MEMPHIS, Tenn — The Shelby County District Attorney's Office and the Memphis Police Department announced plans in late September for a collaborative cold case unit.
The unit was designed to help law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of unsolved homicide and violent sexual assault cases.
One mother has been waiting for justice for a decade.
“Lost my business, lost my job. I lost me," JoAnn Lewis, the mother of Jerod Lewis.
JoAnn Lewis’s biggest loss was her 25-year-old son Jerod. He was shot to death in Southeast Memphis in August of 2012. Police said a bullet went through his back seat, hitting him.
“It was like 1:49 in the morning and they called us and my husband answered the phone and they said that my son had been shot," Lewis said.
To this day no one has been identified and authorities aren’t even sure of a possible motive.
MPD defines a cold case - like Jerod's - as an unsolved case that is more than a year old, with no viable leads.
District Attorney Mulroy said his office’s efforts are two-fold.
“There are two different types of cold cases," Mulroy said. "There are cases where the police have been unable to indefinity a suspect, right, and so we need further investigation. But there are also cases where we have identified a suspect and maybe even have a warrant, but we weren’t able to serve the warrant because we couldn’t find the person.”
Lewis said this is just the continuation of an unending cycle.
“They say the same thing. They say, 'Call me and we’re going to get on that case,' and they may call me two or three times and I don’t hear from them anymore. So, if that’s how they treat the cold cases, none of them are going to be solved," she said.
Another family among an untold number waiting for justice.
"It's too much for me to understand," said Darrell Lewis, Jerod's Father. "You have a lot... to me you have a lot of evidence that night and I think it just got [overlooked]."
“Put yourself in our shoes," Jerod's cousin Roderick Carter said. "If this was your son, your cousin, your big brother, or nephew; how would you want someone to handle this case?”
ABC24 did reach out to MPD to get an exact number of cold cases they are currently working but we have not yet to received any of that information.