Family members of homicide victims plan to gather this weekend to call attention to long-unsolved homicides in the Savannah area.
Voices of Homicide Victims Support Group will host the Cold Case Rally from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Greater Gaines AME Chapel on May Street.
“We’re trying to get the DA to open up some cold case files,” said Lucinda Chisholm, whose 32-year-old son Everette Dexter Simmons was shot and killed while driving through his eastside neighborhood in May 2003. “We also want a detective, a unit to work on cold cases.”
In August, the Savannah-Chatham police department launched a “cold cases” page on its website, through which it profiles certain homicides and asks for tips. The term “cold case,” however, is one the officer who runs the department’s Criminal Investigations Division has previously said he and his detectives don’t like to use.
“A homicide case never closes,” metro police Maj. Larry Branson told the Savannah Morning News in July. “... We are reaching back to cases 10, 12 years ago... and further back as well.”
The support group meets monthly at the courthouse. Chisholm — whose son’s slaying remains unsolved — said she’s there for every meeting.
Rosa Simmons of the District Attorney’s Office’s Victim Witness Assistance Program organizes the group.
Simmons said elected officials, CrimeStoppers and police will be present Saturday.
“This is what a friend of mine whose son was killed said: ‘Today it’s at my door. Tomorrow it might be at yours,’” Simmons said. “Together we have to come together to stop it.”
IF YOU GO
What: Cold Case Rally
When: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Greater Gaines AME Chapel, 1006 May St. in Savannah.
Info: Some elected officials, CrimeStoppers and police will be present as well as presenters.
