MIDLAND, Texas — West Texas has its fair share of cold cases.
"A cold case is a case where the leads have dried up," Midland Police Detective Jennie Alonzo said. "We don't really know which direction to go into the case."
Something Detective Alonzo knows all too well.
"I'm coming up on seven years of being in the Crimes Against Persons Unit," Alonzo said.
One of her cases has been cold for nearly 30 years, and it happened on a regular summer morning in a Midland neighborhood like any other.
Routines, even little ones, are woven into our everyday lives: you wake up, brush your teeth, get your morning coffee, go to work.
41-year-old Carolyn Kolas was no exception.
"I believe Miss Colas had a pattern and she would go out walking every morning," Alonzo said.
Kolas had lost over 100 pounds by walking her neighborhood.
“Walking is something she always did, and she walked to live,” her sister-in-law Kathy Kolas told the Abilene Reporter-News.
"Maybe someone learned her pattern and they victimized her for her pattern," Alonzo continued.
"On May 27, 1995 at about 7:45 in the morning," Alonzo said. "Midland Police Department officers were dispatched to the north alley of the 3200 block of West Ohio here in Midland, Texas. And that is where they found Miss Carolyn Kolas, who was deceased and had been stabbed several times."
Midland Police Chief at the time Richard Czech called the murder horrendous.
Throat slashed, stabbed and left partially nude; Carolyn was killed on this summer morning in 1995.
Keyword: morning. A murder in broad daylight means there were suspects… right?
"They looked into several different suspects in reference to who may have done this," Alonzo said. "But there was never enough to charge anyone."
And so the case of Carolyn Kolas, the bright woman with her whole life ahead of her, went cold.
After 30 years, is it even possible to solve the case?
With technological advances, police investigators are staying hopeful.
"I believe with DNA, there's a possibility this case will be solved with DNA," Alonzo said. "Or tips. Anyone from the public coming forward and giving us any information in reference to who may have done this."
"Anyone with any tips or information in reference to the case if they could please contact [Midland] Crime Stoppers."
Midland Crime Stoppers' number is (432) 694-TIPS.
Maybe you can help Detective Alonzo solve the puzzling murder of Carolyn Kolas.