Nunavut RCMP want to tackle more cold cases

RCMP in Nunavut want to tackle more of the territory's unsolved murder cases, following anarrest that was made last week in connection with a two-year-old homicide.

Police charged Jeffrey Salomonie, 44, with first-degree murder in the death of 33-year-old Daisy Curley, whosebody was found inside her Iqaluit home in May 2009.

Salomonie's arrest in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, on June 6 came as a relief to Curley's mother, Okalik Curley, who had spent the past two yearspublicly asking anyone with informationabout her daughter's case to come forward.

"It was just very mixed, but good news," Curley told CBC News, adding that she can now stop wondering what happened and start waiting for justice.

"I know it's going to take a while before the court date is happening," she said.

Shortly after Daisy Curley's body was found, investigators cordoned off her house, scoured the scene for evidence and interviewed suspects. But the case went cold sometime after that.

'Fresh eyes' reviewed case

Then late last year, the RCMP called in two retired homicide detectives to review Curley's case, said Insp. Frank Gallagher.

"With a case like this that's gone cold, what we [did] was put all the facts together, and then we brought in a set of fresh eyes. So what they did was they reviewed the whole case for us," Gallagher said.

The detectives picked through the file and gave a list of tasks to a team of Nunavut RCMP officers, Gallagher said.

"This team went out and they followed up and followed up and followed up and followed up," he said.

"That, combined with some forensics that came out as a result of this, they were able to put everything together."

With an arrest made in Curley's case, there are now five unsolved murder cases in Nunavut.

Gallagher said some preliminary work is underway to decide which case police will focus on next, but he conceded that staff resources pose a constraint.

"We would love to have a team that could just do cold cases. Unfortunately we don't, at this time, have the resources," he said.

With a total of 15 murder charges before Nunavut's court system, Gallagher said these are busy times for the RCMP.