“Cold case” playing cards in Mississippi jails aim to solve murders, disappearances

A Mississippi organization is trying to solve cold cases with a special deck of cards.

Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers created “cold case” playing cards containing information on various unsolved homicide and missing person cases, printing 2,500 of the decks to be distributed within seven jails.

Each deck includes 56 cooler cases. There are 20 missing persons cases, according to Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers CEO Lori Massey, and 36 unsolved homicides on the cards.

Each of the cards contains photos of a missing or dead person, and information about the circumstances in which they died or were last seen.

Massey told CBS News that the organization was inspired to release the covers after learning that other Crime Stoppers units across the country had used the technique to get information on cold cases.

“We're not the first, but we're the first in our state to issue them,” Massey said. “It's not my idea, I just borrowed it from someone else.”

The technique has a track record of success. In 2009, a similar pack of cards distributed in Minnesota helped identify a set of remains as a missing woman. Arrests were made in 2017 two cold cases in just one week after playing cards with information on the case were distributed to Connecticut prisons.

Inmates who report information that leads to the discovery of a missing person's body or an arrest in a case will receive $2,500, Massey said, though he added that Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers has not found out how people in jail they could receive the funds. . Different Crime Stoppers organizations have different incentives, Massey said.

“We can't put the money in his commissary account or anything like that,” Massey said. “So we're going to have to figure out how we're going to get them the money. But not everyone is serving a 15-year sentence. These are our county jails. … We're very excited that this will lead. to something.”

Massey said the families of those on the cards were “grateful” for the initiative. Lacy Moran, whose father Joey disappeared in 2019, told CBS News affiliate WLOX that she hoped the cards would yield more information.

“I hope this is a new community that we haven't reached yet,” Moran said. “Along the coast everyone has heard the father's name and I hope there are people who haven't heard it yet and this will solve something.”