Steve CrumpAlmost 17 years ago, an employee at Striker's Winery in McMinn County discovered 35-year-old Patty Striker slain behind a counter, cash register missing and coins scattered across the floor.
It looked like a robbery. Striker was shot in the head, but a murder weapon was never found - and neither was a murderer. Nearly two decades have passed since the April 1, 2000, killing, but Striker's case remains unsolved.
Now, investigators led by 10th Judicial District Attorney General Steve Crump are launching a new cold case task force to review nearly 60 unsolved homicides in Bradley, McMinn, Polk and Monroe counties.
Striker's death will be one of the first nine cases the task force tackles.
Officers from a dozen law enforcement agencies will also review unsolved missing person cases, unidentified remains and unsolved serial cases, like arson or sex crimes, Crump said.
No one officer will work full-time on cold cases, Crump said, but rather they'll pick up the cold case investigations as part of their regular workloads.
Crump said he's hopeful that taking a fresh look at the old cases will yield enough evidence and testimony to arrests suspects and gain convictions.
"All of these names represent futures that were lost, lives that were cut short, families that missed holidays - they all represent more than just a name on a page," he said.
Investigators picked the first nine homicide cases because they believe they are cases that can be solved, Crump said. In many of those cases, there are still living witnesses and preserved evidence.
That's unlike the earliest unsolved homicide the team discovered, from 1957. In that case, there are no living witnesses and investigators couldn't find any evidence, Crump said.
He added that investigating a cold case is a very different process from investigating a current case.
"As you work a case that's just happened, it's all about hot leads, speed, getting there first and working accurately but quickly," he said. "In a cold case, it's more about the analytics. It's about taking the case apart very slowly and very painstakingly, and taking the evidence piece by piece to figure out what it means."
The four counties in which the task force will work are very rural and include wide swaths of undeveloped land, Crump added, making it easy for criminals to hide evidence and bodies. The task force was created with that geography in mind, he said.
"It's very different than a big-city setting, and we have to approach these cases differently," he said, gesturing to the roomful of officers. "These folks here have hundreds of years of experience and knowledge in the community, [so they know] where someone might hide evidence, what the story was back in the day on a case."
The task force launched both a website and a phone hotline to provide the public with information on the region's cold cases, as well as to receive any tips or information that citizens may want to share on particular cases.
The website can be found at tncoldcase10.com. Citizens can leave a tip or speak with a cold case investigator by calling 1-844-878-9580.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas. Follow @ShellyBradbury.