By Jordan Nathaniel Fenster
The Hour, Norwalk, Conn.
NORWALK, Conn. — The eight of clubs is Rontisha Carroll, found shot on the sidewalk in Bridgeport on Oct. 8, 2007.
Sixteen-year-old Jessica Keyworth, found murdered in a Waterbury house in 2004, is the three of hearts.
Ladawn Roberts, found dead on a rear porch of an abandoned building in Hartford in 1999, is the ace of diamonds.
These are the so-called “cold case cards,” created by the cold case unit in the Chief State’s Attorney’s office. Rather than bicycles or bees, each card displays a different Connecticut murder victim whose case hasn’t yet been solved.
They are distributed almost exclusively in Connecticut prisons.
There are currently five full decks, each with 52 unsolved cases, for a total of 260 victims whose murderers have yet to be brought to justice. The unit is currently compiling the sixth deck for distribution.
The cards are not in any particular order. An ace of spades is not worth more to the cold case unit than a two of clubs, said Michael Sheldon, supervisory police inspector for the cold case unit.
“They hold no importance or higher authority for us to work on,” Sheldon said. “We don’t control that. We look at every one of them as important, and we want to solve them all.”
The cases are usually referred by local police departments, but in order to become a card, the families of the victims must first agree.
“Very few say no. Most family members want it,” Sheldon said. “There’s an occasional, ‘I’m sorry. I really don’t want my daughter’s case on a card in a prison.’ And we respect their decision.”
There are, Sheldon estimated, about 1,000 unsolved murder cases currently across the state. In compiling the sixth deck, he and his colleagues are hoping families will reach out, or local investigators might see this as a strategy through which an old case might be solved.
The idea is that the inmates will play card games, and perhaps they will know something about the case in the deck. Sheldon said inmates play a lot of cards.
It’s a strategy Sheldon said that has worked, though years-old murder cases are complex and he was reluctant to credit the cards alone with solving any individual case. But they do result in tips, and those tips sometimes result in an arrest. Those arrests sometimes result in convictions.
Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney John Fahey told CNN that the cards have resulted in 800 tips since their first printing in 2010. Inmates have an interest in reporting any tips, Sheldon said, as it can sometimes mean a sentence reduction.
One time, an inmate went into a new cell to find multiple copies of a particular card had been left behind by the previous occupant. He mentioned something to prison officials, which led to a tip, which Sheldon said “turned out pretty good.”
“Some inmates might think some of these are solved, and then they realize, ‘Oh, I know something about that,’ and it was still open,” he said. “It’s really about getting these cases out there.”
The concept for the cards came from the war in Iraq , when the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and Central Command in Iraq issued “personality identification playing cards” with faces like that of Sadam Hussein. U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told Stars and Stripes, the American military daily newspaper in 2003 that similar cards had been used in the Civil War and then again in World War II.
“The use of playing cards for education dates back to the mid-17th century in France,” according to a 2020 report by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. “Since the early days of the U.S. military, playing card companies have produced war-themed cards to commemorate famous events and people and to inform troops of their enemy capabilities. During World War II, the U.S. military issued ‘spotter cards’ as educational tools for military personnel and civilian personnel to recognize allied and enemy aircraft, ships and tanks.”
Sheldon said a police unit in Florida was the first to adapt the strategy for cold cases, but he’s been approached by detectives in other states seeking help in creating their own decks.
“The Division of Criminal Justice, the Department of Corrections and the Police Chiefs’ Association got together, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, why don’t we do this?’” Sheldon said. “It’s a way to assist police, because a lot of information does channel through the jails. Inmates are a very good source of information.”
Even so, not every cold case is appropriate for a card.
“We try to look at cases where they have a little promise to them. You want to see, is there evidence still or the witness is still alive,” Sheldon said. “You have to really do a full case review of each and every case you’re looking at. So we rely on the detectives to answer our questionnaire. And you know, with tips, could we bring a case along? Could we solve it? We want to help departments, but we have to be realistic.”
Unfortunately, many of the cases on the cards will never be solved, Sheldon said. The oldest are closing in on 50 years, such as Thera Wilson, the four of spades, who was found stabbed to death in the garage of the Hilton Hotel in Hartford on Jan. 14, 1977.
“We want to help departments, but we have to be realistic,” Sheldon said. “Back in the ‘70s, there were investigators that weren’t even wearing rubber gloves at these crime scenes. DNA was unforeseen, so they weren’t even collecting DNA. A lot of the witnesses are gone. So we’ve really got to make sure we really look at a case hard and see what, what can we do? Can we make it?”
Suzanne Colley, who works as a paralegal in the cold case unit, helps compile the decks. She said sometimes it’s difficult knowing that many cases will never be solved. But those that are, she said, make it worthwhile.
“That’s the most satisfying part, I think, is knowing that you’ve brought closure to these victims’ families,” she said.
If you would like to fill out a request for a cold case to be added to the upcoming sixth deck, contact the cold case unit at 1-866-623-8058 or by email at cold.case@ct.gov. DOC inmates can dial: #8058*.
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