If you've gotten away with murder, you should probably go ahead and keep your DNA to yourself. That seems to be the moral of the story of one Francisco Acevedo, who for years eluded investigators searching for the killer of three New York women. The murders occurred in Yonkers in 1989, 1991 and 1996, and the case went cold until 2009, when Acevedo voluntarily provided DNA as a condition of a parole application after a drunk driving rap. more ›

Yesterday, a convicted Virginia drug dealer was sentenced for 20 years for raping a 16-year-old girl on the Lower East Side in 1993. It took nine years for DNA evidence at the crime scene to be analyzed and then last year, the DNA was entered into a national database—bringing up Alberto Barriera. more ›

Manhattan DA Cy Vance at least had a tiny bit of good news, for once, yesterday. The cold case squad he helped create last year has made its first arrest. Investigators say they have linked the 25-year-old murder of Antoinette Bennett—who was found dead in St. Nicholas Park on Nov. 10, 1986—to a Rikers inmate, Steven Carter, who was days away from being released. more ›

In something of a surprise, Rodney Alcala, the "Dating Game Killer" currently on death row in California for killing four women and a 12-year-old girl, has been indicted for murdering two woman in New York in the 70s. Cornelia Crilley, 23, was found raped and strangled in her UES apartment in 1971 and Ellen Hover, also 23, went missing in 1977 and was found a year later. more ›

Not every long-unsolved crime can have a heartwarming ending. For instance, though it offers little consolation after 17 years, the NYPD last month got the ball rolling to close the murder case of 22-year-old Jessica Smith. When cops first investigated Smith's 1993 death, her oldest daughter, 4-year-old Christina, told them that "Daddy shot Mommy in the head." But police didn't want to put a tot on the stand and so "Daddy" DeJohn Hoffman, who was Smith's boyfriend but not Christina's father, got off. more ›

Did you commit a murder in New York City in the last forty years and never got caught? Might want to be careful where you leave your DNA. See, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office this year started a DNA-based cold case squad and is slowly working through the evidence from at least 95 of the city's roughly 3,000 unsolved murders. When they can find the evidence bags, at least. more ›

After 17 years of living with guilt, Trevell Coleman, better known as rapper G-Dep, walked into the 25th Precinct on Wednesday and admitted to fatally shooting a man outside of an East Harlem housing project almost two decades ago. The victim was John Henkel, a Queens man whom Coleman attempted to rob on the night of October 19th, 1993. "It was just eating away at him," said one police source. more ›

Cold-case investigators are ripping up the basement of a Queens plumbing-supply store in hopes of finding the remains of a Baruch College student who disappeared 12 years ago after her married chemistry professor got her pregnant. Cops received a tip a decade ago that Kristine Kupka might be buried beneath the Jamaica shop, but the man who managed the property—a cousin of professor and "prime suspect" Darshanad Persaud—wouldn't allow them to search. But according to the Post, after the building was leased to a new business, cops got permission and a "cadaver-sniffing dog" indicated the presence of human remains. more ›

Update: The AP is reporting that DNA test results have shown that John Barnes is not the same man as the toddler kidnapped on Long Island 54 years ago. Jerry Damman, the father of the missing Stephen Damman, said to reporters, "It's too bad we had to go through all of this for actually nothing in the end." The story from earlier continues below. more ›

Ten years ago today, Camden Sylvia and Michael Sullivan left their rent-stabilized loft in downtown Manhattan, went for a jog, rented a video and were never seen again. Today, the Daily News revisits the mystery and speaks to Sylvia's mother. Laurie Sylvia says, "I want to know what happened. Each year that goes by I think, maybe this year. I never imagined I would be doing that for 10 years." more ›

A look at some noteworthy television this week: more ›

Swoon returns to Rivington, after her last piece there got wrecked. More at Streetsy. more ›

The Post today has one of those stories that seems right out of that canceled-Fox drama 'Reunion.' In 1974 recent John Bronwe High School graduate Leslie Zaret was found strangled and naked in the PS 203 schoolyard in Bayside. "Her long-sleeved, flower-print blouse, bluejeans and beige platform shoes were neatly piled beside her." No arrests were ever made and the case seemed to slip away. more ›

Stacy Horn, Writer more ›

- A woman and her 8 year-old son seem to have been killed by her boyfriend, who used a machete. News reports wonder if the boyfriend should have even been on the streets. more ›

Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau said, "The irony is, the case is much stronger now than the day after it happened." Morgenthau, who has been DA for over 30 years, is facing reelection this year, and Ruth Messinger just endorsed his likely opponent, Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder. more ›

"Fed's big dig hasn't run its corpse"; apparently a cadaver dog is also on the scene! more ›

As my jet lag is very bad, I have turned to the library at the American Club for additional reading material. I picked up A Cold Case by New Yorker writer Philip Gourevitch, who also wrote We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, a book about the Rwandan massacres. A Cold Case is about a 1970 double murder that went unsolved until the late 1990s. A pretty swift read, I recommend it to my fellow Law & Order fans. more ›