Cold Case Rewards That Can Never Be Collected

I live in a small Canadian province, in a tiny town. Near to my tiny town are numerous other tiny towns. Everyone knows everyone. For the most part there isn't much going on when it comes to gossip and whatnot, no one is really all that interesting and the truth of things typically comes out.

In 1985, a woman was murdered here and found in the woods between two communities. She was from the city. For years afterwards, people informed the police that a man from the community had bragged about murdering her, stabbing her, and how he'd done it before but no one found those women. This man was well known for being horrific, and somehow rarely got caught for his actions.

Fast forward to yesterday. Our provinces major unsolved crimes unit issued a $150,000 dollar reward for any information leading to the conviction of the woman's killer.

The only problem? He's dead; he comitted suicide and even left a note alluding to the murder, but not a confession. What a sad slap in the face to this woman's family and memory.

So now I'm thinking... who is benefiting from this $150,000 that could be claimed? Will it quietly disappear into some crooked pocket? No less than 5 people I know personally have contacted law enforcement officials to restate what they said in 1985, and all have been told the unit was "looking for new leads".

What a joke. It goes to show that if you have certain connections in this province, you're untouchable, or at least you were.

a reply to: Atsbhct


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originally posted by: Atsbhct

So now I'm thinking... who is benefiting from this $150,000 that could be claimed? Will it quietly disappear into some crooked pocket? No less than 5 people I know personally have contacted law enforcement officials to restate what they said in 1985, and all have been told the unit was "looking for new leads".

Most likely the money exists only in a larger fund (maybe the Police Department's overall operations budget money) in a bank account somewhere. Granted, a portion of that fund might be earmarked (on the accountant's books) to be as reward money, but if that reward goes unclaimed, the money will just stay in the fund -- maybe to be used as other reward money, or put back in the overall police department's operational budget for the following budget year.

It's not like they deducted $150,000 in cash from the fund, then put the cash on a shelf somewhere waiting for it to be awarded to someone. It's likely only ever withdrawn when a reward is claimed.


And I assume you are talking about a police department reward, but there are other private organizations (like a "Crime stoppers" organization) that also might give out a reward. That money probably comes from the overall donations the Crime Stoppers organization gets in order to operate.

But similarly to a police department, that Crime Stoppers reward money isn't sitting in a drawer somewhere, but rather it is part of the overall bank account from which the private organization draws the money it uses to operate. That reward money almost certainly would not be withdrawn from that account until a reward is claimed.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

I understand that the money isn't sitting earmarked; but why have they made the cash award available at all?

Someone is now able to claim it, except not really because the killer is dead. What's thw point?

a reply to: Atsbhct

The RCMP are all corrupt. Your province isn't the only place having the right friends protects you from murder. My province has old Willy Pickton and his death farm.

RCMP officers, hells angels and all sorts of sordid individuals frequently partied together there. There's a reason why it took nearly 20 years for him to finally be arrested and tried.


Pickton Case
www.cbc.ca...