How to Look up Old Murders: Can Anyone Look at Old Case Files?

Old murder case files are generally public records. You can access them through court clerks, public records requests to law enforcement, PACER for federal cases, or the Murder Accountability Project. Sealed records require a court order, and older federal paper files transfer to the National Archives.

How to look up old murders: Steps

Starting your search from the fundamentals is always a wise strategy. Crucial details such as the person's name, the year of their death, and the location of the incident can significantly aid your information hunt. A complimentary resource you can utilize is the Murder Accountability Project. This website provides extensive data on homicide cases, even those dating quite a way back in time.

Once you've got the basics, you can begin to go more in depth:

• Check for newspaper articles or other online resources. Somebody may have already done the digging for you.

• Review local criminal case files. Visit or write to the law enforcement agency that handled the case and ask for its records archive, or file a state public records request. States call these open records, public records, or freedom of information requests, and each state sets its own procedure, exemptions, and fees. The federal Freedom of Information Act does not reach city or county police departments, so use your state's statute when you are asking a local agency.

• You may request access to police records in person or via mail.

• Police records are not always free. After submitting your request, the department will tell you how much you owe for the report. Many agencies let you order a copy through the arresting agency's website.

• For the most part, NARA does not hold records from state or county courts; its court holdings are federal.

• State courts prosecute homicides, but under some circumstances murder becomes a federal crime.

• PACER covers federal criminal case files only, and its coverage of older criminal filings is limited (see below). Local courts keep their own official records. Use the PACER Case Locator to find federal cases.

• You may request unsolved case files at the courthouse where the homicide was prosecuted.

• Court records are generally public records.

• To access sealed records, you must have a court order.

• Check our cold case repository database to see if you can find information about your cold case online. Please note that if you are using a .gov website from outside of the United States you may need to use a VPN to gain access.

Following the steps above will give you the digital tools you need to research cold cases. Read on to find out how to use them.

Can a civilian solve cold cases?

Homicide clearance rates leave a large and compounding backlog. The Murder Accountability Project reports that 61.4 percent of 2024 homicides were cleared. For a historical anchor, the FBI's legacy Uniform Crime Reporting summary data put the 2017 clearance rate for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter at 61.6 percent. The two figures come from different collections, so read them as separate snapshots rather than a trend line. Because that annual gap accumulates, MAP estimates there are more than 250,000 U.S. homicides since 1980 for which no one has been charged.

That backlog is why open records matter to families and researchers, and why so many unresolved cases sit in files that anyone can lawfully request.

What is the difference between murder, homicide, and manslaughter?

Rules to follow - Are private investigations legal?

Private research into an old case is legal if you stay inside the law. You break the law if you commit any of the following acts:

• Impersonate a police officer: the law does not permit private investigators or private citizens to carry a badge, wear a uniform, or in any way hold themselves out as police.

• Arrest a suspect: some states permit a private citizen to detain someone in narrowly defined circumstances, but the rules differ sharply by state and getting it wrong can expose you to a lawsuit or to unlawful detention charges. Check your own state's statute, and in practice call law enforcement instead of acting yourself.

• Trespass: trespassing on private property is a crime. You cannot lawfully enter someone else's home or property to look for evidence.

• Breach of privacy: wiretapping or otherwise intercepting someone's private communications is unlawful, and the rules vary by state.

If you believe you have evidence that would justify a search or an arrest, contact law enforcement rather than acting on it yourself. Approaching a suspect or a suspect's associates directly can put you in real physical danger and can compromise a case that police may still be able to charge.

Can civilians investigate cold cases?

Some states actively invite public tips on unresolved cases. Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice, working with the Department of Correction and state law enforcement agencies, produces a Cold Case playing card deck highlighting 52 unsolved homicides, missing persons, and unidentified remains cases from across the state. The cards are distributed to incarcerated people to generate leads, and tips can be submitted anonymously. If your case is in Connecticut, the deck is a good starting point.

How can you help solve old murders?

You may do independent research or pursue a career in law enforcement.

Apply for the FBI Honors Internship Program

If you have never worked an investigation, the FBI's Honors Internship Program places students in FBI offices alongside working agents, analysts, and professional staff.

The Bureau publishes the eligibility requirements on its careers site. To be eligible for the Honors Internship Program, you must:

• Be a U.S. citizen.

