Whelan and Hickey had long since retired when, in 2004, James Osorio, a detective from the department's Cold Case Squad, reopened the file hoping that fresh eyes might lead to something.
"We are asking the public's help to identify this child," Detective Robert Dewhurst, of the department's Cold Case squad, said as he stood in front of the Crime Stoppers van.
Yesterday, the police said the department's cold case squad had finally found her killer, using a federal grant that has allowed them to check unsolved murders for biological evidence.
In 2008, Ashley Wellman started working as a research consultant in the Cold Case Unit of the Alachua County, Florida, sheriff's department.
The department's newly formed cold case division has recently taken up the case and is asking for the public's help.
Chief Peter J. Robbins of the Greenwich police said Thursday that his department was working with the state police "cold case" squad and that a former state police commissioner, Henry Lee, had agreed to help.
The arrest seemed to signal an end to an infamous cold case that had both haunted and motivated "generations of investigators" at the Newport Beach Police Department, Lewis said.
That is where Detectives Dennis J. DiMele and Richard M. Cunningham found them early last year when the department, the fifth largest in Westchester County, with 111 officers, created a "cold case" unit and reopened 17 unsolved homicides dating to 1942.
Cold case detective Mike Ciesynski is shown holding Cobain's gun at different angles in five photos posted to the police department's website.
Casey Jiles, when murders occur the department works them as best as they can, but sometimes the case is put aside and becomes a cold case.
