LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – We’re now learning several cold cases in the Vegas valley are on the verge of being closed.
That’s according to Metro Police. But the department isn’t working on closing these cases on its own.
The Vegas Justice League is a local non-profit dedicated to getting bad guys off the street and bringing closure to families.
The co-founders and other members act as angel investors and put up the money for DNA testing, which can be expensive. But they say helping families is priceless.
They’ve helped police departments around the valley close nine cases in four years, and 41 across the country.
It isn’t lost on law enforcement. The co-founders, married couple Justin Woo and Lydia Ansel recently got the Key to the Strip for all of their work. But they say they’re not done, and hoping for more solves. But fighting crime isn’t their day job.
A DJ and electric violinist by day, and crime fighter by night, Ansel explains what made her want to start the Vegas Justice League, a form of crowdfunded crime solving.
“When I first moved out here, my way to give back was performing for local charities, which I still do,” Ansel said.
But she doesn’t do this work alone. By her side, her husband, tech mogul, Justin Woo.
“We wanted to give back to the community, so in 2020 when we went to go after our first case, we saw the difference that we could make and help eventually make the community safer,” Woo said.
Since forming in 2020, the group has helped close nine cases throughout the valley and 41 across the country.
It isn’t lost on local police departments, and their work recently helped them earn the Key to the Strip.
“We’re not in law enforcement in any kind of way. We came in saying we want to help,” Ansel said. “It’s a gamble.”
That gamble paid off.
One hundred percent of the funds from the Vegas Justice League support local police departments being able to reexamine DNA evidence for about $7,500 per test at a high-tech lab in Texas using new technologies previously unavailable at the time of the crimes. Like a case that haunted the valley for decades.
“One of the first cases that we funded was actually considered unsolvable by most because it had so little DNA,” Ansel said. “The lab broke the world record for using the smallest amount of DNA to solve a case, and that actually solved two murders, and that was the Stephanie Isaacson case.”
Isaacson is the Las Vegas teen who was murdered on her way to school in 1989.
Ansel says the decades-old case was solved in just seven months once the case was reexamined in 2021.
If you want to help the Vegas Justice League as a community member, the group takes donations as little as $10.
To learn more or find out how to donate, visit VegasJusticeLeague.com.
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