• Attend a U.S.-accredited college or university full time as an undergraduate, graduate, or post-doctoral student.

• Have and maintain a 3.0 cumulative grade point average or better at the time of application, throughout the application process, and for the duration of the program.

• Pass all of the FBI employment background investigation requirements and be able to receive a Top Secret Clearance.

Application windows open well ahead of the internship term, and the Bureau can change these rules from year to year.

Check the FBI's own careers site rather than a third-party summary before you apply, because unofficial sites that describe FBI hiring are frequently out of date and are not affiliated with the Bureau: FBI students and graduates programs.

How to look up old murder cases

Step 1: gather data from newspapers, old news articles, or videos.

Murder and missing person cases make the news in every state. If you know the deceased's name and where the incident occurred, start by checking local news reports from around that date. For older cases, or cases that predate the internet, public libraries are a strong data source.

You will have to go through old newspapers.

How do I find old newspapers for free?

Google Historical Newspapers is free. The newspapers are arranged in alphabetical order, and you can search the archive or the web.

Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive.com offer similar access for a fee.

Apart from newspapers, you may visit local media outlet websites or YouTube. The idea is to gather as much information as possible before requesting access to law enforcement files, because most records systems require you to name a specific case, court, or date.

A journalist's guide to accessing old court documents

If the judge did not seal the record, many federal files are available online. So how do you access them?

Visit Electronic Filing CM/ECF or PACER

Electronic Filing (CM/ECF) is the system attorneys use to submit case files electronically. Through it you may access:

• Pleadings

• Motions

• Petitions

To use the system, you must create a PACER account.

What is PACER?

PACER stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records. According to PACER, the system provides access to more than 1 billion documents filed at all federal courts, covering district, bankruptcy, and appellate cases.

After you create an account, you have two search options: search the nationwide index, or search for a case in a specific federal court.

Watch out: PACER is weakest exactly where old murder research needs it most. Documents filed in criminal cases before November 1, 2004 are available electronically only to the parties in the case. If you are not a party, PACER will not show you those documents, and you must contact the clerk of the court that heard the case. Coverage start dates also vary from court to court.

This is why we recommend working through newspapers and other sources first. You will need specific details, including the court and approximate filing date, to find the file you want.

Note: the Court CM/ECF lookup gives you court-specific links and contact information, which is the fastest way to reach the clerk's office that holds an older paper file.

The court may redact some personal information

According to the United States Courts journalist's guide, federal rules require certain personal information to be redacted from publicly filed documents. Redacted information includes:

• Social Security and taxpayer identification numbers

• Dates of birth

• The names of minor children

• Financial account information

• Home addresses, in criminal cases

Judges also have authority to seal additional documents, or to close hearings that would ordinarily be public, to protect classified information, trade secrets, cooperating witnesses, or people who face an undue risk of identity theft or other injury.

Following filings in a case you care about

There is no PACER section called "notable cases." What some individual courts offer is a notification service. The Fourth Circuit, for example, lets any registered user request email notice of filings made in cases they select. In social security, immigration, and railroad retirement board cases, members of the public can only view court orders, opinions, and judgments. It requires both a PACER account and a court CM/ECF account, and members of the public can request a public interested party account. Note that this covers that court's own appellate docket, not filings in the trial court below. Availability and terms differ by court, so check the court that handled your case.

How do I find older cold case files?

Older federal court files move to the National Archives, but not on a fixed calendar year. According to the National Archives, federal court records less than 15 years old are generally still in the possession of the individual courts and are not held by NARA. For anything inside that window, contact the court directly, or ask the court to refer you to a Federal Records Center for copies.

NARA stands for the National Archives and Records Administration, the nation's record keeper for materials created by the federal government. Note that NARA permanently retains only between one and three percent of federal records, the portion appraised as having enduring value. Records of resolved cases are not all kept forever.

How do you request access to NARA records?

Contact the facility before you travel. NARA advises researchers to write, telephone, or email in advance to confirm that the documents or microfilm you want are actually at the location you plan to visit, because holdings are spread across many facilities.

When you arrive, you will usually be issued a researcher identification card, and first-time researchers complete an online orientation before receiving one. No citizenship, credentials, or letters of recommendation are required. Plan an initial visit for a weekday during business hours, ideally early in the day, since the archivists who support research are generally not available evenings or weekends.

