Thousands of murders go unsolved across Ohio

CLEVELAND - A 5 On Your Side investigation found one in three killers is getting away with murder while police departments are solving few and fewer cases.

Reports involving unsolved homicides were obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime reports from 1980 to 2008.

In Ohio, 5,501 cases have gone unsolved with 185,000 unsolved cases nationwide for the same period.

At the same time, the clearance rate for homicides has dropped dramatically since the 1960s when 90 percent of all homicides were solved. Today, that figure has plummeted to 65 percent.

In Cuyahoga county, there are more than 1,000 unsolved murders from 1980 to 2008.

In Cleveland, FBI reports show only 51 percent of all homicides have been solved from 2000 to 2008 -- a figure the Cleveland Police Department disputes.

Sgt. Sammy Morris of the Cleveland Police department said it's clearance rate closer to 65.3 percent -- a little better than the national average.

Morris said he's not sure how the FBI data can be so different.

Meanwhile, nationally recognized criminologists say many cities across the country are solving fewer homicides.

"There are certain departments over a 30 to 35 year period that have maintained high clearance rates," said Charles Wellford of the University of Maryland. "Whereas, many other -- far too many other departments -- have seen that rate decrease."

Wellford says the bulk of the nations 185,000 unsolved murders occurs in about two-thirds of police departments.

"The other one third continue to do a good job and have high clearance rates. And that tells me if one third of our police department can perform well--even as homicides have changed--than all of the can do better," said Wellford.

The 5 On Your Side investigation was part of an exhaustive investigation involving 22 newspapers and TV stations operated by parent company E.W. Scripps.

You can learn much more about unsolved murders in your neighborhood and drill down in the FBI statistics by clicking here.