Cold Case Analysis Center project maps unsolved homicides and missing persons in New York

(ALBANY, N.Y., Sept. 29, 2025) — Camela Hughes was used to getting strange emails and phone calls.   
People claiming they’d solved cases that had long gone cold or expounding on their theories about corrupt police departments stalling cases.  

Last year, one such missive sparked an idea for Hughes, the director of the Cold Case Analysis Center (CCAC) and lecturer at the School of Criminal Justice.  What if there was a way to map out all the cold cases in New York state?  

“I started thinking about being able to map out who's missing, who's been murdered, and then who do we know that was operating in those areas at the time? And what were they doing?” Hughes said.  

It’s grown into the Complex Case Mapping and Analysis Project, which was awarded funding through the University at Albany Strategic Allocation Resources (StAR) program. The project operates out of the CCAC, which moved to UAlbany last year following the closure of the College of Saint Rose. It aides investigative agencies and families in the resolution of cold cases and gives students hands-on experience in the field. The mapping project is new territory and not just for the CCAC.   

“We’re trying to create a map of all of the unsolved homicides and missing persons in New York State because it doesn't exist,” Hughes said.   

Starting in the spring, two Rockefeller College students who are also involved with the CCAC were brought on board to help build the database of cold cases and create an interactive web map using ArcGIS, a geospatial platform.  

“What really drew me in was the idea of mapping the actual crimes in terms of geographical and historical patterns,” said Jaelyn Staiano, who graduated from UAlbany last year with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and is studying cybersecurity at the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity.    

Staiano, who grew up in Orange County, became interested in criminal justice as a teen, after her home was burglarized and she was diagnosed with narcolepsy, a chronic sleep disorder. 

“Those two experiences left me feeling vulnerable and quite defeated at times. It made me realize other people must feel like this when they become victims of crime. It's a very unsettled feeling,” Staiano said. “It was certainly discouraging, but also empowering at the same time, thinking, ‘There's a lot more we can be doing to help people who feel similar,’ and so that started my passion for criminal justice and particularly helping victims.”  

Pamela Hoxha, who has been involved with the CCAC since she transferred from Saint Rose last year, was drawn to the center by a desire to help victims and their families.  

“I needed to be part of a team that would work hard to try and bring justice to the victims and if we cannot bring justice to the victims, at least we can let the family know that we tried to take a look at the case so the victims are never forgotten,” Hoxha said.  

She has long been interested in the field, inspired by her father who worked as a police officer in Albania, where her family is from.   

"Growing up, I was always exposed to stories and they made me very interested in the criminal justice system. For a very long time, I was captivated by everything related to the criminal justice system, including active and cold cases,” Hoxha said.   

Over the last few months, Staiano and Hoxha have been meticulously researching cold cases, using a few different databases, including NamUS, a national database of missing persons.  

One of the biggest challenges has been in finding enough information or finding conflicting information, especially when it comes to some of the older cases.   

"We are looking into unsolved and missing persons cases for the last 80 years and it's really hard to find accurate information," Hoxha said.  

Staiano also noted that they wanted to ensure that they included marginalized, indigenous and underrepresented communities in the database but finding the information on these cases has been especially difficult.   

“It's such a challenge trying to actually find information about it because we know it exists. However, it could just be that because it’s underrepresented, it's underreported. So that's been another struggle too, because we really want to bring attention to these stories and communities, but we're just having such a hard time finding them,” Staiano said.   

The sheer number of cases is also a challenge.   

"Between the two of us, it's actually really hard to put everyone down in the database. Since also people go missing every day, that adds to the people that we need to account for,” Hoxha said.    

Research possibilities  

This kind of database will provide a treasure trove of research possibilities.   

“We’d be able to look at what has been unsolved, what has been solved, what took forever to solve, and look at what characteristics make things more or less likely to solve. There are all sorts of research opportunities,” Hughes said.   

Hughes is a UAlbany alum and got her master’s and PhD degrees at the University before going on to work in juvenile justice. When the opportunity to run the CCAC arose, it seemed like the perfect fit.   

“It was the kind of work I always saw myself doing when I was young,” Hughes said.   

The CCAC was formed at Saint Rose in 2018 and it’s one of few centers like it operating at universities across the country. Student interns work with investigative agencies, prosecutors and families on cases, gaining hands-on experience. But the work that CCAC does goes beyond giving students field experience.  

“What it can do for a family to feel like somebody's looking at something again, to feel like their loved one wasn't just forgotten, that there's new eyes on it . . . that's really the goal,” Hughes said.   

CCAC recently formed a collaborative partnership with the City of Rochester Police Department, which is giving students access to select cases and working with the center to prioritize leads, generate new theories and apply modern investigative methods.  

“Knowing that all our work can actually help out investigative agencies, can help out other investigators, can even help out families that they are looking for their loved ones or anyone working in this line of work, this is the most rewarding thing for me,” Hoxha said.