To access NARA files, you have two options.

• Hire an independent researcher. NARA publishes lists of independent researchers by topic, media type, and facility, but it is careful to say that inclusion is not an endorsement of the quality of their work and that NARA is not responsible for any arrangement you make. Anything you agree on regarding scope and cost is a private contract between you and that researcher, so confirm their qualifications yourself.

• Contact the facility directly by phone, mail, or email before you visit.

What to remember:

• Documents filed through CM/ECF are generally available via PACER, subject to the pre-2004 criminal case limit above.

• You must contact the court where the case was filed to reach paper documents that have not transferred.

• PACER charges $0.10 per page, but you are only billed if you accrue more than $30 in a quarter, and court opinions are always free. Most one-off research runs cost nothing.

What if the court sealed the record?

Several categories of court records are not ordinarily available to the public. The United States Courts guide lists unexecuted summonses or warrants, pretrial bail and presentence reports, juvenile records, documents containing information about jurors, and filings such as expenditure records that might reveal the defense strategies of court-appointed lawyers.

The court has authority to seal documents to protect victims, informants, ongoing criminal investigations, and the accused person's due process rights. For example, if a witness cooperates with authorities, the court may seal the informant's hearing transcripts and related case documents to protect that witness from retaliation.

In short: you will need a court order to access sealed records.

When does the FBI get involved in a murder case?

Most murders are investigated by state and local police and prosecuted in state court. The FBI does not run the typical homicide case. Murder becomes a federal matter only in specific circumstances, such as a killing on federal land, the murder of a federal officer, or a homicide that forms part of a federal offense.

A common federal hook is flight across state lines. The FBI maintains a wanted page for murder suspects where you can view posters, aliases, and descriptions. The listing for Diego Trejo is a good illustration: the federal charge is Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution, filed because he is alleged to have fled the state, while the underlying murder charge belongs to Georgia. The federal element is the flight, not the killing.

The FBI also publishes a murder victim page that offers rewards for information leading to an arrest.

The murder accountability project: Where can I find cold case files?

The Murder Accountability Project is an open-source website that gives the public and investigators free access to homicide data drawn from federal, state, local, and FBI records. The service is available to anyone, without special permission.

Its holdings include Uniform Crime Report data summarizing homicides and clearances from 1965 onward, case-level Supplementary Homicide Report data from 1976 forward, and nearly 39,000 homicides MAP obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that were never reported to the Justice Department. That FOIA figure is a running total that MAP updates as it files more requests, so check the site for the current count rather than relying on a number quoted elsewhere.

What to remember:

• MAP acquires unreported homicide records under the Freedom of Information Act.

• The search tool lets you filter by the victim's age, sex, race, location, and time frame, and to look for patterns across cases.

• You may widen your search parameters to the entire country.

• MAP is a non-profit organization funded by donations.

• MAP is a research database, not an official government record. Treat it as a lead-generation tool, then confirm details against the court file or the investigating agency.

How do detectives solve cold cases?

Investigators use the resources above, plus evidence that may not have been testable when the case went cold.

Look for gaps in the original investigation

A case may go unsolved for decades because of investigative errors, lost or destroyed evidence, witnesses who would not talk at the time, shifting departmental priorities, or forensic techniques that did not yet exist.

Review everything: documents, recordings, and related material, and build a timeline. The goal is to spot discrepancies between accounts, then look for the answer to each one. Reading the file closely sometimes surfaces a name, a vehicle, or a date that was never followed up.

Gather data from correctional facilities

If a suspect or a witness is incarcerated, you may be able to request an interview. Be careful how much you disclose about yourself. Contacting people connected to an unsolved killing carries real personal risk, and anything you do can also affect a case prosecutors may still be able to bring. Where you have information, the safer route is to pass it to the investigating agency or to a tip line.

How to look up old murders/cold cases: summary

Option 1: submit a request to the agency or court that handled the case.

• Contact the appropriate local, state, or federal court clerk.

• Request access to criminal records electronically or in writing, using your state's public records statute for local and state agencies.

Option 2: Visit National Archives court records.

Option 3: Search local newspapers or news reports.

Option 4: Go to the Murder Accountability Project.

Related: How to find recent arrests What is the difference between first, second, and third degree murder? Manslaughter Laws Explained Difference between murder, homicide, and manslaughter.