Our history
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2017
The nonprofit Cold Case Coalition is formed to investigate the case of Rosie Tapia and other cold cases.
2018
Rosie’s Law passes in Utah, requiring law enforcement to enter cases into a publicly available database.
The Coalition secures enough pledges to offer a reward on every Utah cold case.
2019
The Coalition launches Intermountain Forensics, the first DNA lab to obtain accreditation to offer whole-genome sequencing to enable forensic investigative genetic genealogy.
The Coalition creates Utah cold case decks of playing cards, distributed for free to prisons to aid in securing leads.
2020
The Coalition develops one of the most comprehensive collections of resources associated with the yet-unsolved cases misattributed to the “confession killer,” Henry Lee Lucas.
2021
The Coalition launches the Railroad Murder initiative, creating the only nationwide database on unresolved rail-related homicides and disappearances.
2022
Intermountain Forensics is selected to perform DNA analyses for the 1921 Tulsa Graves Investigation, a multidisciplinary effort to identify victims buried in unmarked graves associated with the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre through FIGG.
At the Coalition’s urging, law enforcement reopens the investigation into the 1970 triple homicide of Dale Jean Langston and her two children, Troy and Christine, in Layton, Utah.
The Coalition’s first volunteer investigative team forms to examine the 1980 deaths of two young women in Jacksonville, Florida, Regina Campbell and Tammie Connors.
The Coalition’s FIGG team positively identifies Fort Bend Jane Doe, found in 1984, as Peggy Anne Dodd.
2023
Founder Karra Porter publishes the first edition of Cold Case Help, a resource guide for families and communities to investigate unanswered deaths and disappearances.
The FIGG team positively identifies the remains of David Clark Wilkinson, a 56-year-old found in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2020.
2024
The FIGG team positively identifies Vietnam veteran Gerald Francis Long, who went missing in 1972, and Mark Austin Dunne, who went missing in 2017.
World War I veteran C.L. Daniels is the first identification from the 1921 Tulsa Identification Project.
Intermountain Forensics transitions its day-to-day lab operations to DNA Labs International, Inc., and begins focusing on consulting and funding FIGG testing for cold cases.
2025
The FIGG team identifies crime scene DNA as belonging to James Wallace Peterson in the 1993 murder of Theresa Morlock of Salt Lake City.
Volunteer investigators research the 1997 disappearance of Richard Roy Billmayer in Ogden, Utah, ultimately delivering a lead to Ogden PD that secures a full confession to his murder.
2026
The FIGG team identifies the remains of William Reginald Sipfle, whose remains were found in a Pima County, Arizona, desert in 1975. A trial is pending in his homicide.
2027
The second edition of Cold Case Help by founder Karra Porter is released in January.