The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad

Between 1985 and 2004 a staggering 8,894 unsolved homicides were committed in New York City. Here is the first ever inside look at the elite NYPD squad that cracks these "unsolvable" cases.

There is no statute of limitations on murder. No matter when you did it, homicide is one crime you pay for. But first you must be caught. Today thousands of killers who managed to evade law enforcement are still walking the streets, while the dead and those close to them remain… (more)

Between 1985 and 2004 a staggering 8,894 unsolved homicides were committed in New York City. Here is the first ever inside look at the elite NYPD squad that cracks these "unsolvable" cases.

There is no statute of limitations on murder. No matter when you did it, homicide is one crime you pay for. But first you must be caught. Today thousands of killers who managed to evade law enforcement are still walking the streets, while the dead and those close to them remain in an uneasy limbo, a restless sleep. So what happens after the detectives investigating the crime can go no further? Where does the police department begin when an unsolved case has gone cold? The Restless Sleep is a riveting look at the elite squad of detectives charged with the overwhelming task of solving these crimes, and seeking closure for the victims and their loved ones.

In this fascinating, in-depth narrative, Stacy Horn uses her unprecedented access to the NYPD Cold Case Squad to immerse herself into four unsolved murder cases—cases going back as far as 1951—investigated by three indefatigable Cold Case detectives. Each detective uses his own contacts, informants, and resources and sifts through decades-old evidence, searching for new leads, looking for what others missed, and uncovering any possible connections. The intuition, determination, and patience involved in tracking down the murderer of the parents of three young children in a drug-related hit in 1996, of the fourteen-year-old girl who in 1998 was stomped to death on the railroad tracks, of the cop who was killed with a meat hook and his own gun in 1979, or of the young wife strangled in her bedroom in 1951 are nothing short of heroic. These Cold Case detectives are on a constant hunt for the needle in the haystack, and Stacy Horn puts you there every step of the way. From the grisly circumstances and desperate reconstructions of the crimes, through the endless legwork, the scientific advances that don't always yield hoped-for answers, and the harrowing politics and tangled history of the storied NYPD, Horn depicts the drama of each case, and lays out the puzzle as seen through the eyes of the detectives. At once contemplative and energetic, The Restless Sleep is a completely addictive, fly-on-the-wall story of a subculture of crime solving.