Pennsylvania Invests in New Tools to Deter and Solve Violent Crimes

By Maya Mukherjee and Harvey Solomon

For families of homicide victims, an unsolved case can mean years—or even decades—of unrelenting anguish but no answers. “Ten long years I’ve been on this journey seeking justice, closure at least,” said Yullio Robbins, whose 28-year-old son James Walke III was gunned down in broad daylight in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood in 2016. “I’ve done everything. I’ve walked. I’ve marched. I’ve spoken.”

And state legislators listened, voting to include $2.5 million in the Commonwealth’s 2026-2027 budget for local law enforcement agencies to reopen cold cases and solve violent crimes. That was the impetus behind the bipartisan efforts of state Sen. Joe Picozzi, R-Philadelphia, and state Rep. Tim Briggs, D-King of Prussia, to champion the Violent Incident Clearance and Technological Investigative Methods (VICTIM) program.

“Every unsolved homicide leaves a family without answers and a community without closure,” said Picozzi, who sponsored the bill in the Senate. “The VICTIM Act gives law enforcement the tools it needs to hold offenders accountable, strengthen witness protection programs, and bring justice to families and their loved ones.”

The law allows police departments considerable flexibility to apply the grants in their communities as they see fit. That can include hiring and/or retaining investigators, reopening cold cases, and investing in investigative and forensic technology such as rapid DNA testing. For older cases, especially, this can deploy scientific advances that might not have been available when the crimes occurred.

“I’m proud to have worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make this bipartisan investment a reality, because safer communities begin with ensuring those responsible for violent crimes are held accountable,” said Briggs, the sponsor of the House bill.

Arnold Ventures, a philanthropy which matched the Commonwealth’s investment with an additional one million dollars, confirmed that too many serious crimes go unsolved – for the national average homicide clearance rate is just 59%. “Solving more crimes, and more quickly, would increase public trust in law enforcement and reduce retaliatory cycles of violence, especially in communities where clearance rates are especially low. Expanding investigative tools can help deter crime and increase the certainty of accountability,” read its recent “Increasing the Certainty of Punishment” memorandum. 

An additional component of the VICTIM Act measures the program’s effectiveness. This evaluation helps provide policymakers hard data to help them gauge what’s working, what isn’t, and suggest where a different approach might prove more effective. “It’s just the beginning of a new approach to public safety that’s data-driven, embraces state-of-the-art technology, and ensures the compensation and retention of the people we need to solve these crimes,” said Picozzi.

Picozzi and Briggs’ bipartisan work has encouraged buy-in from many advocacy organizations, including Philadelphia’s Office of the Victim Advocate (OVM). “The VICTIM Act is an investment in healing and justice,” said Adara Combs, its executive director. “Every victim matters, every family deserves answers, and every case deserves continued attention, no matter how much time has passed.” 

One Pennsylvania family can attest to that bedrock truth. Because a few years ago the Commonwealth solved a cold case that had festered for almost 60 years. On March 18, 1964, nine-year-old Marise Chiverella was assaulted, murdered, and dumped in a coal refuse pit in Hazelton, about 80 miles north of Philadelphia. Budding genealogist Eric Schubert, then a student at Elizabethtown College, volunteered his services and spent two years helping the state police compile DNA data that wound up identifying the killer, who had passed away in 1980.

Marking the country’s fourth oldest cold case to ever be solved, Marise’s four siblings gathered at a public commemoration. “Our family will always feel the emptiness and sorrow of her absence,” said one of her sisters, Carmen Marie Radtke. “We will continue to ask ourselves, what would have been, what could have been? Thanks to the Pennsylvania State Police, justice has been served today.”

That is exactly what Yullio Robbins and her family are hoping for. For more than a decade, they have mourned her son James, a handyman and father of two boys who are now teenagers. “I hope the VICTIM program will help so many other families besides myself that have unsolved murders. Just give us some type of closure. We’ll never have justice because we don’t have them—but we will have justice in our hearts.”