New technology and information could heat up cold cases

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Murder cases take the highest priority for investigators, but in the city of Fresno and Fresno County, hundreds of cases have gone unsolved over the years. Cold cases actually date back to the 1800s.

Almost 24 years since the flashing lights went out and the police tape came down, much remains the same at the Jiffy Food Stop in Easton. The beer prices advertised in the window were lower back in December 1990, but the pain of what happened then stings just as fiercely.

Today, Om Parkash Khatri's photo watches over the convenience store where a mystery man shot and killed him during a robbery attempt.

"The family was hit really hard by this act, this senseless murder," said Fresno County Sheriff's Sgt. Brad Christian.

Khatri's murder is always within reach for Sgt. Christian. He's worked hundreds of homicides over the years and only a few cases still haunt him.

"This is one of them. In fact, this was my case back in 1990, so yeah, this one does," said Christian.

The file is filled with clues leading nowhere: an armed robbery in Caruthers a few days later; a composite sketch of a potential suspect in both crimes; even a VHS tape of surveillance video from the store. All dead ends.

"We didn't have much to work with at all," said Christian. "We didn't get anything in the way of fingerprints. There was no DNA testing at that time. That wasn't something to test for. It wasn't even known."

Rosalie Vindiola's murder proved equally perplexing for Fresno police three years later. Beaten and strangled, her body turned up next to a Central Fresno canal.

Evidence at the scene was in short supply. Fresno Police Detective Bart Ledbetter says Vindiola was killed somewhere else, then dumped, and no clue pointed to a killer. But as he sifted through the case file, this cold case may have warmed up.

"Recently we were advised some DNA was found on some evidence and was put into the combined DNA index system, and we're hoping for a hit in the near future," said Ledbetter.

Twenty-one years after Vindiola's murder, technology that was then in its infancy could finally lead to her killer. Scientists are comparing DNA found on the victim's body to the genetic makeup of a known serial killer now in prison for murder.

But back in Easton, there is no DNA. Khatri's brother, who owns the store, was too emotional to talk to Action News. The pain is still very close to the surface for him. And his customers haven't forgotten what happened to the man whose face is ever present.

"They would always have the paper up - 'anybody with any information' - and for years, you know, we didn't even know, we were wondering if any clues came up, and nothing," said Sally Martin Winter of Easton.

The reward poster is now wrinkled and kept in storage. But the hope it represents, and the $10,000 reward itself, are still alive.