Cold Case Unit Created In Rutherford County

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.- The Rutherford County Sheriff's Office has created a special unit to review and investigate unsolved murder cases.

The two detectives manning the new unit said they hope for the same kind of success as last year when they solved a 22-year-old murder.

"When I moved here, I wanted her to have a room and put her memories here," said Lourene Mackey

Mackey keeps the bedroom the way her daughter would have kept it had she been alive.

Her daughter was murdered 23 years ago.

"I never gave up. I never gave up. I just believed justice would be served some day," Mackey said.

The Laura Salmon murder was a cold case until 2006.

Mackey's prayers were answered when Rutherford County detectives solved the case and put David Kyle Gilley behind bars.

"She had these blocks over here. After the trial was over and he was sentenced to life, I put 'Jail. Laura wins.' And I feel like that is my statement about the whole thing," Mackey said referring to colored blocks that spell out the statement in her daughter's bedroom.

In the wake of that success, Rutherford County detectives hope to open other cold cases.

If the Rutherford County Commission approves, detectives Dan Goodwin and Bill Sharp will be the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department's cold case unit.

They'll spend the majority of their time working on old, unsolved murders.

"The best we can hope for in an old murder case or any murder case is a reckoning and that's what the bad guy in our case got and that's what we're hoping to bring to some other people," Goodwin said.

The detectives said they'll re-interview old witnesses and use new technologies to try and link suspects to the crimes. It's an opportunity to help family members find some kind of peace.

"I will never have my daughter back, but there is a peace knowing that justice has been done," Mackey said.

The Rutherford County Commission votes on the sheriff's budget next month.

If approved, the cold case unit will start working on old cases at the end of June.