David Goetcheus

Every day, David Goetcheus relives his only two sons’ execution-style deaths 12 years ago.

And nearly every year, before the anniversary of the Jan. 9 double slaying, Mr. Goetcheus makes his plea for help in the cold case.

“I can’t go to my death without the people who killed my children being held accountable,” said Mr. Goetcheus, 62.

He said he wants the police to take action.

“Let’s do something different,” Mr. Goetcheus said. “Let’s really investigate it. Go back to the people involved now and put pressure on them.”

Sean Goetcheus, 25, and his brother Donny, 19, were killed inside Sean’s house on the eastern slope of Missionary Ridge on Jan. 9, 1997. Each was shot in the head with Sean’s gun, records show.

The killings were discovered when Sean Goetcheus’s employer, Rick Davis, and another employee drove to the rental home at 3207 Rosemont Drive after Sean didn’t show up for work at Southern Gold and Diamonds on Brainerd Road, according to Times Free Press archives.

Chattanooga police investigated the killings but could not close the case. But they say they have not forgotten it.

A lack of evidence and witnesses has made the case difficult to crack, said Sgt. Bill Phillips, who was assigned to the case the night it happened and since has become head of the department’s homicide division. The investigation, however, is not at a standstill, Sgt. Phillips said, and he regularly speaks with people on the streets about the brothers and what happened that night, he said.

“That’s one case that we talk about a lot,” Sgt. Phillips said. “There’s almost always something going on with it. There’s just not enough at this point to make any arrests or anything like that.”

A year after the killings, the TV show “America’s Most Wanted” profiled the case and suggested that federal officials offer witness protection to those involved so they’d be willing to talk to police, Mr. Goetcheus said.

“The police have said there was no evidence that (my sons) were doing something wrong, but there was evidence they may have been hanging out with the wrong people,” he said.

Mr. Goetcheus said he used to advocate that police get more help when investigating major crimes, and he rarely said negative things about the department and its detectives. But his patience has dwindled.

“I just can’t get them to keep interviewing people and working on it,” Mr. Goetcheus said.

The Crime Stoppers program publicized the case in January 2006 and 2007, asking anyone with information to confirm new details detectives had uncovered.

About 90 homicide cases, one dating back to December 1974, remain open in Chattanooga Police Department files, officials said recently.