Hoi Lui

Even older than the first case, the second was given a "Latent Hit of the Year" Award. Chuck Gaylor, a novice forensic examiner, was sent to a crime scene in Escondido, California, on April 30, 1977. Liborio Lindin, a 24-year-old migrant laborer, was found dead in the garage of a house that was still under construction. He had been battered and covered in blood. The garage was bloody from a brawl that had obviously happened inside. A bloody fingerprint was found at the scene, but there was no other evidence that could be used to identify the murderer. The case remained unresolved and became Escondido's oldest unsolved cold case.

Let's go back to 2007. By that time, Chuck Gaylor had already retired, but he accepted a new position with Escondido PD as a reserve officer in charge of a cold case unit. He came found the Lindin murder from his first year and decided it was time to put it to rest. But right away, there was yet another significant setback. The Escondido Police Department's property room experienced a serious rat infestation throughout the years, and the rats also destroyed a lot of important evidence. Only one image of the bloodied partial fingerprint and the crime scene photographs were preserved from this case.

Latent examiner Hoi Lui was given the job of modifying the print, and she did so in a number of different ways until she obtained a usable print. Lui used IAFIS to find 20 potential partners. The crew finally found their guy in Michael Moon, a carpenter who had previously served time in jail and been out on parole for two other murders and attempted murders, after conducting around 100 interviews across the nation. Despite his past, Moon received just an eight-year sentence for the death of Lindin, and after serving four years, he was granted parole once more.

• Year: 2008