By ARTESIA DAVIS, Guardian Senior Reporter, artesia@nasguard.com

Murder squad detectives often wrap up investigations quickly, bringing suspects to court in record time. Crime statistics showed that police solved 72 percent of the 79 murders recorded last year.

But what about the cases that aren't solved?

According to Glen Miller, the head of the Central Detective Unit, unsolved cases are never closed.

He said, "We don't give up on those matters. We're still working on a lot of old murder cases."

And the determination of detectives to solve older cases while under pressure to deal with more recent ones seems to have paid off.

Recently, police charged Shawn Saunders and Warren Ellis in connection with the September 2000 murder of 18-year-old Timothy Janson Henfield who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Danottage Estates. Police also charged the men with conspiring to murder Henfield's brother, Marvin Jr., who was killed last March. No one has been charged with Marvin Henfield Jr's murder.

Last year, police filed charges against three suspects in connection with the murder of Danish businessman Arne Petersen, who was killed during a home-invasion robbery in Freeport in 2003. Christopher Deveaux, 31, and Maureen Colebrooke, 38, both of Eight Mile Rock, are charged with conspiracy to commit murder and Archelus Lewis, 30, of New Providence was charged with murder.

Miller said, "We simply cannot bring a matter to court without the evidence, although we may have intelligence as to who may be responsible. But we can't carry intelligence to court; we need evidence to charge and convict."

Miller was confident that more old murder cases would be solved soon.