hands on the case file," said Gabriella Tesin, a WMU student in the Cold Case Program.