Silent Witness hoping playing cards crack cold cases

PHOENIX — Silent Witness is hoping Cold Case Playing Cards that are being given to county jail inmates will lead to tips that will help solve 52 cold cases.

“Despite what you see in Hollywood movies, inmates always talk about other criminals, always ready to make deals, always willing to rat each other out,” said Silent Witness Sgt. Darren Burch. “We’ve already received tips on some of these cases.”

Each card in the deck has the photograph of a victim and/or suspect and relevant information about a case. For example, the five of diamonds has the picture of 84-year-old Irving Shuman. He was a victim of a homicide and his body was found in his Phoenix business in 2008.

“If the program helps solve just one of these 52 cases, it will be a success,” said Burch.

Silent Witness is selling the Cold Case Playing Cards to the public to help fund the program.