Студенты колледжа в Аризоне решают нераскрытые уголовные дела

Paradise Valley Community College cold case class gives students crime-solving experience PHOENIX, AZ (AZFamily) — Hundreds of active cold cases remain unsolved across Arizona, some puzzling detectives for decades. A course at Paradise Valley Community College is now giving students a look at what it takes to crack one. The college is entering its third year offering a cold case class — the only college in the Valley with a program like it. Students learn from instructors with extensive law enforcement backgrounds and review reports that are rarely seen outside investigative circles. “These cold cases are directly from the Phoenix Police Department,” said Bootsie Martinez, program director for Paradise Valley Community College’s Administration of Justice Studies and Forensic Science. The class gives students access to confidential reports. Names are changed, portions are redacted, and the materials are not shared outside the classroom. Student Ella Rusu said the course has shaped her professional path. “This will definitely help me achieve my goals of becoming a lawyer,” she said. Rusu, a Valley native, said working through a local case made the material personal. “Being that the case was from Phoenix, like I know these places, I wanted to go. I wish I could have like gone and interviewed the suspect or interviewed the victims about the case,” she said. Adjunct instructor Sandor Rogoff, a retired Phoenix police officer, said the course teaches students how to interview, think critically, and develop probable cause. He also emphasized the importance of thorough documentation. “It’s important to write a report that is comprehensible not just now, but 10 years from now, because you don’t know where that case is going to go or who’s going to pick it up,” Rogoff said. Martinez said the program is designed to give students hands-on exposure well ahead of what they would encounter on the job. “Even if they got hired as a police officer tomorrow, it would probably be 5 or 10 years before they would be able to make it to the cold case unit,” she said. Rogoff said solving even one cold case can have a broader impact. “The law enforcement job, criminal justice’s job is to say, yeah, we’re not going to catch them all, but we’re going to catch you,” he said. Students interested in registering for the cold case course can visit Paradise Valley Community College’s website or call 602-787-7000. See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it. Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description. Copyright 2026 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.