Cold case squads ready renewed crime fight in 2018

Police in the Netherlands produced a new edition of a wall calendar meant to hang in correctional facilities featuring the details of numerous cold cases that have yet to be solved. The first edition, produced in 2017, featured one case per week, and led to 78 tips to help investigators. About 32 of those tips were helpful, and helped police re-open nine cases, authorities announced.

The new calendar will hang not only in prisons, but also in rehabilitation units, police said. Last year the police shared the calendar in five prisons with the hope that prisoners might know something and provide useful information.

In the new calendar there will be more cases from Amsterdam, such as the discovery of the body of an unidentified man in 1982, the case of a woman missing since 2011, and a strangled man found in the water of Amsterdam Noord in 1998.

According to Jeroen Hammer, the detective behind the idea, almost two thirds of the prisoners thought the calender was a good idea. For this reason this year the calendars will appear in probation offices and centers for criminals to reintegrate into society. Hammer said it is possible the calendar's will also hang in psychiatric correctional facilities as well.