It’s getting easier to get away with murder in the Washington area.
Nearly half of the homicides in the region since 1980 remain unsolved, an analysis by The Washington Examiner found.
The number of reported homicides has declined over the past three decades, but police are solving fewer of them. That means some families never get explanations about why they had to bury a loved one.
Daniel Harrington’s daughter, Morgan, a Virginia Tech student, was killed after a Metallica concert in Charlottesville last year. Her killer is still at large, and Harrington said his grief is magnified by the continuing mystery.
“It’s been pretty ugly, actually,” Harrington said. “When cases go cold and die, people lose interest and move on to something else. It’s not popular to keep bringing that up.”
Valencia Mohammed, who became an anti-crime activist after two of her sons were murdered, said, “It is like my sons went into a black hole.” The murder of one son was solved, the other remains open after nine years.
In the District and five surrounding counties, 55 percent of homicides were solved between 1980 and 2008, according to data from a Scripps Howard News Service database, compiled using FBI figures.
Nationwide, nearly two-thirds of homicides were solved from 1980 to 2008. But the percentage of solved homicides dropped from 68 percent between 1980 and 1989 to 56 percent from 2000 to 2008.
Local jurisdictions haven’t fared much better. The percentage of solved homicides in D.C. fell from 61 percent in the 1980s to 55 percent from 2000 to 2008. During the same time periods, the homicide clearance rate in Prince George’s County dropped from 67 percent to 36 percent, and Arlington’s dropped from 86 percent to 67 percent.
FBI figures also showed a dramatic decline in homicides closed by police agencies in Fairfax County, from 76 percent in the 1980s to only 36 percent for this decade, through 2008. Officer Don Gotthardt, a Fairfax County police spokesman, said his department’s clearance rate from 2000 to 2008 was far higher than 36 percent. But the FBI statistics used in the Scripps Howard database combined all departments in the county.
Jurisdiction
Number of homicides since 1980
Number solved
Percent solved, 1980-2008
Percent solved 1980-89
Percent solved 1990-99
Percent solved 2000-08
Arlington
166
138
83.13
86
86
67
Montgomery
572
470
82.17
80
78
86
Alexandria
167
132
79.04
87
71
72
Fairfax
429
285
66.43
76
71
36
U.S.
540,274
341,945
63.29
68
61
56
Region
12,417
6,786
54.65
D.C.
8,066
4,288
53.16
61
45
55
Prince George’s
3,017
1,473
48.82
67
49
36
Police say many factors influence clearance rates.
A relationship between the victim and suspect, an obvious motive, and a quick police arrival at the scene can make it easier for officers to solve a case, said Cpl. Dan Friz, a Montgomery County police spokesman.
The willingness of witnesses to work with police is also a factor, Gotthardt said.
Susan Ley counsels bereaved families at the Wendt Center in D.C. She said it’s hard enough to deal with the violent death of a loved one; having that death go unsolved for months or years creates a constant “sense of unease.”
Families often don’t know why a case remains unsolved, said Kerrin Darkow, deputy director of victim services for the National Center for Victims of Crime.
Darkow said she encourages families to build a relationship with police and ask for whatever information is available. She said families cope with unresolved cases in a variety of ways. Some, she said, try to search for answers on their own.
After her two sons were killed, Mohammed fought her grief by forming Mothers of Unsolved Murders and lobbying for a forensics laboratory for the District.
The work has given her focus, but not relief. D.C.’s bureaucracy doesn’t help, she said.
“Yesterday, I got a notice for [her son] for jury duty,” she said. “It’s like, they stick it to you again.”
