Atlanta college students investigate cold cases

BY DORIE TURNER

ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

ATLANTA -- The single moms and young college students sit in a circle, throwing out names, dates, anything that could lead them to the suspect in the unsolved lynching of four black sharecroppers killed decades ago.

On the wall hangs a long piece of paper with dates written on Post-it notes: stabbing, meeting, lynching. It's a timeline waiting for the details, a story to be told.

"Write down means, motive and opportunity, because you've got to figure out all three," says Sheryl McCollum, who oversees this group of aspiring sleuths. "Don't try to make this hard. Murder ain't ever complicated."

It's another lesson for the 100 or so students at tiny Bauder College who make up an unusual club that calls itself the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute. They gather in the school library to discuss leads and examine coroners' reports and witness statements in real-world whodunits, gaining experience that can help them land jobs in the criminal justice system and appreciation for the people involved in each case.