Press Releases

Playing cards may solve cold cases
June 19, 2008

Next week, inmates serving time in Southwest Florida jails will be given something to help pass their time behind bars: playing cards. But these cards aren’t any ordinary deck - they contain information on cold case homicides, which detectives hope inmates can provide some new insight about.

A heavily wooded path just off the beaten track of Burnt Store Road is where Sharon McPhillips feels closest to her daughter, Tara Sidarovich. It’s the place where the remains of her 19-year-old daughter were found four years ago.

“The loss is tremendous. When I wake up in the morning, I wake up with heartache. Every single, solitary day. There’s not one day that I wake up without it. Not one day," said McPhillips.

Tara’s murder is one of many homicides now considered to be cold cases - crimes remaining unsolved and in need of new information to bring closure. Within the next week, a new deck of playing cards profiling these cases will be released in area jails. It’s the second edition of an effort to tap into the knowledge of criminals - and hopefully bring a few murderers to justice.

The goal of distributing the cards in the jails is to stir up conversation among inmates about unsolved crimes. They’re a captive audience, and many of them pass their time playing cards anyway. Every card has the Crime Stoppers hotline number on it, and reminds inmates that cash rewards will be paid out for information leading to an arrest.

Detectives say that once a case has gone cold, they look for any kind of creative means to move the investigation along. And they’re optimistic the cold case playing cards will do just that.

“There are people out there, for every one of those cases, who know what happened – know who did it and why it happened. The question is, will they come forward," said Lt. Kevin Ferry of the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

Some of the new additions to the deck include the 2007 arson in Immokalee, in which five people were burned to death in their trailer. And Coralrose Fullwood, a 6 year old sexually abused, murdered and left in a wooded lot.

Venita Coles’ daughter Denise Long is also in the deck. Long was murdered in Bonita, and her killer is still at large.

“Why no one will come forward. It’s just decency to come forward when they know someone has murdered another human being," Coles said.

Once those new decks of playing cards are put into circulation, Lt. Kevin Ferry said he hopes his detectives will receive the leads they need to give the families the closure they deserve.

Anyone with information on an unsolved murder, or any crime at all, is encouraged to call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-780-TIPS (8477). All callers will remain anonymous and will be eligible for up to $1,000 in cash rewards.